Crash Bandicoot

This page refers to the main character of the series. Click here for other uses of "Crash Bandicoot".

Crash Bandicoot
First appearance	Crash Bandicoot (1996)
Latest appearance	Crash Team Rumble (2023)
Species	Eastern barred bandicoot
Latest portrayal	Scott Whyte (2020-present)
Additional information...

Crash Bandicoot is the titular main protagonist of the franchise of the same name. He is an anthropomorphic Eastern barred bandicoot living in the Wumpa Islands. After the Cortex Vortex's brainwash process failed, Crash became the arch-nemesis of his own creator, Neo Cortex. However, he is often accompanied by his guardian, his sister and their adopted brother in order to fight against evil.

Appearances

Games

Crash Bandicoot

Crash in Crash Bandicoot

Captured and mutated by Neo Cortex and N. Brio, he alongside Tawna were given human-level sapience and physiology. Intended to be the general of an army of mutant animals, Crash is then put to the test by Cortex in a nine-month training programme, after which he would be sent to the Cortex Vortex for brainwashing. Despite Brio's warnings about the machine not being prepared, Cortex goes through with the process, which fails and allows Crash to escape. He flees Cortex Castle by jumping out of a window and falling down into the ocean, leaving his girlfriend in the hands of the scientists.

He then awakes dazed and lost on the shore of N. Sanity island, determined to save Tawna and stop Cortex's plans of world domination, he set off on a quest to traverse the Wumpa Islands and reach Cortex Castle. Crash soon encounters a witch doctor mask, Aku Aku, who watches over him and protects him from various perils, and would soon grow a close, fatherly bond with Crash.

Throughout Crash's journey, he faces Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Koala Kong and Pinstripe Potoroo until he reaches Cortex Castle, N. Brio was the penultimate enemy to defeat, fought in his chemistry room, he attempted to fight Crash off with his chemical solution, then drinking them, turning himself into a Hulk-like monster. After Crash defeats Brio, a bunsen burner from Brio's chemistry table is knocked over, setting the castle alight, Crash flees through the lab and makes it to The Great Hall, reaching the end of his quest.

Finally, at the end of the journey, Crash faces up against Cortex himself, on the top of Cortex's airship. Cortex, full of rage, curses Crash for ruining his plans, defeating his henchmen and destroying his lair. The two battle on the top of the airship; Cortex fires blasts of plasma at Crash with his ray gun from his hoverboard, only for Crash to deflect the bolts right back at Cortex by spinning them away. Soon Cortex's hoverboard is hit by one plasma blast too many, causing it to explode and send Cortex plummeting toward the ground far below. Crash happily reunites with Tawna on top of the airship and the two share a hug.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

A year after his last encounter with Cortex, Crash is seen relaxing in the woods with his young sister Coco Bandicoot, who wakes him from his nap and asks him to find a new laptop battery for her. Before he can get very far, he is abducted by Neo Cortex to a Warp Room, who claims to have "changed" his ways and asks Crash for help, Cortex asks Crash to gather the twenty-five Crystals to stop a deadly 'Planetary Alignment', which threatens to destroy all life on Earth.

Meanwhile, N. Brio, angry at Cortex for replacing him with Doctor N. Gin, asks Crash to gather the forty-two Gems instead to destroy Cortex's space station and warns Crash that he will do everything in his power to stop him from gathering crystals. As Crash couldn't collect everything on his own, he employed the help of a polar bear cub named Polar, whom he would later adopt as a pet. Coco also hacks into Cortex's communications and is suspicious of Cortex's true plans, every 5 crystals Crash collects grants him access to the platform to take him to the room above. However, Crash must defeat a boss to enter.

After facing off the Ripper Roo, Komodo Brothers, Tiny Tiger, who were all working for N. Brio, and collecting twenty crystals, Cortex warns Crash that Brio is not to be trusted, and instructs him to deliver the crystals to N. Gin. Instead, Crash fights and defeats N. Gin, infuriating Cortex, who demands that Crash bring the crystals directly to him. When Crash collects all twenty-five crystals, Coco exposes Cortex's lies; the planetary alignment was a hoax, and he actually intended to use the crystals to power his new and improved Cortex Vortex to brainwash the entire world.

Crash reaches Cortex, who takes the crystals and attempts to flee by jet pack in space. Crash, being faster with a jet pack of his own, dodges all obstacles in his way and spins Cortex three times, destroying his jet pack and sending him floating off into deep space. Crash returns home to relax on the beach with Coco, who ponders what became of Cortex, pointing out that the Cortex Vortex space station is still operational. Crash finally gathers all 42 gems, which Brio uses to build a powerful laser to destroy the Cortex Vortex, and gives Crash the honors of activating the laser. Along with Brio and Coco, he watches the station explode to pieces.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped

Crash riding the Baby-T in Crash Bandicoot: Warped

Following the destruction of Cortex Vortex by N. Brio's gem-powered laser, the remains of it hurtles into Earth's atmosphere, destroying a temple prison containing a great evil.

