Papu Papu

"Papu much tired of watching puny slugs race so slow! Papu want in action, to lay boom down big! And prove Papu is world's best driver. Papu move so fast, you munch tracks."

- Papu Papu

Papu Papu is the leader of the tribesmen who appears on N. Sanity Island. He lives in the native village along with the other tribesmen.

Crash Bandicoot
Papu Papu's first appearance was in Crash Bandicoot, where he is the first boss. He is infuriated when Crash awakens him from his slumber in his throne. Papu Papu attacks Crash and a battle ensues. Papu Papu uses his tribal staff to fight Crash; however, the marsupial outsmarts and defeats him by knocking him out. This is accomplished by jumping on his head when his staff is down on the ground.

In the game's epilogue, he sells the castle ruins of Cortex Castle and opens the Big & Tall Shop to raise more money.

Crash Bandicoot (manga)
Papu Papu appears in the first issue only. He tends to add "papu" to the end of his sentences when he speaks. Crash and Aku Aku arrive at his hut by crashing through the ceiling, landing right on top of Papu Papu. He at first claims not to want any trouble, but feels insulted and attacks when Crash says they don't have time to talk to him. He swings at Crash with his staff, but their battle soon turns into a dance. He is eventually defeated when Crash baits him with a "flame spin attack", then spins him from behind. Afterwards, Papu Papu points them in the direction of Cortex Castle on a faraway island.

Crash Team Racing


Papu Papu reappears in CTR as the second boss in the game. His home track is Papu's Pyramid in The Lost Ruins. He throws both green and red beakers to try to slow his opponent down, both by dropping them and by throwing them backwards. Like Tiny, Dingodile, and Doctor Nefarious Tropy, Papu Papu was a speedy racer at the expense of poor turning and acceleration. He can be unlocked by completing the Green Gem Cup in adventure mode or by holding L1 + R1 buttons while pressing Left, Triangle, Right, Down, Right, Circle, Left, Left and Down on the main menu. His kart is yellow.

After the events of CTR, he became a wrestler and changed his name to "Mr. Bad Belly". Unfortunately, his signature move, the Bad Belly Bounce, was eventually banned after several of its victims suffered severe rope friction burns.

Crash Bash
In Bash, Papu Papu is summoned by Uka Uka as the first boss of the game. His battle arena is similar to boards like Jungle Bash, etc. He is surrounded by a ring of fire for protection. He summons Crash clones to fight the player. When they are defeated, Papu Papu laughs, disabling the fire and leaving him vulnerable. At this time, he must be hit with a block or TNT. After the third hit, he is ultimately defeated when a block crushes him. After suffering injuries, he goes back to leading his tribe.

Crash Twinsanity
Papu Papu has a minor appearance in Twinsanity. He is first seen when Doctor Neo Cortex reveals he envies the life of the tribesmen in Totem Hokum. Cortex later bumps into Papu Papu, who captures him, takes him to the native village, and has him tied to a totem pole. Crash storms the village and uses a worm to save Cortex. After Crash frees him and destroys the totem pole, Papu Papu sends the rest of the tribe after the Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Papu Papu returned as a boss in the N. Sane Trilogy. While his boss fight in the remake of Crash Bandicoot is similar to the original one, Papu Papu now sports five hit points instead of three (like in the Japanese version of the original game) and will spin around in the air before collapsing on his back upon his defeat, allowing Crash to use him like a trampoline.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Papu Papu retains his role as The Lost Ruins' boss, instead being carried by his servants as he meets the player character. He is also unlocked upon being beaten, and retains his stats as a speed-type character. In his new epilogue, he still becomes a professional wrestler under the moniker of Mr. Bad Belly. His signature Big Bad Belly Bounce would be so popular that it created world-wide dance phenomena.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Papu Papu is referenced to in It's About Time. While he himself isn't depicted, in the level Rush Hour, a holographic sign with the word "Papu" on it can be seen in the background. A small gold triangle is also on the sign, which is likely referencing Papu's Pyramid.

Physical appearance
Papu Papu is large, and has tan skin. He sports a green skirt, red cuffs on his arms, a mask above his head, wields a scepter, has red tattoos on his cheeks, red lips, and has a collar on his neck. In the first game, his scepter is depicted brown, with a yellow ball, and multicolored feathers. His mask is blue, with red eyes, and has black feathers on top of it. His collar is light-blue with dark blue stripes. In Crash Team Racing, his appearance is slightly different, as his mask is purple instead of blue, and his collar has his dark blue replaced with white. For some reasons, his racing model depicts the feathers on his mask are purple. In Crash Bash, his appearance was changed again, as the mask on top of his head and his cuffs are yellow instead of blue and red, within the former having pink eyes, and his collar is pink and purple instead of light-blue and dark blue. In Crash Twinsanity, his collar resembles a blue necklace with a red gem, his mask is still yellow, except that it has blue eyebrows and nose, the eyes are changed back to the red color, and the feathers are red, yellow and blue. He has tattoos on his arms instead of cuffs, and his skirt has a red emblem representing his mask, and is more detailed than previously. In Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, his appearance is changed again with more tattoos on his body, the ball on his scepter is replaced with a skull, and his skirt is composed of four sheets attached to a rope.

Personality
Papu is bilingual, able to speak two languages; English and his native language. In Crash Team Racing, Papu speaks in third-person and with lack of pronouns, much like Tiny Tiger; i.e. "Papu move so fast, you munch tracks". In Crash Twinsanity, however, he speaks his native language, though mostly only to his people.

Despite being a generally neutral character, he is portrayed as an antagonist in all of his appearances to date. While he was merely angered by Crash trespassing, Uka Uka seems to be in good terms with him as seen in CTR and Crash Bash. In Twinsanity, he seems to be working by himself. Overall though he simply just wants to eat, rule his tribe in peace and be left alone.

