Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage is Crash's fourth GBA title in less than two and a half years, which leads me to believe that Vivendi Universal executives refer to him as "Cash Bandicoot" in the boardroom. But despite milking the bandicoot (assuming you really can milk anything with nipples), previous Crash games have been quite good and so have the portable versions of Spyro the Dragon, another former PlayStation mascot turned Vivendi minion. Given the fact that there were already six GBA games between the characters, a Crash and Spyro team-up was inevitable. It's not possible to play as Spyro in Ripto's Rampage, but he does appear in its story mode and stars in his own companion title, Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. Likewise, Spyro's game guest stars Crash in the shared storyline on flip-side. Both games also link up for card trading and a four-player mini-games mode.

The mini-games are actually the basis the story mode adventure in which Dr. Cortex and Ripto have teamed up to defeat Crash and Spyro once and for all. Crash must explore a 2D overworld, enter mini-games through portals, reach the end to collect a crystal and defeat Ripto in the finale. The overworld is the same as Crash's previous platforming adventures and some of the mini-games have players jumping around, smashing boxes, too. But other mini-games are quite different, or different in the sense that we haven't seen them involving Crash before. There's an imitation Arkanoid, Tapper, and Toobin' among other classics.

The Tapper take-off is one of the best because it involves blasting Spyro's trademark sheep as they charge at you in four columns. There's also a bunch of mini-games in which Crash rides an out-of-control animal and players must jump to avoid hitting toxic boxes. Another set involves the bandicoot strapped to a jetpack. Players must press the A button so that Crash climbs in altitude to avoid the spiky ground, but not too so much that he hits the spiky roof. More than anything, the mini-games slightly addictive, slightly frustrating, and extremely solid old-school games wrapped into one pack. Together, with four-players, it's twice as much fun replaying them in the party mode after unlocking all 65 mini-games.

Players can't unlock all of the mini-games through the story mode alone. Linking up to some one that has Spyro Orange is the only way to access them all, a process that's like Pokemon. But, unlike Nintendo's successful Pocket Monsters series, the cards are otherwise worthless when they're being collected. At least in Pokemon you want to play, battle, trade and win, while in Crash Purple and Spyro Organge you just want the end result and never actually utilize the cards. In any case, the two games are a clever way of sharing a storyline, linking up, and maybe selling a few more copies of a slightly different game.