7 Times Spyro Appeared in Crash Games

Spyro the Dragon has appeared at least half a dozen times in the Crash Bandicoot games. His history is so intrinsically connected with Crash's, that both have journeyed from Universal Interactive Studios to Activision like brother and... brother. Which is why that after the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy was released in 2017 and again on multi-console in 2018, it's no surprise that Spyro the Dragon received the remaster treatment (from the ground up, no-less). So, following the success of his recent Reignited Trilogy, all scaled up, here are 7 times Spyro appeared in Crash games.

1: Demo in Crash Bandicoot 3: WARPED

With Crash developers Naughty Dog and Spyro developers Insomniac right next door to each other at Universal, the dynamic duo would often share tech and development ideas with one another. It was therefore only a matter of time before the purple dragon would make his way into a Crash game and vice-versa.

By pressing Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square on the Crash Bandicoot: WARPED title screen, players were rewarded with a demo for Spyro the Dragon. It started with Spyro in the first hub world, with access to two levels. The first was Town Square, where players could get used to Spyro's controls and rescue dragons in a pretty short but enjoyable medieval type, um, town square. The second level saw Spyro in constant flight, battling a timer in order to fly through archways, burn up planes and shoot down barrels (called 'speedway' levels). It certainly gave a solid taste of what the game would be like, back in 1998.

Crash WARPED manual showing the Spyro demo code

2: Demo in CTR: Crash Team Racing

It was inevitable that Spyro would, once again, feature as a demo in the next Crash game. Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage (or the confusingly titled Gateway to Glimmer in Europe) was accessible on CTR's menu screen, once player's held L1 and R1, pressing Down, Circle, Triangle, Right in that order. This time there was no hub to explore, but there was a wonderful verticle fire-and-ice level titled Magma Cone to play through. The second playable level was the eastern-heights of Colossus, complete with charging yaks and a hilarious ice hockey game.

Colossus, as seen in Spyro 2

3: Demo in Crash Bash

Even when Naughty Dog had moved on to their Jak and Daxter series, Eurocom still managed to put a demo of Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon into Crash Bash. This time, players held L1, R1 and Square, then pressing Start to play the demo. Once again, a variety of levels popped up. Molten Crater was another lava filled level to show off Spyro's platforming skills. Seashell Shore pushed Spyro's underwater swimming prowess. Best of all, Skate Park launched Spyro off half-pipes on a skateboard, chasing down critters and performing tricks for points. I must have played the Skate Park level so often when I wanted a break from cheating AI in Crash Bash. Those Platinum Relic challenges leave scars that only Spyro on a skateboard could fix.

Spyro Hawk Pro Skater.

4: Playable character in CNK: Crash Nitro Kart

It wasn't until 2003 when Spyro next appeared alongside Crash, at least, not at the back of instruction manuals. Vicarious Visions developed Crash Nitro Kart, a spiritual successor to Crash Team Racing, where Crash and co raced in a tournament to save planet Earth from Emperor Velo's destruction. Whilst Spyro wasn't present in the console version, he was fully playable in the Game Boy Advance (GBA) version of the game. Beating the story with Team Bandicoot would unlock him racing in one of hypnotist N.Trance's karts. I suppose if he were to be on team, it would be the one where everyone else ended up. Alternatively, connecting a GameCube link cable to the console version would also unlock him in the GBA version of the game. Spyro boasted full speed and acceleration stats, with medium turning abilities for his kart.

Spyro appered in the GBA version of Nitro Kart.

