Fake Crash

"You like me! You really, really like me! Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

- Fake Crash

Fake Crash is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. As his name suggests, he is a doppelganger of Crash Bandicoot.

Origins
Despite common belief, Fake Crash's first appearance wasn't in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, or even in Crash Bandicoot: Dance! Then Jump! Na Daibōken. Rather, the character was initially created and used in a Japanese advertising campaign for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

There is no common depiction of Fake Crash's origins in the series. It's implied in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced that Fake Crash was accidentally created after N. Tropy and N. Trance tried to abduct Crash Bandicoot by sucking him into a portal. As Aku Aku pulls Crash out, Fake Crash appears out of nowhere at N. Tropy and N. Trance's side of the portal, with them believing they captured Crash. Some promotional material for N-Tranced claims Fake Crash was created by N. Trance, possibly in reference to the aforementioned events; the manual for the game states that Fake Crash was made by accident in a "science-experiment gone wrong", also alluding to the game's events. Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! states that Fake Crash was created by Neo Cortex to confuse Crash and his allies.

Crash Bandicoot: Dance! Then Jump! Na Daibōken
Fake Crash makes an appearance in chapter 7, Panic at the Snow Mountain!!. Although the character does not physically appear, Cortex disguises himself as Crash to trick Polar into telling him where the Power Stone is, and the costume resembles Fake Crash. Cortex even does Fake Crash's signature dance in an attempt to convince Polar that he's the real deal.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Fake Crash is an easter egg in Warped. To see him, a player must get all the crystals and all the gems, and defeat Cortex on the player's save file. Then, he appears dancing (obviously parodying Crash's Dance) in some levels.

Fake Crash can easily be spotted in:


 * Level 1 - Toad Village, on the lawn of the 3rd house on the right.
 * Level 5 - Makin' Waves, on a small island near the end of the level.
 * Level 8 - Hog Ride, seen dancing on the left side of the road (This sighting is not present in the US version for unknown reasons).

Crash Team Racing
Fake Crash appears as an unlockable character. He can be unlocked in CTR by winning the Purple Gem Cup in adventure mode.

The Japanese version includes a bonus video with Crash racing against his fake counterpart, in which the two bandicoots show a fierce competitive streak with one another. Fake Crash is demonstrated to be jealous of Crash's fame and success, and constantly training to race him. In the end the two racers are shown to be evenly matched, both in their speed and their bad luck.

Crash Bandicoot Carnival
Fake Crash appears as an exclusive secret character in the Japanese version of Crash Bash. To play as him, the player must press R1 + R2 + Left + Down at the same time in the character select screen. Fake Crash's icon will appear at the bottom of the screen as a neutral character. However, this only works in the Japanese version, and in Versus and Tournament modes only. His appearance is different in this game, as a slightly modified version of Crash's model.

Fake Crash shares the same abilities as Crash and Coco. His addition in the Japanese version allows a third player to choose a character of the same type, whereas the other types only have two characters available. Fake Crash cannot be selected in Adventure Mode, and the CPU will never select him.

He makes one more appearance in the Japanese bonus video, where he appears along with Crash and a live action host to show off secrets from all four previous Crash games.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
Fake Crash plays a major role instead of being a joke character, and was given an origin story. When N. Tropy kidnapped Coco and Crunch, he tried to kidnap Crash, but Aku Aku saved him by pulling him out of the portal, causing N. Tropy to accidentally kidnap Fake Crash in Crash's place. Coco, Crunch and Fake Crash are hypnotized by N. Trance, with Fake Crash being mistaken for the real Crash.

Fake Crash later appears as the third boss, confronting Crash in a trap-filled Egyptian tomb. In this boss fight he has 4 hit points. Crash outsmarts him by luring him into the various traps and snaps him out of N. Trance's brainwashing. After being defeated, Fake Crash becomes Crash's ally and helps him defeat N. Trance by pulling a lever to pour lava on him during his boss fight. In the final ending, Fake Crash returns to take a group photo of Crash, Coco, Crunch, and the defeated N. Tropy.

Crash Nitro Kart
Fake Crash appears in Crash Nitro Kart as an unlockable character and the fourth member of Team Bandicoot. In the console version, he is unlocked by getting 50 or more consecutive boosts on a track in adventure mode as Team Cortex, and in the handheld versions, he's unlocked by going off-road on the track Out of Time and finding him stranded by a campfire. His console version has terrible stats to reflect his status as a joke character.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
In Ripto's Rampage, he appears in Dragon Castles in a secret room in the area's second pit, chained to the ground. When the player talks to him he says nothing. Crash says nothing either. His Trading Card will be close by him, and has the highest card value.

