Crash Bandicoot (game)

Crash Bandicoot (Japanese: クラッシュ・バンディクー) is a platform game made by Naughty Dog in 1996 for the PlayStation, featuring the character by the same name. While playing, Crash Bandicoot must fight Doctor Neo Cortex and his henchmen in order to save Tawna, his beloved bandicoot girlfriend, from Cortex. This game was made when Naughty Dog had only ten employees. As well as being originally released on the PlayStation, it was also emulated on the PlayStation Network on December 4, 2006, through which it can be played on the PlayStation Portable and, as of Operating System update 1.70, on the PlayStation 3.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Crash Bandicoot is noticeably simpler than the series' later iterations. Crash doesn't learn any skills throughout the game, he is able only to jump and use a spin attack. The only animal that Crash can ride in this game is a warthog.

Levels
There are three Islands on the game, between which 32 Levels are divided as follows (the six Boss Levels are indicated in bold):



Crates and other items

 * Outline Crate
 * Crash Crate
 * Iron Crate
 * Arrow Crate
 * Basic Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate
 * Aku Aku Crate
 * TNT Crate
 * ! Crate
 * Bounce Crate
 * ? Crate
 * Gems
 * Keys
 * Wumpa Fruit

Plot
Somewhere southeast of Australia, there were three little islands, teeming with marsupial life. However, two humans have been experimenting with the local furry creatures, in order to form a destructive and evil army of anthropomorphic marsupials. Dr. Nitrus Brio creates a machine called the Evolvo-Ray, but his ever pushy boss (and main series antagonist) takes the credit. One night, Dr. Neo Cortex kidnaps two normal bandicoots; one male and one female. They are both put under the Evolvo-Ray. Both work successfully, but Dr. Cortex inserts them into his patented Cortex Vortex, a mind-controlling device designed to brainwash marsupials and turn them into evil henchmen, even though N.Brio warns Cortex that the Vortex was not ready. Cortex plans to make the male the leader of his Cortex Commandoes to world domination. Finally, the evolved male bandicoot (named Crash) is inserted into the Vortex, but turns out to be an utter failure. After escaping the Vortex, Crash is chased throughout the lab, but accidentally breaks through a window in his attempt to get away and tumbles into the sea. But Tawna (the other bandicoot, and his girlfriend) is still in Cortex's clutches. Crash washes up on the beach of his home island, having survived the fall, and set out to save Tawna before Cortex could do anything terrible to her.

Eventually, Crash reached Cortex's sinister castle and, after exploring the castle and destorying it, he confronts Cortex atop his airship. After a long fight, Crash watched in awe as the rocket platform that Cortex stood on exploded, and Cortex apparently falls to his death... Or does he?

Alternate ending
Instead of the second ending being more complete like in other games of the series, the first game has a different ending entirely if you collect all the Gems and take the new route at The Great Hall. Here, Crash finds Tawna in the castle, but doesn't necessarily fight Dr. Cortex. Crash and Tawna fly away together on a friendly bird, and many stories are told of the bosses. Papu Papu started a Big & Tall Shop using money he received by selling Cortex Castle to a resort developer. Ripper Roo received intense therapy and a few years of higher education, and wrote the book "Through the Eyes of the Vortex" which talks about rapid evolution. Koala Kong moved to Hollywood, started an acting career, and is working with a speech therapist. Pinstripe moved to Chicago and started a sanitation company. Dr. N. Brio revisited his earlier hobby of tending bar. Curiously, the epilogue mentioned that Cortex disappeared since his defeat. This may be due to Crash apparently never fighting him, thus he never accidentally rediscovered the Crystals. Obviously, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back shows Cortex's fall from the other ending, though that doesn't mean that the other characters didn't receive their closure. For example, "Dr. Roo" is mildly referenced in the sequel, and Papu Papu and Pinstripe weren't even seen until Crash Team Racing.

Characters
All of the characters were voiced by Brendan O'Brien.

Crash Bandicoot: The hero of the game. Once just an ordinary bandicoot taken from his home by the evil Dr. Cortex to be the general of his Cortex Commandos for world domination. Crash gained his jump and spin attack from the Evolvo-Ray. But when he was raised into the Cortex Vortex, to become evil, he was rejected by the machine and gets chased by an angry Cortex. Although Crash escapes by jumping out the window, he left Tawna (his bandicoot girlfriend) in the hands of Cortex's men, so he sets out on a long adventure to save her.