5: Fully integrated in Crash Bandicoot: Purple (Crash: FUSION)

In 2004, Vicarious Visions developed a two cross-over titles - Crash Bandicoot: Purple and Spyro: Orange. These two games, titled Crash FUSION and Spyro FUSION in Europe, were glorified mini-game compilations, strung together by a story. The story involved Crash's nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex, teaming up with Spyro villain Ripto for... reasons. As such, Spyro first appears in Crash: Purple as the first boss fight, as he thinks Crash is behind the villains' scheme. After a brief fight of molotive cocktail throwing (seriously), the pair team up in side-scroller hubs and a story that splits itself across two tedious games. The real shame here is not the team-up itself, but how much of the potential is absolutely wasted by using mini-games as the focus of the games. Still, Spyro and various related characters pop up throughout Crash: Purple, and vice-versa, with Crash taking on Ripto himself. In Spyro: Orange, meanwhile, Spyro takes on Cortex, whilst both of them take on Nina Cortex at different stages in the fight, as well as Cortex and Ripto together in the final boss.

Crash: Purple and Spyro: Orange may have been the ultimate crossover, but by goodness was it dull.

6: Spyro wants his gems back in Crash: Twinsanity

In 2004, Traveler's Tales Oxford developed Crash: Twinsanity, making it a year of much Spyro integration. At the time, Spyro: A Hero's Tail was being developed by Eurocom, with both making a joint appearance at that year's E3 as well as via demo disc. Towards the end of Twinsanity's story, Spyro pops up in the main villains' treasure room in an unexpected but delightful cameo. Most fun of all, Spyro interacts with villains Dr. N. Gin, Dr. N. Brio and Dr. N. Tropy by launching fire at them as a result that "he might want his gems back" from the Evil Twins' treasure room. Traveler's Tales Oxford creative head, Paul Gardner, outlines how this came to be from his Twitter account:

"When Crash and Cortex find the Evil Twins' treasure room, we thought it would be fun to show that the twins had been using their technology to plunder other dimensions, and even other games. The treasure might include things that looked like Sonic's rings, Mario's coins etc. To reinforce that idea, we wanted a character from another dimension who'd arrive to reclaim the treasure from their world, and punish those responsible for taking it. So... I proposed the completely original, classic character 'Moronic the Plumber', famous for his catchphrase "It's-a not me!" The publisher's response was something like "Are you kidding? No!" But they offered us Spyro instead! Amazing! Eurocom kindly gave us their model from "A Hero's Tail", which fit our style perfectly. So in the end, Spyro's cameo came about all thanks to one Moronic idea..."

Spyro's such a flamer in Twinsanity.

7: Spyro hangs out in Thumpin' Wumpa Islands

This one's a bit of a cheat, as the level is an expansion in 2016's Skylanders: Imaginators, but as the level is entirely Crash-centric, it's more like Spyro is invading Crash's franchise rather than vice-versa.

Spyro, in his Skylanders incarnation, flies to the Wumpa Islands only to find a great deal of dissonance going on as a result of one of Cortex's failed experiments. Bad vibes are abound and everything is dancing in bad rhythm, including the trees and rocks. It's up to Crash and co' to stop the awful syncopation and halt Cortex's device from messing up the land. Spyro sits in one of the tribesmen's huts, providing Crash with dialogue when he meets him. "I saw this guy way up the mountain," he says, "dancing around in some kind of giant, crazy… robo-suit… badly." This turns out to be Fake Crash, but the fact that Spyro pops up to help out Crash is really quite something. In fact, the player can even use a Spyro figure with their Crash figure, playing a 2 player co-op as the duo throughout the level. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

Crash and Spyro together in Skylanders: Imaginators.

...Reverser Device

Along with all the Spyro appearances in Crash games, Crash has also made several appearances in the Spyro franchise. This includes demos in the original Spyro trilogy and a reference in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, in addition to later PlayStation 2 outings such as The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning as well as The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night. Let's not forget the most recent Skylanders: Academy TV series adventures, too, which you can read more about here.

Crash appears frozen in Spyro: The Eternal Night, looking very... Crash Tag Team Racing-esque.

Who knows that the future will bring for the duo? With Skylanders and the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy developers Toys for Bob being so close with the Thumpin' Wumpa Islands and Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy developer, Vicarious Visions, it's possible that the pair will feature in each other's games again, providing publisher Activision is game. Spyro in a CTR remake, anyone?

(Feature image sourced from Reddit.)