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Crash Bandicoot (disambiguation)

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This article is about the character and the video game franchise. For the video game, see Crash Bandicoot (video game).

Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is a popular video game character created by Naughty Dog, who stars in a video game franchise of the same name. Originally a straightforward platformer for the PlayStation, it has since expanded to the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox with various spin-off games in different genres.

With a few exceptions, Crash himself does not talk in his early games for PlayStation; when he does, he is voiced by Brendan O'Brien. However, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen, Steven Blum and Jess Harnell in his later games.

The platformers

File:PSX Crash Bandicoot.jpg
The original Crash Bandicoot.

The first three Crash games, as well as several subsequent Crash games, were platform games.

Gameplay

The core gameplay in the Crash Bandicoot series is simple, but entertaining and quite addictive nonetheless.There are Aku Aku masks sparsely scattered throughout the levels. Collecting an Aku Aku mask while Crash already has one turns the one he has gold. Collecting another mask while Crash has a gold one grants Crash limited-time invincibility, after which the mask reverts to being gold. Getting hit will reduce the mask from gold to normal or from normal to nothing. If Crash gets hit when he does not have a mask, he will meet his end in a sometimes comical animation.

In some of the Crash platformers, not including the original, some levels have a skull platform. Stepping on it brings Crash to a difficult part of the level. To be able to use the platform, Crash must not have died before reaching it. The benefit to stepping on a skull platform is the acquisition of special game items called gems.

Obstacles in Crash's path include animal-like creatures and other badguys; Dr. Neo Cortex's henchmen, dressed in labcoats; various machinery; and physical barriers. To surmount these, Crash can use his jump move and his spin attack. In Crash platformers after the first, he can also do a body slam, slide, duck, crawl, and perform an extra-high jump by sliding or ducking and then jumping. In Crash platformers after the second, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash can also collect a special move after defeating each boss.

File:Crash Bandicoot.jpg
Crash Twinsanity is one of the newest Crash Bandicoot games.

Crates

There are crates scattered throughout the levels. Most crates contain some bonus. Some have wumpa fruits in them, and collecting 100 of the game's "Wumpa fruits" gives the player an extra life. Others have Aku Aku masks or Extra Lives.

The player can get one gem per level by breaking all of the crates in one level. Most gems are white, but some are colored. In the original Crash Bandicoot, but in none of its sequels, some gems acquired by breaking all of a level's boxes are colored. The remaining white and colored gems must be collected by finding and touching them. They are invariably positioned in an area that is difficult to reach.

In addition to crates that provide bonuses, there are also TNT crates. If Crash attacks one, he loses a life. If he jumps on one, a short countdown is started, after which the TNT crate explodes. Some TNT crates are useful to clear obstacles. Some crates have on them an arrow pointing upwards. Landing on one will spring Crash into the air, much like a trampoline does.

With the exception of the original, there are Nitro crates in all Crash platformers. If Crash touches one, he loses a life. Attacking a metal, green crate with an exclamation mark on it destroys all of a level's Nitro crates.

Also present in all Crash platformers except for the original are normal crates that are protected by a metal gridlock surrounding their edges normally destroyed by using the body slam move.

Beginning with the third Crash game, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, some crates are shifting crates. They shift among different kinds of crates. The rate at which a shifting crate changes gradually increases, until finally the crate becomes metallic and indestructible.

