Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

In the aftermath of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, an evil elemental mask named Uka Uka is freed from his underground prison, and is revealed to have been the true mastermind behind Dr. Neo Cortex's schemes. Seeing as Crash had already collected all the crystals and gems on Earth and the planet is left without a proper power source for Cortex to use for his next scheme, Uka Uka decides to recruit a scientist by the name of N. Tropy to create the Time Twister, a time machine which Cortex and Uka Uka can use to retrieve the crystals from past and future eras. With the help of Uka Uka's counterpart, Aku Aku, Crash and Coco race to the Time Twister to collect the crystals again before Cortex and Uka Uka get a chance to do so.

Considered by critics and fans at the time to be one of the greatest platformers on the PlayStation, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped built upon the strengths of the first two games and added more vehicle-based levels (with the player taking control of a bi-plane, jetski or tiger at any given time), new abilities that could be earned by beating the game's bosses, and a Time Trial mode to keep players coming back to the levels to see how fast they could go.

Tropes used in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped include:

100% Completion: This unlocks the true ending.
1-Up: Like before, the game's pretty generous on lives. After all, you may need every single one of them.
Action Girl: Coco joins Crash in the gameplay for the first time. In practice, this means she tackles most of the Unexpected Genre Change levels, but still, riding a tiger, a jetski, a space fighter and a World War I plane is a definite step-up from being a simple computer hacker genius from the last game. See also Took a Level in Badass below.
Advancing Wall of Doom: The triceratops in "Dino Might!". Yes, a triceratops.
Airborne Mook: Floating carpet enemies in "Hang'em High" drift eerily in your path.
Anti-Frustration Features: As with the prequels, if you start losing too many lives, the game takes pity on you, and you respawn with an Aku-Aku mask for protection. Lose a bit too much times, and you'll get a nearby crate turn into checkpoint when it originally shouldn't be one. It should be noticed that such policies never work during time trials, however...
Arch Enemy:
- Crash has Dr. Cortex, but now there is also the rivalry between sentient voodooo mask twin brothers Aku Aku and Uka Uka.
- Coco also develops a rivalry with N. Gin, Cortex's right hand, starting with this game.
Back Tracking: Dispatched from 2 once and for all, but with several really minor exceptions. Sphinxinator not only includes a bunch of crates which appear off-camera at the start of the level, but also has a fork in the path that actually forced you to return to the level's regular route if you're trying to shoot all crates off.
Beam-O-War: Aku Aku and Uka Uka have one of these during the final boss fight.
Beard of Evil: Cortex, of course, sports one, but Uka Uka has an impressively ragged version, and N. Tropy has an Asian-styled one.
Better Than It Sounds Video Games: Two anthropomorphic marsupials travel through time to capture crystals before a balding scientist gets his hands on them. In this case, the discrepancy between how it sounds and how it plays is extreme.
Big Bad: Uka Uka supersedes Cortex as The Man Behind the Man.
Big Good: In response to Uka Uka's release, Aku Aku steps up into this role, guiding Crash and Coco through their adventure.
Blackout Basement: Surprisingly, only one level qualifies for this - the "Bug Lite" level at the fifth Time Twister area, which is an Ancient Egypt level set at night time. It is essentially identical to the Blackout Basement level in Crash 2 except set in a different level theme. Fireflies are the light source once more, and you have to hurry past the enemies to the next firefly before the current one flies off, or you're left stranded in the dark.
Bonus Dungeon: In the secret warp room, there are three levels which are more difficult than the standard levels.
Bonus Stage: On occasion, Crash can find '?' platforms which take him to bonus stages. These are quite forgiving; there are no enemies, no lives are taken if you die, and whether you fall or are blown up, the player is plonked right next to the platform to start again. A few 'Skull Route' platforms exist, which are considerably harder; not only do you have to get past the level up to that point without dying, but the stages themselves are tougher, can feature enemies, and generally play out like the regular levels Up to Eleven. Hidden 'Gem' stages also exist, which appear only when Crash has found the relevant colored gem. They vary in their difficulty, but otherwise are much like Skull Routes.