Crash Boom Bang!
Fake Crash appears as an unlockable character after completing the Desert board. Unusually, he wears a small patch on his pants in this game, suggesting they may be worn from overuse. Despite being playable in Adventure mode, his only story appearance is in the final cutscene where he's included in a reaction shot of the characters watching Crash reach the Super Big Power Crystal.

Skylanders: Imaginators
Fake Crash appeared in Skylanders: Imaginators as the main villain of the Thumpin' Wumpa Islands special level. Fake Crash hijacked Cortex's Matrix Chamber, and terrorized the Wumpa Islands by disrupting the island's rhythms, sending Bad Vibes through his odd dance moves and lack of rhythm, which threatened to tear the islands apart.

Fake Crash is shown to antagonize Crash, Cortex, and the rest of the Skylanders, battling them in a boss fight when they attempt to stop him. He uses the chamber as a robotic suit to destroy the heroes on his dangerous dance floor. Once he is defeated, the Cortex Matrix Chamber breaks down, putting Fake Crash's destruction of the islands to an end.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Fake Crash was included again as an easter egg in all three games. To see him, the player must earn 100% on their save file. Afterwards, Fake Crash will appear dancing in some levels.
 * Crash Bandicoot
 * N. Sanity Beach, at the left side of the stone stairs.
 * Heavy Machinery, in one of the pipes near a platform that takes Crash down to a different path.
 * Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
 * The Pits, at the left side of the path, near the first big mushroom, right after the split path ends.
 * Crash Crush, on the left side of the path while Crash is getting chased by a boulder.
 * Hang Eight, at the end of the Blue Gem route, on an un-reachable platform with two Venus Fly Trap enemies.
 * Ruination, at the right side of the first platforms moving in circle.
 * Cold Hard Crash, in the first ice mirror in the death route.
 * Rock It, at the right side of space, in the first glass room.
 * Totally Fly, between a tree and a tiki statue on the left.
 * Crash Bandicoot: Warped
 * Toad Village, on the lawn, enclosed in a fence, of the 3rd house on the right. There is a pond in front of the house where Crash can walk on.
 * Makin' Waves, on a small island with grass, and a palm tree, at the end of the level, on the right.
 * Hog Ride, seen dancing on the left side of the road. He is in between the gas station and the Cortex sign, near the two ramps right next to each other.
 * Area 51?, left side of the road near a tall cactus, on a left turn.
 * Future Tense, near the end of the death route, on a building to the right.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Fake Crash returns as a playable character in the Crash Team Racing remake, complete with new skins for him to unlock. Both the Cortex Castle and Nitro Court stages now have tapestries of Fake Crash dressed as a jester among tapestries of Cortex, N. Brio, and Nina. Like in the original game, Fake Crash is unlocked after completing the Purple Gem Cup. As the premise of the Back N. Time Grand Prix, Fake Crash stole and altered time with N. Tropy's staff, which resulted in a alternate past that the track takes place in where the dinosaurs and cavemen resemble Fake Crash. In addition, his meddling with time also transformed Crash and Coco into babies In a similar manner to Cortex and N. Tropy at the end of Warped, who were all added as playable racers who can be purchased at the Pit Stop.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Fake Crash appears in It's About Time. He, along with Fake Coco, are playable characters in the game's multiplayer modes. He is also an unlockable skin for Crash in the main story mode. In addition, he can be found dancing on a platform over the river towards the end of the level Run It Bayou, as well as its Dingodile timeline counterpart No Dillo Dallying. Unlike in previous games, he always appears here regardless of completion percentage. Also, a balloon float of Fake Crash dressed as a jester can be found in the level Off Beat.

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
Fake Crash reappears on the side of evil once again in On the Run!, as one of the many bosses for Crash or Coco to defeat.

He attacks by using the player's own methods against them, throwing Boom Berries at them, firing bazookas at them and throwing serums to make toxic puddles on the ground. He can also sometimes deflect Boom Berries thrown by the player by spinning. Like all bosses, he is defeated by chasing him and throwing Boom Berries at him to reduce his health bar to zero, then using the Portal Weapons crafted beforehand to send him back to his own dimension.

Personality
Fake Crash is a light-hearted, goofy and unintelligent character, just like the original Crash, but exaggerated to a greater extreme. He often attempts to copy his arch-rival, Crash, creating his own version of the Crash dance and pretending to fall asleep in his kart like Crash does in Nitro-Fueled. He isn't 100% committed to being good or evil, with his alignment varying depending on the situation, even working with Crash and friends from time to time.

