Crash Bandicoot

• 1. Introduction

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  Crash Bandicoot began life as a wombat. Naughty Dog's tentative name for its hero was Willy the Wombat, a goofy, Zorro-like Tasmanian marsupial. The bandicoot who replaced him anchored a franchise that sold over 40 million units by 2007 and grossed more than $1 billion. Crash Bandicoot is a video game franchise created by Naughty Dog for Sony's PlayStation console. Yet the studio that built it eventually walked away, and the series passed through many hands. Why did the creators leave? What does a spinning bandicoot actually do on screen? And how did a series that went dormant in 2010 return years later?

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• 2. A Pitch From Boston

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  Naughty Dog started in 1984 as JAM Software, founded by childhood friends Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. Its first project was an educational game called Math Jam, released in 1985. Ski Crazed arrived in 1987, followed by Dream Zone in 1988, Keef the Thief in 1989 and Rings of Power in 1992.

  In 1994, after finishing Way of the Warrior, Gavin and Rubin moved from Boston to Los Angeles to work with publisher Universal Interactive. On that trip they decided to make a 3D platformer that took advantage of the new power of game consoles. Donkey Kong Country, also released in 1994, supplied the inspiration with its pre-rendered visuals. The game would target Sony's PlayStation, because Sony did not yet have a mascot character to compete with its rivals.

  Production began in October 1994. To design the characters and setting, Naughty Dog contracted two cartoonists, Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson. The hero finally became a bandicoot because the species was appealing and relatively obscure. Naughty Dog also demonstrated the game to Sony Computer Entertainment in order to win a publishing deal.

  Universal Animation Studios meanwhile produced two traditionally animated cutscenes, an intro and an outro. They doubled as source material for a possible animated series, should the game succeed. Sony dropped them after it took on the game, because it wanted to showcase the PlayStation's 3D polygonal graphics. Producer David Siller finally uploaded both cutscenes to YouTube in 2015.

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• 3. The Trilogy And The Exit

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  Crash Bandicoot was unveiled at E3 1996, where its vibrant visuals quickly drew attention. It reached stores on the 9th of September 1996 and sold over 1 million units worldwide by the end of that year. Reviewers called its graphics the best yet of the fifth console generation and praised its challenge. They found the gameplay standard but enjoyable and polished.

  Crash Team Racing, a kart racing game, launched on the 19th of October 1999 and sold 1.9 million units in the United States. Critics called it highly polished and said it surpassed its inspirations, Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing, in some respects. In Japan, the first game became the first non-Japanese title to sell over 500,000 units. Cortex Strikes Back and Warped sold 1.3 million and 1.4 million units there. By July 2000, Naughty Dog's four games had sold over 20 million units worldwide.

  Crash Bash, a party game from the developer Eurocom, was released on the 8th of November 2000. It was the first Crash game made without Naughty Dog and the last to appear exclusively on a Sony console. Critics said it lacked depth or originality but found it an enjoyable multiplayer experience. Naughty Dog left behind a set of mechanics, crates and collectibles that every later developer would inherit.

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• 4. Spins, Crates And Relics

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  Crash's trademark is the spin attack, a cyclone-like whirl that launches enemies off-screen. A knocked enemy can strike others in its path. Jumping and sliding are his other main maneuvers, and the controls do not change with his position. Most levels use a third-person view with Crash moving into the screen. Some switch to a traditional side-scrolling view. In others a rolling boulder, an angry polar bear or a dinosaur chases him, so he runs toward the screen. Some levels have him steer an animal that accelerates uncontrollably. Elsewhere he commandeers a rocket surfboard, jet pack, motorcycle or biplane. From Warped onward, defeating bosses earns him new abilities.

  The original game lays its levels out in a line on a map. Cortex Strikes Back introduced five hub areas, each opening five levels that can be played in any order. Crash must retrieve a crystal from each level and defeat a boss to reach the next hub. Warped, The Wrath of Cortex and The Huge Adventure keep that system. Later entries branch. N-Tranced and It's About Time use branching maps, while Twinsanity and Mind over Mutant use open-world exploration.

  A platform bearing a question mark leads to bonus areas. Dying there costs no life and respawns Crash beside the platform. In the original game, bonus levels open when Crash collects tokens showing Tawna, Cortex or Doctor Nitrus Brio. Tawna's rounds are easy and plentiful, and they let the player save. Brio's rounds are harder, with more TNT crates and more precise jumps. Cortex's two rounds are the hardest and award a key to a secret level.

  Crates have been a foundation since the first game. A basic wooden crate breaks with one spin and often holds Wumpa fruit. Arrow crates boost Crash's jump when he bounces on them. Crates printed with Aku Aku or Crash grant an Aku Aku mask or an extra life. Metal crates marked with an exclamation point change something in the surroundings when struck. Checkpoint crates let Crash return to that spot after losing a life.

  TNT crates explode when spun into, but bouncing on one starts a three-second fuse. Nitro crates explode instantly on contact. Crash must trigger a special crate to set them all off at once. Warped adds slot crates, which cycle between crate types at an increasing pace and must be broken before they turn to unbreakable steel. Time trials bring time crates, which freeze the stopwatch for the number of seconds printed on them. Reinforced crates demand a stronger technique, such as a body slam.

