Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot is more or less one of the killer apps for the PlayStation. It also features the girlfriend that rarely appears in any other Crash game.

Stormy Ascent
wPPcwgvFNlY The only unused level in the game. According to developer Andy Gavin, "it was too hard and we didn't have time to make it easier. This was my homage to the castle wall in Wizards and Warriors one of the most brutal and fun levels ever to grace platforming. I wish we had put it in as some kind of easter egg, as it was an awesome level, one of my favorite in the game."

Use GameShark code (US),  (Europe), or  (Japan) to access it.

Unused Sounds
While this particular sound clip IS used, it's always cut off partway through, and so you never get the luxury of hearing an extra 2 seconds of a door opening up in-game... What a travesty.

This generic "warp" sound effect is totally unused in retail versions, but was used in prototype builds as the sound effect for the Checkpoint Crate, which underwent rather significant changes in both animation and sound.

Grouped with the sounds for the N.Brio boss fight, this sound would likely accompany the debris which falls from the roof when Brio hulks out and starts smashing his lab to the ground. The battle only uses the typical "slab falling to the ground" sound effect, rendering this particular sound unused.

Grouped in with the files for Pinstripe's boss battle, this sound may have been intended for a post-defeat cutscene where the power plant in the background shuts down. In the final game, Pinstripe shoots holes in the glass structure behind him after getting defeated, but nothing else happens.

Japanese Exclusive Music
The Japanese version contains six exclusive music tracks that replaced some themes of the US version: the main theme and the themes for the Tawna Bonus Round, Koala Kong, Pinstripe Potoroo, Dr. Nitrus Brio, and Dr. Neo Cortex, respectively. The original Dr. Neo Cortex theme is still heard in the intro of the Japanese version and in his bonus rounds – only the final battle is replaced.

According to Josh Mancell, the game's music composer, the replaced tracks for the Japanese release were "''an 11th hour decision made by the Sony people in Japan. They felt that the boss rounds needed to sound more "video game-like." The only reference they gave was music from the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. I only had a day or so to write all those themes. My favorite comment was about the original Tawna bonus round music . It roughly translated into 'the sound of the guitar mixed with the tree imagery is too nostalgic-sounding'. I'm still scratching my head on that one."

Miscellaneous Changes
The Japanese version also made quite a few other changes:
 * All the voices were replaced, but Crash himself is given unique lines and is much more expressive in his speech.
 * The password system was removed, so the only option is to save.
 * TNT Crates have been changed to have bomb icons on them.
 * Aku Aku provides hints upon collecting certain masks (both of which extend to subsequent Japanese localizations).
 * Crash automatically begins the first level with an Aku Aku mask, so the box was removed.
 * Tawna vanishes whenever Crash approaches her in bonus rounds, and only one crate will smack Crash if he missed any in the level rather than all the ones he missed.
 * Papu Papu (the first boss) swings his club faster and takes five hits to defeat as opposed to three.
 * Some of the level order and colored gems were changed around. Most famously, Sunset Vista was swapped with Slippery Climb, likely due to the former's high difficulty (ironically, some people consider Slippery Climb to be on par or harder than Sunset Vista, making this intent backfire).
 * Rotating the level map uses L1 and R1 instead of Square and Circle.

In the PAL version, most of the differences compared to the US one amount to timing alterations and minor glitches.