Physical Appearance
As Fake Crash's name implies, he looks like an imitation of the original Crash Bandicoot, except with huge bushy eyebrows, tiny pupils, a large round nose, longer ears and big teeth (which can be either crooked or sharp). He also has a rather goofy voice. Some iterations (CNK, Purple and On the Run!) depicted him with a green pair of pants rather than blue.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
"Not much is known about the crazy character known as Fake Crash. Created during a science-experiment gone wrong, he is a not-so-exact duplicate of everyone's favorite marsupial. Friend or foe? It remains to be seen..."
 * Manual

Crash Boom Bang!
"A Crash look-alike with crazy eyebrows."
 * In-Game

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
“Make way for the original ‘Trash Bandicoot’! Well, okay, maybe we shouldn’t use the word “original” for Crash’s wild-eyed, bucktoothed doppelganger. But beyond being brainwashed by N. Tropy and N. Trance, Fake Crash’s prior life is a head-spinning mystery. And sure, he’s not the brightest Bandicoot on the block (and that’s saying something), but don’t get it twisted – Fake Crash remains a fan-favourite in any dimension.”
 * Promo

"This knock-off doppelganger was created by Neo Cortex to copy and confuse the real Crash and his allies, but he’s often more funny than fearsome. It's probably the teeth."
 * In-game

Appearances

 * Crash Bandicoot: Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken (Referenced)
 * Crash Bandicoot: Warped (cameo)
 * Crash Anywhere (cameo)
 * Crash Bandicoot: Kattobi! Spin World
 * Crash Team Racing
 * Crash Bash (NTSC-J version only)
 * Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
 * Crash Nitro Kart
 * Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage (cameo)
 * Interactive Pachislot Crash Bandicoot
 * Crash Boom Bang!
 * Skylanders: Imaginators
 * Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (cameo)
 * Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
 * Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
 * Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!

Gallery
See: Fake Crash/Gallery

Trivia

 * Fake Crash is one of the two characters that has been evil, good, and neutral, the other being Penta Penguin. He is evil in Crash Team Racing and its remake (as evidenced by Uka Uka being his invincibility mask), Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced while being hypnotized and Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!. He is good in Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced after being free from his hypnotism. He is neutral in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Bash, Crash Boom Bang! and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage. In Thumpin' Wumpa Islands, while he is the main antagonist, he doesn't seem to be evil, and merely entered the Cortex Matrix Chamber out of curiosity, and caused trouble out of stupidity.
 * Fake Crash, originally created by Naughty Dog, was inspired by a cheap Crash toy that originated in Japan, with huge eyebrows and teeth. The team originally called him Trash Bandicoot before settling on Fake Crash.
 * In his original appearance in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Fake Crash's ears were pointed sideways, as opposed to Crash's ears which point further upward. Fake Crash's further appearances until N. Sane Trilogy did not have this distinction.
 * Fake Crash has a more polished in-game kart model in the PAL and JP versions of the original Crash Team Racing compared to the NTSC version.
 * During the beta version of the Crash Team Racing credits, Fake Crash claimed he was the real deal. He appeared in The Jerry Springer Show, where a DNA test was held. It ended when Fake Crash tried to dance and a brawl broke out.
 * As seen in the Japanese Crash Team Racing bonus video, Fake Crash's exercise routine includes jumps, sit-ups, and carrying a pair of giant tires.
 * He is the only playable character in Crash Nitro Kart not to appear in any of the promotional desktops, or adventure mode.
 * This is brought up again in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, where his mumbled speech when winning actually forms coherent sentences like "They said it was impossible!" and "You like me. You really, really like me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
 * In Crash Nitro Kart, if Fake Crash comes 2nd or 3rd in a cup tournament, his legs will clip through the podium. If he is 2nd, his shoes will also clip at the bottom.
 * In Fake Crash's boss fight in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, the music played in the background is similar to the music played in Rings of Power.
 * He was intended to cameo in Crash Twinsanity, where he, along with Crunch, were going to be stranded on a small piece of land near N. Sanity Island. This was cut due to time constraints.
 * If the player listens closely in areas affected by Fake Crash's bad vibes in Thumpin' Wumpa Islands, his faint singing can be heard.
 * On November 18, 2020, the official Crash Bandicoot: On the Run Twitter account was updated to announce Fake Crash's appearance in the game. Changes included renaming the account to Trash Bandicoot: On the Run and all posts having poor grammar, suggesting that Fake Crash had taken over the account. These changes lasted for 24 hours before they were reverted.