Crash Bandicoot (character)

Andy Gavin (left) and Jason Rubin (right) created the character

One of the main reasons Naughty Dog chose to develop Crash Bandicoot (at the time jokingly codenamed "Sonic's Ass Game"[2][3]) for the Sony PlayStation was Sony's lack of an existing mascot character that could compete with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Mario.[4] By this time video game mascots were seen as increasingly unimportant, since they were overshadowed by cross-licensing and the aging games market meant most gamers were too old to find mascots appealing, but Sony were nonetheless interested in covering all bases.[5] Naughty Dog desired to do what Sega and Warner Bros. did with the hedgehog (Sonic) and the Tasmanian devil (Taz) respectively and incorporate an animal that was "cute, real, and no one really knew about". The team purchased a field guide on Tasmanian mammals and selected the wombat, potoroo and bandicoot as options. Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin went with "Willie the Wombat" as a temporary name for the starring character of the game. The name was never meant to be final, due both to the name sounding "too dorky" and to the existence of a non-video game property of the same name. The character was effectively a bandicoot by October 1994, but was still referred to as "Willie the Wombat" because a final name had not been formulated yet.[4] Wanting their mascot game to be multi-dimensional in character depth as well as gameplay, Gavin and Rubin chose not to base Willie around one attribute such as "fast" or "cute".[6] The team felt that Willie should be "goofy and fun-loving, and never talk"; the character's muteness was based on the theory that voices for video game characters were always "lame, negative, and distracted from identification with them."[4]

Concept art of Willie the Wombat or Wuzzy Wombat, who would later become Crash Bandicoot. The tail was later removed due to the graphical limitations of the PlayStation.

American Exitus artist Charles Zembillas was hired (alongside environmental artist Joe Pearson) and met with weekly to design and develop Willie and the other characters of the game.[2][7] It was decided early on that there would be no connection between the real animal and Willie's final design. Instead the design of the character was determined "51% by technical and visual necessity and 49% by inspiration". To determine the color of Willie's fur, Gavin created a list of popular characters and their colors, and then made a list of earthly background possibilities (such as forests, deserts, beaches, etc.). Colors that wouldn't look good on the screen were strictly outlawed, such as red, which would "bleed horribly" on older televisions. Orange was selected as the color of Willie's fur as the last available color. Willie's head was made large and neckless to counter the low resolution of the screen and allow Willie's facial expressions to be discernible. Jason Rubin noted the increased difficulty in turning Willie's head with this type of design. Small details such as the gloves, the spots on Willie's back and a light-colored chest were added to help the player determine what side of Willie was visible based on color. Willie was not given a tail or any flappy straps of clothing due to the PlayStation's inability to properly display such pixels without flickering. The length of Willie's pants was shortened to keep his ankles from flickering as they would with longer pants. Andy Gavin owns the original ink sketches of Crash by Charles Zembillas.[4]

Willie's final game model was made from 512 polygons with the only textures being for the spots on his back and his shoelaces. It took Andy Gavin a month to settle on that number of polygons. Because of the game's use of vertex animation, Willie was capable of more facial expressions than other video game characters at or before the time.[8] Willie's jumping, spinning and bonking mechanisms were refined as the Naughty Dog team developed the levels "Heavy Machinery" and "Generator Room".[9] While preparing for the game's demonstration at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the team decided to finally rename the titular character "Crash Bandicoot" (the particular name being credited to Dave Baggett and Taylor Kurosaki[10]), with his surname being based on his canonical species and his first name stemming from the visceral reaction to the character's destruction of boxes ("Dash", "Smash" and "Bash" were other potential names).[7][10] The marketing director of Universal Interactive Studios insisted that the game and character be named "Wez/Wezzy/Wuzzle the Wombat" or "Ozzie the Otzel". The name Crash Bandicoot prevailed after Naughty Dog threatened to leave the production.[10]

After Naughty Dog presented Crash Bandicoot to Sony's Japanese division, the executives of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan stated their dislike of the character and were unimpressed by the renderings of the character made specifically for the meeting. During a break following the initial meeting, Andy Gavin approached Charlotte Francis, the artist responsible for the renderings, and gave her fifteen minutes to close Crash's huge, smiling mouth to make him seem less aggressive, change his eyes from green to "two small black "Pac-Man" shapes" and make his spike of hair smaller. Sony Japan bought Crash Bandicoot for Japanese distribution after being shown the modified printout.[11]

Crash, as he appears in N-Sane Trilogy.

Crash served as a mascot for Sony Computer Entertainment from his creation until September 2000 when Universal Interactive Studios and Konami entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish a Crash Bandicoot game (which would later become Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) for next-generation game systems, with Universal Interactive handling the production of the games; the agreement served to break the Crash Bandicoot franchise's exclusivity to Sony-produced consoles and effectively made Crash Bandicoot a mascot character for Universal rather than Sony.[12] Crash's game model in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was composed of approximately 1,800 polygons, which allowed an increase in detail compared to past models, including a more complex and realistic tuft of hair, a visible uvula, stitching on his jeans and shoes and a designer label on his pants.[13]

