Crash Bandicoot is the titular main protagonist of the franchise of the same name. He is an anthropomorphic eastern barred bandicoot living in the Wumpa Islands alongside his younger sister Coco Bandicoot and the guardian mask Aku Aku. In some games, they are also accompanied by Crunch Bandicoot, a former foe turned friend. Throughout his adventures, Crash steps in to save the world and foil the plans of the evil Neo Cortex.
Crash was captured by Neo Cortex and subjected to the Evolvo-Ray, which mutated him. Intended to be the general of Cortex's army of mutant animals, Crash was then subjected to the Cortex Vortex, a machine designed to brainwash him to be loyal to Cortex. Despite the warnings of Cortex's assistant, N. Brio, about the machine not being prepared, Cortex goes through with the process, which fails and allows Crash to escape. He flees Castle Cortex by jumping out of a window and falling down into the ocean, leaving Tawna Bandicoot, a female bandicoot he developed an affection for, in the hands of the scientists.
He then awakes dazed and lost on the shore of N. Sanity island, determined to save Tawna and stop Cortex's plans of world domination. He sets off on a quest to traverse the Wumpa Islands and reach Castle Cortex. Crash soon encounters a witch doctor mask, Aku Aku, who watches over him and protects him from enemies.
Throughout Crash's journey, he faces Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Koala Kong and Pinstripe Potoroo until he reaches Castle Cortex, N. Brio was the penultimate enemy to defeat, fought in his chemistry room, he attempted to fight Crash off with his chemical solution, then drinking them, turning himself into a Hulk-like monster. After Crash defeats N. Brio, he proceeds through the castle.
Finally, at the end of the journey, Crash faces up against Cortex himself, on the top of Cortex's airship. Cortex, full of rage, curses Crash for ruining his plans, defeating his henchmen and destroying his lair. The two battle on the top of the airship; Cortex fires blasts of plasma at Crash with his ray gun from his hoverboard, only for Crash to deflect the bolts right back at Cortex by spinning them away. Soon Cortex's hoverboard is hit by one plasma blast too many, causing it to explode and send Cortex plummeting toward the ground far below. Crash happily reunites with Tawna on top of the airship and the two share a hug.
A year after his last encounter with Cortex, Crash is seen relaxing in the woods with his young sister Coco Bandicoot, who wakes him from his nap and asks him to find a new laptop battery for her. Before he can get very far, he is abducted by Neo Cortex to a Warp Room, who claims to have "changed" his ways and asks Crash for help, Cortex asks Crash to gather the twenty-five Crystals to stop a deadly 'Planetary Alignment', which threatens to destroy all life on Earth.
Whenever Crash first acquires a gem, N. Brio, Cortex's former assistant, asks Crash to gather the forty-two Gems instead to destroy Cortex's space station and warns Crash that he will do everything in his power to stop him from gathering crystals. Coco also hacks into Cortex's communications and becomes suspicious of Cortex's true plans. Every 5 crystals Crash collects grants him access to the platform to take him to the room above. However, Crash must defeat a boss to enter.
After facing off the Ripper Roo, Komodo Brothers, Tiny Tiger, who were all working for N. Brio, and collecting twenty crystals, Cortex warns Crash that Brio is not to be trusted, and instructs him to deliver the crystals to N. Gin. Instead, Crash fights and defeats N. Gin, infuriating Cortex, who demands that Crash bring the crystals directly to him. When Crash collects all twenty-five crystals, Coco exposes Cortex's lies; he actually intended to use the crystals to power his new and improved Cortex Vortex to brainwash the entire world.
Crash reaches Cortex, who takes the crystals and attempts to flee by jet pack in space. Crash, being faster with a jet pack of his own, dodges all obstacles in his way and spins Cortex three times, destroying his jet pack and sending him floating off into deep space. Crash returns home to relax on the beach with Coco, who ponders what became of Cortex, pointing out that the Cortex Vortex space station is still operational. Crash finally gathers all 42 gems, which Brio uses to build a powerful laser to destroy the Cortex Vortex, and gives Crash the honors of activating the laser. Along with Brio and Coco, he watches the station explode to pieces.