Meanwhile, Crash, Aku Aku, Polar and Coco are relaxing at home until Aku Aku hears evil laughter booming, revealing to be Uka Uka, his evil twin brother that he locked away long ago. Uka Uka is allied with Cortex, and the two plan, with the help of Uka Uka's accosiate N. Tropy, to gather the crystals to power a rebuilt Cortex Vortex. Fearing what Uka Uka may do now that he is free, Aku Aku takes Crash and Coco to use N. Tropy's Time Twister Machine to gather the powerful Crystals scattered across time before Cortex does. Crash and Coco gather 5 crystals and Crash outsmarts Tiny Tiger yet again in ancient rome and earns the super belly flop power-up. 10 crystals is enough for Crash to travel to the ice ages and beat Dingodile to earn the Double Jump power-up. While in prehistoric times, Crash rides on the back of a baby T-Rex, whom he would adopt as a pet and name Baby T. Gathering 15 crystals allowed Crash to knockout Tropy and earn the Death Tornado Spin power-up. 20 crystals got Coco (with her new pet tiger Pura's help halfway) to shoot down N. Gin in space and earn the Fruit Bazooka power-up for Crash. After collecting all 25 crystals, Crash and Aku Aku do battle against Cortex and Uka Uka. Crash and Aku Aku come out on top and Crash earns the Speed Shoes power-up.

However, they're not done yet as Cortex and Uka Uka still have a chance to collect the 42 gems and use them in the place of the crystals. After collecting the rest of the gems, Crash and Aku Aku then have a rematch with Cortex and Uka Uka, defeating them for good as the Time-Twister Machine, unable to hold itself together, implodes on itself. Crash and Aku Aku thankfully escape, but Cortex, Uka Uka and N. Tropy are sucked into the wormhole and trapped in the distant past. While Crash, Coco and their respective pets relax around the fire, Aku Aku ruminates on what happened to their enemies.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Crash's appearance in It's About Time

Crash is a primary protagonist in It's About Time. When Aku Aku senses trouble at N. Sanity Peak, he and Crash travel there and meet Lani-Loli, a member of the Quantum Masks. Nearby, they find a quantum rift, a literal hole in space acting as a gate between dimensions. Together Crash, Coco, and other allies travel through these rifts to stop Nefarious Tropy and Neo Cortex from conquering the multiverse. Additionally, Crash's very existence is threatened when Cortex returns to the past to undo his creation. This backfires when, after Cortex's defeat, Crash accidentally breaks a piece of the Cortex Vortex. The Vortex malfunctions with his past self inside, forming a time loop wherein Crash is responsible for his own creation.

Eleven flashback tape levels are exclusive to Crash which delve into his backstory and relationships to other characters. After subjecting Crash to the Evolvo-Ray, Cortex designed a series of harrowing trials to test his aptitude as a mutant soldier, developing a fatherly affection for him in the process. Meanwhile, Nitrus Brio ran his own trials, plotting for Crash to help him betray Cortex. The footage ends soon before Crash's escape at the beginning of Crash Bandicoot.

Crash narrates the 100% ending epilogue, assuring players that he is doing "just fine" following the events of the game.

Other major appearances

Crash in Crash Team Racing

Crash appears as a playable character in Crash Team Racing, in which he drives a blue go kart. He is an All-Rounder racer with equal Turning, Acceleration and Top Speed. Crash has the most normal garage out of the eight Adventure mode racers, where he keeps his kart, some spare tires, and a gas pump. He also uses it as a space to practice his yo-yo tricks.

The beginning starts with people racing for fun at Coco Park, with mysterious cameras watching them. The cameras are revealed to belong to an alien named Nitros Oxide, who announces from his spaceship that he has arrived to challenge the best racer on earth in a game he calls "Survival of the Fastest". If they win, Oxide will leave Earth alone. If they lose, the world will be turned into a concrete parking lot and everyone on Earth will become his slaves. The cutscene goes on to show everyone preparing for the races, but Crash is lazily sleeping in a meadow. In this game, Crash isn't always the main character - while players can choose to race as him in adventure mode, there are 7 other racers to chose from. The chosen racer races through 5 hub worlds, gathering trophies, tokens and keys on the way as they prepare to face off against Oxide. Upon Oxide's defeat, he demands that the chosen racer gather the Time Relics and then race him again in a rematch. After being defeated again, Oxide gives up and reluctantly honors his agreement, leaving Earth and returning to his home planet of Gasmoxia.

The game's epilogue states that Crash sold his life story to a major film studio to be made into a movie titled "The Color Orange", 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.

