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Dan Arey, a former Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog developer who worked on the second and third games in the series, praised the first game in a 1996 Retro Gamer magazine interview. Prior to joining Naughty Dog, he talked about how the game maintained its unique identity in the world of 3D platformers, even when faced with the groundbreaking influence of Super Mario 64. Arey emphasized that while Super Mario 64 embraced open-ended levels, programmer Andy Gavin and director Jason Rubin designed Crash Bandicoot to adhere to a more old-school, level-based structure while adding 3D depth to its platforming challenges by "going down 3D roads with occasional 2D side-wave elements, but everything was very focussed in terms of mechanics". Arey also expressed admiration for the game's technical achievements even before he joined Naughty Dog, which likely soon motivated him to do so:
"We saw some early demos when I was at Crystal Dynamics, and we were asking ourselves how they were getting so many polygons on the PlayStation. What they had done was pre-calculate the polygons you couldn't see from a fixed-camera viewpoint, so it looked like there were many more polygons being pushed on the system than ever before."
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/7/16418.jpg)
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In the opening cutscene, just as Crash starts to break through a window and out of Dr. Cortex's lab, Cortex's model (still in a running animation from the prior scene) can be spotted floating in the air in the far distance for a few frames before vanishing entirely.
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Franchise)
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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.
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Franchise)
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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
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot: Warped (Game), Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (Game)
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/6/13612.png)
This can be achieved through tool assistance or through human play by building up the bounce combo on a respawning enemy or more ideally an Iron Arrow Crate, and then continuing the combo on enemies to start reaping these items. Preserving a bounce combo can be done by spinning and crouching right before hitting the ground, as the combo count is lost when Crash enters the standing or walking animations.
The attached image features a list of items that can be earned through this glitch, as well as the requirements for glitched higher percentage runs of each game, created by speedrunners dass and ThaRixer, the latter of whom originally utilized the glitch to dramatically lower the speedrun record of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back in 2012.
TASVideos page with a 2017 speedrun explaining the glitch:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210228163254/http://tasvideos.org/5383S.html
Current Any% speedrun world record as of November 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzdDBqeiAn4
Former Any% speedrun world record by the same runner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCHHKuSNdPg
ThaRixer video on this glitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Z-jygMyE4&ab_channel=ThaRixer
https://web.archive.org/web/20210228163254/http://tasvideos.org/5383S.html
Current Any% speedrun world record as of November 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzdDBqeiAn4
Former Any% speedrun world record by the same runner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCHHKuSNdPg
ThaRixer video on this glitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Z-jygMyE4&ab_channel=ThaRixer
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The removed level "Stormy Ascent" was, according to Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin, made as an homage to the Castle Wall level in Wizards & Warriors.
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![Attachment](/media/thumbs/5/11736.jpg)
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According to director Jason Rubin, Crash Bandicoot utilized a system of dynamic difficulty, making various tweaks based on how well or how poorly the player was doing. Many of these tweaks were made to facilitate more inexperienced players, such as providing more lives and Wumpa Fruit to players running low on lives, giving Aku-Aku Masks after losing 5 lives, and slowing down boulders with each lost life.
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In the levels "Cortex Power" and "Toxic Waste", there are two enemies that appear to be genetically-altered gangster potoroos, similar to the boss character, Pinstripe Potoroo. This is unusual as no other genetically-altered animals appear as common enemies in the game.
This also implies that Dr. Cortex created a larger gang of potoroo enforcers, but because Pinstripe has rarely appeared in later installments, this has never been elaborated.
This also implies that Dr. Cortex created a larger gang of potoroo enforcers, but because Pinstripe has rarely appeared in later installments, this has never been elaborated.
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According to developer Andy Gavin, Naughty Dog wanted Crash to animate similarly to the old Looney Tunes cartoons with squash-and-stretch physics. This was achieved with "vertex animation" which allowed 3-4 points of articulation as opposed the more common and stiffer "skeletal animation" which only used single points.
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During the level "Generator Room", there are multiple monitors that show Dr. Cortex's face. Upon closer inspection, however, the capital "N" on Cortex's forehead is missing.
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When coming up with the idea of how the game should play, the developers decided to turn the screen so you would play running in and out rather than left and right. They jokingly call this the "Sonic's Ass" game since you are always looking at Crash's back.
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Ripper Roo's laugh is the same laugh as the Hyena from Lady and the Tramp, just shortened.
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