Bootstrapped Theme: The main theme became the theme of the whole series for a while.
Boss Arena Idiocy: Dingodile is defeated by exploiting his surroundings. He is protected by a barrier of crystals, which Crash can't yet jump over. There are no gaps until Dingodile starts blasting through the barrier with his flamethrower. N. Tropy also leaves Floating Platform trails from one side of the arena to the other, leaving Crash free to attack him. Seriously, this reeks of Tactical Suicide Boss as well.
Bottomless Pits: Forget Cortex, the bottomless pit is Crash's arch nemesis.
Brains and Brawn: Coco and Crash, respectively, in character. For gameplay purposes, the distinction is nullified.
Brick Joke: N. Tropy's defeat leads to concerns over whether the Time Twister will start acting erratically. At the very end of the game, the machine gets engulfed in a super-sized warp ball and does indeed fall apart. Possibly an inverted Chekhov's Gunman.
Cat and Mouse Boss: Tiny Tiger begins the battle by chasing after Crash, trying to crush him with his leaping.
Check Point: If Crash opens a crate marked with a 'C', it becomes the new checkpoint in case he dies.
Chekhov's Gun: The Time Twister machine which Cortex falls into at the end of his boss fight will become useful later.
Chekhov's Gunman: In a sense, N.Tropy. By defeating him, Crash receives an urgent message from Uka Uka and Cortex berating him for incapacitating the only person able to maintain the Time Twister. After the final boss battle on One Hundred Percent Completion, the Time Twister goes haywire. In Aku Aku's own words: "The Time Twister machine could not hold itself together. Might count as a Brick Joke or as a bit of Take Your Time.
Child Prodigy/Teen Genius: Coco Bandicoot, Friend To All Ancient Chinese Tigers, jet-ski extraordinaire and, like Crash, an ace World War pilot.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Ripper Roo finally vanishes, along with the Komodo Brothers and Nitrus Brio. Averted with Tiny.
Collection Sidequest: At first, the gems and relics appear to be this, since you don't need them to reach the final boss, but to complete the game, and to complete the story, they all need to be collected.
Collision Damage: It's traditional.
Composers: Mark Mothersbaugh and Josh Mancell (of Mutato Muzika) compose the level themes for this game, too.
Continuity: The events of the last game lead directly to the events of this game, starting with a chunk of Cortex's space station crashing into Earth.
Continuity Nod: Some of N.Gin's dialogue refers to his boss battle against Crash in the previous game.
Convection, Schmonvection: Crash can get surprisingly close to the lava pools in the dinosaur levels of the game without so much as sweating.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: Some of Crash's 'death' animations count, such as being kissed by an enemy frog who turns into a prince. Crash also gets to dish this out on those Goddamn Bats Egyptian monkeys in the tomb levels, by jumping on their heads for extra fruit. Cortex and N.Tropy get turned into babies and sent to an unknown location when subjected to the Time Twister's malfunction at the end of the game. Uka Uka ends up being caught in a painful-looking tug of war between them.
Cosmetic Award: Completing the game by gathering all the Crystals and Gems and scoring either the Gold or Platinum rank from all the levels in Time Trial mode (including the two super secret levels) earns the player an extra gem and a snazzy fireworks display along with a 105% mark on their save game. That is all.
Crate Expectations:
- The switch crate was introduced to this game. The crate switches back and forth between two or three icons. When Crash gets close to it, the changing quickens. Depending on when Crash opens the crate, the effect will differ... so, for instance, if it shows a '?' icon when he spins it, he'll get a goody, whereas if it shows a 'TNT' icon when he spins it, it behaves like a TNT crate and explodes. If Crash doesn't open it before the switch acceleration reaches its peak, the box turns to steel and cannot be opened, thwarting any attempt to break all the boxes and get a gem.
