Crash Bandicoot (video game)

Crash Bandicoot is a platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was originally released for the PlayStation on September 9, 1996, and was included in the Sony Greatest Hits line-up. In 2007, it was re-released as a downloadable game on the PlayStation Network.

A remake, along with the rest of the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy, was released for the PlayStation 4 in 2017 as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, one year later for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.

Plot
Doctor Neo Cortex, a mad scientist whose motivations are unclear to this day (some say he's enraged at the science community for rejecting his theories, others say he was the only survivor of an explosion that killed all of his family, and even that people used to make too much fun of him) is kidnapping Australian animals and taking them to his lair in the nearby Wumpa Islands to mutate them into more intelligent bipedal beings using the Evolvo-Ray with the help of his assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio. The mutant animals are then taken to the Cortex Vortex, a brainwashing device that turns the mutants into mindless soliders. Cortex and Brio plan to create an army of mutant animals to take over the world. However, the Vortex malfunctioned during Crash's turn, allowing the bandicoot to resist his control and flee. Now he must defeat the Cortex-Brio duo and save the Wumpa Islands as well as his girlfriend Tawna, who was also captured by the doctors.

Why It Deserves Delicious Wumpas

 * 1) Great graphics that are aesthetically pleasing and vibrant, that still look good today. Naughty Dog used clever tactics to save polygon counts while still being able to render these graphics without oversaturating the PlayStation's resources.
 * 2) Fun character design: Crash himself is an eastern barred bandicoot that was strategically colored orange so he wouldn't blend in with the game's backgrounds.
 * 3) Decent voice acting (although there's not much of it), especially from Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex.
 * 4) Fun. creative and memorable boss fights such as Ripper Roo, Pinstripe Potoroo and Dr. N. Brio.
 * 5) Introduces Crash Bandicoot, one of the most iconic characters in gaming and was basically Sony's Mario at the time.
 * 6) The death animations are very cartoony and can be funny to watch.
 * 7) Boulder levels are hard but intense. When playing these, you have to win the level while being chased by a boulder, and this would become an iconic gimmick in the series.
 * 8) Along with the Boulder levels is the Boar levels, this is where Crash will ride a boar throughout the level and has to avoid obstacles while trying to make it to the end of the level. This would also become an iconic gimmick in the series.
 * 9) Every level has gem that can be obtained when breaking every box without dying. Some even have colored gems, which are used to travel to secret areas.
 * 10) The game features an alternative ending, which can only occur after gaining 100% completion. If Crash collects all the gems and follows the path the which appears in The Great Hall, Crash finds Tawna waiting for him on the balcony. Crash and Tawna escape together on a friendly vulture, and the epilogue is as follows:
 * 11) * Papu Papu started a Big & Tall Shop using money he received by selling Cortex Castle to a resort developer.
 * 12) * Ripper Roo received intense therapy and a few years of higher education, and wrote the book "Through the Eyes of the Vortex", pondering the consequences of rapid evolution.
 * 13) * Koala Kong moved to Hollywood, started an acting career, and is working with a speech therapist to improve his diction.
 * 14) * Pinstripe moved to Chicago and started a sanitation company.
 * 15) * Dr. N. Brio revisited his earlier hobby of bar tending.
 * 16) * Dr. Cortex is said to have disappeared.
 * 17) Cheaters can't use the password system to pretend they 100% completed the game. If you type in the 100% complete password you won't be able to save the game.
 * 18) Great soundtrack that's very adventurous with a jungle/tribal tone when in the wild and techno/mechanical tone for when getting to Cortex's lab. It's also the kind of theme that would be carried throughout the Crash Bandicoot franchise.
 * 19) Throughout the game you can acquire Wumpa fruits, which is the equivalent of the coins in the Mario franchise: when you acquire 100 of them, you get an extra life.
 * 20) Every now and again you'll find an Aku Aku crate, which is a magical mask that protects Crash from enemies.
 * 21) * When one crate is broken, Aku Aku will appear at the player's side and can take one hit for the player before disappearing. (Hits do not include falling into holes, crushed by boulders, etc.)
 * 22) * When an additional crate is broken, Aku Aku will then turn a gold color, meaning he can take two hits.
 * 23) * When a third crate is broken whilst having the gold Aku Aku, Aku Aku will attach himself to the player's face, allowing them to become invincible for a short amount of time. In this state, the player can eliminate almost any enemy, but is still vulnerable to holes and other similar obstacles. The player can also destroy TNT Crates without getting damaged by running into them.
 * 24) Throughout most of the levels are either Tawna, N. Brio, or Cortex tokens. Collecting all three in a level will unlock a bonus round.
 * 25) * When Crash collects three Tawna tokens, he will be transported to a forest-type environment where he will be able to break boxes and collect lives. At the end of the bonus round, Tawna will be standing by a portal and allows Crash to save his progress and to be given a password.
 * 26) * The N. Brio bonus rounds are considerably more difficult to complete than the Tawna rounds and have no important purpose other than to collect a few extra lives. When Crash collects three Brio tokens, he will be transported into a cave-like area. Brio bonus rounds are filled with TNT crates and tricky jumps. Crash will be able to collect additional lives and Wumpa Fruit in this level. Unlike the other two bonus rounds, Crash can still participate in Brio rounds after completing one in a certain level. Brio rounds do not allow Crash to save his progress, however.
 * 27) * Cortex tokens are extremely rare and appear in only two levels (Sunset Vista and Jaws of Darkness). Most of these tokens are well hidden and are very hard to obtain. When Crash collects three Cortex tokens, he will be transported to a dungeon-like stage. Crash must travel through a path of TNT crates in order to get to the end of the bonus round. Once Crash reaches the end of the level, Cortex will drop a key for Crash to use that will unlock a secret level on the map, which is required to gather all of the gems in the game. The bonus round here will save Crash's progress unlike the N. Brio bonus round. These challenges are extremely difficult since the player only gets one chance. If the player fails, they must either complete the level and then go back through it, collecting the tokens again, or exit out of the level and re-enter it.
 * 28) Unlike most Western games, the game was made to appeal to Japanese gamers as well the Japanese version has anime like features in mind such as the game's cover looking like anime.
 * 29) *There's even a manga exclusive to Japan that's set between this game and its sequel, explaining why Tawna never appeared again.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) For the reasons below, it's considered to be the entry that has aged the worst of the trilogy (but it's just the first installment, so that's expected).
 * 2) Obtaining the 100% completion can be very difficult. As said, you have to break every box in a level without dying once to obtain a Gem and because of the problems below, it's very frustrating to do.
 * 3) Crash's jumping feels rather heavy, and his only abilities in the game are jumping and spin attacking.
 * 4) * Because of this weight, it could lead players to believe they're not going to make the jump to the next platform.
 * 5) The reward for 100% completion is also rather lackluster, as mentioned, once you get all of the Gems, you can go the level, "The Great Hall", and get the best ending where Crash is seen flying on a vulture with his girlfriend Tawna, but even if you beat Dr. Neo Cortex without going after any of the Gems, you still rescue Tawna anyway.
 * 6) * In fact, the "best" ending is pretty anticlimactic compared to the original, because the stage "The Great Hall" that requires you to have all of the gems to rescue Tawna, is before the final boss level, so you can basically beat the game and save Tawna without even having to face Cortex.
 * 7) ** This actually makes it a plot hole, as in the sequel, Cortex is seen falling to the island, and that scene was after being beaten by Crash.
 * 8) Saving the game requires beating one-time-only bonus stages or getting gems.
 * 9) Many hard levels, especially Slippery Climb.
 * 10) * In fact, the unused "Stormy Ascent" level was so hard that Naughty Dog cut the level from the game.
 * 11) Stiff controls mainly because the game was made around the d-pad.
 * 12) Whenever you load a save file, your lives will go back to 5 again.
 * 13) The Heads-up display doesn't show how many crates you've broken or how many you need. This would be corrected in future games.
 * 14) Because of what's mentioned in WIR#2, Crash looks more like a tailless fox than a bandicoot.

