Crash Bandicoot: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Crash Team Racing]]'' (1999): The cast of the previous three games [[Go-Karting with Bowser|decide to organize a go-karting championship for no apparent reason]], until an invading alien named Nitros Oxide arrives, claiming to be the greatest racer in the galaxy and inviting the people of Earth to bring forth their fastest racer to compete against him in a race. Should Oxide win the race, however, he threatens to turn the planet into an intergalactic parking lot and make slaves of all its natives, so the logical thing to do is to organize a championship to see who gets the honour of racing against Oxide and saving Earth once again.

* ''[[Crash Bash]]'' (2000): The Great Uka Uka decides that it's time to settle his conflict with Aku Aku once and for all, but Aku Aku informs him that they can't fight directly as it is forbidden by the ancients, so he instead suggests that they hold a contest to determine the resolution. Uka Uka relents, and they summon Crash and Cortex to choose their partners. However, Cortex chooses too many players (Koala Kong, Dingodile, N. Brio, Tiny Tiger, and newcomer Rilla Roo), while Crash only has Coco by his side. Aku Aku forces Cortex to relinquish Tiny and Dingodile to the good side to make both sides even, and the contest finally starts.

* ''Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure'' (''XS'' in Europe, 2002): Cortex develops the Planetary Minimizer and uses it to shrink the earth. Crash learns of this and sets off to retrieve yet more crystals so that Coco can reverse the effects. This is the first game developed by Vicarious Visions. This is also the first Crash game developed for a handheld console (the [[Game Boy Advance]]). [[Nostalgia Level|The selection of]] [[Video Game Settings]] makes this game a bit of a portable version of ''Crash 2'', with a bit of ''Crash 3'' thrown in.

* ''Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced'' (2003): After the previous game ended with Cortex trapped in his destroyed space station and lost in space, Uka Uka decides to make N. Tropy into his [[The Dragon|right-hand man]] in his place. N. Tropy's first act under Uka Uka's employ is to look into the future, and sees a vision of himself surrounded by Crash, Coco, and Crunch. He interprets this as the bandicoots [[Face Heel Turn|joining their side]], so he brings out a new recruit named N. Trance, with the intent on making the bandicoots [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]. They proceed to pull the bandicoots into their dimensional hideout, but Aku Aku interferes when they attempt to take Crash, and the villains unknowingly end up taking Fake Crash. Crash must now travel between dimensions, gathering crystals, freeing his friends and Fake Crash from the hypnotism, and stopping N. Tropy and N. Trance from doing any further harm. The second portable game. This one ends with Uka Uka witnessing his failure yet again and deciding to forgo all [[The Dragon|dragons]] and take on Crash himself. This plot thread is [[Left Hanging]]. Similarly to ''The Huge Adventure'', [[Nostalgia Level|the selection of]] [[Video Game Settings]] makes this game a bit of a portable version of ''Crash 3'', with a bit of ''Crash 2'' thrown in.

* [[Eternal Engine]]: The third quarter of the original ''Crash Bandicoot'' consists mostly of this (levels such as Heavy Machinery, Cortex Power and Generator Room), with Crash roaming through Cortex's enormous power plant which, on the surface, doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose other than to dump tons and tons of radioactive sludge into the nearby oceans.

** The late-game stages of the second and third Crash Bandicoot games also indulged quite a bit on this.

* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: Upon donning the NV in ''Mind Over Mutant'', Crunch seems to develop a fascination with monkeys. "Can't talk! Watching monkeys!"

* [[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: Penta Penguin in Crash Team Racing.

{{quote|Cortex: ''(in the same building)'' "Mother?!"}}

* [[Go-Karting with Bowser]]: Judging by the way the original developers handled the franchise, ''Crash Bandicoot'' seemed to have a bit of this going on with Doctor Neo Cortex, specifically in ''Crash Team Racing'' where the good guys and bad guys are all just go-karting along before the plot happens... and then they all go-kart around some more.