- Also introduced are the time crates. During time trial mode, several boxes except Nitro, steel and TNT crates are transformed into yellow boxes with either a '1', a '2' or a '3' on its face. Break the box and the timer freezes for however many seconds were indicated by the box. This feature was later reused in Crash Team Racing.
Creative Closing Credits/Credits Gag: During the final credits, baby Cortex and baby N. Tropy are locked in a tug of war for Uka Uka's mask. Uka Uka is not enjoying it, but neither side get an advantage for the whole credit sequence.
Cyborg: N.Gin makes a comeback. The lab assistants are revealed to be this in the secret Warp Room.
Death Course: Because whether you're in a medieval village or the futuristic Neo York levels, everything's trying to kill you.
Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: And incredibly funny, believe it or not. The game is famous for its many hilarious The Many Deaths of You, some of which aren't actually deaths.
Defeat by Modesty: Getting hit by a scimitar in the medieval Arabia levels will cut Crash's pants off, causing him to shamefully slink away while attempting to cover his pink polka-dot boxers.
Degraded Boss: Tiny Tiger is relegated to first boss, like Ripper Roo before him. Now he can also be hurt by Crash's spin and jump attacks, which were useless against him in the previous one. Armor Is Useless, indeed.
Demoted to Dragon: Dr. Neo Cortex. See The Dragon below.
Double Jump: One of the perks of Crash 3 is the upgrade feature. By defeating each boss the first time, Crash Bandicoot earns a new move which either enhances his existing abilities or gives him completely new ones. In the case of the Double Jump, Crash earns this by defeating Dingodile for the first time. Combined with the slide and Super Spin, Crash can go almost anywhere.
Down the Drain: For some reason, Crash still has Super Drowning Skills in the "Tomb Wader" level. Here, the entire level was set in an Egyptian tomb, the passageways of which rose and fell at various points. In the lower sections, the floor is flooded, but fluctuates between being knee deep for a few seconds to being raised up several feet for another few seconds, and then back again. Part of the challenge was to find higher ground, such as a cube of steel blocks or a floating platform, to stand upon and wait for the water level to drop to a manageable level.
The Dragon: Cortex suffers a bit of Villain Decay due to being bumped down to this by Uka Uka, but he still qualifies as the Final Boss, so it doesn't translate directly into Badass Decay. N. Tropy and N. Gin are both Co-Dragons to him in turn.
Dumb Muscle: Tiny has improved slightly from the previous game - not only can he speak, and speak eloquently enough to warn Crash (albeit in Hulk Speak), but his tactics are no longer restricted to just leaping after Crash; instead, he tries to spear him on the end of his trident, and when that fails, he releases hoards of lions on you. Even when he falls for the same trick three times, he gets notably faster in pulling out his trident as the battle progresses.
Early-Bird Cameo: Fake Crash appears as in three levels after 100% completion.
Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: The prehistoric levels.
Everything's Better with Penguins: A penguin is taking a stroll through the Ice Age arena when Crash battles Dingodile. Though identical to the enemy penguins in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, this one is just an Innocent Bystander. This might even be an Early-Bird Cameo, if it's the same penguin who appeared in the Crash Team Racing spinoff.
Everything's Better with Spinning: Crash gets an upgrade to his Spin Attack once he defeats N. Tropy. Not only can he spin for much longer, making for massive damage in some levels, but he can even glide with it if he spins at the top of a high jump. Combine this with the Double Jump upgrade and the result is pretty impressive.
Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: While Crash explores the ocean bottom, sharks are patrolling certain areas and if he blunders into one, it eats him. Coco also has to avoid sharks patrolling near the surface during her jet ski levels. Sharks were originally billed to appear as enemies in the first Crash game, but they were cut from the final product and had to wait for this game and its appropriate water levels before they were introduced.
Everything's Worse with Bears: Averted with Polar, who is Crash's friend. He only makes two appearances in the entire game - the beginning and the end.
Excited Show Title!
Exploding Barrels: TNT and Nitro crates.