In The Wrath of Cortex. Crash, Coco, Aku Aku and Pura are having a day on the beach, with Crash wakeboarding behind Coco's jetski. Aku Aku is taking in some sun, Pura is building a sand castle. Suddenly, their day is disturbed by natural disasters; a volcanic eruption, a landslide, a storm and a tidal wave occur all at once. Crash and Coco are caught in the tsunami, sending them crashing to the shore where Aku Aku and Pure were. Aku Aku deduces that Uka Uka must be behind these attacks. He goes to the Hyperspace Temple to confront his brother. There, Uka Uka shows Aku Aku that he has awoken the Elementals, four powerful masks, each one controlling one of the four elements. Aku Aku protests, saying that the elementals are too strong to be contained, but is attacked by the Elementals and is forced to escape. Back in Bandicoot house, Aku Aku tells Crash and Coco about this terrible menace. He then asks Coco about her VR Hub 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 crystals. If five crystals are together, an elemental mask could be put back in a state of hibernation. Coco confirms the device is ready to use, and the gang uses it to gather the crystals.

Cortex reveals himself to Crash via hologram and introduces him to his newest creation, a super bandicoot named Crunch, who will use the powers to each Elemental mask to make himself stronger. Crash and Coco work together to gather 20 crystals, defeating each Elemental mask in turn. Finally, once Crash gathers all 25 crystals, he arrives at Cortex's space station to take him down. Crunch harnesses the power of all four elements at once, but it isn't enough to stop Crash. Cortex is enraged by his defeat, but Uka Uka points out that Crash doesn't yet have the gems, which they could use as an alternate power source. After gathering the gems, Crash returns to take Cortex and Crunch down for good. After being knocked down for the last time, Crunch snaps out of his brainwashing, and expresses anger at Cortex for controlling him. Meanwhile, Uka Uka is furious at Cortex for failing him yet again, and shoots a beam of energy at the scientist. Cortex dodges, which causes the beam to hit a vital part space station's machinery, setting it to self-destruct. Crash and Aku Aku flee to a hangar, agreeing to take Crunch with them. Coco arrives in her space ship, and takes the three of them safely back to Earth before the Space Station explodes.

Crash in Crash Nitro Kart

Crash is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart, in which he is in Team Bandicoot along with Coco, Crunch and Fake Crash. In the story, he is abducted along with other characters by Emperor Velo XXVII, who forces them to compete in his Galactic Circuit, threatening to destroy Earth if they refuse. In the Team Bandicoot route, Crash, Coco and Crunch race their way through the circuit, facing bosses along the way, with Crash ususally making peace with each boss racer after defeating them. When Velo is defeated and relinquishes his power to Crash, Crash seriously considers the possibility of ruling over Velo's empire, but decides to turn Velo down after realising how boring it would be and leaves him with his empire, instead deciding to go home with his family and relax on the beach.

Crash in Crash Twinsanity

In Twinsanity, after Crash got Cortex stranded on an iceberg. He's digging on the beach while Coco is playing with a butterfly until Cortex shows up and paralyzes her with his gun. He then disguises himself as Coco and lures Crash to the bay. Once there, Cortex takes off the disguise and lectures Crash for what he did, revealing that multiple of his minions are there to threaten Crash. Cortex then fights with Crash, but Crash easily defeats him. Upping the ante, Cortex sends in a colossal mech piloted by N. Gin, Mecha-Bandicoot, to crush Crash. Crash reflects the Mecha-Bandicoot's blasts by spinning to destroy it, which results in the robot exploding. The explosion causes Cortex to lose control of his hover board and bump into Crash, knocking them both into the pit opened up by Mecha-Bandicoot. Infuriated, Cortex lunges at Crash and the two begin to brawl, rolling deeper into the mines where they eventually find a power crystal. Cortex tries to keep the crystal to himself, but Crash is sent into a daze by the crystal and tries to take it from him. Crash ends up pulling Cortex along by the crystal until the two of them escape the mines, where they are confronted by the Evil Twins, who threaten to destroy the Wumpa Islands. Cortex flees in fear after the Twins remove his brain from his head, and is briefly chased by some bees when Crash catches up to him before being captured by Papu Papu and his tribesmen. Crash goes to free Cortex from them, collecting two crystals along the way. After a brief altercation with an emu farmer, Crash and Cortex come face to face with the Totem god, who is brought back to life by the Evil Twins. Crash defeats the Totem God by throwing Cortex in its mouth. When Cortex realises that the twins mentioned being from the Tenth Dimension, he gets an idea and tells Crash to follow him to his Iceberg Lab.

