Fake Crash, also known as Trash Bandicoot, is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. As his name implies, he looks like an imitation of the original Crash Bandicoot, except with huge, bushy eyebrows, narrowed, demented eyes, a large, round nose and big teeth (which can be either crooked or sharp). He also has a rather goofy voice. Some iterations even depicted him with a green pants rather than a blue one.
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 started calling it "Trash Bandicoot", and later, "Fake Crash".
Biography
Not much is known about Fake Crash. According to Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced though, Crash and Fake Crash are equal in power (if the instantaneous death upon touch and the 4 hitpoints Fake Crash has doesn't count). Fake Crash has a better connection to the Japanese games than the North American ones. In Crash Team Racing, he has a voice slightly lower than Crash's. He also has his own dance just like Crash.
Fake Crash is generally portrayed as rather clueless and dim, yet as capable as Crash when it comes to his physical abilities and skills. He's a mysterious character who tends to show up unexpectedly and usually without much context. At times he's hinted to be trying to upstage Crash, or even to prove that he himself is the real Crash. In Skylanders: Imaginators, his personality is slightly more solidified. He's a lot goofier and is shown to be curious to the point of messing up anything he comes into contact with. A more overtly sinister side of him is shown as well, as he does not hesitate to use the Cortex Matrix Chamber as a deadly weapon against any challengers.
Appearances
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Fake Crash in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
Naughty Dog decided to include Fake Crash as an easter egg in Crash Bandicoot 3: 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, or by holding down L1 and R1 and pressing circle, down, down, up, circle, circle, down, left, and right, in that order, at the main menu. Fake Crash was probably intended to replace Nitros Oxide in unlocking in order to both irritate and humor the gamers because many players thought that Oxide could be unlocked with the purple gem, but instead they unlock Fake Crash with it. 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.
Stats
- Speed: 2/6
- Acceleration: 2/4
- Turning: 3/4
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Crash Bash
Fake Crash appears again as an exclusive secret character of the Japanese version of the game, Crash Bandicoot Carnival. 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. However, this only works in the Japanese version, and in Versus and Tournament modes only. Since he appears in the bottom, it is unknown if he is evil or good in this game, so he's considered neutral. Also, he looks a bit different in appearance, being a simpler edit 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, meaning that he can only be controlled by the player(s).
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
In this game, Fake Crash plays a major role instead of being an extra character and is given somewhat of a context for his presence in the 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. This misdirected the portal and N. Tropy, instead, kidnapped Fake Crash. Coco, Crunch and Fake Crash are hypnotized by N. Trance, with Fake Crash being mistaken for real Crash. Fake Crash later appears as the third boss, confronting Crash in a trap-filled Egyptian tomb. In this boss fight, he has green pants, and 4 hitpoints. 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 pouring lava on him. 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 also 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 in adventure mode as Team Cortex, and off-road on the track Out of Time in the Game Boy Advance version. It has been confirmed that he can't be unlocked in the console version simply by doing 50 boosts inside a hub, such as Velo's Citadel.
Stats:
Console versions
Speed: 2/7
Acceleration: 2/7
Turning: 2/7
Difficulty: Intermediate
GBA version
- Speed: Excellent
- Acceleration: Excellent
- Turning: Good
Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
In Crash Purple he appears in Dragon Castles where in the 2nd pit of the 2nd half he is in chains. When the player talks to him he says nothing. Crash says nothing either. His card will be close by him, and has the Highest card value. He uses the same sprites as his off-road appearance back in CNK GBA.
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, wherein he's included in a reaction shot of the characters watching Crash reach the Super Big Power Crystal. So far, this is the only instance of Fake Crash being playable in a game's main story.
Skylanders: Imaginators
Fake Crash appeared in Skylanders: Imaginators as the main (albeit, unintentional) villain of the Thumpin' Wumpa Islands special level. It is unknown whether or not he is now one of Cortex's minions. 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 bossfight when they attempt to stop him. He uses the chamber as a robotic suit to destroy the heroes on his dangerous dancefloor. Once the player defeats him, the Cortex Matrix Chamber breaks down, putting Fake Crash's destruction of the islands to an end. In this game, he has a more mahogancy red color.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Vicarious Visions decided to include Fake Crash as an easter egg in all three remastered 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 is set to return as a playable character.
Manga
Fake Crash makes an appearance in Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken. Although the character does not physically appear, Cortex disguises himself to be Crash to make Polar tell him where the Power Stone (a crystal) is, and ironically the costume resembles Fake Crash.
Appearances
- Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (cameo)
- Crash Team Racing
- Crash Bash (Japan version only)
- Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
- Crash Nitro Kart
- Crash Twinsanity (scrapped)
- Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
- Crash Boom Bang!
