Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy are two games published by Vivendi Universal Games. They are developed by Vicarious Visions for the Game Boy Advance. They were released in North America on June 3, 2004, and in Europe on June 25, 2004.

The game is the tenth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series of video games, and the eighth installment in the Spyro series of video games. For both series, the games are the fourth installments made for the Game Boy Advance.This crossover is set after the events of their games for that platform. The story of the games centre on a plot to wreak havoc on the universe by the main antagonists Doctor Neo Cortex and Ripto, who have recently joined forces. The protagonists of the story, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, must team up and defeat Doctor Cortex and Ripto along with their genetically modified minions.

Gameplay
Ripto's Rampage and The Cortex Conspiracy are single-player side-scrolling crossover adventure games in which the player controls Crash Bandicoot and/or Spyro the Dragon in the respective games. While the games feature platforming elements that allow Crash and Spyro to navigate different areas, the main focus is on a series of minigames that make up the core of the gameplay. The minigames involve distinctively different gameplay elements, such as destroying enemies in a Breakout-inspired challenge or racing through an area with a jet pack, tank or inner tube. The games make use of the Game Link Cable, allowing players to compete in multiplayer versions of several of the minigames found in the games. Much of these minigames only require one copy of either of the games for as many as four players in the network. Players can earn trading cards by performing specific tasks; these cards can be traded between Game Boy Advance systems to players who do not physically own a copy of the games. Additional content can be accessed if the two games are linked to each other.

Plot
Doctor Neo Cortex and Ripto join forces to rid themselves of their respective adversaries Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon by genetically modifying Ripto's "Riptoc" minions and disguising them as Crash and Spyro, leading the two protagonists to believe they are against each other. Crash and Spyro are alerted of their respective worlds' predicament and are sent to get rid of the disguised Riptocs. Crash and Spyro eventually encounter each other between Wumpa Jungle and Dragon Castles, believing each other to be a disguised Riptoc. However, they soon discover that they have been tricked into fighting each other by Cortex and Ripto and decide to team up against them.

Spyro and Crash's recent success leads to an argument between Cortex and Ripto so they decide to send Cortex's niece, Nina Cortex, to Fire Mountain where she kidnaps Coco and the Professor. Blink the Mole informs Crash and Spyro of the kidnapping. When the duo confronted Nina, Crash distracts Nina having her chase him so Spyro can free Coco and the Professor unnoticed. This worked as Coco and the Professor are free while Nina is trapped in a cage. The Professor is disappointed as their work to track down Cortex and Ripto is destroyed so Coco hatches an idea: If Crash and Spyro can put a tracer on Cortex and Ripto, they would track them to their headquarters so the duo splits up and go to each other's home world this way their respective nemesis won't suspect anything. Only Spyro succeeds in planting a tracer on Cortex. Crash and Spyro reach their headquarters in outer space called Tech Park. As a team, Crash and Spyro defeat Cortex and Ripto once and for all.