The ramshackle cast halfway between Chuck Jones and Yuji Naka in one page: a quick guide to the characters of Crash Bandicoot
We have already examined the curiosities about Crash Bandicoot, but in this “guide”(Among many quotation marks, we speak only of the narrative compendium in reality) we will talk about the multicolored cast of characters seen on the Wumpa Islands. There isn’t much, actually, that harks back to our planet’s southern hemisphere, save maybe a character or two. However, the cross between the Looney Tunes and Dr Moreau’s Island has many distinctive faces. Many of which return, in more or less important roles, just today in It’s About Time su PS5, Xbox Series X/S e Nintendo Switch. Let’s get it inside!
Edgy
It is certainly no mystery that, following the Crash Bandicoot trilogy (plus CTR), the development team Naughty Dog has moved on to darker cast of characters than we will see in our guide. Just think of Jak from the second franchise created under the aegis of Sony, Jak & Daxter. After the silence in the first chapter, his vocal debut in the second game was an angry “I’ll Kill Praxis!”. Things have always been done more serious and mature, later, with Uncharted and The Last of Us. However, even the justification of the cartoon-style characters of the franchise currently in the hands of Activision boasted a deconstructive streak.
Making a narrative convention plausible by adding a touch of realism that clashes with the context is what fiction enthusiasts call deconstruction. And the world of Crash, despite the homage to the cartoon world evident in the footage that should have been part of the original game (above), has gone far beyond what the Nintendo and Sega mascots did at the time. Anthropomorphic animals are the result of mutations, one of them is clearly a corrupt gangster armed with a drum gun, and the nuclear waste from the experiments ends up directly in the sea. But!
Crash Bandicoot – Character Casting Guide
The very first Crash Bandicoot boasts a clear cut in the themes between the three main worlds that compose it, and as you will see in this guide to “who’s who” this also involves the cast of the characters present. The island where the protagonist lands is home to a tribe of aborigines, the second world consists of one hostile and unexplored nature, while the third is where Cortex has corrupted every nook and cranny of his surroundings with his own machinery. The characters, as you see above, are the following.
- Crash Bandicoot: A peramelide (a species chosen by Naughty Dog for its rarity in the fauna of Oceania, rather than opting for more direct inspirations like Warner Bros. Tasmanian devil) mutated, which should have led Cortex to world domination. Gifted with the innate ability to break any wooden crate (and throw enemies away) with a violent one turnaround, with good leg agility and a sense of adventure, Crash never backs down when there is the opportunity to have fun… which, in his case, is saving the world.
- I i: Spirit of one benevolent sorcerer of the place left in a tribal mask. Aku Aku understood Crash’s intent unlike the aborigines of the first island. Appears in the appropriate crates, to take a lethal blow in place of the protagonist. Collecting three grants temporary invincibility.
- Tawna Bandicoot: An exemplary bandicoot feminine, exposed to the Evolv-O-Ray for the mutation, hence the handsome anthropomorphic features, but not yet subject to the hypnosis of the Cortex Vortex. In addition to appearing in the bonus levels and playing a role of mere gimmick, Tawna she never saw herself again up to Crash Boom Bang for Nintendo DS, before returning to the remake. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled made it playable for the first time. One of his appears in It’s About Time alternative version, with its own levels.
- Papu Papu: The first boss, Papu Papu is in charge of the aborigines that make up most of Crash’s enemies in the early levels. The clash with him is perhaps the most easy of the saga. Not for nothing, he needs two more hits to be defeated in the Japanese version. He returns in CTR as an unlockable character, in Crash Bash as the first boss, and in Crash Twinsanity boasts a minor role in the storyline.
- Ripper Roo: A kangaroo changed and made mentally unstable from the Cortex Vortex. He wears a straitjacket, made useless by the razor-sharp nails on his feet. Respecting the secret (otherwise non-canonical) ending of the first game, he reappears in the second after transforming the top of his personal waterfall into an elegant library. In the original games, he reuses the same laugh as the hyenas de Lilli and the Vagabond. CTR’s first “playable boss”.
- Koala Kong: Described by Naughty Dog members themselves as a cross between a koala, the films of Sylvester Stallone and many, but many steroids, Koala Kong is the first “sinewy lackey” of the saga. It appears only in the first episode of the original trilogy, only to be exhumed in Crash Bash. Outside of the remake, his return was in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, where for the first time speaks.
- Pinstripe Potoroo: Another rare animal from the southern hemisphere (the potoroo), Pinstripe manages the company under the name “Pinstripelli Potorotti” facade of the Cortex Power and Gas Company while its boss aims to dominate the world. Living homage to Al Pacino in the movie Scarface, he just bends over when the battle is over (in the remake he faints). The “stealth-like” mechanics of the fight with him (now present in many shooters) does not appear in other levels. Pinstripe later only returned to CTR.