- Skylanders: Imaginators
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (cameo)
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Gallery
See: Fake Crash/Gallery
Trivia
- In Crash Team Racing, Fake Crash and N. Tropy are the only two characters not to have their own race track based on themselves.
- Fake Crash is one of the two characters that has been evil, good, and neutral, the other being Penta Penguin. He is evil in CTR (as evidenced by Uka Uka being his invincibility mask), and Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced while being hypnotized. He is good in Crash Nitro Kart and in N-Tranced after being free from his hypnotism. He is neutral in Crash Bash and Crash Boom Bang!, as there is no proof for what side he's supposed to be on in Bash, and because no playable character is meant to be good or evil in Boom Bang!. He also appears in Crash Purple in a dungeon in Spyro the Dragon's world, presumably captured before Crash and Spyro teamed up. He seems to hold no malice towards Crash in this, so again, is neutral. He is also neutral in Warped because he showed no hostility towards anyone nor did he act as a protagonist in any way. 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.
- Despite being an established character prior to the game, his origins were fully revealed in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced.
- Fake Crash's appearance is noticeably different in both Crash Team Racing and Crash Nitro Kart. In CTR, his character model was not only shorter than Crash, but also had a uni-brow and teeth that covered his entire mouth, although a different model that was later recycled for N-Tranced is seen during his victory dance. He also sounds younger in CTR, sounding around Coco's age, and also speaks in a southern-like drawl. In CTR, all he could do was laugh, while in CNK, he simply spoke Crash's lines replaced with his own accent. In CTR, some players may mistake one of his laughs for the word "Wall," which it isn't. In CNK, however, he went through a drastic overhaul. He now wears green pants, has bigger and bolder eyebrows, abandoning the uni-brow. His eye pupils are also very small, to give him a more menacing look. This however, contradicts any malice in his heart, since he was on Team Bandicoot, and thus, a good character in CNK. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is the first Crash kart racer which features Fake Crash to use the same design as a main series title, as Fake Crash's design is recycled from N. Sane Trilogy.
- In the game Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, though Fake Crash has black eyebrows in cutscenes; his eyebrows are gray in the warp zone. This is presuambly a palette oversight.
- While Fake Crash looks similar to his classic design in N-Tranced, he gained the green pants and wing-shaped eyebrows that would later be used in Crash Nitro Kart.
- Fake Crash is faster in the GBA version of Crash Nitro Kart, as his speed goes from average to excellent.
- The beta version of CTR claimed that Fake Crash thought he was the real deal. According to the beta version, 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.
- Though he appears to be a clone of Crash, N-Tranced implies he's from another dimension.
- 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.
- He is the only playable character in Crash Nitro Kart not to appear in any of the promotional desktops, or adventure mode. Pura appears in a promotional desktop, and has a default race time in lap the trial mode, while N. Tropy appears as a racing ghost, and in several promotional desktops. Velo's true form was revealed at the end of adventure mode, and appears as a racing ghost.
- He only appears in the Japanese version of Crash Bash via cheat code. The reason for this is unknown.
- Fake Crash's in-game origins are unknown, but he was inspired by an unusual-looking Japanese Crash Bandicoot plush that had exaggerated teeth and eyebrows.
- N. Tropy is the only character in the series to mention Fake Crash's name, when he points out in N-Tranced that his partner brainwashed the wrong bandicoot.
- If the player listens closely in areas affected by Fake Crash's bad vibes in Thumpin' Wumpa Islands, the bandicoot's faint singing can be heard.
- Fake Crash is sometimes hinted to be slightly more capable in speech than Crash. This mainly occurs in CNK, which includes an audible "...Me?!" from him upon winning a cup in the console version, as well as a brief spoken introduction by him in text form when he's unlocked in the GBA version. His laughs, yells, and grunts throughout the series strongly imply a US Southern accent, based on their resemblance to "hillbilly" stereotypes and characters such as Disney's Goofy.
- In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, he can be seen cleaning his teeth with a toothpick when idle.
- In his original appearance in 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-kart model in the PAL and JP versions of the original CTR compared to the NTSC version, changed to match his usual appearance more closely.
- He carries a green victory flag, which he can be seen waving triumphantly if he manages to defeat the player in N-Tranced.
- As seen in the Japanese CTR bonus video, Fake Crash's exercise routine includes jumps, sit-ups, and carrying a pair of giant tires.
- 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, this most likely an unfixed glitch.
- In Crash Nitro Kart, Fake Crash has the same idle animation as Crash.
| Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy | ||
| DLC Content | Crash Bandicoot: Stormy Ascent Crash Bandicoot: Warped: Future Tense | |