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Someone at VU Games got their licenses mixed up. Although I haven’t had extensive playtime with any Crash title for the GBA, from the short bits I have played, the games are rather satisfying. Still, there is only so much you can do until fans start complaining that the publisher is “milking” the license. One way to avoid this is to fundamentally change the foundations of a Crash game. Vicarious Visions has done this by teaming up the trusty bandicoot with Spyro the Dragon, another VU Games property.
Crash Purple seems to follow the Pokemon-school of game design which is to develop a game and make two slightly different versions so that collectors purchase both titles. Unlike Pokemon and its offsprings, Crash Purple offers a more different experience; it isn’t just a change of titular character. In Crash Purple, you’ll learn that Dr. Cortex, from the Crash series, is teaming up with Ripto, from the Spyro series, to break some havoc. You’ll need to go around Crash and Spyro locales to put an end to their plot. Although Spyro does make appearances in the game, it is purely in the cut-scenes the story contains.
Crash’s previous adventures on GBA have been challenging, creative sidescrollers right up there with the best of GBA sidescrollers. Unfortunately, in Crash Purple, these platforming elements are extremely easy and serve only to get the player from one mini-game to the other. You can collect wumpa fruits in these parts, but that’s pretty much their only additional purpose. It seems that Vicarious Visions didn’t want to be accused of simply having a WarioWare clone, but the platforming element is inexcusably weak; the experts at Vicarious should have done a better job.
The meat of the game comes from the various mini-games you’ll encounter. There is a lot of stuff to do in the mini-games, although most are the same with a few revisions. Apparently, Crash likes to destroy things. In most levels he’s taking out crates, or enemies. The way that you destroy these things changes. In some stages, you’re simply wandering around, another has you underwater, while yet another throws you down a tube. Additionally, you’ll enter a spacecraft, ride a polar bear or enter a wall-bouncing Breakout-esque stage.
To extend the game, Vicarious Visions has added gems, which reward the player for destroying all of the objects in a given stage, in addition to the crystals you get for simply completing the stage. Also, there are over a hundred cards to be found, which will unlock extra characters to play as in the multiplayer modes. You’ll need the wumpa fruits I mentioned above to try to win these cards, or link up to another Crash Purple game (to trade cards) or Spyro Orange (which has cards not featured in this game).There is also a four-player multiplayer mode which works with just one cartridge, but you can also use either two Crash Purple cartridges, two Spyro Orange cartridges or one of each.
In the visuals department, Crash Purple looks pretty good, just like the other Crash games on the handheld. Crash is rendered and animated with grace, and the backgrounds offer enough detail to keep things interesting. Sound is typically Crash, but the quality is quite good.
As long as you aren’t expecting another great platformer, Crash Purple works. The mini-games are satisfying, despite their slight repetitiveness, and are quite a bit of fun. If there is another mini-games focused Crash game in the future, the platforming elements need serious work, but overall the game’s style works. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jun 14, 2004
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