The evolution of Crash Bandicoot games

In a secluded archipelago 300 miles (480 km) west of Tasmania, the mad scientist Doctor Neo Cortex uses his “Evolvo-Ray” to genetically alter the local wildlife into an army of soldiers for the purpose of world domination. Among these soldiers is an eastern barred bandicoot named Crash, who Cortex selects to be the leader of his army. The day before Crash is subjected to the “Cortex Vortex”, a machine intended to brainwash him, he becomes attached to a female bandicoot named Tawna. Crash is rejected by the Cortex Vortex and is cast by Cortex to the ocean below his castle. As Cortex prepares Tawna to be used in Crash’s place, Crash washes up on a smaller island and resolves to rescue Tawna and defeat Cortex. He is aided in his mission by Aku Aku, a witch doctor spirit who acts as the guardian of the islands.

The shattered remains of Doctor Neo Cortex’s space station crash-land on Earth and set free a powerful entity known as Uka Uka, the mastermind of Cortex’s previous schemes. He regroups with Cortex and additionally recruits Doctor Nefarious Tropy, the inventor of a device named the Time Twisting Machine which will allow Cortex’s minions to collect the Crystals and Gems from their original places in time. At the home of the Bandicoots, Aku Aku senses Uka Uka’s return and informs the Bandicoots that Uka Uka is his evil twin brother, whom he had locked away long ago to defend the planet. He then leads the Bandicoots to the Time Twisting Machine, which they can use to collect the Crystals and Gems before Cortex does so. Crash and Coco venture throughout time and defeat such adversaries such as Tiny Tiger, Dingodile and Doctor N. Gin.

In the Adventure mode, one or two human players must win all 28 mini-games and retrieve trophies, gems and crystals by accomplishing certain challenges presented for each mini-game. The mini-games are accessed from a series of “Warp Room” hub areas, with the first Warp Room consisting of four mini-games. A trophy is won by achieving victory in three rounds of any given mini-game, after which the player(s) can return to the mini-game and receive a gem or crystal by winning one round under special conditions. When a minimum number of trophies, gems and crystals have been won, the Warp Room’s “Boss Arena” becomes accessible, in which the player(s) must defeat a boss character by depleting his health. Winning a Warp Room’s Boss Arena will grant entry to the next Warp Room. When three of the game’s four Boss Arenas have been won, mini-game challenges become available in which the player(s) can win gold or platinum Relics by defeating advanced computer-controlled opponents. The Adventure mode is completed when all trophies, gems, crystals and relics have been won.

The setting of Crash of the Titans features twenty levels. Each level is referred to as an “episode”, and each has a distinctive subtitle that is usually a punning reference to popular culture (such as “The Blizzard of Claws”). Like the first Crash Bandicoot game, episodes must be played in order, although the player can replay any episode that has been completed. The game moves through five major themes taking place on Crash’s homeland, the Wumpa Islands. The story starts in the jungle near Crash’s residence and leads to an ancient temple. Later in the game, Crash travels through a wood-cutting and mining area and a land flowing with lava that features giant steel mosquitoes sucking minerals out of the ground. The next few episodes take place on an artillery-bombarded beach, where Crash infiltrates Doctor N. Gin’s missile factory, which resembles the Statue of Liberty. The penultimate area is a gigantic tree located in the middle of the island. This tree holds up an entire house owned by Uka Uka, one of the major antagonists of the series. The final moments of the game take place in the antagonist’s Liberace-style lair, and finally inside the Doominator.

The game is played in a free-roaming format rarely seen in previous games, although the DS version is played as a 2-D beat ’em up as a means of utilizing the handheld’s hardware to its greatest capacity. The opening events of the game take place on Wumpa Island. Crash’s house is accessible here and can be used by the player to access skins, concept art, enemy bios and cutscenes. Surrounding environments consist of societies inhabited by friendly Titans, including the Ratcicle Kingdom, the Rhinoroller Desert and the Sludge Junkyard. Other areas include the Evil Public School, attended by the main antagonist’s niece, and Mount Grimly, where the evil mask Uka Uka is held. The final events of the game take place in the Space Head, a space station recycled from junkyard parts that is operated by Doctor Neo Cortex.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the Crash Bandicoot series; Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped. Each game features Crash Bandicoot traversing various levels in order to stop Doctor Neo Cortex from taking over the world. Like in the original games, Crash uses spinning and jumping techniques to defeat enemies, smash crates, and collect items such as Wumpa Fruits, extra lives and protective Aku Aku masks. The trilogy adds new features across all three games, including unified checkpoints, pause menus and save systems, including both manual and automatic saving, time trials, which were first introduced in Warped, and the ability to play most levels in each game as Crash’s sister, Coco. It also features remastered audio and cutscenes, including new recordings of the games’ dialogue given by the franchise’s more recent voice actors.

Following their defeat at the hands of Crash in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Uka Uka attempts to liberate himself and Doctors Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy from their prison in the past. His latest effort rips open a hole in the fabric of space and time, and causes him to pass out. Cortex and N. Tropy swiftly escape, abandoning Uka Uka, and discover that the rift they use links their universe to the rest of the multiverse, and decide to make use of it to conquer all dimensions. To ensure success, the pair create the Rift Generator, a generator capable of opening other space-time rifts and recruit aid from Doctors N. Gin and Nitrus Brio to provide an army in anticipation of their enemies’ interference. Aku Aku, Uka Uka’s twin brother, senses the disturbance in space and time and quickly rushes Crash to N. Sanity Island’s main peak. Upon arriving, he comes across Lani-Loli, whom Aku Aku recognizes as one of the Quantum Masks – four ancient witch doctor masks that have great power over space and time, and who would only appear if something has opened up the multiverse. Lani spots a rift and suspects there is trouble, leading to Crash and his sister Coco agreeing to follow him across the multiverse and find the other Quantum Masks, while combating the chaos Cortex is creating.