Crash Bandicoot

**Crash Bandicoot** is the main titular protagonist of the *Crash Bandicoot* franchise.

A genetically advanced Eastern Barred Bandicoot and inhabitant of the Wumpa Islands. Once an ordinary bandicoot, he was snatched from the wild by Doctor Neo Cortex and subjected to the Evolvo-Ray as part of Cortex's plan to make Crash the general of his "Cortex Commandos", which would be used to dominate the world. However, when Cortex's mind-controlling Cortex Vortex failed to work on Crash, he was (literally) kicked out of Cortex's castle. As an act of revenge and to rescue a female bandicoot named Tawna, Crash traveled through the Wumpa Islands, defeating Cortex's henchmen along the way. He eventually stole Cortex's airship, defeated Doctor Cortex, and escaped alongside Tawna.

Nowadays, he attempts to live a quiet life on the Wumpa Islands. However, his relaxation tends to be interrupted by another world domination plot by Doctor Neo Cortex, forcing Crash to once again defeat him in order to put his life back in order.

In the AWA fics, Crash is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Crash generally appears as an orange humanoid-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 untill the *N.Sane Trilogy*, his stomach and muzzle were the same, whitish peach color). Up until *Twinsanity* before the *N.Sane Trilogy*, He had a huge patch of fur on his back that was of the color of his stomach. Strangely, he has a close resemblance to a maned wolf. Crash's main attire consists of a pair of blue denim jeans (which gained metal plates on the knees in *Twinsanity*), pink boxers with red hearts on them (Or white boxers with red hearts depending on the game), and a pair maroon high-top shoes with white soles and laces.(In Twinsanity, they were silver Chuck Taylor All-Star Converses and red high tops in *Tag Team Racing* onwards until the *Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy*) Though he can 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 makes him go bare hands. His head is significantly smaller in *Crash Tag Team Racing*. He appears to have changed to board shorts in the *N. Sane Trilogy* as they now have strings, and lack any definite denim textures.

## **Personality**

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 (it should be noted that the game is criticized for its over-caricaturistic or even complete change in character personalities). Despite this, however, Crash is usually kind-hearted and laid back. He is not known for his anger; even towards his greatest enemies, he rarely maintains a great deal of contempt. 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 quick 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 is 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". 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. Things he does that seem dumb could best be attributed to his obvious immaturity and impulsive nature. His muteness is probably just because he sees no reason to speak English, especially since Aku Aku can understand him anyway. His sense of right and wrong is also intact, as he helps out those in need and, although Cortex has numerously tried to destroy him, Crash did not object to teaming up with him.

## **Abilities**

Over the series Crash develops several powers and is one of the only (being the first) characters to possess them, the other/second being Coco who shares two abilities with him.

Crash has been shown to possess several abilities pertaining to physical prowess and endurance.

* **Enhanced Strength** - Crash has displayed significant physical strength, able to cause considerable damage to Titans and other large creatures, such as Tiny. He also was able to pick up Crunch and slam him on the ground over and over, with little effort despite his smaller stature.
* **Enhanced Agility** - Crash is also very agile, able to jump more than his own body height into the air with a standard jump, as well as pull off a double jump with similar vertical lift.
* **Enhanced Stamina** - Crash also possesses exceptional stamina and resiliency, able to run and fight steadily for long periods of time (evidenced by the fact that many of his games' plots take place in a small span of time), and also take massive blows from Titans and the like, then just get back up and resume fighting with the same vigor and liveliness as before. The latter is also evidenced by the fact that he can spin at high speed for almost a solid minute before he gets dizzy, and still only stay dizzy for a brief moment.
* **Enhanced Speed** - Crash can run quite fast, as evidenced by his Crash Dash ability.
* **Enhanced Reflexes**- Crash has improved reaction speed as he was able to dodge enemy attacks and projectiles.
* **Enhanced Durability** - Crash is able to take a large amount of damage and still continue fighting.
* **Contortionist** - Crash is quite limber, able to twist and crouch his body into all sorts of positions.

* **Invincibility** - In several *Crash* games, after finding and collecting three Aku Aku masks, Crash can become invincible for a few moments time with the help of his mentor Aku Aku. During this phase, pretty much nothing can touch Crash, however, it can not prevent falling deaths.
* **Yo-yo Master** - In *Skylanders Imaginators*, Crash was shown using his yo-yo abilities in combat during his trademark Cyclone Spin attack and his Ultimate sensei move. However, after he finishes his yo-yo ultimate, he gets it all tangled up.

