Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy

Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, known as Spyro Fusion in Europe, is a handheld crossover title with the Crash Bandicoot franchise. It was released in tandem with Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. There is also a Crash & Spyro Superpack version in which both games are released on one game cartridge.

Story
The story is the same as Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage but is from Spyro's perspective. Doctor Neo Cortex joined forces with Ripto, and their plan is to get rid of both Spyro and Crash by sending out Riptocs into the area. Aku Aku and Coco ask Crash to save the world by recovering the crystals before Cortex does.

Meanwhile, the Professor and Hunter ask Spyro to close the portals and get rid of the monsters. Unfortunately for Crash and Spyro, they were tricked because on Crash's world, the Riptocs are dressed as Spyro and on Spyro's world, they are dressed as Crash.

Crash and Spyro meet and engage in a fight on a bridge, but realize that they were tricked. They join forces to defeat the two evil villains.

Not even Tiny Tiger, Crush or Gulp can stop them, but Cortex uses his niece, Nina Cortex, to kidnap Coco and the Professor. Blink informs Crash and Spyro what happened to Coco and the Professor. Spyro rescues Coco and the Professor while Crash distracts Nina. Finally, Crash and Spyro defeat Nina at her own game.

Coco has an idea: If they put a tracer on Cortex and Ripto, they would track them to their headquarters. Crash defeats Ripto, but he forgot to insert the tracer. Spyro defeats Cortex and he puts the tracer on him. Crash and Spyro reach their headquarters in outer space. As a team, Crash and Spyro defeat Cortex and Ripto. They thank each other as the games ends with a photo of Crash having Spyro in a friendly headlock, and the credits roll.

Chronology placement
Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy is set after the events of the previous three Spyro GBA games and also following from the two Crash Bandicoot GBA games. Those games form an alternative narrative following the events of the third title, Year of the Dragon.

Gameplay
The game plays similarly to Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, and it features both platforming and party minigames. The platforming takes place on the hubs, which have portals to the minigames. The minigames must be completed in order to progress. There are trading cards that can be collected and traded to Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and vice versa using the Game Boy Advance Link Cable. In the hub area, Spyro encounters some enemies such as Riptocs. Unlike Crash, Spyro's sprite is not recycled from the three previous Spyro games for Game Boy Advance because those games are isometric platformers instead of 2D sidescrolling platformers. The unlocked minigames can be replayed in the Party Mode, and up to four players can compete in minigames via a Link Cable.

Minigames
In Story Mode, whenever Spyro wins a minigame, he earns gems. Several minigames have three difficulty challenges: Easy, Medium, and Difficult; completing a challenge unlocks the next one. The player can only choose the difficulty level in Party Mode, and is forced to one of them in Story Mode (depending on which has been unlocked). Completing the Easy challenge rewards 10 gems, a trading card, and activates a symbol on the Level Portal. Completing the Medium challenge rewards Spyro with 20 gems. Lastly, completing the Difficult challenge rewards 30 gems and another trading card.

Every world has also has a Portal Rush and a Gem Rush minigame, which give Spyro the opportunity to earn extra gems. Besides the Gem Rush of Dragon Castles, a trading card is not awarded to Spyro for completing the minigame. In Arctic Cliffs, the Gem Rush challenge instead has the name Gem Chaser.

There are three Shop minigames — Spin the Wheel, Vase Shuffle, and Mystery Game — and a certain one is featured in each world. Spin the Wheel appears in Dragon Castles and Wumpa Jungle, Vase Shuffle appears in Arctic Cliffs and Tech Park, and Mystery Game only appears in Fire Mountain.

In Party Mode, there are three multiplayer-exclusive minigames: Ballistix, Ship Shuffle, and Bridge Fight.