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Crash Bandicoot series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crash Bandicoot is a video game series created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. The games are mostly set in N. Sanity Island, although other locations are common. The main games of the series are largely platform games, but the majority of the games are spin-offs in different genres. The series has garnered a large cult following over time, having sold 34 million copies and having 14 games as of 2006.[1]
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Games in the Crash Bandicoot series feature an Eastern Barred Bandicoot named Crash as the central playable character and protagonist. Crash's quiet life on N. Sanity Island is often interrupted by the main antagonist in the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, who created Crash and now wants nothing more than his demise. It's usually up to Crash to defeat Cortex and foil any world domination plans he might have.
The first three Crash games, as well as several subsequent Crash games were platform games. There are Aku Aku copy 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 what many consider 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.
Main collectables include 'Wumpa Fruit', healthy forest fruit grown from Wumpa Trees in which adds an additional life to Crash and company when 100 are obtained. Other, more valuable goodies include Gems (rare jewels often discovered by smashing open every crate in a level or on an alternate path) and Crystals - the most common found jewel in which one appears per every level, often contributing to the main story at hand. The only other collectables to note are Time Relics, featured from Crash Bandicoot: Warped and most other Crash games after (collected by racing a level's time trial) and trophies, which are featured in Crash Team Racing, Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Bash.
Obstacles in Crash's path include animal-like creatures and other badguys, Doctor Neo Cortex's lab assistants, 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. Starting with Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash can also collect a special move after defeating each boss.
Most of the Crash Bandicoot series each contain around 25 levels of gameplay, each level becoming higher difficulty, most times requiring special moves obtained from defeating bosses, this fact not referring to the original Crash Bandicoot. This does not include the hidden levels, where bonus items can be obtained.
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. These colored Gems in the later Crash games, asides Twinsanity, are often obtained via completing the Skull paths (mentioned earlier) or particularly harder, secret routes.
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, also known as 'slot 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.
Also present in the newer Crash Bandicoot games, there are Time Trial crates, which can only be found on levels when in Time Trial mode. Breaking any of these crates will stop the watch that counts your time to complete the level. Depending on the number on the crate, the watch will stop for an amount of time until continuing counting.
Crystals and gems are two special items needed to beat most Crash games.
The first game, Crash Bandicoot, was released in the U.S. in 1996. The game was looked upon in a positive light due to its innovations such as a large number of level themes, the three different types of bonus levels rather than just one, and a number of gameplay elements that do not appear to belong to an integrated whole, such as the awkward face icons. This experimental appearance may have been because the game was a pioneer of a new series, and the developers may have been testing several ideas to see if they would work well in future Crash games.
The second game, known as Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, was released in the Halloween of 1997, and departed from some of the concepts of the first game, the most notable being the exchange of the Super Mario Bros. 3-esque map screen for a group of hub rooms called "Warp Rooms", with each containing 5 levels (which follow the same straightforward layout of the first game) and 1 boss. It has overall received a better reception than its predecessor.[1]
Exactly one year later, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped introduced more new concepts, including a time trial mode and new moves that can be obtained after a boss is defeated. The game was also the first in the series to use the then-new Dual Shock Controller, with the Rumble effect being used frequently in the game. The game is still considered the pinnacle of the series today, being named one of the best platformers of all time.[2]
The next game, Crash Team Racing, was the first racing game of the series and the last made by Naughty Dog. After the game's release in 1999, Naughty Dog left Universal Interactive Studios to become an in-house developer for Sony Computer Entertainment America and create their other trademark series, Jak and Daxter.
After another year, the UK-based video game developer Eurocom released the party game Crash Bash, which retained the Warp Room concept of Crash Bandicoot 2, but was met with mixed reviews.
The next installment of the main series, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, was released in 2001 on all three of the major consoles at the time, making it Crash's first multi-platform release, much to the disdain of fans. The game was also criticised for bringing almost nothing new to the series, the most common criticism of the game.