Crash also has a couple of other abilities and skills.

* **Cyclone Spinning** - Perhaps best known is Crash's trademark ability to spin himself at high speed, dealing centrifugal force-augmented blows to opponents and even allowing himself to float slowly to the ground. The Spin Move can also deflect projectiles.
* **Expert Combatant** - Crash is no novice when it comes to fighting, possessing considerable skill in hand-to-hand combat and an ability to use weapons, such as his Fruit Bazooka, and operate any sort of vehicle with ease.
* **Combat Specialist** - In Mind Over Mutant, Aku Aku described Crash to be a swift fighter, able to use his speed to his advantage against larger foes.
* **Wall Crawling** - Crash is a superb climber, able to hang from ledges and traverse them with great speed, and also to scale sheer surfaces with only minor handholds. On a related note, Crash seems to have a strong grip, evidenced by his hanging on to Mutants while they are running and fighting and the fact that he ripped off Crunch's N-V, which was designed not to come off.
* **Titan Jacking** - Crash's newest skill is to jack stunned enemies with the help of Aku Aku and use them against other enemies as seen in the games Crash: Mutant Island, Crash of the Titans and Mind Over Mutant.
* **Natural Abilities**- Since he's a bandicoot, Crash's natural instincts, such as digging, can be used to help him from time to time.
* **Mind Control Immunity** - Crash has shown to be immune to mind control as the Cortex Vortex failed to turn him evil in *Crash Bandicoot* and the NV simply shocks him in *Mind Over Mutant*.

Crash can also pull off several specific techniques and maneuvers with his physical capabilities and gain power ups for the remainder of that adventure.

