Polar

Polar is a polar bear cub and Crash Bandicoot's pet. He usually helps Crash get through snowy environments, though he also offers assistance in other ways. When he's not helping Crash, he enjoys kart racing with him and his friends.
==Appearances==
===Games===
====Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back====
In Cortex Strikes Back, Polar makes his first appearance in the snow-themed warp room. If the player jumps on Polar for the first time since entering the warp room, the player will eventually get an extra 10 lives. Polar also appears as Crash's transportation in the levels Bear It (level 8), Bear Down (level 13), and secret level, Totally Bear (level 26). He also appears in the last quarter of Un-Bearable (level 15), where Crash must ride him to get away from a much bigger polar bear. After the adventure, Crash took Polar in as a pet off-screen.
====Crash Team Racing====
Polar is a playable character in CTR. His home track is Polar Pass. Along with Pura and Ripper Roo, his best stat is handling, and as such, he is classified as a character for beginners. He is one of the eight starter characters, and can be chosen as the player's character in the Adventure mode where Aku Aku is his tutor. Polar's personal garage is a small ice cave, where he keeps his kart, a couple crates, and a few books. In the opening cut-scene he can be seen in his kart, reading a book called "How to Drive" upside down. In the epilogue, it is revealed that he becomes a taste tester for an unnamed leading ice cream company. Being a bear, he only approves fish-related ice cream flavors. 
=====Stats=====
====Other major appearances====
In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Polar only appears in the opening cutscene where he gets woken up from sleep hearing Uka Uka's evil laugh. He then appears in the lounge of the Bandicoot House listening to Aku Aku's story about his history with Uka Uka. Polar for some reason is seen running out when Aku Aku, Crash and Coco are heading to the Time Twister, but he gets left behind and he looks slightly frustrated at this. His final appearance is in the true ending where he is seen in the lounge next to Crash again with everyone, including new fellow pets Pura and Baby T.
In Crash Bash, polar bears that appear identical to Polar are ridden in the Polar Push mini-games. There are several of these bears, however, it is unconfirmed if any of these bears are actually Polar. It is believed that he is the polar bear that appeared in one of the promotional artworks of Crash Bash where he is being ridden on by Coco.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Crash rides Polar in the middle sections of Frostbite Cavern, Snow Crash and Snow Job, while being chased by a yeti.
In Crash Nitro Kart, Polar was brainwashed by N. Trance, along with Dingodile and Pura, into racing for Team Trance. These events were never shown in cutscenes, and are revealed in the Crash Nitro Kart Instruction Booklet and the Official Crash Nitro Kart Website (which is no longer active). However, in the Team Bandicoot ending, he is shown relaxing on the beach with Crash, Coco and Crunch, revealing that he eventually escaped his brainwashing, as he does not have the hat on anymore and looks happy to be with the bandicoots. Similar to Crash Team Racing, Polar excels in handling. He can be unlocked by winning the Blue Gem Cup, and has good turning like Coco, N. Gin, Zam and Pura.
=====Stats=====
Console	GBA/N-Gage
 	
Polar appears in the remake of the second game for the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy where he reprises his role from the original versions of the second and third games.
Polar retains his same role and stats in the remake of CTR, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. In his epilogue, he still becomes a head flavor scientist for a leading ice cream company, but his most notable flavor to date, aside from the previous three flavors, is the Tuna Spumoni.
=====Stats=====
====Minor appearances====
Polar makes an appearance in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, with Crash riding on him in several of the levels. Polar also helps Crash escape from Nina during her boss fight. There is also a Polar Trading Card.
In Crash Twinsanity, he is seen at Cortex's gathering of villains at the beginning of the game, holding a baseball bat with an angry look on his face.
In Crash Boom Bang!, Polar makes a cameo as part of the Silhouette Quiz minigame. He is shown as an anthropomorphic and wearing jean shorts, similar to Pura's new look.
Polar appears as a playable racer in Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D. He drives the Der Pickle kart from Crash Tag Team Racing. He was unlocked by updating the game via the App Store; as the game is no longer listed, let alone updated, he is now unobtainable for new players.
