Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot (クラッシュ・バンディクー) is the main protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series and was originally named Willy Wombat. He is a genetically-advanced Eastern Barred Bandicoot who lives the life on N. Sanity Island. Throughout the series, Doctor Neo Cortex is his usual arch-enemy, and is always defeated by Crash in order to keep peace around the island. Crash is often accompanied by his ally, Aku Aku, the secondary protagonist. In the earlier games, he tended to say "Whoa!" whenever he fell into a hole. In the later games, he spoke gibberish with a very basic knowledge of the language spoken in the game.

Beginnings
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 when put under the Cortex Vortex, it failed to turn Crash evil. Cortex gives chase to Crash to try and capture him only Crash runs into a window and falls into the beach. Crash's main objective is to clean up any pollution Dr. Cortex has left and to save Tawna Bandicoot, a female bandicoot and Crash's crush. He must defeat six bosses on the way: the obese tribe chief Papu Papu(who surprisingly is not affiliated with Cortex), the insane Ripper Roo, the hulking Koala Kong, the tommy gun firing Pinstripe Potoroo, the scientist Doctor Nitrus Brio and finally the demented Doctor Neo Cortex himself. After Cortex's defeat, Crash and Tawna are seen together on the blimp, then the credits roll. Or alternatively players can collect the gems and ride off with Tawna on the same kind of bird as in Slippery Climb except friendly. Note: This is not the canon ending.

The Sister and the Swindle
A year later, Crash is sent off to get a new laptop battery for his sister Coco, but is soon abducted by Doctor Cortex, who claims to have changed his ways. He states that he feels a written invatation would have been turned down. 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. The game has 5 bosses which consists of Ripper Roo, Komodo Moe and Joe, Tiny, N.Gin and Cortex. When Cortex's true intentions are revealed, Crash sends Cortex flying off into space and aids Doctor Nitrus Brio in destroying Cortex's Cortex Vortex by gathering all 42 gems. In this game Crash has the belly flop, slide, crawl, and the high jump.

Spinning through Time
When the remains of Cortex Vortex crashed into Earth and set the demonic Uka Uka free, Crash and Coco are 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, Dingodile, Tiny Tiger, and Doctor N. Gin. Crash then gathers all of the Gems and with Aku Aku has a final battle with Cortex and Uka Uka and the villians are defeated. The Time-Twisting Machine, unable to hold itself together, implodes on itself trapping the evil trio as prisoners of time. The heroes on the other hand escape and return home, having saved the world once more.

Facing Cortex's Wrath
Crash, Coco, Aku Aku and Pura are having a day 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 Coco 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. With the machine finished Crash and Coco use it to gather the crystals.

Cortex reveils himself to Crash and introduces him to his newest creation a super bandicoot named Crunch taunts him saying he's no match for Crunch. After gathering five crystals, Crash and Aku Aku faces Crunch and the elemental mask of earth Rok-ko in a jungle arena. Crash buries him and collects his power up. After gathering another five crystals he and Aku Aku washes out Crunch and the elemental mask of water, Wa-Wa then collects his power up. With five move crystals gathered, Crash and Aku Aku toast Crunch and the elemental mask of fire, Py-Ro. After gathering the next five crystals, Cash and Aku Aku shoot out Crunch and the elemental mask of air, Lo-Lo. Finally, Crash gathers the finals five crystals, but these are used to open a way to the Cortex's Space Station, where Crash and Aku Aku confront Crunch ultimately, after being attacked with the power of all the elemental masks plus Cortex and Uka Uka.

Crash knocks out Crunch and it turns out that he was been controlled by Cortex all this time. Uka Uka angry at Cortex attempts to shoot but shoots at the engine instead resulting in a self destruction sequence. Coco arrives just in time to pick up Crash, Aku Aku and Crunch and Crunch thanks Crash and his friends for saving him and decides to join the bandicoot family from then on. As for Cortex he declares revenge on Crash while being chased by an upset Uka Uka stranded on an iceberg.

