Crash Bandicoot (game)

Crash Bandicoot is the first game of the main series and the overall Crash Bandicoot franchise. It was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was originally released for the PlayStation in 1996. Crash Bandicoot is the first game of the original trilogy, which also consists of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: Warped, released in 1997 and 1998 respectively. In 2007, the game was released for the PlayStation Network. Those games were followed by several sequels and spin-offs from other developers and publishers.

In 2017, a remake of the game was included in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy along with both of its sequels.

In March 2018, a book containing a version of the game's bible was published by Dark Horse Comics, The Crash Bandicoot Files: How Willy the Wombat Sparked Marsupial Mania.

Story
The owner of the Wumpa Islands to the southeast of Australia, Dr. Neo Cortex, alongside Dr. Nitrus Brio, has been experimenting on local marsupials and other animals, altering their genes to create an army to dominate the world.

Dr. Cortex enters Crash Bandicoot into the Cortex Vortex, despite Dr. N. Brio telling him the machine isn't ready yet. It fails on Crash, and so he runs and escapes from Cortex Castle by jumping out of the window. Nearby, Crash's girlfriend Tawna Bandicoot is apprehended by the Lab Assistants.

In the morning, Crash washes up on N. Sanity Beach. He decides to make his way back to Cortex Castle to rescue Tawna. Crash meets Aku Aku while running through the beach who protects him, and rides a warthog named Pork. On his journey through the islands, Crash battles and defeats four bosses: Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Koala Kong, and Pinstripe Potoroo. The fifth and penultimate boss is N. Brio, whom Dr. Neo Cortex sends to fight Crash, but N. Brio wounds up being defeated as well.

At the top of Cortex Castle, Crash confronts Dr. Cortex, who calls him "Crash Bandicoot" and proceeds to shoot him. In the final battle, Crash manages to deflect the shots, causing Dr. Cortex to fall off his hoverboard to the ground. The game ends with Crash riding off into the sunset with Tawna.

Gameplay
Crash Bandicoot uses a level system akin to a general platformer; the player progresses by completing levels one after the other. Crash must reach the end of the level, jumping over gaps and defeating enemies.

Crash can break crates to gain several things:
 * Wumpa fruit, which can gain the player an extra life if they collect 100 of them.
 * Aku Aku's protection, which lets the player take one or two hits without dying, and if the player collects three Crash gains temporary invinicbility.
 * A single token out of three in the level to go to a Bonus Round. They can be either Tawna, Dr. N. Brio, or Dr. Cortex tokens. When completing a Bonus Round in the original, the player is allowed to save the game, whereas in the remake the player can save at any time on the world map.

Crash can also earn gems by breaking every crate in the level without dying (this restriction is not as present in the remake, only being required for colored gems), and keys in several levels by completing Dr. Cortex's bonus round.

Enemies generally consist of wildlife, as well as the villagers living on N. Sanity Island and Dr. Cortex's Lab Assistants. These enemies can usually be defeated by jumping and/or spinning into them. Bosses are similar, yet they can take several hits instead of one.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
During the events of the remake's version of Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Coco Bandicoot creates a time machine. She goes back in time to both the events of the first and second game to help her brother Crash, becoming a playable character.

Minor changes to Crash Bandicoot's presentation in the remake also include:
 * Tawna punching one of the Lab Assistants before getting captured.
 * Crash jumping out of the roof after defeating Papu Papu.
 * When the player jumps on Dr. N. Brio's slimes during his boss fight, they splatter onto him, damaging him.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
During the events of Crash's Flashback Tapes which take place before Crash Bandicoot, Dr. Cortex grows attached to one of his experiments, Subject #218. He decides him to be the general of his army. After Subject #218 completes all his tests, he is named "Crashworth Cortex the First".

In the future, Dr. Cortex takes advantage of Kupuna-Wa's time travel abilities to travel back to the day that he would use the Cortex Vortex on Crash, to kill him before he escapes and save himself from future troubles. At first he tries to persuade the Dr. Cortex from the past to not use the Cortex Vortex on Crash, however past Dr. Cortex doesn't listen, as he is confused and afraid of his future self, thinking that the future Dr. Cortex is an imposter. After the future Dr. Cortex is defeated by Crash and Coco, the past Dr. Cortex wakes up and believes he has defeated the impostor, and excitedly goes to make Crash his general to take out the future Dr. Cortex. Crash bumps the machine and knocks over a light bulb which causes the Cortex Vortex to fail.