With the help of a Tribesman's boat, they travel to the Iceberg Lab. The front door of the lab is locked and the button to open won't work, so Cortex directs Crash into a cave towards a side entrance. Here they find yet another crystal, and also find Uka Uka frozen in ice. Uka Uka attacks Crash and Cortex by making himself a body out of ice. He tries to flee after being defeated, but Aku Aku convinces him to join them instead. After taking care of a brief ambush courtesy of the Twins, Crash and Cortex formally agree to work together. Cortex shows Crash to the heart of the lab and unveils his latest invention, the Psychetron. He explains to Crash that they'll use this machine to confront and defeat the Evil Twins in their dimension, but they're short on power crystals. After a brief diversion down the mountain and into N. Gin's battleship looking for crystals, the two triumphantly return, only for Coco to appear and attack Cortex, believing that he had kidnapped Crash. Cortex is knocked into the Psychetron's console, damaging the machine which zaps Coco, paralyzing her again.

Crash and Cortex set off for the Academy of Evil at Cortex's insistance that his neice, Nina, is the only one that can fix the psychetron. On the way, Crash bumps into Dingodile in the school's boiler. Dingodile attacks him, having heard about the Evil Twins' treasure and wanting to take it for himself. Crash manages to defeat Dingodile and proceeds through the school with Cortex to find Nina. They successfully find her and return to the Iceberg Lab with two more crystals under their belt, and finally activate the Psychetron and transport themselves to the Tenth Dimension. As soon as they arrive, Evil Crash appears and kidnaps Nina. Crash and Cortex give chase, and eventually find Evil Crash and Nina at his house. Cortex demands that Evil Crash let Nina go, which only results in Evil Crash attempting to catch Cortex as well. Crash follows after them to save Cortex, and they eventually manage to give Crash's doppelganger the slip near the front doorstep of the Evil Twins' lair. Crash, Cortex and Nina enter the compound, and after making their way past the obstacles set before them, finally confront the Twins in their throne room. The Evil Twins use their Deathbot to attack the three of them, but they successfully fight back, with Crash piloting the Mecha-Bandicoot to deliver the final blow.

With the Twins defeated, the gang returns to the Iceberg Lab. With their goal achieved and fed up after being thrown around by Crash all day, Cortex attempts to use the Psychetron to get rid of Crash for good, only for the machine to malfunction again, sucking up Cortex and despositing him inside Crash's brain.

Crash in 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 that one can find located around the game called Die-O-Ramas, which consists of Crash getting killed in multiple different ways. Such as being eaten, blown up, and many more.

Crash in Crash of the Titans

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. Unfortunately, Coco was still in captivity. 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, frees Coco who then hugs him and, with the help of her part, which Crash kept in his pants all the time, averts the destruction of Wumpa Island. Feeling happy for themselves, Crash and his family decide to celebrate their victory with pancakes. This causes him to blurt out "PANCAKES!" in joy, making Coco and Crunch look at him oddly, as he almost never speaks.

Crash in Crash: Mind Over Mutant

In Mind Over Mutant, after 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 introduces their new project to Uka Uka: The NV.

Meanwhile, one year after the events of Crash of the Titans, Coco is messing with the now destroyed Doominator, which happens to be laying over half the island. She tries to get the screen on its eye working and asks Crash to go and get her some parts. When he finally gets the parts, she turns the eye into a giant TV and Crunch sees a commercial for the NV on it. 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 tries to figure out why, but the two are confronted by N. Gin, who was spying on them, and follow him to his observatory. 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 reappears in the N. Sane Trilogy, reprising his roles from the original three games. There are no significant changes to his portrayal, aside from some added Idle animations. Coco is now optionally playable in Crash's place in most levels in the trilogy.

Crash of course retains his status as a playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. His epilogue remains the same, except that now it says that The Color Orange will be released for "the holidays" rather than "the Christmas season".

Baby Crash, as he appears in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

This game also marks the debut (outside of the DS version of Crash of the Titans) of Baby Crash, an infant version of Crash, who is available alongside Baby Coco and Baby T during the Back N. Time Grand Prix. In a similar manner to Cortex and N. Tropy at the end of Warped, the premise of this Grand Prix explained that Crash and Coco were transformed into babies after Fake Crash stole and altered time with N. Tropy's staff. Unlike the more grown-up Crash, Baby Crash is a Turning-specialized character in the Beginner class. Baby Crash is bought in the game's Pit Stop as a Character Bundle for 3375 Wumpa Coins, which further includes a Baby Crash sticker, a Pastel paint job, and a "Bedtime" decal for the "Nostalginator."

Crash features as a playable character in Crash Team Rumble. He is in the Scorer role, which makes a Crash player's main goal collecting Wumpa Fruit and depositing them in their team's bank. His playstyle is largely the same as in It's About Time, with a few key adjustments made and new moves added to suit the game.