A Forced Alliance
It has been three years since Crash got Cortex stranded on an iceberg. Now he's relaxing in the beach when Cortex (disguised as Coco after paralyzing her with his gun) shows up and leads him to the bay. Once there Cortex takes off the disguise and battles with Crash while they friends are watching. Crash wins, again but unfortunately Cortex loses control of his hover board and bumps into Crash falling into the pit. Now they're forced to work together to get out while fighting over the power crystal they found. Once out, their alliance extended because of the threat of the Evil Twins who have traveled from the 10th dimension to take over the island. Later during the day Cortex gets kidnapped by Papu Papu and his tribe forcing Crash to rescue him and finding 2 more crystals along the way. Together with Aku Aku they journey to Cortex's Iceberg Lab finding yet another crystal and also finding Uka Uka along the way who joins them to defeat the Twins. At the heart of the lab, Cortex unveils his latest invention, the Physcatron. He explains to Crash that they'll use this machine to confront and defeat the evil twins at their dimension plus steal their riches, but they're short on power crystals as they need 6 crystals to power it but only having 4. So they journey round the mountain and successfully find 2 crystals unfortunelty Coco shows up thinking Cortex kidnapped Crash and gives him the boot resulting with the crystals flying into the Physcatron and the machine zapping and paralyzing Coco for a long time but temporarily. So Crash and Cortex take the airship to pickup Nina Cortex (Neo's niece) at the Academy of Evil. On the way back they manage to obtain 2 crystals enough to powerup the Physcatron and head for the 10th Dimension. Once there the three realize that this dimension is quite different to theirs such as the sky, sea and snow being purple instead of blue and the sand being brown instead of yellow. Cortex is seen hugging Crash (or so he thinks) because of his warm, soft fur. Crash and Nina are seen backing away as he look-a-like growls at Cortex who then realizes he's hugging an alternate dimensional Crash known as Evil Crash. He then proceeds to kidnap Nina and head for the mountain top. With Crash and Cortex not far behind. Crash and Cortex then catch up to Evil Crash who chases Cortex after he demands to let Nina go and take him instead. Eventually Crash,Cortex and Nina reach the Evil Twins Lair Ant Agony and defeat them.

Titan Jacking
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 with the help of Coco's part 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, when Coco and Crunch look at him oddly.

The NV of all
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 and teams up with Doctor Nitrus Brio once more 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 tries 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. Crash now has a ability to posses a counter attack meaning dogging and attacking by surprise. 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 sends out Crash to figure out why, and the two are confronted by N. Gin. 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 Team Racing
Crash appears as a playable character in Crash Team Racing, in which he drives a blue go kart. He is a All-Rounder racer with equal Turning, Acceleration and Top Speed. Besides Crash himself, Fake Crash, Dr. Neo Cortex, Komodo Joe, Penta Penguin and Nitrous Oxide are also All-Rounder racers (supposedly because of their engine sound).

The beginning starts with people racing at Coco Park with Oxide's cameras watching them where he then announces from his spaceship that he has arrived to challenge the best of earth. If he or she is to lose the world will be turned into a concrete parking lot and the characters will become his slaves. The cutscene goes on to show everyone preparing for the races in which Crash Bandicoot is sleeping on the grass. This is the only game that he isn't really the main protagonist but Crash is still there. This is due to the fact that adventure can be played by any character. So the player powerslides and boosts your way through races to win trophies to battle the bosses of each world which they give you keys to race Oxide. After defeating Oxide a cutscene comes where he states he wants a rematch once the player collects his time relics. After the player beats him again the credits roll, after a final cutscene of course. 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. It goes on to say that he can be found on an island doing what he does best, dancing and napping.

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 Trophies, Power Crystals and Gems, ne cessaries to bring the victory to Aku Aku or Uka Uka. His taunt is he acts like a chicken and shakes his hips.

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 {C 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 the sea. After that, he faces Tiny Tiger in singular combat, also beating him. Later, Crash defeats Doctor 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 at his house, when suddenly Coco and Crunch get sucked into a wormhole. Aku Aku sends Crash off to investigate what's happening by finding a crystal. Crash is then sucked into a wormhole made by N. Tropy but he struggles as Aku Aku is pulling him from the other end. This resulted in Crash and Aku Aku stranded on the other end of hyperspace and N.Tropy with Fake Crash who proceeds to have N. Trance hypnotize him as well as Coco and Crunch. Crash must navigate the hyperspace collecting Crystals along the way. If he's lucky he may find some gem shards as well.

Upon gathering 5 more crystals, Crash faces a brainwashed Crunch in an Arabian scenario riding a magic carpet, returning him to normal. 5 crystals later he uses his copter-pack to knocks some sense back into Coco, who was operating a machine inside a volcano. After another 5 crystals Crash confronts and outsmarts Fake Crash in a game of copy-cat at the Egyptian Temple proving to him that a copy will never top off the original.

