Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot (クラッシュ・バンディクー) is the primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series and was originally named Willy Wombat. He is a genetically-advanced Eastern Barred Bandicoot who tries to live a quiet life on a three-island chain southeast of Australia. Throughout the series, his relaxation is interrupted by his nemesis and creator Doctor Neo Cortex, forcing Crash to defeat him in order to put his life back in order. He is often accompanied by such allies as Aku Aku, Coco Bandicoot and Crunch Bandicoot.

Naughty Dog era
Doctor Neo Cortex Crash Bandicoot (Character)

Crash Bandicoot
Crash is first seen in Doctor Neo Cortex's and Doctor Nitrus Brio's lab. He was created by them with the Evolvo-Ray, but Cortex considered him a failure due to his kind nature, resulting in Cortex chasing Crash out of the castle. Crash's main objective is to clean up any pollution Dr. Cortex has left and to save Tawna, a female bandicoot and Crash's crush. He must defeat six bosses on the way: the obese tribe chief Papu Papu, the insane Ripper Roo, the hulking Koala Kong, the tommy-gun firing Pinstripe Potoroo, the stuttering Doctor Nitrus Brio and finally the evil, demented Doctor Neo Cortex himself. After Cortex's defeat, Crash and Tawna are seen together on the blimp, then the credits roll.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
A year later, Crash is sent off to get a new laptop battery for his sister Coco, but is soon abducted by Doctor Neo Cortex, who claims to have changed his ways. Crash is then ordered to gather Crystals for Cortex while fighting off opposition from Doctor Nitrus Brio, who wants Crash to gather the Gems instead. When Cortex's true intentions are revealed, Crash sends Cortex flying off into space and aids Doctor Nitrus Brio in destroying Cortex's space station.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
When the remains of Cortex's space station crash into Earth and set the demonic Uka Uka free, Crash is recruited by Aku Aku to use Doctor Nefarious Tropy's Time-Twisting Machine to gather the powerful Crystals in their original places before Cortex does so. Crash eventually gathers all 25 Crystals, defeating Nefarious Tropy as well as Cortex, Dingo Dile, Tiny, and N.Gin; causing the Time-Twisting Machine to implode on itself.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Crash, Coco, Aku Aku and Pura are having fun in the N.Sanity beach. Aku Aku is taking in some sun, Pura is building a sand castle, and Coco is riding a jet ski, with Crash attached to the back surfing. Suddenly, the earth is stunned by great disasters, such as a volcano eruption, tornadoes and tsunamis. Crash and company are caught in one of these, and Aku Aku deduces that his evil brother, Uka Uka, is behind these attacks. He goes to the Space Temple where the brothers have a discussion. There, Uka Uka shows Aku Aku that he has awoken the Elementals, powerful masks who control all the nature elements. Aku Aku is attacked by the Elementals and is forced to escape. Back in Crash's House, Aku Aku tells him and Coco about this terrible menace. He then asks the female bandicoot about her VR 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 Power Crystals. If five crystals are reunited, an elemental mask could be put in a state of hibernation. Coco finishes the machine and, along with Crash, she uses it to gather the crystals.

Soon they realize that Cortex is also involved in this plan, and that he will use his perfect creation -- the super bandicoot called Crunch -- to kill Crash and company. So, after gathering five crystals, Crash faces Crunch, who is using the power of the elemental mask of earth Rok-ko. Crash defeats him, and after gathering another five crystals he beats Crunch armed with the mask of water, Wa-Wa. Later, Crash defeats Crunch armed with the mask of fire, Py-Ro. After that, Crunch arms himself with the mask of wind, Lo-Lo, and is defeated again. Finally, Crash gathers the finals five crystals, but these are used to open a way to the Cortex's base, where Crash defeats Crunch ultimately, after being attacked with the power of all the elemental masks.