Crash Team Rumble attributes
Health: 3.5/5 Capacity: 5/5 Combat: 3/5 Mobility: 3/5 Difficulty: 2/5 Playstyle: Scorer
PS4/5 Controls	XBox One/S Controls	Move
	A	Jump "It's Jump! Press it again to double jump."
, ,	X, X, X	Triple Spin "A spinning attack that can be comboed up to three times. Chaining spins together makes Crash move faster. A favorite with speed runners!"
	RT	Slide "Slide into an enemy to send them flying. Spinning at the right moment during a Slide will combine the two moves! It's a secret - don't tell anyone I told you."
,	A, RT	Air-Dash "Dash forward, dealing damage to Enemies in the way. The Air-Dash can hit enemies in midair, but is a little weaker than the Slide."
	B	Slam "Slam flattens enemies leaving them in a flattened state for a short period. Enemies are vulnerable while flattened. You can jump-cancel out of a Slam to gain a little extra air."
,	B, B	Super Slam "Hits harder than the regular Slam and causes a larger AOE shockwave on impact. You can't jump-cancel out of Super Slams; they require commitment."

Spin-off titles/other games

In Crash Bandicoot 99X. Crash, in search of adventure, went to visit a villa that was said to be full of treasures, but protected by supernatural beings. The owner of the mansion, Mr. Crumb, was an evil, rich and stingy man without any friends. On his deathbed, to protect his treasure, he summoned an army of monsters and turned himself into a ghost. Crash, followed by Aku Aku, ventured into Crumb's haunted estate. He ventured to the crypt, where he defeated the first of Mr. Crumb's henchmen, Grumbler the Mummy. He later visited a dark forest, defeating Thorn Thing, a living tree. Then Crash fought Digger, a living skeleton, in the catacombs. Finally, Crash entered Mr. Crumb's mansion, and after several obstacles he could finally meet the ghost himself. Once he confronted and defeated Mr. Crumb, Crash found his legendary and immense treasure.

In Crash Bash, Crash was peacefully sleeping under a tree, only to be abducted and taken to the Hyperspace Temple where Aku Aku and Uka Uka hold their "discussions." There, Uka Uka tells him and Cortex that the masks have decided to engage in a competition to resolve the trouble between them and prove whether good or evil is superior. Aku Aku and Uka Uka can't fight against each other because the Ancients would not have allowed it, so both masks bring their players to the temple and begin the games. Crash and his sister Coco are the only people Aku Aku summons, while Uka Uka summons 6 contestants, so Aku Aku demands to take Dingodile and Tiny to join his team instead. Crash, along with his friends and foes, competes in games to gain Trophies, Crystals and Gems, necessary to bring the victory to Aku Aku or Uka Uka. Crash does not appear after his victory in the good ending. In the evil ending, after Uka Uka obtains the crystals, and with them, ultimate power, Aku Aku warns Crash and Coco to run and hide to save themselves.

Crash Bandicoot's promotional 3D model from Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure

In The Huge Adventure. Crash and Coco are in their house, and suddenly, they see the face of Cortex covering the sky. They learn from Aku Aku that Cortex created a device known as the Planetary Minimizer, which he used to shrink the planet to the size of a Wumpa Fruit. Coco says she may be able to make a machine to reverse the minimizer's effects, but she will need Crash to go and gather crystals in order to power it.

After gathering the crystals and fighting through Cortex's minions, Crash finally reaches the Cortex's base, defeating him and damaging the Planetary Minimizer in the process. Crash returns back home, but Aku Aku warns that Cortex is still a threat. He advises Crash to collect the gems and relics in order to permanantly destroy the Planetary Minimizer. After Crash fights Cortex again and destroys the minimizer for good, a bolt of electricity fires out of the machine and hits Cortex, N. Gin, Tiny and Dingodile, fusing them together into a hideous monster known as Mega-Mix. The invincible monstrosity chases Crash throughout the base, and Crash is able to escape on a space motorbike. The Planetary Minimizer finally explodes, taking the space station down with it. Mega-Mix splits apart, and their compontants manage to escape the explosion in an escape pod.

In N-Tranced. Sometime after the events of The Huge Adventure, Crash is sleeping outside his house, while Coco is using her laptop and Crunch is lifting weights. Suddenly, Coco and Crunch get sucked into a wormhole. Aku Aku wakes up Crash and sends him off to investigate what's happening by finding a crystal. Crash is then sucked into a wormhole made by N. Tropy, who struggles as Aku Aku is pulling him from the other end. Aku Aku successfully prevents N. Tropy from taking Crash, which somehow results in Fake Crash appearing in his place, who N. Tropy mistakes for the real Crash. N. Tropy employs the assistance of his friend N. Trance, who hypnotises the three kidnapped bandicoots to do Uka Uka and N. Tropy's bidding.

Travelling through space and time and collecting crystals as he goes, Crash takes on Crunch, Coco and Fake Crash in turn, knocking some sense into them and snapping them out of their hypnosis. Fake Crash agrees to help Crash after being freed. N. Tropy sees this and angrily scolds N. Trance for failing to hypnotize the real Crash, but N. Trance reassures him that they'll never find their secret base. Finally, Crash collects all 21 crystals so he and Aku Aku can confront N. Tropy at his secret base. Infuriated, N. Trance duels with Crash. Fake Crash aids in the fight by pouring lava on N. Trance after Crash lures him over in his copter pack.