Trivia

 * The production name of the game was "Sonic's Ass Game", due to fact that the camera is positioned behind Crash's rear side, and Sonic the Hedgehog was the most popular animal character in gaming during that time.
 * Crash Bandicoot is the unofficial mascot for the Playstation 1.
 * Crash Bandicoot started as a Playstation IP until a disagreement with Sony and Universal at the time and then Universal Interactive Studios would take control of Crash Bandicoot, years later Universal would be purchased by Activision in 2008 and making Crash an Activision IP; Finally in 2022, Microsoft purchases Activision Blizzard, making Crash belong to Sony's Rival, Microsoft.
 * Crash was supposed to be a Wombat called Willie the Wombat.
 * After this game, Tawna is never seen again due to being seen as inappropriate for the target audience, she appears again in Crash Twinsanity.
 * Doctor Cortex was initially inspired by The Brain from the Pinky & The Brain cartoon.
 * Early cutscenes for the game were actually traditionally animated. However, they were scrapped. These cutscenes can be watched here.
 * Several characters that were cut from the game such as Tiny Tiger can be seen in the animated intro. Those characters were introduced in later games.
 * Over the years, Crash's "Woah!" catchphrase became an Internet meme.
 * Butch Hartman, the creator of mh:besttvshows:Nicktoons shows The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, mh:besttvshows:T.U.F.F Puppy, mh:terribletvshows:Bunsen Is A Beast and some other web series that are not made by Nickelodeon, worked on the original design of the titular character.

Reception
Crash Bandicoot received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the game's graphics and unique visual style, but noted the game's lack of innovation as a platform game. The game would later go on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation video games and Crash became one of the mascots for the PlayStation.

The game was one of the few western games to achieve success in Japan, and it was the first western game in Japan to sell 1,000,000 million units.

Over time, gamers have noted that Crash 1 has aged considerably worse than the second and third games due to the clunky saving system and overly punishing method of collecting gems. Nevertheless it is still considered a good game nowadays and the remastered version fixed those issues.

Videos
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