- Dr. Nitrus Brio: Abbreviated as N. Brio (“embryo”, embryo), the chemist was Cortex’s first right-hand man, as well as the main proponent ofaccelerated evolution mutants. For this reason, declaring himself “sworn enemy” of Cortex in the second chapter, it is he himself who puts the first three bosses on the hero’s path while the latter collects the crystals in the various levels. His return to a lead role was on the Crash Bash roster, while in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled he joined the rest of the gang.
- Dr. Neo Periwinkle Cortex: The genius (misunderstood) of evil is the (initial) fulcrum of all major conflicts, and has alternated between two different right arms. The first was Nitrus Brio, while the second, N. Gin, provided him with the means to operate safely from space. It feeds a deep hatred (but mostly the result ofexasperation) against Crash, because he was the only one to cut off his plans for world domination in the bud. After being sentenced to relive his growth starting from the diaper, Cortex returns in It’s About Time more vengeful than ever … more or less.
Crash Bandicoot 2 – Guide to the cast of characters
Focusing mainly on the new characters in this part of our guide, let’s see who has joined the cast of the sequel Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
- Coco Bandicoot: Crash’s younger sister (or, as It’s About Time suggests, the original bandicoot before the mutation) and antithesis in all respects of Tawna, Coco was born at the request of the Japanese branch of Sony. Instead of the sex appeal bordering on the parody of the other female figure (later semi-officially “ran away with Pinstripe”) of the saga we have a supporting actor with a more modest stature and a more pronounced use ofintellect. Once she escapes from Cortex’s labs (It’s About Time), she joins Crash to live peacefully on the Wumpa Islands. Despite himself, his laptop’s limited battery life sets the events of the second game in motion, separating the two (remake excluded).
- Polar: A puppy of polar bear with canine tendencies, Polar replaces the boar from the first game acting mount favorite of the protagonist. His good-natured charisma earned him a cameo in the third game and in Twinsanity, a pilot role in CTR, a whole range of minigames in Crash Bash and, first in XS and Fusion on Game Boy Advance and then in It’s About Time, the return to its more classic role.
- Komodo brothers: Due draghi on Komodo mutated by Nitrus Brio. Their purpose was to stop Crash’s journey between the second transporter room and the third. These two reptiles, namely Komodo Joe and the most corpulent Komodo Moe, they love both saber shooting and saber shooting. Despite this, the two circus performers share the same life bar, although it is only necessary to hit Joe once on the ground. The latter returns only in CTR as an unlockable boss, and both in the Nitro-Fueled remake and in Crash Bash his brother Moe comes to give him a hand.
- Tiny Tiger: A Tasmanian tiger which in effect plays the same role as Koala Kong. Despite this, Tiny boasts at least an ounce of extra gray matter. His tactics in battle, however, leave something to be desired: he does nothing but jump to the last point touched by the protagonist. The discarded cutscenes from the first game (top video) suggest that, in reality, its debut was already planned for the first game.
- Dr. N. Gin: A kind of cross between Terminator and Batman’s enemy Two faces (with the stature of the Penguin), with N. Gin we have the second pun by one crazy scientist: “Engine”, or engine. Not surprisingly, a rocket accident (permanently stuck in his skullcap) made him a little unstable (but never as unstable as Ripper Roo). In combat, N. Gin sports the same strategies as Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik, Sonic’s historical opponent: mecha, mecha and more mecha. He returns, sharing for the first time with N. Brio the position of boss, in It’s About Time.
Crash Bandicoot 3 – Character Casting Guide
As a bottleneck regarding the expansions to the cast of the characters in this guide we have the new arrivals of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
- Uka Uka: Evil twin of Aku Aku and real source of Neo Cortex’s evil plans. The 100% completion of the previous game gave N. Brio the means to blow up the Cortex space station, but the resulting rubble ended up randomly on the very prison where Aku Aku banished his brother (on the third island, that one). of Cortex itself) eons ago. The desire for revenge wasn’t enough to get him over the forces of good, and at the end of the events of Warped he found himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between the baby versions of Cortex and N. Tropy.
- Pure: The new mount was supposed to be a panda for the protagonist on the Chinese wall, but the role passed to the cub of Tiger Pure, which Coco was more suited to (not necessarily in that order). A real footnote, but it appears in the artwork above and we wanted to include it.
- Dingodile: A cross between a dingo it’s a crocodile, Dingodile aims to bring as much Aussie into one character as possible. Between the reptilian tail, the teeth… well, the reptilian one, and the flamethrower on his back, the intent to create a Bowser counterpart for the former Sony house mascot is evident. In the secret ending of CTR he talks about his predilection for the breeding of hybrids, including the “cangu-rilla” which in Crash Bash was implemented as Rilla Roo. In It’s About Time he returns as a surprise playable character, having retired to a quiet life in the swampy surroundings of New Orleans.
- Penta Penguin: We wouldn’t want to mention him as a background character barely featured in two scenes, but recently the N. Sane Trilogy has retroactively promoted …