Franchise: Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Crash Tag Team Racing
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Crash Boom Bang!
Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
Crash Twinsanity
Crash Team Rumble
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
Crash Landed
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
Crash Bash
Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
Crash Nitro Kart
Crash Team Racing
Crash Tag Team Racing
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Crash Nitro Kart
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Game)
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One early concept for Dr. Neo Cortex was to have him sporadically break the fourth wall and tell the player how unfair he is cast as the villain, the clichés that it presents, and his hopes to break the status quo of the "defeated supervillain" ending.
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/7/16912.jpg)
In games like Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled and Crash Team Rumble, Cortex has an unlockable skin in which he is dressed up like a clown. Humorously in Nitro-Fueled, Cortex’s victory animation features him with a dismal glare.
Willy the Wombat production bible:
https://archive.org/details/willythewombat_concept/page/n9/mode/1up?view=theater
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled clown costume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d26Fl-KS3Uw
Crash Team Rumble clown costume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08oTw5zFrmw
https://archive.org/details/willythewombat_concept/page/n9/mode/1up?view=theater
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled clown costume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d26Fl-KS3Uw
Crash Team Rumble clown costume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08oTw5zFrmw
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/8/18825.jpg)
However, the only games that feature the design in-game for the Japanese localizations are the Japanese-developed Crash Boom Bang!, and Crash Tag Team Racing, which had a skin system that allowed Japanese Crash to appear abroad as well. A good chunk of Crash's costumes in Crash Tag Team Racing also got Japanese versions, though these combination costumes were not included in the Western release.
Explanation of box art changes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbusKVM37Fw?t=68
Image gallery of assorted JP Crash design appearances:
https://crashbandicoot.fandom.com/wiki/Japanese_Crash
Localizations:
https://tcrf.net/Crash_Boom_Bang!
https://tcrf.net/Crash_Tag_Team_Racing#Japanese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbusKVM37Fw?t=68
Image gallery of assorted JP Crash design appearances:
https://crashbandicoot.fandom.com/wiki/Japanese_Crash
Localizations:
https://tcrf.net/Crash_Boom_Bang!
https://tcrf.net/Crash_Tag_Team_Racing#Japanese
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/8/18212.png)
Allegedly, Activision also wanted to license Super Mario out for a cameo in a Crash Team Racing-themed episode, something the team found ridiculous and made them believe Activision was not taking the project seriously. The series would have also featured the Land Shark from the cancelled 2010 Crash Team Racing pitch.
Pilot for the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocNFDQgeG2k
General details:
https://crashynews.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/the-crash-bandicoot-n-sane-cartoon-show-of-activision-and-amazon-is-cancelled/
Kopp on the cartoon:
https://crashynews.wordpress.com/2022/11/02/linked-cartoon-brew-interviews-bill-kopp-with-tidbits-about-the-cancelled-amazon-crash-bandicoot-cartoon-tv-show/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocNFDQgeG2k
General details:
https://crashynews.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/the-crash-bandicoot-n-sane-cartoon-show-of-activision-and-amazon-is-cancelled/
Kopp on the cartoon:
https://crashynews.wordpress.com/2022/11/02/linked-cartoon-brew-interviews-bill-kopp-with-tidbits-about-the-cancelled-amazon-crash-bandicoot-cartoon-tv-show/
subdirectory_arrow_right Spyro the Dragon (Franchise)
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Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon have both shared two voice actors. Carlos Alazraqui voiced Crash in a promotional trailer for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Spyro in the original Spyro the Dragon. Jess Harnell voiced Spyro in Spryo: A Hero's Tail and Crash since Crash Tag Team Racing.
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Game)
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/7/15819.png)
Reddit post of developer bible pages:
https://www.reddit.com/r/crashbandicoot/comments/c9v61m/just_a_reminder_that_canonically_dr_neo_cortex/
Later version of the "Project Wombat" developer bible:
https://imgur.com/a/NwNKi
Video evidence of this same later version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkG8HybBREY
https://www.reddit.com/r/crashbandicoot/comments/c9v61m/just_a_reminder_that_canonically_dr_neo_cortex/
Later version of the "Project Wombat" developer bible:
https://imgur.com/a/NwNKi
Video evidence of this same later version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkG8HybBREY
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Originally, Nitros Oxide was going to be a human scientist obsessed with speed. This tied into an early plot in which Oxide planned to make the world spin faster and faster until the end of time using a machine called the "X Device". The idea was dropped early on in development and Oxide became an alien set on conquering Earth.