Following the destruction of Cortex Vortex by N. Brio's gem-powered laser, the remains of it hurtles into Earth's atmosphere, destroying a temple prison containing a great evil.
Meanwhile, Crash, Aku Aku, Polar and Coco are relaxing at home until Aku Aku hears evil laughter booming, revealed to be Uka Uka, the evil twin brother of Aku Aku whom he imprisoned long ago. Uka Uka is allied with Cortex, and the two plan, with the help of Uka Uka's accosiate N. Tropy, to gather the crystals to power a rebuilt Cortex Vortex. Fearing what Uka Uka may do now that he is free, Aku Aku takes Crash and Coco to use N. Tropy's Time Twister Machine to gather the powerful Crystals scattered across time before Cortex does. Crash and Coco gather 5 crystals and Crash outsmarts Tiny Tiger yet again in ancient Rome and earns the super belly flop power-up. 10 crystals is enough for Crash to travel to the ice ages and beat Dingodile to earn the Double Jump power-up. While in prehistoric times, Crash rides on the back of a baby T-Rex, whom he would adopt as a pet and name Baby T. Gathering 15 crystals allowed Crash to knockout Tropy and earn the Death Tornado Spin power-up. 20 crystals got Coco (with her new pet tiger Pura's help halfway) to shoot down N. Gin in space and earn the Fruit Bazooka power-up for Crash. After collecting all 25 crystals, Crash and Aku Aku do battle against Cortex and Uka Uka. Crash and Aku Aku come out on top and Crash earns the Speed Shoes power-up.
However, they're not done yet as Cortex and Uka Uka still have a chance to collect the 42 gems and use them in the place of the crystals. After collecting the rest of the gems, Crash and Aku Aku then have a rematch with Cortex and Uka Uka, defeating them for good as the Time-Twister Machine, unable to hold itself together, implodes on itself. Crash and Aku Aku escape, but Cortex, Uka Uka and N. Tropy are sucked into the wormhole and trapped in the distant past. While Crash, Coco and their respective pets relax around the fire, Aku Aku ruminates on what happened to their enemies.
Crash is a primary protagonist in It's About Time. When Aku Aku senses trouble at N. Sanity Peak, he and Crash travel there and meet Lani-Loli, a member of the Quantum Masks. Nearby, they find a quantum rift, a literal hole in space acting as a gate between dimensions. Together Crash, Coco, and other allies travel through these rifts to stop Nefarious Tropy and Neo Cortex from conquering the multiverse. Additionally, Crash's very existence is threatened when Cortex returns to the past to undo his creation. This backfires when, after Cortex's defeat, Crash accidentally breaks a piece of the Cortex Vortex. The Vortex malfunctions with his past self inside, forming a time loop wherein Crash is responsible for his own creation.
Eleven flashback tape levels are exclusive to Crash which delve into his backstory and relationships to other characters. After subjecting Crash to the Evolvo-Ray, Cortex designed a series of harrowing trials to test his aptitude as a mutant soldier, developing a fatherly affection for him in the process. Meanwhile, Nitrus Brio ran his own trials, plotting for Crash to help him betray Cortex. The footage ends soon before Crash's escape at the beginning of Crash Bandicoot.
Crash narrates the 100% ending epilogue, assuring players that he is doing "just fine" following the events of the game.
Crash appears as a playable character in Crash Team Racing, in which he drives a blue go kart. He is an All-Rounder racer with equal Turning, Acceleration and Top Speed. Crash has the most normal garage out of the eight Adventure mode racers, where he keeps his kart, some spare tires, and a gas pump. He also uses it as a space to practice his yo-yo tricks.
The beginning starts with people racing for fun at Coco Park, with mysterious cameras watching them. The cameras are revealed to belong to an alien named Nitros Oxide, who announces from his spaceship that he has arrived to challenge the best racer on earth in a game he calls "Survival of the Fastest". If they win, Oxide will leave Earth alone. If they lose, the world will be turned into a concrete parking lot and everyone on Earth will become his slaves. The cutscene goes on to show everyone preparing for the races, but Crash is lazily sleeping in a meadow. In this game, Crash isn't always the main character - while players can choose to race as him in adventure mode, there are 7 other racers to chose from. The chosen racer races through 5 hub worlds, gathering trophies, tokens and keys on the way as they prepare to face off against Oxide. Upon Oxide's defeat, he demands that the chosen racer gather the Time Relics and then race him again in a rematch. After being defeated again, Oxide gives up and reluctantly honors his agreement, leaving Earth and returning to his home planet of Gasmoxia.