Upon beginning development of Crash Nitro Kart, Vicarious Visions chief executive officer and chief creative officer Karthik Bala noted that Crash's physical appearance had been inconsistent since his debut in 1996 and decided to "explore the original vision of the character" in an attempt to bring him back to his roots. Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson were tracked down and enlisted for guidance during development of the game and were faced with the challenge of evolving the character and the franchise visually while retaining their "cartoon-like charm". To redesign Crash and the other mainstay characters of the series for Crash Nitro Kart, the Vicarious Visions team reviewed a number of original development sketches from Zembillas's archives and then redesigned the main characters by incorporating details from the concept art and adding girth to the characters; Crash's appearance in the game, compared to the previous two games, sports a slightly larger nose, fuller eyebrows, and a far more textured body. Zembillas noted that "Crash is slimmer and more appealing now. There's also more emphasis on his eyes, and you can see the craftiness in his personality. That's Crash to me, and he's alive again in Nitro Kart".[14]

Crash was genetically engineered through the use of Cortex and Doctor Nitrus Brio's Evolvo-Ray. Before escaping from Doctor Neo Cortex's island fortress, Crash became romantically attached to a female bandicoot named Tawna, who was another one of Cortex's experiments. Crash's separation from Tawna at the hands of Cortex serves as the primary root of Crash's antagonism of Cortex.[30] Crash is a very emotional character who is quick to laugh and quick to cry.[31] While he has a danger-loving, fearless nature and loves a good fight,[31][32] he prefers relaxing in the sun and rarely seeks out trouble deliberately.[31] To the ire of his friend Crunch, but the amusement of his sister Coco, Crash is prone to impolite personal habits such as belching[33] or scratching his posterior.[6]

Crash is generally depicted as a mute character, with the frequent exception of exclaiming "Whoa!" upon losing a life.[34] In the Radical Entertainment games, Crash speaks in unintelligible gibberish,[35] but gives a verbal exclamation of excitement in the ending sequence of Crash of the Titans.[36][37] In the Skylanders Academy web series, he speaks in full sentences with an Australian accent and frequently uses slang.[28][29] Crash narrates the epilogue of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time in a fully articulate voice that Dalton Cooper of Game Rant described as "Morgan Freeman-esque".[38]

In the beginning of the series, Crash's sole offensive maneuvers were jumping onto his enemies and a distinctive technique in which he spins around like a tornado, kicking away anyone or anything that he strikes.[39] In later games Crash can expand his range of abilities by defeating boss characters.[40][41][42][43] The expanded abilities include a powerful splash, the ability to jump while in the air, the "Death Tornado Spin" (a variation of his spinning technique that allows him to hover through the air for a limited time), a bazooka that fires Wumpa Fruit, increased running speed, the ability to safely tip-toe on top of explosive crates, and the ability to jump at incredibly high heights.[40][41][42][44] The games Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind over Mutant allow Crash to further expand his offensive abilities with new fighting moves learned from collecting a magical substance known as "Mojo".[45][46] In Skylanders: Imaginators, Crash has the ability to throw TNT crates, and can use his Yo-yo to bring in enemies to spin attack.[47]

As seen in Crash Bandicoot, Crash was once an ordinary eastern barred bandicoot[48] before 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.[49] However, he is later deemed unworthy of being in Cortex's army and escapes from Cortex's castle.[30] As an act of revenge and to rescue a female bandicoot named Tawna, Crash travels through the Wumpa Islands, defeating Cortex's henchmen along the way. He eventually defeats Cortex, steals his airship, and escapes alongside Tawna. A year later in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash is sent off to get a new laptop battery for his sister Coco, but is soon abducted by Cortex, who claims to have changed his ways. Crash is then ordered to gather Crystals for Cortex while fighting off opposition from Doctor Nitrus Brio. Once Cortex reveals his hidden intentions, Crash sends him flying off into space and aids Nitrus Brio in destroying the Cortex Vortex. In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, when the remains of the space station crash into Earth and set the demonic Uka Uka free, Crash is recruited by Aku Aku to use Doctor Nefarious Tropy's Time-Twisting Machine to gather the powerful Crystals in their original places before Cortex does. Crash eventually gathers all 25 Crystals and defeats Nefarious Tropy, causing the Time-Twisting Machine to implode on itself. In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash is recruited to gather Crystals and return a group of destructive masks named the Elementals to a hibernation state and stop Cortex's new superweapon Crunch Bandicoot. In Crash Twinsanity, after foiling another plot by Doctor Cortex to eliminate him, Crash teams up with Cortex in order to defeat the Evil Twins and restore the natural order of the universe.

In Crash of the Titans, Crash aids Coco in the development of a butter-recycling device.[33] This is interrupted when Neo Cortex arrives and kidnaps Aku Aku and Coco. Crash throws Coco's machine at Cortex's airship, severing the chain holding Aku Aku's cage, which causes the cage to fall into the nearby forest. After Crash rescues Aku Aku, they discover that Cortex and Uka Uka are stealing Mojo from a nearby temple and decide to stop them.[50] Crash is unable to rescue his sister but manages to defeat Cortex, and he begins his search for Coco, interrogating Dingodile, Tiny Tiger, N. Gin, and Uka Uka on her whereabouts. Crash finally confronts and defeats Nina Cortex inside of the Doominator robot, liberates his sister, and averts the destruction of Wumpa Island. Feeling happy for themselves, Crash and his family decide to celebrate their victory with pancakes, which he blurts out (speaking for the first time) in joy.[36] Soon after, in Crash: Mind over Mutant, the NV, a personal digital assistant that everyone must possess, is released to the public. However, this turns out to be a plot by Doctor Cortex and his old partner Doctor Nitrus Brio, who use the NV's Mojo-transmitting powers to control everyone who uses the device. Because Crash is unaffected by the NV,[51] he is able to free his friends from the control of the NV and stop Cortex's and Brio's plot.

• Crash Bandicoot at Crash Mania