Crash Bandicoot is a 1996 platform game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The player controls Crash, a genetically enhanced bandicoot created by the mad scientist Doctor Neo Cortex.

The Story Behind Crash Bandicoot

As the marketing team went to Seattle to film the commercial, they created smaller teasers depicting the fan's journey to Nintendo. The commercial was shot near a Nintendo building, but not the main Nintendo headquarters, which Matsumura-Blaire felt aligned with the campaign's humor; she remarked that "it would totally make sense that this guy hadn't had done his homework and [had] mistakenly gone to the wrong building". While Naughty Dog was able to retain the "Crash Bandicoot" name after threatening to leave production, they chose to omit Tawna from subsequent entries in the series based both on this experience and to appease the desire of Sony's Japanese marketing team for a more girlish female supporting character.

The team set a rule against directly insinuating that the video game character and the costumed person in the advertisement were the same individual, as the two entities had different personalities. Ami Matsumura-Blaire of Sony served as the marketing manager for Crash Bandicoot and worked in collaboration with Erik Moe and Chris Graves of TBWA\Chiat\Day to create the game's advertising campaign. While preparing for the game's demonstration at the 1996 E3, the team decided to finally rename the title character "Crash Bandicoot", a name credited to Kurosaki and Dave Baggett.

How Crash Bandicoot Plays

His two primary forms of offense consist of jumping onto enemies and performing a spinning attack that kicks enemies off the screen. In roughly half of the game's levels, certain crates contain tokens in the likeness of Tawna, Cortex, or his assistant Nitrus Brio. Tawna's bonus rounds are designed to be the easiest and most plentiful, and clearing one enables the player to save their game.

Certain levels that require him to flee from a rolling boulder reverse this perspective, while other levels are played from a traditional side-scrolling perspective. Some crates display an icon of what they contain. Most of the game takes place from a third-person perspective in which Crash moves into the screen.

Why Players Still Load It Up

Crash Bandicoot received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Electronic Gaming Monthly and GameFan rewarding it the "Game of the Month" title. However, Radakovic felt that the shading was "almost too well done", claiming that it made the game more difficult by making the pits appear to be shadows and vice versa. Particular notice was given to the Gouraud shaded textures, colorful and detailed backgrounds, lighting and shadows, smooth animation, and special effects such as flames and water transparency.

Crash Bandicoot was released on the PlayStation Network in the United States on December 4, 2006, and in Europe on June 22, 2007. Crash was welcomed as a character for his quirky design and mannerisms, although Glide considered the enemy designs to be tame. Reviewers widely considered the gameplay to be standard for its genre, though some nevertheless regarded it to be enjoyable and polished; E.

Crash Bandicoot — Frequently Asked Questions