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In 2014, a fossil from an extinct species of peramelemorphia (the order which includes bandicoots and bilbies) was officially described and given the scientific name 'Crash bandicoot'. The scientists responsible state in their report that it was named after the video game character, and also in reference to how it was the start of a new lineage of modern bandicoots that 'crashed' through to dominate the ecosystem.
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/4/8565.jpg)
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Naughty Dog decided that the original Crash Bandicoot games would be exclusively released on the PlayStation due to the Saturn not being strong enough for their desires, and they considered developing for the Nintendo 64 would be far too expensive to publish games on due to their cartridge based system.
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/3/5637.png)
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Landed (Game)
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/3/5435.png)
The game was cancelled in 2010 after two years of development. After Activision acquired the rights to publish the franchise, they decided to lay off the entire Radical Entertainment studio behind Crash Landed. Activision's decision to not pass the project to a different studio suddenly halted its progress forever.
The name Crash Landed would later be given to the name of a level in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time a decade later, of which according to Toys for Bob's Felix Artifex was intentionally named after the cancelled game.
Information about cancelled game:
http://www.crashmania.net/crash-landed/
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs48dong34w
Tweet by Felix Artifex from Toys for Bob: https://twitter.com/synchra/status/1316302399758200832
http://www.crashmania.net/crash-landed/
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs48dong34w
Tweet by Felix Artifex from Toys for Bob: https://twitter.com/synchra/status/1316302399758200832
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The character Nina Cortex was created by Traveller's Tales Oxford Studios for Crash Nitro Kart. However, Vicarious Visions was assigned to develop the game instead, so TT-Oxford planned to debut Nina in Twinsanity. However, when screenshots of Crash Fusion (developed by Vicarious Visions) revealed that Nina would appear in that game, TT-Oxford was shocked, as they had not been asked or even notified that their work would be used in another game, which would release even before their own.
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After Crash Tag Team Racing was transferred to Radical Entertainment, Traveller's Tales Oxford began working on their own game starring Cortex. They put forth several proposals, but were not given the go-ahead to develop any of them.
Prospective titles were "Cortex Chaos" and "The All-New Cortex Show", and gameplay may have involved him ordering clones or robots around, similar to Pikmin. Cortex would have been kicked out of the Evil Scientist league for "fraternizing" with Crash during the events of Twinsanity, and the other evil doctors, led by N. Tropy, would have been the primary antagonists.
Prospective titles were "Cortex Chaos" and "The All-New Cortex Show", and gameplay may have involved him ordering clones or robots around, similar to Pikmin. Cortex would have been kicked out of the Evil Scientist league for "fraternizing" with Crash during the events of Twinsanity, and the other evil doctors, led by N. Tropy, would have been the primary antagonists.
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The concept of Trash Bandicoot (now known as Fake Crash) came from some cheap looking knock off Crash Bandicoot dolls. These dolls had huge eye brows and a giant overbite.
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According to Andy Gavin, the creator of Crash Bandicoot, Dr. Neo Cortex is based on Brain from Pinky and the Brain.
"I remember it clearly. The four of us were eating at this mediocre Italian near Universal and I had this idea of an evil genius villain with a big head. Obviously brainy cartoon villains have big heads. He was all about his attitude and his minions. Video games need lots of minions. Jason had become very fond of Pinky and the Brain and we imagined a more malevolent Brain with minions like the weasels in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A villain, all full of himself, unable to conceive of ever doing anything the simple way, but constantly (in his eyes) betrayed by the incompetence of his henchmen.
I put on my silly villain voice and intoned, "If you had three neurons between you, you couldn't make a triangle!" With this attitude, his name, Doctor Neo Cortex, popped instantly into our heads."
"I remember it clearly. The four of us were eating at this mediocre Italian near Universal and I had this idea of an evil genius villain with a big head. Obviously brainy cartoon villains have big heads. He was all about his attitude and his minions. Video games need lots of minions. Jason had become very fond of Pinky and the Brain and we imagined a more malevolent Brain with minions like the weasels in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A villain, all full of himself, unable to conceive of ever doing anything the simple way, but constantly (in his eyes) betrayed by the incompetence of his henchmen.
I put on my silly villain voice and intoned, "If you had three neurons between you, you couldn't make a triangle!" With this attitude, his name, Doctor Neo Cortex, popped instantly into our heads."
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/1/695.jpg)
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According to Naughty Dog, Dr. Neo Cortex uses Rogaine, but only on the sides of his head.