Crash Bandicoot
“We think Papu Papu is native for “Pass me that dish again, mate.” This animated mountain of a feller has a fuse as short as he is big.”
 * Manual

Appearances

 * Crash Bandicoot
 * Crash Bandicoot (manga)
 * Crash Team Racing
 * Crash Bash
 * Crash Twinsanity
 * Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
 * Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
 * Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Digital Comic
 * Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (referenced)
 * Crash Bandicoot: Complete Timeline

Gallery
See: Papu Papu/Gallery

Trivia

 * In CTR, Papu Papu is the largest playable character, even larger than Tiny, Dingodile, and N. Tropy. While racing, this honor belongs to Nitros Oxide. However, Papu still beats Oxide's size on the podium. Oxide only appears larger on the track because his in-kart model is over-sized, and his kart hovers.
 * In the remaster they are both now relatively of the same size, but only when Oxide fully extends his legs.
 * In Crash Twinsanity, there is a glitch where Crash is standing with Papu Papu and his tribesmen when he kidnaps Cortex.
 * In Crash Twinsanity, Papu Papu is one of the only enemies of Crash's that didn't appear at his "birthday party" (the others being the Komodo Bros, Doctor Nitrus Brio, N. Trance, Rilla Roo, and N. Tropy).
 * When Crash fights Papu Papu in Crash Bandicoot and during his victory dance in CTR, a plumber's crack is visible.
 * In the Japanese version of Crash Bandicoot, Papu Papu has 5 hit points instead of 3 and he swings faster whenever he gets hit, making him harder to beat. This happens again in the N. Sane Trilogy.
 * Papu Papu, along with Komodo Joe, Pinstripe, Penta Penguin, and Ripper Roo do not return as racers in Crash Nitro Kart.
 * Despite appearing to live a rather primitive lifestyle he can somehow drive a kart as shown in CTR and it's remake. His people also seem to have access to more modern foods such as donuts.
 * Papu Papu is the first boss ever fought in a Crash Bandicoot game.
 * He has had many headdress variations in each one of his appearances.
 * It was at first unknown if Papu Papu was affiliated with Cortex in Crash 1, or if Crash just woke him up in his tribal hut triggering his rage; however, in Crash Bash (if the player plays an evil character in adventure mode), Uka Uka refers to him as "an old friend". In Crash Twinsanity, Papu Papu works on his own accord. Ultimately later games would confirm that Papu Papu does not work for Cortex and is more of an antagonist than truly evil unlike most of the other human characters in the series.
 * Out of all the human characters in the series he is the most normal looking one having neither a strange skin color nor any metal parts on his body.
 * In Twinsanity in the worm chase part of Totem Hokum, Crash can go into his hut when he is sleeping. It looks near identical to its appearance in the first game's boss fight. Nothing really happens when Crash goes in, except that he can jump on him.
 * In CTR, in his character icon, he looks like a whole different character; his chin looks like a happy mouth, his red painted mouth looks like a red nose, and his actual nose somewhat looks like eyes, causing his actual eyes to look like part of his hat.
 * A small joke is that Papu Papu, when chanting, says the very same chant that Aku Aku does whenever he is summoned. This could hint at the two either knowing each other, being in the same tribe, or they may just be able to speak the same language. If Papu Papu can speak aborigine, then Aku Aku must be speaking the same language, which would explain the same sound being heard from two very different characters.
 * Throughout the series his character model hasn't changed much with only little changes to his tribal clothes so he looks very similar in all his appearances.
 * He has made a total of 4 appearances in the series, appearing in two main series games and two spin-offs.
 * In Crash 1 he can be quickly defeated by jumping on his head as soon as possible three times in a row. The player does not have to wait for any specific moment for to be vulnerable unlike any other bosses in the game.
 * In Crash Bash he has his yellow hair ornament which was first seen in his artwork for Crash 1.
 * In some early NTSC copies of CTR Papu Papu had a different icon: his mouth was a darker shade of red and the hair ornament was a blackish grey. He shared this trait with Pinstripe.
 * Papu Papu is the only human boss in CTR, as well as in Crash Bash. Ripper Roo, the Komodo Brothers, the Bearminator, and Pinstripe are animals, and Oxide is a Gasmoxian, i.e. an alien.
 * When Crash defeats him in Crash 1, Crash can actually die if Papu Papu falls on him, forcing the boss battle to restart.
 * Crash Twinsanity is the only game Papu Papu is in where he is not featured as a boss.
 * Papu Papu bares a resemblance to Dr. Shemp, a villain in the Spyro series.
 * Papu Papu can speak both in his own N. Sanity tribe's language and a broken form of English. In CTR, he mainly speaks English, with occasional short tribal phrases, and in Twinsanity he is heard speaking full sentences in his language.
 * The phrase "Papu Papu" itself means "pass that dish again, mate," in his native tongue.
 * The original CTR is the only time Papu appears without his staff. Every other game he appears in, including the newly remade CTRNF, features an appearance by the chief's signature weapon.
 * In addition to ruling over his tribe, Papu Papu is hinted to be a shaman or have some sort of magical connection. In Crash Bash he's able to cause tremors, generate a fire shield, and summon his minions out of thin air. Later appearances beginning with the N. Sane Trilogy add a mysterious glow to his headdress and staff.
 * In Crash Team Racing, in the cutscenes, his hat has two faces instead of one, likely due to a texturing mistake.
 * In the original bible for Crash Bandicoot 1 under the placeholder name, Willy Wombat, Papu Papu was described as a warrior in his youth and that Aku Aku was once a member of his tribe.