Humiliated at N. Trance's defeat, N. Tropy teleports away. But once Crash has collected all the gem shards, he went after him and battled him, warping through space. With N. Tropy defeated, Fake Crash takes a photo of Crash, Aku Aku, Coco, Crunch and the captured N. Tropy.

Crash and Spyro together

In Ripto's Rampage. When strange dragon-like creatures start wreaking havoc in Wumpa Jungle, Aku Aku calls on Crash to stop them and figure out what's going on. Eventually, they find a small but brave dragon called Spyro, whose appearance is like the monsters. Spyro and Crash fight each other, but eventually they realize they've been tricked. In fact, Spyro had traveled to N. Sanity Island following the path of strange bandicoot-esque monsters that looked like Crash. Crash and Spyro deduce that their most feared foes, Cortex and Ripto have teamed up, disguising Ripto's Riptoc minions as Crash and Spyro to fool the two heroes into attacking eachother. Crash and Spyro agree to team up to stop whatever it is their enemies are planning. Coco and the Professor form a plan, and need Power Crystals to open a portal to the enemy's base. Crash and Spyro split up to to gather crystals, and Crash and faces Tiny Tiger in a tank duel in the South Pole. Later, Crash and Spyro join forces in order to beat Nina Cortex, who has kidnapped Coco and the Professor and destroyed their research.

Finally, Crash and Spyro have gathered all of the crystals and the bandicoot faces Ripto in aerial combat, and the foe is defeated. Crash is supposed to place a tracking device on Ripto as instructed by Coco, but he forgets. Luckily, Spyro had been fighting Cortex and had placed a tracer on him. Professor inform Crash and Spyro that they need 20 clear gems to reach the base, which Crash collects. Crash and Spyro soon 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 Bandicoot in 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.

Crash Bandicoot in Skylanders: Imaginators

Crash appears in Skylanders: Imaginators as a Life-elemental Sensei. This marks his debut in the Skylanders franchise and his return in a game after a six-year hiatus. He is available in the Crash Edition Starter Packs of the game as well the Thumpin' Wumpa Islands expansion pack. Crash also has his own story, which is set in 2016, twenty years after the events of the first game. Once every twenty years, the Wumpa Islands archipelago are involved in the Synchronization Celebration, during which the islands bounce to the beat of sonic waves they emit. Cortex has an evil plan, but his machine goes haywire because of Fake Crash and causes troubles.

Crash is the main playable character alongside his sister Coco in the mobile game, On the Run!. Upon hearing about Cortex's plans to take over the entire multiverse, Crash decides to spring into action, send his enemies back to their own universes with the help of Coco's portal weapons and restore peace and balance to the multiverse itself.

Other media

The manga loosely follows the plot of the first game. After escaping Cortex Castle, Crash washes up on the shore of N. Sanity Island. Aku Aku discovers the bandicoot and wakes him up, and the two agree to work together to stop Cortex from conquering the world and to save Crash's girlfriend, Tawna. The two run into many perils in the jungles of N. Sanity Island, and end up getting into a fight with Papu Papu after accidentally getting launched into his hut and landing on top of him. After they defeat him, Papu Papu points Crash and Aku Aku in the direction of Cortex Island. After they get there and fight their way past Cortex's robots, Crash frees Tawna, but is confronted by Cortex and N. Brio. After defeating N. Brio, Crash tries to fight Cortex, only for N. Brio to press the self-destruct button, causing the castle to begin to collapse. Crash urges Tawna and Aku Aku to leave, and continues to distract Cortex by attacking him as the castle caves in on them. Tawna cries out, thinking that Crash was crushed, but thankfully he and Cortex emerge from the rubble completely unharmed shortly after. They're now more interested in fashion than fighting, however.

In this loose manga adaptation of the second game, Crash predictably serves as the main character. After Tawna leaves him for Pinstripe, Crash decides that he must stop being lazy and become a true hero so he can become "irresistable". After Cortex kidnaps him and convinces him that he needs to collect Power Stones in order to prevent the destruction of the planet, Crash sets out on an adventure to collect as many power stones as he can, with Aku Aku and Cortex joining him on his quest. The manga plays up the "stupid" part of Crash's personality, to the point where he can be a little rude and inconsiderate at times. He is extremely gullible, believing Cortex's lies immediately, but he can be pretty incompetent when it comes to actually following orders. He is also obsessed with food, and would do anything for apples. Crash travels far and wide over the course of the manga, visiting places from the steamy jungle to the freezing Antarctic, and meeting characters both familiar and new. He makes two new friends on his journey, in the form of Penta Penguin and Rihu the monkey, who return to help him in the final chapter. Crash only ends up collecting four out of twenty-five crystals throughout the manga, which are lost in the final chapter. The manga ends on a cliffhanger which was never continued.