## **Trivia**

* Crash was originally named Willy the Wombat and was created as a much bulkier character. During production of the first game, the marketing director of Universal Interactive Studios insisted that Crash be named "Wez the Wombat", "Wuzzles the Wombat" or "Wizzy the Wombat". Crash was given his final name due to his tendency to crash onto crates. He was also given his name from the fact that the name Willy Wombat was already trademarked and that if Universal didn't accept Crash Bandicoot, then Naughty Dog would drop the project.
* Crash Bandicoot is considered the most iconic mascot of the 32-bits era, because the character was created in this era and helped in turning the Sony Playstation in the best-selled console of the 5th generation of video-game consoles. At that time the character was even considered the "unofficial mascot" of the Sony, rivaling Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic, both also considered iconic mascots, but of the 8-bit era and the 16-bit era respectively.
* In *Crash of the Titans*, Crash asks "Nina?" when Tiny tells him and Aku Aku about how she took over Cortex's plans. This is the first time he is ever heard mentioning another character's name.
* In *Crash of the Titans*, Crash says "Pancakes!" at the end of the main console versions. However, in the GBA version, this is extended to "Pancakes? I thought you'd never ask!" for unknown reasons. The latter is possibly the only full sentence Crash has ever said so far in the games.
	+ In *Crash of the Titans*, Crash also is heard saying "Well, duh", "Nina?", "Look at that!" and "A foot?"
		- Despite this, Crash can speak full, fluent sentences in *Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken*, the manga series based off of *Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back*. This happens again in his appearances in the *Skylanders Academy* episodes "The Skylands Are Falling!" and "Crash Landing".
		- He also speaks in a commercial for *Cortex Strikes Back.*
			* According to *The Crash Bandicoot Files*, released by Dark Horse Comics, Crash would've constantly impersonate other famous pop-cultural icons, similar to his portrayal in the commercial.
* Crash, Aku Aku and Cortex are the only characters to appear in every single Crash game. However, Crash is the only one of the three to make a full appearance and be a playable character in every game. Aku Aku has a cameo appearance in *Crash Tag Team Racing*, and Doctor Neo Cortex appears as a multiplayer character in *Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced.*
* In *Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back*, when Crash is burned, he briefly changes to his Crash 1 model. This also happens in *Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped*. The reason for this is unclear.
* Crash was originally supposed to have spots on his back, but they were removed in favor of the huge, yellow patch. Crash's original hair was a box-ish mohawk, but it was then changed to look spikier.
	+ In real life, eastern barred bandicoots have stripes on their back, hence their name.
* 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*.
	+ Interestingly, Crash's model in the first game had small black eyes.
* In the *Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011*, Crash was voted as the eleventh best video game character.
* Crash getting an extra life by collecting 100 Wumpa Fruits could be inspired by the *Sonic the Hedgehog* and *Mario* series, as Sonic and Mario need to collect 100 rings/coins and get an extra life respectively.
* In one of Crash's early designs, he was going to have a tail.
	+ This was cut due to the limitations of the PlayStation.
	+ In real life, bandicoots have small pointed tails.
* Crash's victory dance was actually carried over from Japan. In fact, an advertisement for one of the games in Japan features Crash (as well as other characters) doing said dance in front of a large, screaming audience. It has been in almost every single game since.
* On the Cartoon Network show *MAD*, there is a skit called *Franklin & Crash*, which is a parody of *Franklin & Bash*. It involves Crash taking Bash's place, and both he and Franklin must help the Prince from *Katamari Damacy* win a trial against Sonic. He spoke in full sentences here.
* One of Crash's concept designs had him wear a black mask, making him resemble *Zorro*.
* In *Crash of the Titans* and *Crash Mind Over Mutant*, Crash will get dizzy if attempting his Spin Attack for too long. However, in Crash Of The Titans, Crash's spin can be upgraded to infinite, meaning he can spin without getting dizzy at all.
* Starting with The Wrath of Cortex and all other games after it except the Vicarious Visions era, Crash's belly button is no longer part of his design.
	+ In real life, Bandicoots do not have belly buttons as the umbilical cord falls while in their mother's pouch, and a scar never forms.
	+ His belly button returns in the *N.Sane Trilogy.*
* In the Japanese version of Crash Boom Bang!, Crash has a larger head, eyes in the shape of Pac-Man's, and different shoes. This is due to the fact it was the first game to be developed by a Japanese team, meaning the characters have the looks they've always had in Japanese artwork and promotions.
* Crash has been confirmed to be one of the most popular western protagonists in Japan.
* Crash is the only character in the series to have had either official or potential love interests: in this case, Tawna and Pasadena.
* During 2007, Crash had been crowned as a symbolic mascot for the School and Youth Programs, as a part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
* 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.
* Crash was purposely designed with no neck to make his design simpler and take fewer polygons to render.
* Crash is referenced in *Johnny Test* in the case that Johnny and Dukey frequently play a game called Smash Badger, wherein the player has to break boxes and get fruit.
	+ Not only that, but both Smash Badger and Crash were both portrayed as idiotic, have a tornado spin, and face off against an evil mad scientist based off of a brain.
* In Crash Bandicoot, if the player is idle for a few seconds, Crash will launch a Wumpa Fruit in the air, which will fall on him, releasing purple juice.
* Theoretically, the nationality of Crash is Australian.
* In *Spyro: Year of the Dragon*, there are two references to Crash. They are found in two Midnight Mountain levels. In the level Haunted Tomb, when one of the dogs asks Spyro a riddle, one of the answers is a bandicoot. In Desert Ruins, there are two egg titles, which can be viewed from the atlas, "Krash Kangaroo I" and "Krash Kangaroo II" which reference the first two installments of the Crash Bandicoot series. Those two eggs can only be acquired by Sheila the Kangaroo. In the Nintendo DS version of the Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Crash can also be seen being roasted over a fire in Dante's Freezer. In addition, in The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, at one point, Crash can be found frozen in ice in the ground in the Celestial Caves.
* Despite being portrayed as dumb and dimwitted, Crash does seem to possess intelligence. This is supported by the fact Crash can operate most vehicles and weaponry he comes across with ease. In 'Nitro Kart', when he thinks about taking control of Velo's empire, he predicts it would be boring, not only for him, but for the spectators. Not only that, but he has outsmarted every boss he has come across. He also is able to prevent Cortex from ditching him in *Twinsanity.*
* Crash does not have any games released on the PlayStation 3 except for digital downloads.
* In *Crash Boom Bang,*Crash is given the opportunity to have his wish granted, which results in Wumpa Fruit raining from the sky. It would seem that one of Crash's lifelong dreams is simply to get as much of his favorite fruit as possible.
* In the *Naughty Dog Era* of games, Crash's Spin was always a separate model.
* 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.

## **External Links**

* Crash Bandicoot (character) at Bandipedia