Expressive Mask: Aku Aku has a new game model to accommodate the facial expressions which would otherwise be impossible, for his standard gameplay model is essentially a block of wood with the bits painted on. Uka Uka is also an expressive face, but he does have a non-expressive gameplay face which appears during the Final Boss battle. That, and the two of them literally are masks.
Extended Gameplay: You can claim to have 'beaten' the game after collecting the crystals and defeating the final boss, but after that, the player can go back and find the gems and relics as well. As usual, the best ending comes with getting the gems before fighting Cortex.
Evil Brit: Dr. Nefarious Tropy has a British accent when he talks to you via Time Twister in the third time travel area. This, no doubt, has contributed to his popularity among the fandom.
Five-Bad Band: Tiny Tiger, Dingodile, N. Tropy, N.Gin and Cortex.
Frickin' Laser Beams: A barrier of lasers appears in the future levels, switching on and off occasionally and in a regular pattern.
Gadgeteer Genius: N.Gin, the Mad Scientist who pilots a Humongous Mecha when facing Coco, claims to have made a few modifications since his last encounter with Crash (and how!).
Game Over Men: Cortex and Uka Uka.
Genre Roulette: Races, aerial combat and one spaceship-on-mecha fight break up the routine.
Genre Savvy: Cortex shows signs of this, reflecting on the pattern of gameplay events such as the defeat of the bosses and Crash's approach to the Final Dungeon. He even apologizes for not reacting appropriately when Crash has collected all the crystals.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: A bit of innuendo in the dialogue, such as Cortex requesting "a woman with nice, big... bags of ice for my head!"
Goofy Print Underwear: Several of Crash's death sequences reveal that he wears pink polka-dot boxers. The Wizard enemies in the medieval levels have white boxers with pink dots.
The Goomba: The medieval goat from the medieval levels is easily defeated. The frog enemies less so, as their leaps tend to be erratic and unpredictable, though like the medieval goat they can be defeated by any attack.
Goomba Stomp: Crash's secondary attack gets an upgrade in the form of a Double Jump (see above).
Gotta Catch Them All: The crystals are needed to reach the last boss, while the gems and relics are needed to complete the game.
Ground Pound: By beating the first boss, Crash gains a Super Ground Pound attack in this game, with enough force to smash several metal-enforced crates in one go and release a shock wave.
Guide Dang It: The secret levels in the third time travel area almost certainly needed to be performed either by accident, or with a guide. One had you crash into a specific sign in a motorcycle level, and another had a trigger where you had to get to a bonus gem level, and then die on a certain enemy, which - instead of killing you - would take you to a secret stage.
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Tiny dons some customized Roman armor for his boss battle, but otherwise his apparel hasn't changed much. Dingodile wears only a pair of yellow trousers. Oh yeah, and that flame pack on his back.
Hammerspace: After getting his Bazooka, Crash keeps it in his back pocket, despite it being almost twice the size of him.
Heroic Mime: Crash, of course, but strangely Coco becomes The Voiceless as well, presumably because she is no longer an NPC, although she doesn't even have her own grunts unlike Crash (sans the Japanese version). Also, an inversion of the Suddenly Voiced.
Hub Level: A modification of the old Warp Room system - instead of six isolated warp chambers, five of which could only be accessed by a platform in the middle of each room, this one is a single large Warp Room called the Time Twister, with five chambers arranged around a central spoke within a roughly 180 degree arc. The central hub has a load/save screen and five gates which lead to a Time Travel area. In each Time Travel area, there are five levels (plus a boss level once it's been unlocked), and defeating one area's boss will unlock the next area. Also, there is a platform which appears at the center of the hub which takes Crash to a secret Warp Room. However, the platform needs to be unlocked before it can be accessed.
Humongous Mecha: N.Gin pilots two of these for the penultimate boss battle. This time, Rock Beats Laser just isn't going to cut it.
Idle Animation: Leave Crash for a while and he plays with his yo-yo or does the Crash Dance.
Indy Escape: Crash's response to being chased by the triceratops.
Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Really Egregious in this game. Come on - modern day crates in the prehistoric era? Underwater? On a motorcycle racetrack?
