Aku Aku

Ooga Boogah!

*"It is I, Aku Aku! My duty is to protect you. You may summon me by breaking open these crates. Call me thrice, and I shall grant you special powers!"*

**-Aku Aku,** *Crash Twinsanity*

Aku Aku is the original deuteragonist of *Crash Bandicoot* franchise. He is a witch doctor spirit living inside a wooden mask who guides the Bandicoot brothers and their friends as they defeat the forces of evil. In most games, Crash summons him to avoid an instant death or to get invincibility by collecting three of them.

## Why He Rocks (Despite not being made of rock)

1. He's by far, the most well-meaning character in the series.
2. He shares a wholesome fatherly relationship with Crash and Coco, going as far as calling them "children".
3. Being a witch doctor, he's pretty powerful and has plenty of knowledge over magic.
4. He's the most concerned with saving the world whenever it's needed.
5. His invincibility theme is very frenetic and exciting, which is fitting since the player can also run a bit faster while invincible.
6. He's so dedicated with doing good that he scattered Aku Aku crates all over the world just to make sure the heroes will succeed.
7. All of his voice actors do an awesome job at portraying the benevolent and wise pacifist that he is, especially David Siller, Mel Winkler and Greg Eagles.
8. Despite his hatred of evil, he's willing to team up with the villains to defeat more powerful baddies, like when he and Uka Uka teamed up to stop Victor and Moritz from destroying Earth in *Twinsanity.*
9. He's probably at his best in *Warped,* usually giving some moral support, teaching the player about how to use the Time Twister and how to collect the relics.

## Bad Qualities

1. He barely does anything about Uka Uka (aside from directly fighting him in *Warped*), despite apparently having the power to do so.
2. He looks really weird in *Crash of The Titans* and *Mind Over Mutant*, and his personality was reduced to comic relief in the former.
3. For some reason, his invincibility doesn't work in *Twinsanity,* as it doesn't protect the player from explosives.

## Trivia

* In *Warped*, there are special warp vortex messages from Aku Aku if the player leaves a level without taking its crystal, where he briefly scolds Crash and Coco, as Cortex did in the previous game. This doesn't happen in the *N. Sane Trilogy*.
* Aku Aku, Crash and Cortex are the only characters who have appeared in every home console title.
* In the playable demo of *Crash Tag Team Racing*, Aku Aku appears at the end of a race and on the pause menu.
* In *Crash Bandicoot*, Aku Aku's mask pickup would originally be a 2D icon with a slightly different design, instead of the 3D pickup used in the game. The 2D icon was relegated to the crate graphic instead.
* Aku Aku is named after a restaurant. According to ex-Naughty Dog employee Dave Baggett, "The name Aku Aku comes from a Polynesian restaurant that resided near the Alewife T Station when Andy [Gavin], Jason [Rubin], and I [Dave Baggett] lived in the Boston area. It had a giant tiki statue out front and, as I recall, fairly terrible food."
* Ironically, "aku" means "evil" in Japanese.
* In early versions of *Crash Bandicoot*, Aku's second form would not be golden. Instead, it would just give off multi-colored sparkles. This idea would coincidentally be later used in *Twinsanity*.
* In *Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time*, he is referred to as "Aku" by some characters and in subtitles.