What Could Have Been / Crash Bandicoot

These are early designs of Crash.

• The Wrath of Cortex

• Twinsanity

Crash Bandicoot (1996)

• Early designs of Crash originally had a tail,◊ but it was removed because the PlayStation's limited resolution would have caused pixel flickering.
• According to the Crash Bandicoot Files book, when the game was called Willy the Wombat, there were some different ideas included but scrapped:
  • Crash (in his early Willy stages) was going to be a zanier, fast-talking character doing impressions and quoting TV shows, movies, and books. This was scrapped because the creators thought that this would make him lame and annoying, leading to the player un-identifying with the character.
  • Originally, power-ups consisted of flowers that increased his common abilities, such as a Special Flower for running faster, a Spring Flower for jumping higher, a Pepper Flower for increasing his attacking power, and a Cactus Flower that harms you when collected. Also, skulls that if jumped on would grant him invincibility and give you hints, some beaker power-ups, and a lightning bolt power-up that serves other functions.
  • Aku-Aku was going to have different functions such as attacking enemies by serving as an extended spin attack, along with other mask power-ups that function with enemies such as a Scare Mask that makes enemies run from you, a Laugh Mask that makes enemies run towards you, a Freeze Mask that freezes enemies, a Silly Mask that changes your attack with a stronger attack, and a Speed Mask that makes you run faster and makes you invincible. The idea was scrapped, but eventually brought up (albeit with masks having different properties) in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time two and a half decades later.
  • There were plans for levels such as a sunken ship level, swimming levels, cavern levels, sewer levels, dungeon levels (in Concept Art), snow levels (with a snowboarding level), and levels that transition from 2D to 3D; but these ideas were scrapped due to technical limitations and some of these ideas wouldn't be used until the other games.
  • Crash originally had the ability to throw coconuts (which would later become the basis for the Fruit Bazooka from Warped onward), roll, and had a Double Jump and belly flop before the sequel games included them.
  • The game's 100% Completion gem collecting was going to unlock 3 cavern levels to go to instead of the Great Hall in the final version. Also, at one point, the gems would have unlocked Cortex as the final boss with N. Brio serving as the penultimate final boss that would have functioned differently with a three-phase structure, instead of the two-phase structure in the final version.
• There were some characters that were planned but never used. These characters were a country bumkin hyena, a resort alligator, a thugged-out monkey, a shark (who didn't appear until Crash 3), and a racing lizard.
• The prototype version of the game contains several (very buggy) removed levels, but also some other changes. Most notably, Ripper Roo was originally located at the end of the first island, along with "Up The Creek" (this would explain his awkward placing in the final game, just two levels into the second island). The fight is also somewhat harder, and his laugh is slightly lower-pitched. There were also "POW!" crates, which don't kill you, but make a pretty explosion when broken.
• Originally, "Sunset Vista" would have been even harder and become even more of a Marathon Level, with an entire section at the end featuring things like rotating flame platforms.
• The bridge levels were also much more difficult, with crates floating in the void to the sides of the bridge, and the planks that collapse immediately being distinguishable from the planks with a delayed collapse only by a very slight color difference (in the final release, these planks are noticeably broken).
• The original level order was drastically different overall. For instance, "Boulders" and "Hog Wild" were switched around, as were "Cortex Power" and "Heavy Machinery"; "Jaws of Darkness" was originally on the second island just after "Sunset Vista", "Road to Nowhere" immediately precluded "The High Road", and "Fumbling in the Dark" was not a hidden (and, more importantly, optional) level, but instead was the penultimate level (just before the notorious "Stormy Ascent").
• A hand drawn intro and ending FMV were made for the game by Universal Animation (with a very similar look and feel to their concurrent Earthworm Jim adaptation, including Jim Cummings singing), but never made the cut, Sony wanting to push the 3D genre. They also attempted to use it as a pitch for a potential Crash TV series, but that effort failed for the same reason.
• Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers were also designed to put into this game (hence their cameo in the prototype intro above and concept art from the Crash Bandicoot Files books show), but they were omitted and spared for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Also, Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe were originally named "Komodo" and "Kimono" and had more of a Japanese Samurai basis — wielding katana as opposed to scimitars — in their concept art, as opposed to their Middle-Eastern influence when they did finally appear.
• In early concept art of an unused Mining tunnel level shows that the Power Crystal was going to be introduced. However, they were saved for the sequel instead.
• Aku Aku was a sprite in very early stages of development and Crash collected actual fruit and a Yin Yang Yuk item instead of the fictional Wumpa fruit. He was also originally conceived as a fairy and then a genie, not necessarily a voodoo mask. Even when he was conceived to go in that direction, it was initially someone who wore the mask as opposed to magically floating around on its own.
• As seen in an E3 build, "Whole Hog" originally became much more complex towards the end of the stage, with tribesmen hiding behind walls and boomerangs spinning through the air being thrown into the mix of obstacles to avoid (seen here). They were cut from the final game and replaced with more of the same obstacles used throughout the rest of the stage.

Miscellaneous

• If Naughty Dog never signed on to the project, there would be no Crash Bandicoot; instead, they would've made Al O. Saurus and Dinestein, a side-scrolling video game based on time travel and scientists genetically merged with dinosaurs (a spoof of both Back to the Future and Jurassic Park).
• There have been multiple canceled games since the third title. However, the most recent was meant to be a 2010 game titled Crash: Landed (which most fans call "Crash Bandicoot 2010"). It was cancelled after Activision removed the staff at Radical Entertainment who were making the game. Thankfully, we can see concept art and gameplay footage of what would have been the Nintendo DS version of the game.
• Sony at one point was going to make their own platformer franchise as a replacement for Crash called Harry Jalapeno in case they ever lost the franchise, but those plans never worked out. There's not much info on the game, but there is some concept art on what the game could have been like.
• Originally, Nina was meant to appear in Crash Nitro Kart before her debut in Twinsanity, although she made an early unintentional appearance in the crossover games Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. According to The Wrath of Cortex game design document, she was conceived earlier under the name Reo Cortex as Cortex's daughter and, disturbingly, as a possible love interest for Crash, possibly striking out Tawna at the time.
• Sony was considering making thrill rides based on the game for the Universal Studios theme parks, but that didn't happen due to the decline in popularity; despite this, he did appear as a walk-around character in the parks for a short period of time. The Hollywood park in particular still held onto their Crash walk-around until 2012.
• Sony had plans for a Crash game for the PlayStation 4, and were even negotiating for the rights, but Activision still held onto the rights. Rather than abandon it outright, however, they decided to retool it into a whole new property. The result? The game became what we now know as a title called Knack.
• If the out-of-nowhere cameo appearance of Crash in the Netflix series Skylanders Academy, as well as early announcement articles, are anything to go by, there were plans for a CGI animated Crash Bandicoot series for Netflix in 2017 to coincide with the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, but the plan (if there was one) also got scrapped.
  • Activision later began work on a Crash animated series with Amazon Studios in 2020, but according to the Crash subreddit, the show was cancelled in 2021 due to creative differences between the two companies. Also discovered were two animation tests and a production bible for this canceled series.
• A Nintendo DS version of Crash Tag Team Racing was in production by Sensory Sweep, a developer known mostly for licensed games and some games in Ubisoft's My Coach series, but was cancelled, the official reason being that VU Games didn't think it would sell well against the then-upcoming Mario Kart DS.

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