Finally Crash collected the remaining 5 crystals so he and Aku Aku can confront N.Tropy at his secret base. Infuriated N.Trance duel Crash who pulls a fast one by flying away so Fake Crash decides to help by getting Crash to lure N.Trance close enough so he can release boiling lava on him.

Humiliated at N.Trance's demise, N.Tropy teleports away. But as long as Crash has collected all the gem shards, he can go after him. Crash and N.tropy battle throughout time. With N.Tropy defeated; Fake Crash takes a photo of Crash, Aku Aku, Coco, Crunch and the captured N.Tropy.

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. If Crash wins a race he will do his classic dance on the podium. Crash has a high pitched voice in this game. When Krunk is defeated he gives him his Yo-Yo.

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 their 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. Crash is supposed to place a tracer on Ripto but he forgets. Luckily Spyro had been fighting Cortex and had placed a tracer on him. Crash and Spyro follow Cortex and Ripto to their base and fight them in space. Ripto and Cortex flee but Crash destroys their ship sending them flying off into space. 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. 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 called Die-o-ramas, which consists of Crash getting eaten, blown up, and getting killed.

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 its color and how many spikes it held. Also, he wears a different pair of pants with a belt, and has footprints on the bottom of his shoes. His original appearance was a red mowhawk, darker orange fur (up until Twinsanity) fingerless gloves, blue jeans (but in Twinsanity, he wears kneepads on his jeans) and plain brown shoes (DCS, Converse)(note: in Twinsanity, he wears grey shoes and has a brown mohawk). He has also been shown to wear pink boxers.

Personality
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, in the Radical games, 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. He is also fairly oblivious to his surroundings but this could be because of his iliteracy. But is distracted by a falling Wumpa Fruit. As shown in Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash seems to be somewhat impulsive, demonstrated in Die-o-Ramas, Crash spins a tree making it fall and crush him, and standing railing with gears behind him, and spinning dangerous equipment.

Crash's intelligence level is something of a question, since he is illiterate and Aku even made a comment that brain damage was "not much of a danger to Crash". However, this may have been a tease, especially since he is shown to be smart enough to prevent Cortex's attempts at ditching him in Twinsanity and has been able to outsmart various bosses far more powerful than himself in the past. Things he does that seem dumb could best be attributed to his obvious immaturity and impulsive nature. His illiteracy is probably just because he sees no reason to speak English, especially since Aku can understand him anyway. His sense of right and wrong is also intact, he helps out those in need and though Cortex has numerously tried to destroy him, Crash did not object to teaming up with him.

Abilities
Over the series Crash develops several powers, and is one of the only (being the first) characters to possess them, the other/second being Coco who shares a few abilities with him.

Crash has been shown to possess several abilities pertaining to physical prowess and endurance.
 * He has displayed significant physical strength, able to cause considerable damage to Titans and other large creatures, such as Tiny. He also was able to pick up Crunch and slam him on the ground over and over, with little effort.
 * Crash is also very agile, able to jump more than his own body height into the air with a standard jump, as well as pull off a double jump with similar vertical lift. *Crash is also possessed of exceptional stamina and resiliency, able to run and fight steadily for long periods of time (evidenced by the fact that many of his games' plots take place in a small span of time), and also take massive blows from Titans and the like, then just get back up and resume fighting with the same vigor and liveliness as before. The latter is also evidenced by the fact that he can spin at high speed for almost a solid minute before he gets dizzy, and still only stay dizzy for a brief moment.
 * Crash can run quite fast, as evidenced by his Crash Dash ability.
 * Crash is quite limber, able to twist and crouch his body into all sorts of positions. This is perhaps helped by the fact that he is a teenager.
 * Crash is also imune to Mind Control as shown in Crash Bandicoot when his resistence to the Cortex Vortex caused it to fail and in Crash: Mind Over Mutant where he is shocked by Electricity when he touches the N-V this means that he is pure of heart.