The game's epilogue states that Crash sold his life story to a major film studio to be made into a movie titled "The Color Orange", set to be released by the Christmas season. It goes on to say that he can be found on an island doing what he does best, dancing and napping.
In The Wrath of Cortex. Crash, Coco, Aku Aku and Pura are having a day on the beach, with Crash wakeboarding behind Coco's jetski. Aku Aku is taking in some sun, Pura is building a sand castle. Suddenly, their day is disturbed by natural disasters; a volcanic eruption, a landslide, a storm and a tidal wave occur all at once. Crash and Coco are caught in the tsunami, sending them crashing to the shore where Aku Aku and Pure were. Aku Aku deduces that Uka Uka must be behind these attacks. He goes to the Hyperspace Temple to confront his brother. There, Uka Uka shows Aku Aku that he has awoken the Elementals, four powerful masks, each one controlling one of the four elements. Aku Aku protests, saying that the elementals are too strong to be contained, but is attacked by the Elementals and is forced to escape. Back in Bandicoot house, Aku Aku tells Crash and Coco about this terrible menace. He then asks Coco about her Virtual Reality Hub System, a machine that allows the user to travel to different parts of the world. Aku Aku's plan is to use the device in order to seek the crystals. If five crystals are together, an elemental mask could be put back in a state of hibernation. Coco confirms the device is ready to use, and the gang uses it to gather the crystals.
Cortex reveals himself to Crash via hologram and introduces him to his newest creation, a super bandicoot named Crunch, who will use the powers to each Elemental mask to make himself stronger. Crash and Coco work together to gather 20 crystals, defeating each Elemental mask in turn. Finally, once Crash gathers all 25 crystals, he arrives at Cortex's space station to take him down. Crunch harnesses the power of all four elements at once, but it isn't enough to stop Crash. Cortex is enraged by his defeat, but Uka Uka points out that Crash doesn't yet have the gems, which they could use as an alternate power source. After gathering the gems, Crash returns to take Cortex and Crunch down for good. After being knocked down for the last time, Crunch snaps out of his brainwashing, and expresses anger at Cortex for controlling him. Meanwhile, Uka Uka is furious at Cortex for failing him yet again, and shoots a beam of energy at the scientist. Cortex dodges, which causes the beam to hit a vital part space station's machinery, setting it to self-destruct. Crash and Aku Aku flee to a hangar, agreeing to take Crunch with them. Coco arrives in her space ship, and takes the three of them safely back to Earth before the Space Station explodes.
Crash is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart, in which he is in Team Bandicoot along with Coco, Crunch and Fake Crash. In the story, he is abducted along with other characters by Emperor Velo XXVII, who forces them to compete in his Galactic Circuit, threatening to destroy Earth if they refuse. In the Team Bandicoot route, Crash, Coco and Crunch race their way through the circuit, facing bosses along the way, with Crash ususally making peace with each boss racer after defeating them. When Velo is defeated and relinquishes his power to Crash, Crash seriously considers the possibility of ruling over Velo's empire, but decides to turn Velo down after realizing how boring it would be and leaves him with his empire, instead deciding to go home with his family and relax on the beach.
