Summary
There’s a good reason Crash Bandicoot has endured as such an iconic mascot for the decades since his smash debut on the PlayStation in 1996. Designed to be as expressive, colorful, and zany as possible, Crash popped against the beach and jungle backgrounds of N. Sanity Island, and his elastic features, borrowed from stretch and squash frames in cartoons, gave him a never-before-seen (in video games) liveliness.
7Crash of the Titans / Mind Over Mutant
From Perturbed Punk To Edgy Scenester
While this incarnation of Crash has its fans, the change was widely derided by the community. The most controversial alteration inCrash of the TitansandMind Over Mutantwas the substitution of Crash’s fingerless gloves for hand and wrist tribal tattoos (which, with a bit of thought, doesn’t make much sense, considering that the ink is painted over fur, not skin). This is arguably the Bandicoot at his most deranged, complete with floating eyebrows, bulging, plastic eyeballs, and a somewhat detached, vacant expression.
Besides the tribal tats, which were already being consigned to history asan early 2000s trend, Crash sports a pair of jorts (jean shorts) and a studded belt straight out of Hot Topic. Crash’s strandy, sometimes mohawked coif was replaced by a gelled-up do. His white underbelly fur, like the rest of his redesign, became jagged and edgy rather than smooth and simple. Crash had gone from a cartoon bandicoot who rampaged through chaotic corridors with grit teeth to a DreamWorks mascot doing their best to be “wacky” and “random.” Not his best look.
6CTR - Crash Team Racing / Crash Bash
A Slight Downgrade From The Classic Era Look
After finally nailing Crash’s looks, the Bandicoot lost some detail in the transition toCTR - Crash Team Racing. This was probably because, unlike the previous games, players would rarely look at Crash face-on and rather be focused on his back or the resource-intensive open road ahead. However, this cannot be said for the game that shared the model,Crash Bash, in which characters would run around and compete inseveral mini-game stages. An explanation forBashmight be that some rendering power had to be reserved for the other playable characters.
Crash looks relatively the same as he did in the original trilogy, albeit compressed both literally and in terms of render quality. Crash runs around (or drives) with a less panicked or focused look but with more of a hapless, happy, and inviting expression with an open-mouth smile, which might be the result of not having to collect hundreds of crystals or gemstones from dangerous levels for once. It’s fine but a little off.
5Crash Boom Bang!
A Sleeker And More Minimalist Take On The Bandicoot
It’s not uncommon for video game characters to receive a redesign when they are exported to different countries and cultures. For example, those fans with a decerning eye might notice that the box art for manyCrash Bandicootgames features a Crash with black Pac-man-esque pupils, proportion adjustments, and a friendly, open smile.Crash Boom Bangwas developed by the Japanese studio Dimps, and as such, Crash’s model and features were tailored directly for Japanese markets, with the Western release featuring a more familiar texture.
Crash Boom Bang’s take is by no means terrible, but the design is a significant deviation from previous incarnations. Most noticeably, Crash takes on hyper-triangular proportions, a gigantic head and ears, smoother details, and, in the Western version, a rigid grin. Whereas hisPS1-era low-poly rendershad a crunchy look, this DS incarnation of Crash came out more minimalist and clean, with even his blue pants, fur, and gloves having a tight, painted-on look.
4The Original (Crash Bandicoot) Style
An Innovative Miracle, But Still Not At His Best
There’s something to be said about the first attempt rarely being the best try. That being said, Naughty Dog’s work withCrash Bandicootin 1996 was revolutionary in terms of 3D graphics and animation. While many early 3D characters tended to have rigid expressions and movements, Naughty Dog made it a priority to give Crash astretchy, dynamic look and feel while moving. And they pulled it off with highly innovative rendering and animation technology, including borrowing squash and stretch techniques from animation. This carries over even in stills, mid-expression.
Innovation aside, Crash comes across as a little too rough around the edges in his original outing and just a little basic, especially in comparison to his appearances in his subsequent adventures. His character had not quite been refined, but there were flashes of brilliance. Crash rampages with a mix of primal emotions: annoyance, anxiety, and fear, but the cool, focused, and inquisitive features are yet to bore out. His thin shoots of hair could better be described as a messy hair day than a mohawk, and his model looks lanky when compared to later iterations, but the design is well on its way to greatness.
3The Twinsanity Try
Padding Out The Look & A Missed Opportunity
For a game that truly strived to mix up the formula with its open-world gameplay and “unique twist” on the Crash/Cortex relationship,Twinsanitymore or less adhered to Crash’s classic design while upscaling his model and giving him a few nice additions. The cartoon aesthetic that worked so well on the PlayStation and perfectly suited Crash was starting to give way to higher-fidelity graphics due to a combination of audience expectations and tech hype marketing, but this would eventually work against the series and the mascot.
The cartoony North American box art ofTwinsanitystill holds a certain appeal with fans, andan entirely toonifiedCrashgame, which worked forZelda’sWind Wakera year earlier, might have been a better step in the right direction. However,Twinsanity’s in-game models still struck a nice balance. Crash’s model took on crisper proportions while maintaining cohesive focal points (without distracting add-ons or accessories). Crash gains stylish new Converse kickers and metal shinpads, which are presumably helpful for all the spin-kicking and belly-flopping.
2N. Sane Trilogy Remakes / It’s About Time
A Crowd-Pleasing And Faithful Recreation Of Crash’s Best Look
It’s obvious that the team at Vicarious Visions strived to recapture the magic of theCrash Bandicootseries from their work on theN. Sane Trilogy. The environment, sound, feel, and, of course, design of the characters is almost a one-to-one ultra-HD upgrade. Crash is carefully modeled to be detailedbut not hyper-realisticto the point of distraction. In theremake trilogy, Crash’s look takes from all the best incarnations throughout his history and adds in a few personality quirks for good measure.
As perfectly crafted as the emulation is (even down to swapping out the jeans for something that resembles running shorts), some indescribable charm is lost with this safe incarnation without the slight jank of the PlayStation engine. The high-fidelity render leaves nothing to the imagination; as every strand of fur is visible and inspectable, it seems more odd than not that Crash’s rampages through rainforests and swamps would leave him spotless rather than caked in mud and gunk. However, that is a very minor criticism of an excellent execution of the character.
1The Cortex Strikes Back / Warped / Wrath Of Cortex Era
Still The Apex Aesthetic For The Marsupial Mascot
This is the version of Crash Bandicoot that launched a thousand PlayStation sales and cemented the marsupial as a legend in the minds of gamers everywhere. The rough edges of the original game (the difficulty curve and the character model) got sanded down and polished to a shine. BetweenCortex Strikes Back,Warped, andThe Wrath of Cortex, Crash emanates both a likable curiosity and confident cool that made watching him jump pits, shred boxes, and shoot wumpa fruit from a bazooka at robot scientists such a pleasure.
Even after the series' rights changed hands to Traveller’s Tales on the PlayStation 2, Crash looks remarkably consistent. Crash rocks his blue pants, which at this point are still ambiguously somewhere between running shorts and jeans, although this does change inThe Wrath of Cortex. His hair gets grown out to a natural mohawk, his eyebrows convey an air of knowing mischief, and Naughty Dog’s shading wizardry gives him that crisp but radiant look synonymous with the PS1 that no amount of HD graphical fidelity can recapture or surpass.