Crash appears near the end of episode ten of Skylanders Academy's first season. Episode eleven, titled Crash Landing, is centered around the Skylanders helping Crash find a way back home. In this continuity, Crash speaks fluent English with an Australian accent and has different personality, calling himself a "lone world" and having a habit of calling whatever he does "extreme".

He reappears in the season three episodes, Days of Future Crash, as well as the finale Raiders of the Lost Arkus, Part II, this time joined by Coco.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Crash generally appears as an orange anthropomorphic bandicoot with a black nose, thick eyebrows, green eyes and reddish-brown hair on his head, styled into a typical Mohawk. He has a yellow-orange colored stomach and a peach muzzle (In Twinsanity onward until the N. Sane Trilogy, his stomach and muzzle were the same, whitish peach color). Up until Twinsanity before the N. Sane Trilogy, he had spots on his back that was of the color of his stomach. Crash's main attire consists of a pair of blue denim jeans (which gained metal plates on the knees in Twinsanity). He appears to have changed to board shorts in the N. Sane Trilogy as they now have strings, and lack any definite denim textures. He also wears pink boxers with red hearts on them (Or white boxers with red hearts depending on the game), and a pair of high-top shoes with white soles and laces. He has been known to don other attires when needed, such as scuba diving gear, a biker's jacket, and numerous others.

Crash can also be seen with fingerless gloves almost always except for Crash of the Titans, Nitro Kart 3D, Mind Over Mutant and Mutant Island. In "Crash of the Titans" (except for GBA and Mobile), he had no gloves to reveal black tribal tattoos on his hands, which were replaced with cinnamon watermarked tattoos in "Mind Over Mutant." The tattoos do not appear in "Nitro Kart 3D" and "Mutant Island" which resembles him without tattoos and gloves make him go bare hands. His head is significantly smaller in Crash Tag Team Racing.

Crash's fingerless gloves differ slightly across the promotional/cover art. In the art for Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash, the gloves are cut at the knuckles, making all of his fingers emerge from one large hole instead of individual holes for his fingers. In most of the later games, the gloves have individual finger holes, and are cut off after the first joint. Cortex Strikes Back and The Wrath of Cortex varies between these two different glove types for its art. The number of fingers Crash has in the promotional art also varies, although he is mostly depicted with three fingers and a thumb in-game, with exceptions such as Twinsanity, for example, where he has four fingers.

As a baby in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Crash has a larger head, nose and eyebrows, his shorts are turned into a diaper with a drawstring outside around his waist, and he has two buck teeth and sucks on a blue pacifier. He retains his gloves and shoes.

Personality

Naughty Dog once referenced the development of Crash as a character both "goofy yet heroic," and being able to portray it well. Originally, however, he took the role of a silent protagonist and thus expressed little of his personality or opinions (a trait developer Jason Rubin later claimed to regret), though in later games he has played a larger role.

Crash's personality is hard to pinpoint, sometimes varying from game to game. Throughout the series, he has always been shown to be willing to help and is very attentive to others. But overall, he has a rather wacky, cartoonish personality; in simple terms, he is a tornado. His demented behavior was in fact extended to actual sadism/masochism in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which he took pleasure in torturing innocent animals, park drones, and even himself. Despite this however, Crash is usually kindhearted, altruistic, humble and laid back. He is not known for his anger; even towards his greatest enemies he rarely maintains a great deal of contempt or grudge. Threatening his little sister seems to be among one of very few ways of setting off his aggression. Beware his appetite, however, as he is very protective of his Wumpa Fruit, his favorite food.

Crash is a very emotional character who is quick to laugh and 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 the credits of Twinsanity when he has to catch Cortex. He is also fairly oblivious to his surroundings but this could be because of his muteness. As shown in Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash seems to be somewhat impulsive; as demonstrated in Die-o-Ramas, Crash spins a tree, making it fall and crush him, stands on railings with gears behind him, and spins dangerous equipment.

Crash's intelligence level was something of a question since he is mute and Aku Aku even made a comment that brain damage was "not much of a danger to Crash.", and he was often defined as stupid or dull-witted. 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, like Tiny or N. Tropy, or drive several vehicles, like jeeps, motorcycles, cars and planes, and manipulate some machines, robots and titans Things he does that seem dumb could best be attributed to his obviously impulsive nature. His muteness never seems to cause him trouble, since Aku Aku and Coco can understand him anyway. His sense of right and wrong is also intact, as he helps out those in need.

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 GBA version, this was extended to "Pancakes? I thought you'd never ask!"). 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 carries fleas. He also loves Wumpa fruit as it is the main collectible in most games, and other products derived from it.