Characters

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  • Aku-Aku, also known as Oogitaboogita, is an ancient powerful voodoo mask with magical powers and laser eyes. He has colorful feathers on his head. He's a great friend of Crash and Coco, and is willing to help them for the greater good.
  • Coco Bandicoot is Crash's brainy sister with an IQ of 164. Is usually seen with her eyes glued to her laptop screen. She's also an expert at Hong Kong Martial Arts and scooter-riding.
  • Crash Bandicoot is the main protaganist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He used to be a normal average bandicoot in the wild, until Dr. Neo Cortex captured him and subjected him to his Evolvo-Ray. However, he was rejected and thrown out soon after that because he was too nice. His main hobbies are basking in the sun and ruining Cortex's plans for world domination.
  • Crunch Bandicoot is a large Mr. T-esque bandicoot who was created by Dr. Neo Cortex as a super-secret weapon to destroy Crash Bandicoot. But since then, he had a change of heart and became Crash's adoptive brother. He wants to be a good role model, as revealed in Crash Tag Team Racing.
  • Ebeneezer Von Clutch is a deranged genius German cyborg who runs Von Clutch's MotorWorld. He recruits Crash and Cortex to retrieve his stolen Power Gems (the power source of the amusement park) and his Black Power Gem (his life source). He tells them that if they retrieve the Power Gems, he will give whoever finds them the ownership of the park. He gives Crash and his pals free lifetime passes to Von Clutch's MotorWorld after Crash returned power to the theme park and saved Von Clutch's life.
  • Emperor Velo the 27th is the ruler of his own galaxy, and the main antagonist of Crash Nitro Kart. He rules over a race of small goblin-like creatures who crave entertainment and reside in a Colosseum on top of a planet shaped like Velo's head. As a result, he captures Crash and Cortex (along with a few others) and forces them to race for him and his subjects, with the threat of destroying Earth if they refuse to race for any reason. In the end, Velo is revealed to be a robotic suit controlled by the real Velo, who looks like one of the goblin creatures.
  • The Evil Twins are a pair of mutant parakeets who were Dr. Neo Cortex's first attempts at genetic-advancement when he was 8 years old. However, it mutated them horribly and sent them to the 10th Dimension. They returned to our dimension to take over N. Sanity Island, and all who inhabit it. They're the main antagonists of Crash Twinsanity. They have very large brains and advanced weaponry.
  • Fake Crash is a living caricature of Crash who didn't play a major role in the Crash universe until Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced, where he was accidently captured by N. Trance and was recruited to do his bidding. He's also the third boss of the game. During the second half of the battle with N. Trance, he (for unknown reasons) helps Crash out in defeating him. By the end of the game, he is made a member of the Bandicoot Crew.
  • Geary is Emperor Velo the 27th's finest racer, and the champion of the planet Teknee. A robot who's as obsessed with winning as he is with cleaning. Because of this, he appears to have a split-personality. His normal side has green eyes, and his more agressive side has red. Because he didn't win, he was punished by Velo: he had to clean the Champion Key for the winners, along with the entire Colosseum. He's the fourth boss of the game.
  • Krunk is a large, cornflower blue, obese gorilla-like creature who is the first boss of Crash Nitro Kart. His speed is only matched by his cunning on the track. He is the racing champion of the planet Terra, who races the Bandicoots/Cortexes to show them that his planet is better than Earth, which he claims is a copy of his Terra. However, he reveals that they actually copied Earth. He is banished by Emperor Velo the 27th to parts unknown as punishment for losing.
  • Mega-Mix is a large monster that made its only appearance in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure. It was created when Crash destroyed the Gems that were the power source to Cortex's shrink ray. The effects of destroying the Gems were unpredictable, and Dr. Neo Cortex, Dr. N. Gin, Tiny Tiger and Dingodile were morphed together to form Mega-Mix. Crash escaped the Cortex Vortex with Mega-Mix chasing him. Mega-Mix was trapped in the crippled space station, and turned back to normal. The space station jettisoned into space, which is the reason of Cortex's absence in Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced.
  • Nash is Velo's second racer, and the champion of the planet Barin. Nash is a shark with goggles, which appear to have water in them. He also seems to have a life-support helmet. He's extremely hyper, and a complete spaz. Nash is engineered to always move. He never stops, or even sleeps. As a result, he focuses more on speed and movement rather than offensive measures when it comes to racing. He ends up losing anyways. Coco Bandicoot hatches a spring in his helmet through her laptop to finally put Nash to sleep, because he needed some.
  • Dr. Neo Cortex is the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He's short, has yellow skin, and has a large N on his forehead. He was laughed out of the scientific community for his outlandish, yet nearly workable theories. As a result, he created the Evolvo-Ray and created a vast army of genetically-advanced animal warriors to take over the world.
  • Nina Cortex is Dr. Neo Cortex's cyborg niece. When she showed signs of a good heart, Cortex replaced her normal arms with titanium extendable death-traps, and sent her to the School for Evil Children to teach her to be evil like her uncle.
  • Dr. Nitrus Brio is a scientist who formely worked for Dr. Neo Cortex, but left because he was double-crossed by Cortex. In Crash Bandicoot 2, he created a gigantic laser cannon to destroy the Cortex Vortex, and he convinced Crash to gather Gems to use as the power source. With the cannon, he blew the space station to pieces. But unfortunately, the remains of the Vortex landed on an ancient tomb, releasing the evil Uka Uka. For reasons unknown, Brio came back to Cortex for Crash Bash.
  • Norm is Velo's third racer, and the champion of the planet Fenomena. He has a mime-like appearance, and would rather read his books than defend his Champion Key. However, he can seperate into two forms: his normal self, and a large obnoxious obese version who likes to talk trash during the race. After they lose, Velo threatens Norm by saying "Perhaps I need new ways to motivate you, like taking your books away!".
  • Papu Papu is an extremely obese man who is the first boss of the entire series. He is the chief of the local tribe of native islanders. He couldn't care less about the events surrounding his island, but he's ornery when his nap is disturbed. He last appeared in Crash Twinsanity trying to offer Dr. Neo Cortex as a sacrifice to Tikimon
  • Rilla Roo is a half-chimpanzee half-kangaroo hybrid who made his first and only appearance in Crash Bash as a playable character. He doesn't like having his picture taken, as noted in the instruction manual.
  • Tawna is Crash's former girlfriend, who was written out of the series after the first game for political and aesthetic reasons. She is said to have dumped Crash for Pinstripe.
  • Uka Uka is an ancient powerful voodoo mask with magical powers and laser eyes. He is Aku Aku's evil twin brother, who was imprisoned in an ancient tomb many eons ago, but was set free when Dr. Neo Cortex's destroyed Cortex Vortex landed on it in Crash Bandicoot: Warped. He is Cortex's boss. He's the only one that Cortex actually fears, for his mere presence has him on his hands and knees. He continuously tries to kill Cortex for failing to conquer the world.
  • Willie Wumpa Cheeks is the jolly park mascot of Von Clutch's MotorWorld. He appears in Crash Tag Team Racing He formely worked for Von Clutch, but after it was revealed that Willie stole the Power Gems and the Black Power Gem, he tries to flee to outer space in a shuttle. But Crash aborts the liftoff by pulling a nearby lever, and they capture Wumpa Cheeks. But just when they're about to interrogate Willie about the Black Power Gem, Cortex blasts him into a puddle of wumpa juice with eyeballs.

