Trivia / Crash Bandicoot (1996)

• Acting for Two:
  • Brendan O'Brien voiced Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nitrus Brio.
  • Producer David Siller has an Uncredited Role as the voice of Aku Aku and Papu Papu.
• Dummied Out:
  • "Stormy Ascent", the harder version of "Slippery Climb", was taken out at the last minute for being too difficult and because the Bonus Round was bugged, with not enough time to fix it. It still exists in a mostly complete form (everything but the bonus level) and can be played with a Gameshark code. Over 20 years later, it finally got an official release in the form of DLC for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
  • The prototype version included "POW" crates, explosive crates that destroyed surrounding boxes without harming Crash. They were removed in the final version, presumably because they were redundant with the TNT and had very little use outside of auto-collecting the other crates’ contents.
• Executive Meddling: Universal wanted the main character to be named Wez, Wezzy, Wazzel the Wombat, or even Ozzy the Otzel (possibly to make him the video game equivalent of Woody Woodpecker), but Naughty Dog demanded to keep his name Crash Bandicoot or they would stop development altogether. What's interesting is that a modified form of the name Otzel was used in Jak and Daxter as the species of Daxter (Ottsel).
• Hostility on the Set: During development, David Siller's relationship with Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin was frequently strained. It eventually got to the point where Siller was removed from production after he hired Josh Mancell of Mutato Muzika to write the music.
• In Memoriam: The closing credits end with a dedication to the memory of Tae Min Kim, who played The Dragon in Way of the Warrior.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Aside from the creation of Crash being vague and complicated, Universal Interactive constantly tried to take credit for making the game. Naughty Dog wasn't even allowed to appear at E3 and the press release artwork didn't have their name or logo anywhere on there but in retaliation, Naughty Dog created their own press release of the game's demo in front of E3 with their name on it.
  • In this article, the game's producer David Siller was in talks with Universal Interactive to make a third installment to Aero the Acro-Bat as a 3D platformer, and considered making him a mascot as well. Game director Jason Rubin saw this as a betrayal and was furious at this decision.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Word of God: David Siller's involvement in the game was uncovered in his public Facebook posts.
• Working Title:
  • "Sonic's Ass Game," since the concept was a Sonic or Donkey Kong-styled 2D Mascot Platformer, but flipped on the axis so that going forward always has you staring at the protagonist's backside.
  • The game and the main character was originally named Willy the Wombat. It was changed to make the game look less dorky, as well as the fact that a completely unrelated game already more or less took the name.

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