Suddenly, the base explodes, given the wrong activation of a switch. Crash, Coco, Crunch (now of good mind) and Aku Aku escape to the N.Sanity Island, where Crunch becomes a new partner of the bandicoot family.

Crash Twinsanity
Three years later, Cortex, disguised as Coco asks Crash to follow him. He then leads Crash to an area with most of his previous enemies and commands Mecha-Bandicoot to destroy Crash but Crash defeats him. But Crash and Cortex fall into a hole and fight strange creatures known as ants. They then get out of the cave and are chased by Papu Papu's minions. Crash and Cortex then met the Evil Twins who forced a statue known as Tikimon to attack them. Upon defeating him, Crash and Cortex talk to the Evil Twins, who reveal they're from the the 10th Dimension, and plan to use the Vice Versa-Reversa Device to turn this dimension into the 10th Dimension and the 10th Dimension into this dimension. Cortex takes Crash to his Iceberg Lab, where he shows him the Psychetron, a machine that will allow to enter other dimensions, and requires Power Crystals to function properly. Cortex decides, then, go with Crash to the N.Gin Battleship, where they split. Crash beats Doctor N. Gin and later escapes from the clutches of the ship's chef, Rusty Walrus. At last, N. Gin unwillingly actives a TNT sequence, what makes the ship explode. Crash is propelled to an iceberg, where he finds Doctor Nefarious Tropy and Doctor Nitrus Brio, who attack him as a team. Crash defeats the duo and the iceberg takes him to the Cortex's lab. There, Crash sees how Cortex is attacked by an angry Coco, who kicks cortex in the Balls and sends the crystals to flying, at the Psychetron, which begins to malfunction. A missing bolt stuns Coco. Cortex plans to go to the Academy of Evil, where they would find his niece Nina, who should be able to fix the machine. At the Academy, Crash and Cortex pass through the sewers, reaching the cauldron room, where they find Dingodile. Crash beats him and later he enters the school, where Cortex orders him to go to the airship, but Crash misunderstands the order and releases it from being attached to the school bus, and it flies out of control, until Nina captures it. Later, Crash, Cortex and Nina go to the Iceberg Lab, where they cross the newly repaired Psychetron and land on the Tenth Dimension, going to the Twinsanity Island (the opposite to the N.Sanity). There, Crash pursues his counterpart, Evil Crash, who captures Nina and later pursues Cortex. At last, the three reach the Evil Twins base, where the two parrots reveal their true origin, that they were Cortex's pets, and became powerful and evil when he experimented upon them. The Evil Twins battle the trio and are defeated by Crash with the use of the Mecha Bandicoot. After that, Crash, Cortex and Nina return to our dimension, where Cortex actives the Psychetron in an effort to throw Crash to another reality. However, the Psychetron malfunctions again, sending Cortex into Crash's brain, whom he escapes. Crash and Cortex go to a psychiatrist after that, but the sessions end abruptly when Crash makes Cortex fall during a trust exercise, only to achieve a wumpa fruit.

Crash of the Titans
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. 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, liberates his sister and averts the destruction of Wumpa Island. Feeling happy for themselves, Crash and his family decide to celebrate their victory with pancakes, which he blurts out (speaking for the first time) in joy.

Crash: Mind over Mutant
Having 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 up with Doctor Nitrus Brio again and introduced their new project to Uka-Uka: The NV.

Meanwhile, Coco is now messing with a rather large Doominator which happens to be laying over half the island. She is trying to get a screen on it working and asks Crash to go and get her some parts. When he finally gets the parts, she builds a giant TV and Crunch sees on it a commercial for the NV. A mailman brings one, and Coco and Crunch use it for browsing the Internet, but Crash is shocked by electricity every time he touches it. Aku Aku sends out Crash to figure out why, and the two are confronted by N. Gin. Aku Aku and Crash see Coco and Crunch under what appears to be mind control through N. Gin's telescope. After the defeat of N. Gin, Aku Aku and Crash go home to free Coco and Crunch. When they do so, Coco goes on to Doctor Cortex's blog and sends Crash to find Nina, who will hopefully confess her uncle's plan.