  Wumpa fruit is the main collectible, and 100 of them earn an extra life. In Crash of the Titans and Mind over Mutant it restores health instead. Golden versions give an extra life in the former game and a permanent health upgrade in the latter. Aku Aku masks protect Crash. One gives a single-hit shield, two give double protection, and three grant temporary invincibility.

  Gems are rewarded for clearing a level after breaking all its crates, or for finding them in secret areas. Most are clear and colorless. A few colored gems in special levels carry Crash to hidden areas. Crystals arrived in Cortex Strikes Back and are often essential, since one must be collected in each level to complete a game.

  Warped introduced relics, earned in time trials. Crash touches a stopwatch near the start of a completed level and races through it as fast as he can. Sapphire, gold and platinum relics reward his performance. Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time adds N. Sanely Perfect Relics, earned by collecting all of a level's gems without losing a life. That game also brings the Quantum Masks, which grant powers such as time manipulation and gravity reversal.

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• 5. Cortex And Company

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  The games unfold on a secluded archipelago 300 mi west of Tasmania. Its islands hold sandy beaches and snowy terrain, and they are scattered with the remains of the lost continent of Lemuria. The largest island is the lair of the mad scientist Doctor Neo Cortex. Cortex Strikes Back reveals that the islands' ancient civilization built Warp Rooms, which give instant access to places all over the world. Warped adds time travel, with prehistoric, medieval and futuristic locales. It's About Time visits branches of the multiverse, with parallel dimensions and alternate timelines.

  Crash is an anthropomorphic eastern barred bandicoot, genetically engineered by Cortex. Cortex hoped to create a general who would lead his minions to world domination. Instead Crash escaped the laboratory. He is goofy and non-verbal, an accidental hero. Josh Nadelberg, art director of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, described him as "this dude who's always in the wrong place at the wrong time". Nadelberg added that Crash "just manages to get himself out of all these crazy situations in a heroic way, but he's not your classic hero".

  Coco Bandicoot, Crash's tech-savvy younger sister, debuts in Cortex Strikes Back as a supporting character who uncovers Cortex's scheme. She becomes playable in select levels of Warped and is fully integrated across all games in the remastered trilogy. Aku Aku is a floating wooden mask inhabited by the spirit of an ancient witch doctor, and he protects and guides Crash. Tawna, Crash's girlfriend and fellow lab subject, is the damsel in distress of the original game. It's About Time features an alternate-universe variant of her as a playable character.

  Crunch Bandicoot first appears in The Wrath of Cortex. He is a muscular, genetically engineered bandicoot created by Cortex to destroy Crash. After his defeat he defects, joining the protagonists as an ally and playable character in later titles. The Quantum Masks are extra-dimensional beings named Lani-Loli, Akano, Kupuna-Wa and Ika-Ika. They appear in It's About Time and can grant Crash and Coco special powers.

  Cortex wants to build an army of genetically enhanced soldiers. He initially works with Doctor Nitrus Brio, inventor of the Evolvo-Ray used to mutate animals, but the partnership sours. The two reunite in Mind over Mutant and It's About Time. Uka Uka, the evil twin brother of Aku Aku, oversees Cortex's schemes. Aku Aku had imprisoned him underground for his destructive pursuits, and the wreckage of Cortex's space station inadvertently frees him.

  Doctor N. Gin is Cortex's loyal henchman, an unhinged cyborg engineer who survived an accident that left an unexploded missile in his head. Tiny Tiger is a hulking, savage thylacine, and Dingodile is a dingo-crocodile hybrid who wields a flamethrower. Dingodile becomes playable in It's About Time. Doctor Nefarious Tropy, a time-manipulating scientist, debuts in Warped and creates the Time Twister, which enables temporal excursions. He returns in It's About Time as a primary antagonist and teams up with his female alternate-universe counterpart. Twinsanity adds Cortex's niece Nina, whose bionic hands, implanted by her uncle, can extend to grab faraway ledges. She later appears as a primary antagonist in Crash of the Titans.

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• 6. Many Hands

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  Traveller's Tales developed Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, released on the 30th of October 2001 after the partnership between Sony and Universal ended. Critics called it a rehash of the formula established by the original trilogy. They faulted its fixed camera angles and long loading times. Across this whole era, aggregate review scores typically sat in the 60s.

  Vicarious Visions made Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, released on the 13th of March 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. It was the first Crash game made for a handheld console. Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced followed on the 7th of January 2003. Reviewers praised the hardware-pushing graphics of both Game Boy Advance platformers but thought them lacking in innovation.

  On the 23rd of March 2005, Universal Interactive, by then Vivendi Universal Games, acquired the developer Radical Entertainment. Radical released Crash Tag Team Racing on the 21st of October. Critics praised its clashing mechanic, genre-blending approach and humor, while criticizing its lack of depth, low difficulty and platforming. The Japanese developer Dimps released Crash Boom Bang! for the Nintendo DS in Japan on the 20th of July 2006, under the title Crash Bandicoot Festival. The North American release came on the 10th of October. Reviewers derided its dull and simplistic minigames and tedious board game designs.