Crash also has a couple other abilities and skills.
 * Perhaps best known is Crash's trade-mark ability to spin himself at high speed, dealing centrifugal force-augmented blows to opponents and even allowing himself to float slowly to the ground. The Spin Move can also deflect projectiles.
 * Crash is no novice when it comes to fighting, possessing considerable skill in hand-to-hand combat and an ability to use weapons, such his Fruit Bazooka and operating any sort of vechile, with ease.
 * Crash is also described in CMOM to be a swift fighter, able to use his speed to his advantage against larger foes.
 * Crash is a superb climber, able to hang from ledges and traverse them with great speed, and also to scale sheer surfaces with only minor handholds. On a related note, Crash seems to have a strong grip, evidenced by his hanging on to Mutants while they are running and fighting and the fact that he ripped off Crunch's N-V, which was designed not to come off
 * Crash's newest skill is to jack stunned enemies and use them against others.

Crash can also pull off several specific techniques and maneuvers with his physical capabilities and gain power ups for the remainder of that adventure. They are:

Power Ups
 * Super Belly Flop
 * Double Jump
 * Death Tornado
 * Bazooka (Super Power)
 * Crash Dash (Super Power)
 * Tip Toe
 * Super Slide
 * Rocket Jump


 * Crash can pull off a Slide Spin Jump, performed by sliding then spinning just before jumping. This will gain him more altitude than a regular jump. (Note: This move is only in Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3).
 * Crash can also perform a Slide Jump by sliding and jumping which gains him more distance than a regular jump and he will perform the splits. (Note: This move is only in Crash Bandicoot 2, 3, The Wrath Of Cortex & Twinsanity).
 * Crash can pull off a Hover Jump, peformed by jumping after spinning in midair. This will help Crash cover more distance however he will need, the Double Jump & Death Tornado power ups to perform this move. (Note: This move is only in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex).
 * In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Crash can pull off a Spin Jump, performed by spinning then jumping. This carries him very high.
 * Also in CMOM, An advanced maneuver is called a "Jack Jump." Crash performs this by making a titan jump, then jumping as he stores it.

Other Traits
In the Radical Entertainment games Crash has an extremely limited vocabulary, preferring to speak in unintelligible gibberish; and can say words like Nina, Pancakes, and Wumpa. In the Naughty Dog games the few English words he is capable of speaking include 'Whoa!' Uh-oh and Boo-yah. It is implied in Crash Twinsanity that he is a chronic carrier of fleas (Because it was stated by Cortex, it might be just a provocation). He also loves Wumpa fruit as it is the main collectable in many games.

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!. 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.
 * Crash has a pure heart meaning he's immune to mind controll as shown when the Cortex Vortex failed to turn him evil in Crash Bandicoot and when the N.V. electricuated him everytime he touched it.
 * 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. The latter is possibly the only full sentence Crash has ever said so far.
 * Crash, Aku Aku and Cortex are the only characters to appear in every single Crash game while Aku Aku has a cameo apperance in Crash Tag Team Racing, Doctor Neo Cortex appears as a multiplayer character in Crash Bandicoot: N.Tranced and Crash being the only one to make a full appearance and be a playable character in every game.
 * In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, when Crash is burned, he quickly changes to his Crash 1 model. This also happens in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
 * Crash was originally supposed to have spots on his back, but they were removed. Crash's original hair was a box-ish mohawk, but it was then changed to look more spikier.
 * Crash Bandicoot's design is different in Japan.
 * His name comes from his tendency to break crates and other stuff in general.
 * In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011 he was voted as the eleventh best video game character.
 * Crash getting 100 Wumpa Fruit and getting an extra life could be a possible pun on the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario series, as Sonic/Mario needs to collect 100 rings/coins and get an extra life.
 * In one of Crash's early designs, he was to have a tail which was obviously taken out before entering the storyboards.
 * Despite Crash being scared by Pasadena flirting with him, they both agree on one thing: they don't really understand Willy's riddles as shown when everyone glares at them and they both shrug when he blows his cover.
 * Crash's victory dance was actually carried over from Japan. In fact, an adverisement for one of the games in Japan features Crash (as well as other characters) doing said dance in front of a large, screaming audience.
 * On the Cartoon Network show MAD, There is a skit called Franklin & Crash, which is a parody of Franklin & Bash. It involves Crash taking Bash's place, and both he and Franklin must help the Prince from Katamari Demacy win a trial.

Websites

 * Crash Village Website
 * Crashmania.net
 * The Crash Team Racing Website
 * Crash 3 Website 1
 * Crash 3 Website 2