In Twinsanity, after Crash got Cortex stranded on an iceberg. He's digging on the beach while Coco is playing with a butterfly until Cortex shows up and paralyzes her with his gun. He then disguises himself as Coco and lures Crash to the bay. Once there, Cortex takes off the disguise and lectures Crash for what he did, revealing that multiple of his minions are there to threaten Crash. Cortex then fights with Crash, but Crash easily defeats him. Upping the ante, Cortex sends in a colossal mech piloted by N. Gin, Mecha-Bandicoot, to crush Crash. Crash reflects the Mecha-Bandicoot's blasts by spinning to destroy it, which results in the robot exploding. The explosion causes Cortex to lose control of his hover board and bump into Crash, knocking them both into the pit opened up by Mecha-Bandicoot. Infuriated, Cortex lunges at Crash and the two begin to brawl, rolling deeper into the mines where they eventually find a power crystal. Cortex tries to keep the crystal to himself, but Crash is sent into a daze by the crystal and tries to take it from him. Crash ends up pulling Cortex along by the crystal until the two of them escape the mines, where they are confronted by the Evil Twins, who threaten to destroy the Wumpa Islands. Cortex flees in fear after the Twins remove his brain from his head, and is briefly chased by some bees when Crash catches up to him before being captured by Papu Papu and his tribesmen. Crash goes to free Cortex from them, collecting two crystals along the way. After a brief altercation with an emu farmer, Crash and Cortex come face to face with the Totem god, who is brought back to life by the Evil Twins. Crash defeats the Totem God by throwing Cortex in its mouth. When Cortex realises that the twins mentioned being from the Tenth Dimension, he gets an idea and tells Crash to follow him to his Iceberg Lab.
With the help of a Tribesman's boat, they travel to the Iceberg Lab. The front door of the lab is locked and the button to open won't work, so Cortex directs Crash into a cave towards a side entrance. Here they find yet another crystal, and also find Uka Uka frozen in ice. Uka Uka attacks Crash and Cortex by making himself a body out of ice. He tries to flee after being defeated, but Aku Aku convinces him to join them instead. After taking care of a brief ambush courtesy of the Twins, Crash and Cortex formally agree to work together. Cortex shows Crash to the heart of the lab and unveils his latest invention, the Psychetron. He explains to Crash that they'll use this machine to confront and defeat the Evil Twins in their dimension, but they're short on power crystals. After a brief diversion down the mountain and into N. Gin's battleship looking for crystals, the two triumphantly return, only for Coco to appear and attack Cortex, believing that he had kidnapped Crash. Cortex is knocked into the Psychetron's console, damaging the machine which zaps Coco, paralyzing her again.
Crash and Cortex set off for the Academy of Evil at Cortex's insistance that his neice, Nina, is the only one that can fix the psychetron. On the way, Crash bumps into Dingodile in the school's boiler. Dingodile attacks him, having heard about the Evil Twins' treasure and wanting to take it for himself. Crash manages to defeat Dingodile and proceeds through the school with Cortex to find Nina. They successfully find her and return to the Iceberg Lab with two more crystals under their belt, and finally activate the Psychetron and transport themselves to the Tenth Dimension. As soon as they arrive, Evil Crash appears and kidnaps Nina. Crash and Cortex give chase, and eventually find Evil Crash and Nina at his house. Cortex demands that Evil Crash let Nina go, which only results in Evil Crash attempting to catch Cortex as well. Crash follows after them to save Cortex, and they eventually manage to give Crash's doppelganger the slip near the front doorstep of the Evil Twins' lair. Crash, Cortex and Nina enter the compound, and after making their way past the obstacles set before them, finally confront the Twins in their throne room. The Evil Twins use their mech to attack the three of them, but they successfully fight back, with Crash piloting the Mecha-Bandicoot to deliver the final blow.
With the Twins defeated, the gang returns to the Iceberg Lab. With their goal achieved and fed up after being thrown around by Crash all day, Cortex attempts to use the Psychetron to get rid of Crash for good, only for the machine to malfunction again, sucking up Cortex and despositing him inside Crash's brain.
In Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash is recruited (along with other characters) by Ebenezer Von Clutch to gather the stolen Power Gems of his amusement park and win the park's ownership. His clashed weapon is the Wumpa Gun. He also finds Von Clutch's lost Black Power Gem by the end of the game. Crash acts somewhat of an immature bully especially to chickens. In the game, he is killed in mini films that one can find located around the game called Die-O-Ramas, which consists of Crash getting killed in multiple different ways. Such as being eaten, blown up, and many more.