Aku Aku: Crash's best friend. He is a magical mask who protects him from enemies. He is first seen on N. Sanity Beach in special crates. He helps Crash on his quest and wants to stop Cortex himself. Aku Aku does not speak in this game.

Doctor Neo Cortex: The main antagonist. Cortex was mocked and ridiculed by people, so he seeked revenge against humanity by making an army of monsters he called Cortex Commandos and take over the world. He then joined with another mad scientest, Dr. Nitrus Brio and told him to make a machine called the Evolvo-Ray along with the Cortex Vortex. When N. Brio finished Cortex stole the credit and because of his low self-esteem, Brio didn't say anything. Together, they begun messing with the island's ecosystem turning animals and plants into mutants. It seemed like Cortex's plan was going well. . . until Crash was made.

Doctor Nitrus Brio: A supporting villain. Being his bosses assistant led to some rivalry and it was actually N. Brio that made the Evolvo-Ray but his low self-esteem let Cortex take the credit. He seems to be obsessed with potions and vials. He stutters frequently and is nervous about what he's doing.

Tawna: A female bandicoot who was Crash's girlfriend at the time. She is another bandicoot Cortex tried to evolve and mutate. She is also the sole purpose Crash goes on his journey.

Pinstripe Potoroo: A mafia-style, fancy dressed, mutated potoroo armed with a Tommy-Gun and a maniacal laugh. Pinstripe was in charge of the radioactive Cortex Power on Cortex Island and even had an office. It is possible that after his boss fight when he shoots the reactor at the back it stops pollution going into the sea, it could also be one of the reasons the castle catches fire.

Ripper Roo: A perfect example of an experment gone wrong. This was Cortex's first test subject and it shows, unfortunatly he had one too many shots from the Cortex Vortex resulting in an insane kangaroo with a straight-jacket and crazy eyes. His fight with Crash took place at the top of the waterfall on the second island where he was probably sent to stay.

Papu Papu: The fat leader of the tribesmen on N. Sanity Island. He is the only boss who was not working for Cortex. He only tried to kill Crash because he got woken up from his nap.

Koala Kong: A mutated koala bear who has enough build on him to be a body guard. Despite how big he is, he is not the brightest mutant as shown in his boss fight where he is showing off his moves giving Crash time to spin a boulder at him.

Trivia

 * An early build of Crash Bandicoot had a different health bar in which each hit point was demonstrated by a dot.
 * In the Japanese version of this game Papu Papu has 5 hitpoints instead of 3. He also swings his club faster, making it harder.
 * In the Japanese version, different music was used for boss fights.
 * Crash is the only character with black irises.
 * Boulder Dash is a pun on the phrase 'balderdash'.
 * The level Rolling Stones, is a reference to the music band "The Rolling Stones".
 * The level 'Up the Creek' is a reference to the 1984 movie of the same name.
 * Tawna appeared in many of the Crash games following this one, in pictures and such, as Easter Eggs. She is rarely seen in person though.
 * Although the rocketsled Cortex stands on in his boss fight explodes, in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, he stands on it when fighting Crash in his boss fight. It could be that Cortex rebuilt his rocketsled after he got out of the mine in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
 * In the intro video, a bunch of cages can briefly be seen. The entire top row cages say "kangaroo" above them, probably because they failed many times trying to create Ripper Roo. On the second row they say "Iguana", "Potoroo" and "Koala. The iguana cage might be a mistake considering there are no evil iguanas in the series or this may be a mistake, supposed to say komodo dragon for one of the komodo brothers because they were originally intended to be a boss fight. The bottom row has 2 cages marked "Bandicoot", which could be either Crash's and Coco's, or Crash's and Tawna's.
 * Interestingly, this is the only Crash game in the entire series in which collecting all of the Gems and items does not give the player the canon ending.
 * If Crash misses some Crates in a level, they will come down on his head after he has finished the level. This only happens if Crash has completed the level without losing a life.
 * This is the only Crash game to use passwords.
 * When Crash is falling out of the window of Cortex Castle in the intro Cortex can for a second be seen flying on his Rocketsled in the distance then he disapears.
 * A spoof of Crash Bandicoot appears in an episode of The Simpsons. Crash is instead named Dash Dingo. He has a similiar name, the game has a similiar logo and music, and there is a spoof of Uka Uka; a severed Australian man's head.
 * In the prototype version, some levels and bosses used to have a different order including the unused level Stormy Ascent. However, only 4 levels were not used in the prototype version compared to the final version.