Mascot

File:PSX Crash Bandicoot 2.jpg
Crash Bandicoot 2.

The original Crash Bandicoot was one of the earliest 3D platformers and was a major seller. Sony unofficially made Crash the mascot for the PlayStation.

Crash is often compared to Mario, as both of them were mascots of their respective consoles. Both the original Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64 were early 3D platformers. After the first three Crash games, much like Mario before him, Crash branched out, starring in a racing game, analogous to Super Mario Kart, and a party game, analogous to Mario Party. All of this contributed to the perception that Crash is Sony's equivalent of Mario. However, with the release of Crash games on other platforms, this is no longer the case.

Crash was also influential in reviving the character archetype of an anthropomorphic animal starring in a platform game. This practice was pioneered by Sonic the Hedgehog a few years earlier and achieved improved popularity during and after the Crash era with characters such as Blinx, Sly Cooper, and Spyro the Dragon. However, it should be noted that animal mascots littered the 16-bit era with such characters as Bubsy the Bobcat, Aero the Acrobat, Awesome Possum, Mr. Nutz, and others. The impact of Crash on future animal mascot games is debatable (especially now that Crash's popularity has, ironically, "crashed" in recent years).

Developers

File:PSX Crash Bandicoot 3.jpg
Crash Bandicoot: Warped.

The first four Crash Bandicoot games were developed by Naughty Dog (Crash 1, Crash 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash 3: WARPED and CTR: Crash Team Racing). Crash Bash was developed by Eurocom, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity were developed by Traveller's Tales, Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure (titled XS in Europe), Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Crash Nitro Kart and Crash: Purple (called FUSION in Europe) have all been developed by Vicarious Visions and finally Crash Tag Team Racing was developed by Radical Entertainment. Almost all of the Crash titles were published by Universal Interactive, now called Vivendi Universal.

Even though the games were originally published by Sony for the PlayStation, Vivendi Universal owns the copyrights to the games and characters, which is why multiple developers have worked with the property, and why games have been released for Nintendo and Microsoft consoles.

Installments

Cameos

  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PlayStation - 2000) - In the level Haunted Tomb, an Egyptian dog asks Spyro a riddle. Spyro is given three possible answers. One of them is a bandicoot (a reference to Crash).
  • Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PlayStation 2 - 2001) - While Naughty Dog can't include any characters from the Crash series since Vivendi Universal owns the franchise, there are some references to the Crash series. For example, Jak's spin is similar to Crash's spin. In addition, in Samos' hut at the beginning of the game, there is a large "snapper plant", one of the best known enemies from the Crash series.
  • Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy / Spyro Fusion (UK) (Game Boy Advance - 2004) - This is basically the same game as Crash Bandicoot Purple, but told from Spyro's perspective, so Crash obviously makes a lot of appearences in the game's story.

Crash in pop culture

In The Simpsons episode "Lisa gets an A", Dash Dingo an obvious spoof of Crash. A tweaked-out soundtrack is used, sounding uncannily similar to the games.

In the Angel episode "Power Play", Illyria and Drogyn are seen playing Crash Bandicoot on an X-Box. Unable to quite get the hang of it Illyria remarks, "I play this game. It is pointless, and annoys me. Yet I am compelled to keep playing."

In the Friends Episode, "The One With Monica's Thunder", Joey is preparing to audition for the part of a nineteen year old. As he greets Chandler in his "teenage" attire. Chandler can be seen playing Crash Team Racing on a playstation. (Hot Air Skyway, for the track name.)

See also

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