Crash Team Racing
Crash appears as a playable character in Crash Team Racing, in which he drives a blue, well-rounded kart. The epilogue states that Crash sold his life story, titled "The Color Orange", to a major film studio, set to be released by the Christmas season. crash voice by Billy pope.

Crash Bash
Some time later, Crash is sleeping under a tree and suddenly is abducted and taken to the Space Temple where Aku Aku and Uka Uka have his "discussions". There, Uka Uka tells him and Cortex that he and Aku Aku have decided to engage in a competition in order to resolve all the trouble between them. Given that Aku and Uka can't fight against each other because of a promise made to the Ancients, they decide to create two teams, one formed by Crash, Coco, Tiny Tiger and Dingodile, and the other by Cortex, Brio, Rilla Roo, and Koala Kong. They will compete in games to gain Power Crystals and Gems, necessaries to bring the victory to Aku Aku or Uka Uka.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
Crash and Coco are in his house, and suddenly they see the face of Cortex covering the sky. They learn, thanks to Aku Aku, that Cortex created a giant device known as the Planetary Minimizer, a machine that allows to (like the name implies) shrink any planet to the size of an orange. Coco has a machine capable of revert the effects of the Planetary Minimizer, but to make it work, she needs a large amount of Power Crystals, what are spread across the world. Crash must recover the crystals with the help of Aku Aku.

However, Cortex sends his evil allies in order to interfere with the bandicoot's plans. Upon gathering five crystals, Crash confronts and defeats Dingodile in a duel under de sea. After that, he faces Tiny Tiger in singular combat, also beating him. Later, Crash defeats N.Gin, who is aboard a mortal robot.

Finally, Crash reaches the Cortex's base, defeating him and destroying the Planetary Minimizer in the progress. However, the machine fires a bolt of electricity to Cortex and his allies, melting them and forming a freaking monster, the Mega Mix. This monstrosity chases Crash throughout the base, and finally it explodes, but Crash is able to escape in a space motorbike.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
Some time later, Crash, Aku Aku, Coco, and Crunch are having fun in his house, when suddenly Coco And Crunch disappear. Aku Aku sends Crash off to investigate what's happening. Crash is then sucked into a wormhole made by N. Tropy. Aku Aku saves him and takes him to a temple in hyperspace, where he will be able to seek and recover gem shards, powerful jewels that allow Aku Aku to defeat N.Tropy and Uka Uka, and also save Coco and Crunch.

Upon gathering the first gem shards, Crash faces a brainwashed Crunch in an Arabian scenario, and defeats him, returning him to normal. After that, he defeats an evil Coco, who was operating a machine inside a volcano. Finally, he beats Fake Crash.

After gathering another group of gem shards, Crash engaged in a duel with the primary ally of N.Tropy, N-Trance, The Hypnotist, who was behind the operation to brainwash his family. Crash beats N-Trance and gathers the final gem shards. He defeats N.Tropy and his family returns to his house.

Crash Nitro Kart
Crash is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart, in which he drives for the Crash Team in a well-rounded kart. In the story, he is abducted (along with other characters) by Emperor Velo XXVII and forced to compete in the Galaxy Circuit. When Velo relinquishes his power to Crash, the latter seriously considers the possibility of ruling over Velo's empire, but decides to turn Velo down and leaves him with his empire.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
Crash and Aku Aku fight many green and purple dragon-like monsters who are roaming the N.Sanity Island. Eventually, they find a small but brave dragon called Spyro, whose appearance is alike the monsters. Spyro and Crash fight each other, but eventually they realize they've been tricked. In fact, Spyro traveled to N.Sanity following the path of strange orange monsters, alike Crash. Crash and Spyro deduce that his most feared foes, Cortex and Ripto have teamed up, and so, to defeat them, Spyro and Crash must form a group. Coco and the Professor (Spyro's ally) need Power Crystals to open a portal to the enemies base. Crash begins to gather crystals and faces Tiny Tiger, in a duel over tanks in the South Pole, and the marsupial defeats him. Later, Crash and Spyro join forces in order to beat Nina Cortex, who has kidnapped Coco and the Professor.

