Crash Bandicoot is 30, and neither he nor his speedrunners are slowing down
Hands up who remembers Crash Bandicoot? It’ll be a good number of you, because Naughty Dog’s marsupial mascot made his debut a whole 30 years ago (the videogame anniversaries will continue until morale improves).
The first game, helpfully titled Crash Bandicoot launched in September 1996, and despite Crash’s advancing age, he still commands a healthy turn of speed, not to mention a healthy speedrunning community. How d’you like them apples?
That is a very funny joke, because Crash collects apples. Please laugh, and continue to read. Crash is one of those influential and beloved videogame characters who’s always going to have a place in players’ hearts. He was the first playable mascot for the PlayStation consoles, having initially been dreamt up to challenge Nintendo’s spokesplumber Mario. His series of video games, including spin-offs, remakes and remasters, now numbers over 20 games.
Original developers Naughty Dog have gone on to make more prestige-y games – most famously The Last Of Us (2013), which was adapted into an HBO TV show of the same name in 2023 – but never forgot their orange, platformy origins, and included a playable easter egg for Crash Bandicoot in swashbuckling action adventure Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (2016).
This fondness is extended to Crash by his fans as well. The speedrunning scene for this marvellous marsupial is surprisingly active on Speedrun.com, although (on a technicality), the first Crash Bandicoot game isn’t the one with the most active speedrunners.
That’s actually 2017’s N. Sane Trilogy, which is a collection of remasters of the first three games: Crash Bandicoot (1996), Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (1997), and Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998).
Accordingly, there are three categories for N. Sane Trilogy speedruns, and perhaps the most interesting part (at least to me, a nerd who has to look at these sorts of things every day) is that there’s very little crossover. Generally, it seems, if you’re speedrunning part of the N. Sane Trilogy, you’re picking a lane and staying in it.
There’s also a clear difference between platform of choice. The speedruns on consoles are several minutes slower than those on PC, although any gamer would tell you that PC controls give you much more, er, control.
The any% speedruns on the N. Sane Trilogy on PC (“any%” meaning you don’t have to absolutely complete the game, get every collectible, find every secret, etc.) are as follows:
For Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: 37 minutes 36 seconds, by “CasauallyClutching” from Australia.
For Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back: 39 minutes 15 seconds by “Krisuchu” from Finland.
For Crash Bandicoot: 41 minutes 52 seconds by “WingKn0x”, also from Australia.
It’s understandable that the Aussies are getting in on this. The eastern barred bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) is of course an Australian local. And that last record was set as recently as 19 July! So you can see that Crash’s popularity transcends both time and space. Good for him.