Behind-the-scenes information

Creation and early development

Original design sketches by Charles Zembillas

Joe Pearson sketch which became the basis for Crash's final design

Crash was originally designed by Charles Zembillas and Jason Rubin, and his original name was Willy the Wombat (alternatively spelt Willie). After rejected pushes from Universal Interactive Studios to name the character something more "family-friendly", such as "Wez", "Wuzzles" or "Wizzie the Wombat", Naughty Dog decided to name him "Crash" after his tendency to break crates, along with shuffling the species of a few characters to accommodate for Crash's recently-decided name. In the end, the character Pinstripe's species (along that of with his goons) was changed from bandicoot to potoroo, and Crash's from wombat to bandicoot, though no design changes were made to either.

Some of the Crash's early concept arts made by Butch Hartman

Crash's design and personality went through a number of changes during development. In a YouTube video posted in July 2018, animator Butch Hartman revealed that he was one of numerous artists contacted in 1994 to create own designs for Crash's prototype, Willy, during his time at Hanna-Barbera. This version of Willy had a small, round body, though elements of inspiration of Crash's final self could already be seen. In addition, according to The Crash Bandicoot Files, Crash was originally planned to constantly impersonate other famous pop-cultural icons, similar to his portrayal in the first game's US commercials. One of Crash's concept designs by Charles Zembillas had him wear a black mask, making him resemble Zorro.

Crash was purposely designed with no neck to make his design simpler and take fewer polygons to render. He is the only Bandicoot in the series to be designed in such a way, with other bandicoot characters such as Coco, Crunch and Tawna having far more human-shaped anatomy. One of Crash's early designs also had a tail which was cut due to the limitations of the PlayStation. In real life, bandicoots have long hairless tails.

Trivia

• According to Charles Zembillas, Crash was the most difficult character to draw.
• According to Crash's character profile in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! is described that he loves wumpa, yo-yos, pancakes and running and he hates Doctor Neo Cortex, TNT crates, Nitro crates and falls.
• As revealed by Cortex in the flashback tapes in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time:
  • The shorts he wears belonged to Cortex and were handed down to him.
  • His birthday, as chosen by Cortex, is July 19th.
• Crash's design is different in Japan, having had his teeth made smaller and his eyes bigger (with Pac-Man eyes) to appeal better to the Japanese market. This design is included as a secret costume in Crash Tag Team Racing, as well as being featured in Crash Boom Bang, a Japanese developed title.
• In Japanese versions of many games, Crash is able to speak, though he still doesn't speak very often and only does so in short and simple phrases.
  • Crash can speak full, fluent sentences in all three official manga adaptations; Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot: Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken and Crash Bandicoot: Kattobi! Spin World . This happens again in his appearances in the Skylanders Academy episodes "The Skylands Are Falling!", "Crash Landing", "Days of Future Crash", and "Raiders of the Lost Arkus, Part 2" and also in the 100% ending of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
• In Chinese localizations, Crash is no longer a bandicoot; in the Traditional Chinese localization of On the Run! he is called a thylacine (袋狼), while in the Simplified Chinese version he is called a wolf (狼). This change affects all bandicoot characters in the game. The reason for this change is unknown, and does not occur in any other localization.
• Crash has been confirmed to be one of the most popular western video game protagonists in Japan.
• At the time of its initial release, the character was considered the "unofficial mascot" of Sony, rivaling Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic.
• During 2007, Crash had been crowned as a symbolic mascot for the School and Youth Programs, as a part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
• In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011, Crash was voted as the eleventh best video game character.
• Although not being an official character in the game, according to statics, Crash, along with Cortex had been the most requested IP's in the All-Stars Battle Royale franchise by Sony.
• In real life, eastern barred bandicoots have stripes on their back, hence their name.

Names In Other Languages

• Crash Bandicoot

Language	Name
Arabic	كراش بانديكوت kirash bandikut
Traditional Chinese	袋狼阿克 Dài láng ā kè
Simplified Chinese	古惑狼 Gǔ huò láng
Japanese	クラッシュ・バンディクー Kurasshu bandikū
Korean	크래쉬 밴디쿳 keulaeswi baendikus
Russian	Крэш Бандикут Krėsh Bandikut
Thai	แครช แบนดิคู้ต Khærch bæn di khū̂ t

• Baby Crash

Language	Name
Arabic	الطفل كراش altifl karash
French	Bébé Crash
Japanese	ベイビー・クラッシュ Beibī kurasshu
Spanish	Crash Bebé

Gallery

Main article: Crash Bandicoot/Gallery

Crash and Tawna celebrating in the end of Crash Bandicoot

Artwork of Crash and Tawna behind Cortex Castle.

Crash Boom Bang! showing Crash, Coco and Aku Aku.

Crash and Aku Aku as seen in Crash Twinsanity.

References

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
DLC Content	Crash Bandicoot: Stormy Ascent Crash Bandicoot: Warped: Future Tense