Review Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage

My first ever game review on this website, and it's for a sub-par Crash Bandicoot game on the GBA. Hooray! Honestly, since I just picked the double-pack for Crash Purple, which also includes Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, and I just finished playing through said game, I figured it'd be right to talk about the good and bad qualities of this particular game. Also, keep in mind that I have never once played any of the real Crash Bandicoot games from the original PlayStation, nor the N-Sane Trilogy, in my entire life. So, without further ado, here's the review!

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The game's plot begins with both Crash and Spyro's nemeses, Dr. Neo Cortex and Ripto, plotting together to take over the world together. And in order to make sure that happens, they plan on setting Crash and Spyro against each other by genetically modifying a bunch of Rhynocs to look like one another. This works, somehow, and both Crash and Spyro set off from their own different homeworlds to stop each other from ruining their worlds. Eventually, they find each other, battle it out shortly, then realize that it must be the work of Cortex and Ripto, and so they team up to take them down. And that's basically the plot in a nutshell.

And that does sound like a nice set-up for a pretty solid crossover game, right? Well...

Let's start with the gameplay for Crash Purple. (Remember, I'm only talking about the Crash game, not the Spyro game. That will come later.) In the overworld, the platforming that Crash has to go through is pretty solid, to be honest. Crash features a spinning attack, his staple, that allows him to bash enemies away, aside from jumping on their heads, a la Mario, and is easily the best way to get rid of baddies that get in your way. Crash also has a double jump, which is pretty nice to get to high places, and to collect those Wumpa Fruit that you need to grab. The Wumpa Fruit is this game's currency, which you can collect by either collecting them like Mario's coins or Sonic's rings or by breaking boxes that will have them inside, through which you can buy your way into level portals or buy cards from Moneybags, a greedy entrepreneur from Spyro's universe. Overall, it's fairly solid in this regard, with only a couple of places that made me slam my head against the wall due to how frustrating it was to navigate.

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However, the holes in this game begin to show themselves pretty early on. For, you see, the level portals I mentioned before have one glaring issue. They lead to a series of minigames you have to complete to progress through the game. That's right, this game is nothing more than a minigame collection, with a Crash Bandicoot platforming game wrapped loosely around it. And the minigames tend to vary in quality. From boring and easy, to aggravating and impossible. Seriously, you'll spend most of your time on these segments, and it will really teach you to have patience in order to complete them. For instance, there is a game where you have to move through different lanes and blast sheep with missiles, which I never lost once. And other times, you have to control a toy helicopter and shoot down parachuting toy tanks while Crash is in a bubble pod, and if you let even one tank get by you, you're pretty much done.

And these minigames are vital to complete in this game. Because the only way to progress in this game is by collecting a series of purple crystals that are obtained at the end of each minigame. Once you collect all of them in an area, you can use them to unlock the door to the boss of the area, before you move on to the next area. I'll give it to Crash Purple that the bosses throw a little more variety into the mix, but aside from the battle with Spyro and the final boss, it's just retooling the various minigames into boss battles. Which isn't all bad, but it ain't great either.

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And then there are the completely optional minigames, such as ones where you have a limited amount of time to break every box in the area or break every box while you're freefalling. These are probably one of the most annoying things in the game, because it requires precise platforming in order to break every box, and doing so will award you with clear gems, which is basically the game's way of saying "You did it! Good job!" (You can also get these clear gems in the vital minigames, too, but once again, they're optional to obtain, unlike the purple crystals.) However, the other thing that's terrible about these minigames is that you can get boatloads of Wumpa Fruit here. And if you're determined to get those clear gems, you'll be retrying these stages a lot, and you'll end up with more Wumpa Fruit than you can manage. And because of this, it seriously cheapens the whole collecting aspect from the rest of the game, and you'll soon have Wumpa Fruit in the thousands by the time you're done.

The last thing I wish to talk about are the cards you can collect in the game. Essentially, they're just random collectibles you can find in hidden parts of the game that give you access to sprite renders of everything you've come across. However, 90% of these cards are going to come from our old friend, Moneybags, and this gets old real fast. You see, Moneybags owns various different shops that you can stumble upon around the overworld, and while some of them are just straight up shops where you can buy cards, there are other ones where you have to play mini-casino style games, such as spinning a wheel or playing a shell game. Since, especially with the wheel game, everything seems to be based on luck, you're going to spend a lot of time just playing these games just to collect all of the different cards. And what's worse is that it's very easy to come out in the positive on Wumpa Fruit, because you can win them instead of the card you were seeking, which means that you'll have more to play with, and the Wumpa Fruit will become even less meaningful.

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Now, I will give Crash Purple one thing out of all of this negativity I've been lashing at it. Aesthetically, it really works wonders with Crash as a character. I mean, throughout the minigames, he can be seen using jetpacks, flying on bats and bears, and just relaxing on his rocket-powered inner tube. In terms of Crash games, this really does fit him as a character, and I respect that. (Which is more than I can say for Spyro Orange, but again, I'll get to that one later.) Also, the art in this game is wonderful, all things considered, with lush jungles and frozen wastelands and fiery volcanoes that makes Crash feel more at home in this environment.

Now, unfortunately, I can't comment on how multi-player works, as one would need to have a Link Cable and more than one of these games, and not only is the only other GBA we have missing, but even if it was around, my brother would never want to play this game with me. Aside from that, I'd have to get another copy of this game, and, well, no thank you. Once is enough. However, I can explain that connecting Crash Purple with Spyro Orange will make card-collecting a lot easier, as you can sync up your card-collection with your friend's, and you'll be that much closer to completion. Also, you can compete in mini-games with each other, which does tend to make fairly bad experiences into pretty nice ones. So, if you're looking for something like that, that's an option as well.

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In conclusion, despite some nasty words that have been said around the internet recently, this game is actually pretty decent. The artwork in this game is really nice for a GBA title, and in terms of the overworld gameplay, it's pretty solid platforming. However, the hit-and-miss minigames, the very useless collectibles, and overall lackluster package makes this a pretty forgettable title to Crash's name. I would only suggest this one if you're a real big Crash fan, and even then, remember to take it in with a grain of salt, as this is probably nothing like the excellent original trilogy, and likely even worse than the other GBA Crash games. Aside from that, I believe there are better things you could be doing with your time, so you can skip this.

And instead, play the N-Sane Trilogy, which I plan to do once I get my hands on it.