Papu Papu

Papu Papu is the obese leader of the tribesmen who appears on N. Sanity Island. He lives in the native village along with the other tribesmen. Indirectly, he's the very first villain Crash ever fought.

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 the strong native and defeats him by knocking him out. This is accomplished by jumping on his head when his staff is down on the ground.

He subsequently sold the castle ruins of Cortex Castle and opens the Big & Tall Shop to raise more money.

Crash Team Racing


Papu Papu reappears in Crash Team Racing as the second boss in the game. His home track is Papu's Pyramid. He throws both green and red beakers to try to slow his opponent down. Like Tiny, Dingodile, and Doctor Nefarious Tropy, Papu Papu was a speedy racer at the expense of bad 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.

According to the epilogue, 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.

Stats
Speed: 5/5

Acceleration: 3/5

Turning: 2/5

Crash Bash
In Crash 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. When his HP is at its lowest, 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 Crash 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, possibly for some kind of ritual. 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. This is marked as his final appearance to date and never appear again though.

Personality
Papu is bilingual, able to speak two languages; English and his native language (possibly aborigine). 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, presuming they only speak the native language.

Culture
Judging that the ancient carvings all around the islands closely resemble the carvings in the native villages, they could be based off of a dead civilization, or they come from a long line of tribesmen. The masks in the game could be related to this civilization, reincarnations of past leaders. If this is true, then the masks on the leaders' heads was what their souls were reincarnated into their masks. The masks in stone all around the islands could be former leaders. Uka Uka and Aku Aku themselves could have been former leaders. So if Papu Papu died, his soul would embody the mask on his head. This would make sense, as the names of Papu Papu and Aku Aku or Uka Uka are closely designed, both repeating the same short word twice.

Trivia

 * In CTR, Papu Papu is the largest playable character, even larger than Tiny and Dingodile. 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 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.
 * Papu Papu, along with Komodo Joe, Pinstripe, Penta Penguin, and Ripper Roo do not return as racers in Crash Nitro Kart.
 * Papu Papu is the first boss ever fought in a Crash Bandicoot game.
 * He had many hat variations in each one of his appearances.
 * It is unknown if Papu Papu was affiliated with Cortex in Crash 1, or if Crash just battled him in his tribal hut; however, in Crash Bash (if the player plays an evil character in adventure mode), Uka Uka refers to him as "an old friend".
 * In Twinsanity in the worm chase part of Totem Hokum, Crash can go into his hut when he is sleeping. Nothing really happens when Crash go 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 almost exactly the same 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 easily be defeated in less than one minute.
 * 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.