Finally, Crash and Spyro gather all the crystals and the bandicoot faces Ripto in an aerial combat, and the foe is defeated. Meanwhile, Spyro beats Cortex and after that, the two villains unite in a mortal machine, but are soon overwhelmed. From that moment on, Crash and Spyro remain as a couple of true friends.

Crash Tag Team Racing
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. He also finds Von Clutch's lost Black Power Gem by the end of the game.

Crash Boom Bang!
Crash is a playable character in Crash Boom Bang!, in which he is brought along by Coco when she is invited to the World Cannonball Race. At the end of the story, he interrupts the Viscount's wish to the Super Big Power Crystal and wishes for a vast amount of Wumpa Fruit.

Appearance
Throughout the series, Crash has gone through drastic changes in appearance, namely the addition of tattoos in Crash of the Titans and Mind over Mutant. His hairdo also went through many changes, namely it's color and how many spikes it held.

Personality
Before being ejected from Doctor Neo Cortex's island fortress, Crash became romantically attached to a female bandicoot named Tawna, who was another one of Cortex's experiments. Crash is a very emotional character who is quick to laugh and quick to cry. While he has a danger-loving, fearless nature and loves a good fight, he prefers relaxing in the sun and rarely seeks out trouble deliberately. To the ire of Crunch and the amusement of Coco, Crash is prone to impolite personal habits such as belching or scratching his posterior. Crash is also easily distracted, as seen in Twinsanity when he has to catch Cortex, but is distracted by a falling Apple

Abilities
Over the series he develops several powers, the only character to possess them other than Coco. They are:
 * Double Jump
 * Super Belly Flop
 * Tip Toe
 * Death Tornado
 * Bazooka (Super Power)
 * Crash Dash (Super Power)
 * Super Slide
 * Rocket Jump

Other traits
Crash has an extremely limited vocabulary, preferring to speak in unintelligible gibberish; the few English words he is capable of speaking include 'Whoa!' (which he often exclaims upon being physically harmed), 'Nina' and 'pancakes'. It is implied in Crash Twinsanity that he is a chronic carrier of fleas (Because it was sated by Cortex, it might be just a provocation).

Portrayals
Crash is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the Naughty Dog games, by Steven Blum in Crash Nitro Kart and by Jess Harnell in the Radical Entertainment games. In the Japanese versions of the games, he is voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi in the games up to Crash Nitro Kart and by Makoto Ishī in Crash Boom Bang!. [[Media:Crash Bandicoot 01.ogg|A sample of Crash's voice can be heard here]].

Trivia

 * Crash was originally named Willy Wombat and was created as a much bulkier character. During production of the first game, the marketing director of Universal Interactive Studios insisted that Crash be named "Wez", "Wuzzles" or "Wizzy the Wombat". Crash was given his final name due to his tendency to smash crates.
 * In Crash of the Titans, Crash says "Pancakes!" at the end of the main console versions. However in the GBA version, this is extended to "Pancakes? I thought you'd never ask!" for unknown reasons.
 * In Crash of the Titans, Crash looks smaller (younger) than before, making him looks like he is just 7-9 years old.
 * Crash Bandicoot is the only character in the Crash universe to appear in every single Crash game.
 * In Crash Bandicoot 2, when Crash is burned, he quickly changes to his Crash 1 model. This was changed in the 3rd game.

Websites

 * [http://village.crashbandicoot.com/splash/ Crash Village Website

Also see
List of Crash Bandicoot Games

Crash Bandicoot