** The Wizard enemies in the third game have white boxers with pink dots.

** At the end of ''Mind Over Mutant'', Cortex fights Crash in his red polka-dot briefs after he [[Hulking Out|hulks out]] of his clothes.

* [[Leitmotif]]: In the earlier titles, the majority of boss characters had an individual theme that was remixed throughout each of their appearances. Cortex in particular has an eerie guitar riff used in his faceoffs in all three of the original games.

* [[Life Meter]] (The early ''Crash Bandicoot'' games, and some of the new ones, feature a hovering Aku Aku pickup. Pick one up, and you can take an extra hit. Pick up two, and he turns golden, meaning you can take two hits. Pick up a third one, and you're invincible for a short while.) ''Crash Of The Titans'' and ''Mind Over Mutant'' revert to a conventional health meter.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Every single villain in the ''Crash Bandicoot'' franchise is either a mad scientist (usually with a first name starting with the letter N, which lends itself to [[Punny Name|Punny Names]] such as N. Gin, N. Brio, N. Tropy, N. Oxide and N. Trance) or a hideously mutated anthropomorphic animal created by said mad scientists.

* [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daught... Er, Niece!]]: Nina Cortex.

* [[Playing Tennis With the Boss]]: Koala Kong and Doctor Neo Cortex in ''Crash Bandicoot'', Doctor Neo Cortex in ''Crash Twinsanity'', Coco Bandicoot in ''Crash: Mind over Mutant''

* [[Plot Coupon]]: The Power Crystals and Gems.

* [[Power Trio]]: Crash, Coco and Crunch or Crash, Coco and Aku Aku depending on how you look at it.

* [[Power-Up Food]]

* [[Shark Tunnel]]: The [[Racing Game]] spinoffs ''Crash Team Racing'' and ''Crash Nitro Kart'' each include a [[Shark Tunnel]] as an underwater track, "Roo's Tubes" and "Deep Sea Driving", respectively.

* [[Shorter Means Smarter]]: Played or subverted, [[Depending on the Artist]], [[Cloudcuckoolander|Crash]] and [[Child Prodigy|Coco]] interchange between being the shortest of the team. The not-too-bright Crunch is consistantly taller than either of them however. Played more consistantly straight with the villains, with the vertically challenged [[Mad Scientist|Cortex]] being ''much'' smarter than large henchmen like [[Dumb Muscle|Tiny]].

** ''Mind Over Mutant'' continues this trend, with references to ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', [[Michael Jackson]], [[LOLcats]], ''[[300]]'', ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', ''[[South Park]]'', ''[[Street Fighter]]'', and many others.

** The earlier games in the series tend to have shout outs in some of the level titles. Examples include "[[Tomb Raider|Tomb Wader]]" "[[The Terminator|Sphynxinator]]", "[[The Rolling Stones|Rolling Stones]]" "[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Weathering Heights]]" and "[[Smokey and the Bandit|Smokey and the Bandicoot]]".

* [[Tactical Suicide Boss]]: Oh, Cortex... Why do you bother shooting at Crash with [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|green]] lasers that can be spun back at you, when you could simply have continued with the red and blue ones that couldn't? Also, lowering your energy shield at the same time you blow open a hole in the floor with mines is [[What an Idiot!|just asking for it]], really...

* [[Take Me Instead!]]: Cortex does this in ''Crash Twinsanity'' to save Nina from Crash's evil doppelganger.

* [[Temple of Doom]]: A large number of levels in the franchise.

* [[Temporary Platforms]]: Especially the first game.

** N. Brio in ''Mind Over Mutant''.

* [[Took a Level In Dumbass]]: Just about every character that wasn't already dimwitted. Tiny and Crash may count as subversions actually.

* [[Tomorrowland]]: The future levels in ''Crash Bandicoot: Warped''.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The trailer for ''Crash of the Titans'' reveals that {{spoiler|Cortex is replaced by Nina}}.)