Iron Butt Monkey: Crash, if you keep dying while playing him. If you're doing this on purpose just to see The Many Deaths of You, please stop for the poor bandicoot's sake!
Killer Rabbit: Those nice monkeys in the ancient Egypt levels kill Crash by throwing paint bombs on him. At least you get to jump on his head in retribution later.
Large Ham: Doctor Neo Cortex, so much.
Law of One Hundred: As usual, collecting one hundred wumpa fruit will earn Crash a new life.
MacGuffin Delivery Service: Part of the Morton's Fork Crash ends up being this at the end. Thank goodness for Take a Third Option, eh?
Made of Iron: Cortex takes a lot of punishment during the Final Boss.
Mad Scientist: Cortex, N.Tropy and N.Gin all qualify for this in some capacity.
The Many Deaths of You: Improved over 2 a lot. So much that you're more likely to see Crash being split to halves, kissed by a frog, scrapped to atoms, blown up like a balloon, bashed by a club right into the camera's direction and lots of death scenes like that, rather than him turning into angel.
Meaningful Name: Dingodile is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a half-dingo, half-crocodile hybrid. Mix-and-Match Critters, however, usually don't wield flamethrowers. N. Tropy's name is a pun on the word entropy, a physics concept which means, in layman's terms, disorder, especially in relation to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Mook Maker: Crash gets a glimpse of one in the secret Warp Room.
Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: N. Tropy is the third in the trio of Doctors.
Morton's Fork: "And in fact, we're furious! But, it seems you have overlooked one small detail, you little orange delivery-boy! Now that you have gathered all the crystals, all we have to do... is take them from you!" Crash just can't win, can he?
Nintendo Hard: Even despite it doesn't have secrets as Guide Dang It headdesky as 2, it's still pretty hard to get 100% completion here, not even talking about extra 105%, thanks to multiple the time trials. Yes, you can get a hold of the Fruit Bazooka and much more faster running. And yes, you can restart the time trial as much as you want. But that won't really make the amount of hours spent on getting all the gold relics less ludicrous.
No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Since the gameplay was lifted from Crash 2, this is hardly a surprise. Even the special levels feature this in some capacity.
Nostalgia Level: Tiny Tiger's boss fight and N. Gin's mecha battle are thematically reminiscent of their boss battles from the previous game, just cranked Up to Eleven now.
One Bandicoot Army: Seriously, think a moment about how many more Mooks Crash beats up in this game.
Pass Through the Rings: The level "Rings of Power" involves Crash flying his bi-plane through them in a race against three other planes. Spin Attack the rings to get a speed boost, but watch out for the Nitro crates on the balloons. The name of the level is actually a Shout-Out to a previous Naughty Dog title.
Plot Coupon: The game almost entirely revolves around collecting crystals and gems and relics.
Power Crystal: Obviously the crystals themselves.
Power Trio: Crash Bandicoot, Coco Bandicoot and Aku Aku.
Powerup Mount: Pura in the levels based on the Great Wall.
Puzzle Boss: Cortex can be a bit of a poser for newcomer players when you realize that he can't be hurt by Crash's regular attacks.
Pyromaniac: Dingodile enjoys toasting things with that monstrous flamethrower of his. So much so, in fact, that he chuckles when he aims it at a passing penguin, the sadist.

"Bring out the butter; I'm gonna make TOAST!"

Remember the New Guy?: Where did Aku Aku come from? Granted, he was technically present in the past games, but only as a gameplay feature. As a speaking role, this is pretty much his debut.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted with the cute baby T. Rex in the dinosaur levels. Played straight with the pterosaurs and the triceratopses in those same levels.
Save Game Limits: The game can only be saved at the Warp Room load/save screen, but if you pause the game you can quit a level so that you can reach any Save Point.
Sdrawkcab Name: Uka Uka, of course, since he's the Evil Twin of Aku Aku.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Uka Uka was sealed away in a temple on one of the three islands a long time ago to prevent him from wreaking havoc on the world. He is released at the beginning of the game, by no less than a falling piece of Cortex's space station, which via a series of events was destroyed with Crash's help last game. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
Sea Mine: Blue bombs with skull and crossbones markings on them are floating around in the jet ski levels.