In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Polar is seen in the level Bears Repeating and its alternate timeline level Building Bridges, in his normal role of acting as a mount for Crash (or Coco).
While Polar himself doesn't physically appear in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, a Polar-themed skin for Crash was added in Season 5: 25th Anniversary!.
Polar has a small cameo in Crash Team Rumble, appearing on the Frosty Friends banner added in Season 3.
===Other media===
====Crash Bandicoot: Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken====
Polar appears in chapter 7, Panic at the Snow Mountain!!. When Crash and Cortex are searching for a Power Stone on a snowy mountain, Polar gets scared by Cortex rampaging around and hides behind Crash. Crash stops Cortex from hitting Polar, so Polar introduces himself and promises to show Crash where a power stone is. Polar runs too fast and ends up leaving Crash behind. Cortex disguises himself as Crash to try to get Polar to show him where the stone is instead, but Polar sees right through the disguise and bites him on the arm. Cortex throws Polar to the ground, which draws the attention of Polar's father, who furiously chases after Cortex, mistaking him for Crash due to his disguise. After Polar's father mistakenly attacks the real Crash and learns the truth, Polar's father reunites with his son and apologises to Crash for hurting him. Polar tells his father to give Crash the power stones, but it turns out that the "power stones" Polar was talking about was just rock candy.
Polar has cameo appearances in three other chapters. Crash is cuddling with a teddy bear that looks a lot like Polar in the first chapter, I'm the Hero!. A polar bear cub that closely resembles Polar can be seen printed on a cardboard box in chapter 5, Furious Ripper!. Polar also inexplicably appears for a single panel in the final chapter, GO! To Outer Space on a JetPack!, when Crash is preparing to go to space and tries to ride on Polar's back, despite Polar not being present before or after.
==Characteristics==
===Physical description===
Polar is a small off-white polar bear cub with large, sparkling black eyes. He has a black nose and black paw pads. While on his kart in CTR, his paw pads are pink instead. In CNK, his eyes are changed to a gray-green color, his nose is made gray, he has grayish markings around his face and he wears one of N. Trance's helmets. In Twinsanity he returns to his original design, aside from the insides of his ears being pink. In the N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled, the insides of his ears are light gray and he now has blue eyes. The gray markings have also returned to his face.
In Boom Bang! his design is noticeably different, in that he's now anthropomorphic. He wears blue denim shorts, and the insides of his ears are pink once again. He's also a much brighter shade of white than usual.
===Personality===
Being a regular, non-mutated polar bear cub, Polar usually isn't portrayed as being sapient, and usually has a similar level of intelligence as a domestic dog. He is usually portrayed as cute and innocent, though he can be more aggressive at times, shown during his cameo in Twinsanity, his frustration at being left behind in Warped, and with his Rustland skin in Nitro-Fueled.
==Behind-the-scenes information==
===Trivia===
*In the beta version of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Polar used to say "nyeh" instead of barking like a dog.
*In an interview with Naughty Dog's vice president, Evan Wells, he revealed that Polar and Pura were originally planned to share a kart in Crash Team Racing. "Over the course of development a lot of things change ... Originally we were going to try to have Pura and Polar be just one character; they were going to ride in one kart together, but again because of memory limitations, we couldn't actually get both of them in one kart." They were eventually made separate due to the limitations of the PlayStation.
==Additional information==
==Gallery==
See: Polar/Gallery
Crash and polar.png|Promotional artwork of Crash and Polar for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
667565-crash3hintguidehut super.jpg|Polar in promotional artwork for Crash Bandicoot: Warped.
Polarkart.png|Promotional artwork of Polar for CTR: Crash Team Racing.
Polar Pass.jpg|Polar racing on his home track, Polar Pass, in a promotional image for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
IAT polar ride promo.jpg|Promotional image of Crash riding Polar for Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
==References==
==See also==
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ja:ポーラ
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ru:Полар
Category:Crash Bandicoot: Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken
Category:Crash Bandicoot: Kattobi! Spin World
Category:Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
Category:Crash Boom Bang!
Category:Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Category:Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Category:Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Category:Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
Category:Characters
Category:Team Trance
Category:Playable Characters
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Category:Character Cameos
Category:Protagonists
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Category:Crash Team Rumble