In Crash of the Titans, Crash aids Coco in the development of a butter-recycling device. This is interrupted when Doctor Neo Cortex arrives and kidnaps Aku Aku and Coco. Crash throws Coco's machine at Cortex's airship, severing the chain holding Aku Aku's cage, which causes the cage to fall into the nearby forest. Unfortunately, Coco was still in captivity. After Crash rescues Aku Aku, they discover that Cortex and Uka Uka are stealing Mojo from a nearby temple and decide to stop them. Crash is unable to rescue his sister, but manages to defeat Cortex and begins his search for Coco, interrogating Tiny Tiger, N. Gin and Uka Uka on her whereabouts. Crash finally confronts and defeats Nina Cortex inside of the Doominator robot, frees Coco who then hugs him and, with the help of her part, which Crash kept in his pants all the time, averts the destruction of Wumpa Island. Feeling happy for themselves, Crash and his family decide to celebrate their victory with pancakes. This causes him to blurt out "PANCAKES!" in joy, making Coco and Crunch look at him oddly, as he almost never speaks.
In Mind Over Mutant, after been defeated by the bandicoots once again, Cortex drops Nina off at an Evil Public School, and returns to Uka Uka to plan for his next trick. He meets and teams up with Doctor Nitrus Brio once more and introduces their new project to Uka Uka: The NV.
Meanwhile, one year after the events of Crash of the Titans, Coco is messing with the now destroyed Doominator, which happens to be laying over half the island. She tries to get the screen on its eye working and asks Crash to go and get her some parts. When he finally gets the parts, she turns the eye into a giant TV and Crunch sees a commercial for the NV on it. A mailman brings them some, and Coco and Crunch use it for browsing the Internet, but Crash is shocked by electricity every time he touches it. Aku Aku tries to figure out why, but the two are confronted by N. Gin, who was spying on them, and follow him to his observatory. After knocking out his Ratnicians, Aku Aku and Crash see Coco and Crunch under what appears to be mind control through N. Gin's telescope.
Crunch runs off still under the spell, leaving Crash to force a mutated Coco into submission. Saving her from the NV, Coco goes on to Doctor Cortex's blog and (somewhat reluctantly) sends Crash to find Nina, who will hopefully confess her uncle's plan. Finding Nina at Evil Public School and saving her science project, she tells Crash where N. Brio and Crunch are located, where he takes off Crunch's helmet, and N. Brio goes away. After that, Crash and Aku Aku go to Mount Grimly, where he frees Uka Uka and is sent to go find his bones. After retrieving the bones from the most powerful Titans, Crash returns the voodoo bones to Uka Uka at Mount Grimly. Wanting revenge on Cortex, Uka Uka trusts Crash and Aku Aku to use the teleportation systems to defeat Cortex at his new space station. Despite Cortex's cheating in his attempt to physically defeat Crash, the bandicoot repeats history once more as Cortex is defeated and the space station plummets down near Crash's home.
Crash reappears in the N. Sane Trilogy, reprising his roles from the original three games. There are no significant changes to his portrayal, aside from some added Idle animations. Coco is now optionally playable in Crash's place in most levels in the trilogy.
Crash of course retains his status as a playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. His epilogue remains the same, except that now it says that The Color Orange will be released for "the holidays" rather than "the Christmas season".
This game also marks the debut (outside of the DS version of Crash of the Titans) of Baby Crash, an infant version of Crash, who is available alongside Baby Coco and Baby T during the Back N. Time Grand Prix. In a similar manner to Cortex and N. Tropy at the end of Warped, the premise of this Grand Prix explained that Crash and Coco were transformed into babies after Fake Crash stole and altered time with N. Tropy's staff. Unlike the more grown-up Crash, Baby Crash is a Turning-specialized character in the Beginner class. Baby Crash is bought in the game's Pit Stop as a Character Bundle for 3375 Wumpa Coins, which further includes a Baby Crash sticker, a Pastel paint job, and a "Bedtime" decal for the "Nostalginator."
Crash features as a playable character in Crash Team Rumble. He is in the Scorer role, which makes a Crash player's main goal collecting Wumpa Fruit and depositing them in their team's bank. His playstyle is largely the same as in It's About Time, with a few key adjustments made and new moves added to suit the game.
And he is voiced by Roger Craig Smith in the English dub and reprised by Kappei Yamaguchi in the Japanese dub.
THEMES[]
- Warp Room (Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped)