Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot is a platform game in which the player controls the titular character Crash , who is tasked with traversing 32 levels to defeat Doctor Neo Cortex and rescue Tawna . Most of the game takes place from a third-person perspective in which Crash moves into the screen. Certain levels that require him to flee from a rolling boulder reverse this perspective, while other levels are played from a traditional side-scrolling perspective . Crash is capable of moving in all directions; aside from moving left and right, he can move away from or toward the player, and the controls do not change with his position.

His two primary forms of offense consist of jumping onto enemies and performing a spinning attack that kicks enemies off the screen. Kicked enemies can strike other enemies that are currently on-screen. Two levels involve Crash mounting and steering a wild boar that accelerates uncontrollably, requiring him to maneuver around obstacles and bypass enemies. Scattered throughout each level are various types of crates that can be broken open by jumping on them, spinning into them, or knocking a kicked enemy into them.

Most crates contain "Wumpa Fruit" that can grant Crash an extra life if 100 are collected. Some crates display an icon of what they contain. Crates displaying Aku Aku will grant Crash a floating Aku Aku mask that protects him from a single enemy or hazard. Collecting three masks consecutively grants Crash temporary invulnerability from all minor dangers.

Crates marked with a "C" act as checkpoints where Crash can respawn after losing a life. ) cause an element of the surrounding environment to change if they are struck. Jumping on red TNT crates triggers a three-second timer that culminates in an explosion, while spinning into them causes an immediate detonation. In roughly half of the game's levels, certain crates contain tokens in the likeness of Tawna, Cortex, or his assistant Nitrus Brio .

Collecting three tokens of a single character will transport Crash to a "bonus round" where he must break crates in a side-scrolling area. Falling off the screen during a bonus round will not cost the player a life, but will send Crash back to the point in the level he was transported from. A few levels contain bonus rounds for two different characters. Tawna's bonus rounds are designed to be the easiest and most plentiful, and clearing one enables the player to save their game .

Brio's bonus rounds are more difficult, featuring more TNT crates and requiring more precise jumps. Cortex's bonus rounds are the most difficult and are only included in two levels. Clearing Cortex's bonus round grants Crash a key that unlocks a secret level. Clearing a level without losing a life and after breaking all of its crates (excluding crates in bonus rounds) will grant Crash a gem, which will be displayed by the level's name on the map screen.

If the player clears a level in one life without breaking all the crates, a screen displays the amount of crates that were missed, and if the player loses any lives over the course of the level, they will instead be sent directly to the map screen upon the level's completion. While most gems are clear and colorless, six colored gems enable Crash to access areas in previous levels that he was unable to reach before. Collecting all 26 gems unlocks a special epilogue sequence accessible from the game's penultimate level.