  Crash of the Titans, released by Radical on the 2nd of October 2007, departed from traditional platforming. It emphasized combat and a "jacking" mechanic, in which Crash defeats and controls large mutants called Titans. The characters were redesigned with a punk edge to unify their style, modernize them, and set them apart from other cartoon characters. Amaze Entertainment developed handheld versions for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance that came out on the same date.

  In December 2007, Activision announced its acquisition of Vivendi Games, including the Crash property. The merger was finalized on the 10th of July 2008. Polarbit's mobile kart game Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D came out on the 29th of April 2008. Radical released Crash: Mind over Mutant on the 7th of October, with a Nintendo DS version from Tose on the same date.

  Critics gave the two Radical platformers mixed receptions. They appreciated the jacking mechanic, visuals and humor, but the fixed camera was a recurring frustration. Repetitive combat undermined the first game, and extensive backtracking undermined the second. Nitro Kart 3D was praised for engaging gameplay and responsive controls, though it lacked multiplayer features.

  Vivendi Games Mobile released the mobile game Crash Bandicoot: Mutant Island in July 2009. In February 2010, Activision laid off around 90 employees at Radical Entertainment, roughly half the studio's workforce, amid cost-cutting measures and project reevaluations. Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 arrived on the 27th of May 2010, praised for its visuals, track design and gameplay modes but criticized for unforgiving mechanics. After it, the series went into dormancy.

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• 7. The Revival

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  The silence broke at Sony's E3 2016 press conference, which announced Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Crash and Cortex also appeared as playable characters in Skylanders: Imaginators, a toys-to-life game. Vicarious Visions developed the N. Sane Trilogy as a remastered compilation of the three original PlayStation games, with updated graphics, recreated controls and new material. It launched exclusively on PlayStation 4 on the 30th of June 2017 and reached Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows in 2018. Critics commended its faithful yet visually improved recreation. By June 2024 it had sold over 20 million units worldwide.

  Beenox developed Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remaster of the kart racer, which came out on the 19th of June 2019. Reviewers praised its recreation and presentation as well as its robust offering. It sold 10 million copies by June 2025.

  Toys for Bob revealed Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time on the 22nd of June 2020 as a sequel to the original trilogy. It returned to 3D platforming. It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the 2nd of October, and for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and Windows in 2021. Critics praised its preservation and refinement of the classic formula, its new gameplay mechanics, and its vibrant visuals and audio.

  Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, an endless runner developed by King, launched globally in March 2021 for Android and iOS. It was discontinued on the 16th of February 2023. Between its launch and the announcement of its closure the following year, it drew over 60 million downloads but generated only about $4 million in in-app purchases. Reviews were mixed. The game won praise for presentation and accessibility, but critics faulted its repetitive gameplay, lack of challenge and pervasive microtransactions.

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• 8. Beyond The Console

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  Skylanders Academy, an animated series that ran from 2016 to 2018, carried Crash out of his own world and into Skylands. Unlike in any of his other appearances, he speaks fluent English with an Australian accent. Showrunner Eric Rogers voiced him in the first season, and Rhys Darby took over in the third.

  Sega senior vice president Shuji Utsumi proposed a Crash Bandicoot film to a number of studios, and all of them declined. In January 2021, alleged test footage of a canceled animated series made with Amazon Studios leaked online. On the 27th of October 2025, Netflix was reported to be developing an animated series. WildBrain was first reported to be involved, but that claim was later debunked.

  A short comic promoting Crash Team Racing ran in the Winter 2000 issue of Disney Adventures, written by Glenn Herdling and drawn by Neal Sternecky. In 2018, Dark Horse Books released the original developer's bible as a hardcover called The Crash Bandicoot Files. The Art of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time was published on the 26th of October 2020. Funko made vinyl figures tied to the N. Sane Trilogy, including retailer-specific variants of Crash and Cortex. In June 2023, a Crash-themed cosmetics bundle promoting Crash Team Rumble was added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone.

  The original game was a flagship title for the PlayStation, and Crash became the console's unofficial mascot. The series established Naughty Dog's reputation in the industry, and the studio later found further success with Uncharted and The Last of Us. Crash Team Racing in particular inspired a kart racing boom in the early 2000s. Jason Rubin noted that two different publishers pitched Naughty Dog wrestling-themed kart games.

  The series has been cited as an influence on Rayman 2: The Great Escape (1999), Knack (2014), PsiloSybil (2024) and Antonblast (2024). Comparisons have been drawn to Jersey Devil (1997), Kao the Kangaroo (2000) and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (2002), among others.

  A parody of Crash Bandicoot plays a central part in the storyline of the Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an "A"". A 1999 episode of the WB series Felicity follows the characters Elena and Noel as they become obsessed with completing Crash Bandicoot: Warped. In 2014, paleontologists formally described an extinct Miocene-era bandicoot species from fossils at Australia's Riversleigh World Heritage Area. They named it Crash bandicoot in homage to the game's character. In 2017, the character's signature yelp of "whoa" inspired internet memes that worked it into songs and video game music.

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