The next two games, Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure and Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, were released on the Game Boy Advance one year apart from each other. These games use a side-scrolling concept instead of the straightforward view of the console games. Fans criticise the two side-scrolling games for creating a large plot hole in the series as a whole, due to N-Tranced's inclusion of the Crunch character from The Wrath of Cortex. Thus, the games are mostly considered in an alternate universe from the main series.
The next racing game, Crash Nitro Kart, was also released on multiple platforms in 2003 as an indirect sequel to Crash Team Racing. The game was also released on Game Boy Advance, and became the first Crash game to be released on N-Gage.
Next in the handheld series came Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, was a crossover game featuring Spyro of Spyro the Dragon fame. The game was considered below-average by fans, who deemed the crossover cheesy and the game way too short. The game received mixed reviews by critics. However, this game is considered non-canon, due to the Spyro series' reboot with The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Nina's appearance (as well as her mannerisms).
On September 2004, Traveller's Tales released Crash Twinsanity for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, just months after Ripto's Rampage. Twinsanity was a major deviation from the previous Crash gameplay, focusing on a new free-roaming environment instead of the straightforward gameplay of the past. It also marked the first time Cortex was a playable character in a platformer game.
On October 2005, Crash Tag Team Racing arrived as the third racing game of the series. The game once again encorporated the free-roaming element of Twinsanity, along with including an option to clash with another driver to form one larger car. However, the boss races from the previous two racing titles are absent from this game.
To celebrate Crash's 10th anniversary, Crash Boom Bang! was released on October 2006. The title was Crash's second party game, and followed a more Mario Party-esque format than its predecessor. However, many feel the Crash license was largely cosmetic, and the minigames were dull.
- Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure/XS - Game Boy Advance - 2002
- Crash Nitro Kart - PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, N-Gage, - 2003
- Crash Twinsanity - PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mobile - 2004 - Official Site
Naughty Dog once referenced the development of Crash as a character both 'goofy yet heroic', and being able to portray it well. Originally however, he took the role of a silent protagonist and thus expressed little of his personality or opinions (a trait developer Jason Rubin later claimed to regret), though in more recent games he has played a larger role.
Crash's personality is hard to pinpoint, sometimes varying from game to game. Overall, he has a rather wacky, cartoonish personality, in simple terms, he is a literal tornado. His demented behavior was in fact extended to actual sadism/masochism in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which he took pleasure in torturing innocent animals, Park Drones, and even himself (it should be noted that CTTR is criticised for its over-caricaturisation or even complete change in character personalities). Despite this however, Crash is usually kind-hearted and laid back, rarely ever showing true sorrow or anger (though he detests evil, such as Cortex), though he is also rather simple, to some fans almost to the point of retardedness and lack of awareness.
Crash's most common ability is his tornado spin, upon which he twirls insanely to hit a nearby opponent. The power of this attack varies in different games, to the point he can spin constantly or even float on air when using it. He can also spin objects, living or not, to gain a better hit radius. Like other platformers, he can also jump on opponents as well as slide and body slam. A large amount of special abilities can be obtained in various titles. Crash can also ride a whole range of vehicles without ever obtaining his driving license, such as motorcycles, bi-planes, wave-boards, 4X4 jeeps, karts and a whole range of other cars. In a common tradition to the platform genre, he can also be seen riding a minecart at times.
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. Despite now being a third-party franchise, some still believe Crash to be the equivalent of Mario.
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.
![Image:"Crash Development Cycle" Marketing Piece (Crash Bandicoot- Warped).jpg](/reference/Image:"Crash_Development_Cycle"_Marketing_Piece_(Crash_Bandicoot-_Warped).jpg){kind=link}
The first four Crash Bandicoot games were developed by Naughty Dog. Crash Bash was developed by Eurocom. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity were developed by Traveller's Tales and the division Traveller's Tales Oxford. Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure (Crash Bandicoot XS in Europe), Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Bandicoot Purple (Crash Bandicoot Fusion in Europe) have all been developed by Vicarious Visions.Crash Tag Team Racing was developed by Radical Entertainment and the recent Crash Boom Bang was developed by Dimps. The first 4 Crash titles were published by Sony as well as the first 3 games being joint published with Universal Interactive Studios. All of the other Crash titles were published by Universal Interactive Studios (now known as Vivendi Games). Crash Team Racing also never mentions Universal in its opening intro, leading to some debate on the matter.