Secret Level: There are three secret levels and two secret level sidepaths which can only be accessed by a secret Warp Room, which itself can't be accessed except via a secret platform.
Sequel Hook: Subverted - the ending pretty much makes it near improbable for the main villains to ever return, but return they did. Since none of the PlayStation 2 sequels address this point, it's pretty much left to Wild Mass Guessing. If you write them off as Fanon Discontinuity, on the other hand, then this is the canonical ending of the main series, with Crash Team Racing as a spinoff.
Shout-Out: "Tomb Wader", anyone?
Sibling Yin-Yang: Lessened between Crash and Coco as both are now Action Hero bandicoots, and Coco's genius with computers is not referenced. Aku Aku and Uka Uka, however, are polar opposites.
Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ice Age arena where you fight Dingodile. That's it. It's not even a very big level. Given the heavy prominence of snowy levels in the previous game, this comes as quite a stark contrast with Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
Space Zone: The future levels and the fourth boss battle.
Spanner in the Works: Crash derails the villains' plans by simply having beaten up Tropy earlier, which lets the time machine go havoc.
Stop Helping Me!: While Crash fights Cortex, Aku Aku keeps Uka Uka busy by dueling with him. Their battle can actually kill Crash if he gets caught in the crossfire, and is in fact the main obstacle of the fight.
Super Drowning Skills: Even though he can swim (with a heavy oxygen pack), Crash will still drown instantly in non-deep-sea levels.
Take Your Time: After beating N. Tropy, it's anybody's guess when the Time Twister machine will malfunction through lack of maintenance, since N. Tropy was the only one who could keep it under control. This has no effect on the gameplay urgency whatsoever.
Temple of Doom: The Egyptian levels have this in spades, complete with elaborate Death Trap set-ups.
Temporary Platform: A technological version of this appears in the future levels.
This Cannot Be!: Uka Uka does this in the real ending when the Time Twister finally goes mad and swallows him up.
This Is the Part Where: Cortex is supposed to be angry after all the crystals were collected by Crash before his minions did. Much Lampshade Hanging follows.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Arabian swordsmen from the medieval Arabia levels continuously throw blades in a straight line, one after the other, even when Crash cannot possibly be hurt by them.
Tomorrowland: Crash gets to visit futuristic levels in the fourth and fifth time travel areas, as well as in the secret hub.
Took a Level in Badass: Coco Bandicoot, who goes from a computer hacker extraordinaire to a full-blooded action hero, like her brother.
Trampoline Tummy: You can do this with the double-headed Lab Assistants in "Double Header".
Transforming Mecha: N. Gin's mecha.
Trick Boss: Doctor N. Gin starts in a robot not too different from the one he used in the game before (he even tells the player he'd "made a few modifications" to the old robot he used in Crash 2), which uses similar attacks to the old one. Needless to say, it goes down after you shoot the same areas, only for it to flee, and dock with a much larger spacecraft, complete with tougher weaponry and a new life bar.
The Unfought: Uka Uka is the Big Bad and you never get to fight him. Instead, while Aku Aku keeps him busy, you have to take out Cortex (who'll drag Uka Uka with him).
Video Game Lives: The rules of the last game carry on over to this one.
Wasted Song: N.Gin's boss theme is pretty good, but you'll have no chance hearing it among all the explosions and pulse blasts going on during the fight.
- It got a second life in Crash Bash, where it's used a lot; even the Final Boss uses it.
A Worldwide Punomenon: Naughty Dog sure like their level names.
You Fool!: Uka Uka, especially after the third boss battle.
You Have Failed Me...: Subverted: Cortex looks like he's in for one of these at the beginning, but since it was Cortex who indirectly freed him, Uka Uka spares his life.

Uka Uka: But, since your bumbling has managed to set me free, I am feeling... generous.