The first four Bandicoot games were exclusives to the Sony PlayStation. After Sony and Naughty Dog reached an agreement to sell the license to the publisher Vivendi Games, multiple developers have worked with the property and games have been released for Nintendo and Microsoft consoles, in addition to Sony.
A great deal of fans and critics consider the Naughty Dog games the best of the series. The games that have not been made by Naughty Dog have not received nearly as much critical hype, (such attention would be diverted to Naughty Dog's next series, Jak and Daxter).
Though some of the Vicarious Visions titles have not fared critically as well as the Naughty Dog games, they have still received gratitude for keeping the series true to its original platforming roots. In an almost opposite twist, there are also fans who praise the work of Traveller's Tales Oxford for their work in Crash Twinsanity, which was the first platformer in the series to drive away from the "Warp Room" interface of the original series and simultaneously reimagine certain story details.
In The Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an "A"", Dash Dingo is an obvious spoof of Crash Bandicoot. The villain in the game projects himself as a hologram in a circular room before Dash, which is a parody on Crash 2's warp room holograms. 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 Xbox. 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.
In the movie Baby Geniuses, Crash can be seen in a clothing shop in a game screen.
In Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, news anchor Tom Tucker looks like he is masturbating because of the camera angle, making panting and groaning sounds, but then it is revealed he is playing a Crash Bandicoot game for an early Game Boy system (although Crash games for Game Boy so far have only been on the Game Boy Advance) and says, "Eat my dust Crash Bandicoot!"
In the Dawson's Creek episode "Four to Tango", Dawson unexpectedly finds Pacey in his room in the middle of the schoolday. Pacey's excuse is that he's playing Crash.
On an episode of "Yes, Dear", at the beginning of an episode Jimmy is playing Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation.
Crash Bandicoot has also been referenced in a few Jhonen Vasquez comics, mainly on people's shirts in the comics.
In the Nintendo 64 game Goldeneye 007, in the Aztec level one of the wall engravings appears to have Crash Bandicoot chained to some torture device.
In an episode of Eastenders in 1999 a group of characters are seen playing jet-ski and Great Wall of China levels in Crash Bandicoot:Warped.
- List of video game mascots
- List of Crash Bandicoot characters
- Jak and Daxter
- Spyro the Dragon (series)
- Ratchet & Clank (series)
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Resistance: Fall of Man
- Official websites (in gaming order)
- Naughty Dog's Official Crash Bandicoot Site
- Vivendi Universal's Official Crash Bandicoot Site
- Playstation One's Official Crash Bandicoot Site
- Playstation One's Official Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back Site
- Playstation One's Official Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped Site
- Playstation One's Official Crash Team Racing Site
- Playstation One's Official Crash Bash Site
- Sierra's Official Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Site
- Vivendi Universal's Official Crash Twinsanity Site
- Sierra's Official Crash Tag Team Racing Site
- Fansites (in alphabetical order)
- Creative Sites (in alphabetical order)
- General resources
- Chat Rooms
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Crash Bandicoot video games
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Crash Bandicoot • Cortex Strikes Back • Warped The Wrath of Cortex • Twinsanity The Huge Adventure • N-Tranced • Purple |
| Heroes | Crash Bandicoot | Aku Aku | Coco Bandicoot | Crunch Bandicoot |
|---|---|
| Neutral | Doctor Nitrus Brio |
| Villains | Doctor Neo Cortex | Ripper Roo | Doctor N. Gin | Komodo Brothers | Tiny Tiger | Uka Uka | Doctor Nefarious Tropy | Dingodile | Elementals | Mega-Mix | N. Trance | Nina Cortex | Nitros Oxide | Emperor Velo XXVII | Evil Twins |
| Other Characters | List of Crash Bandicoot characters |