Crash Bandicoot in the 90s: Original Games and Their Differences
Naughty Dog's original Crash Bandicoot trilogy arrived in three straight years, each entry building noticeably on the last, before the series branched into racing.
Original trilogy
- Crash Bandicoot (September 1996)
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (November 1997)
- Crash Bandicoot: Warped (November 1998)
Play a modern remaster of the original trilogy
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy remasters the three original games discussed above with rebuilt visuals on modern hardware.
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The original 1996 game is generally remembered as the most difficult and least forgiving of the three, with a smaller moveset. Cortex Strikes Back and Warped each added new moves (a body slam, then vehicles and animal-riding sections in Warped) that changed the pacing considerably from the first game's straightforward run-and-jump levels.
Racing spin-off
Crash Team Racing (October 1999) was the final Naughty Dog-developed Crash game and moved the characters into a kart racer, separate from the mainline platforming series.
Originals vs. later remakes
The 2017 Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy remasters the first three games with rebuilt visuals and, in places, adjusted physics and difficulty tuning. It's a different codebase built by a different studio (Vicarious Visions), not simply the original discs running at a higher resolution.
Frequently asked questions
What order did the original Crash Bandicoot games come out in?
Crash Bandicoot (1996), Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (1997), and Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998), one per year for three straight years.
Is Crash Team Racing part of the original trilogy?
No. It's a 1999 kart-racing spin-off, the last Naughty Dog-developed Crash game, separate from the mainline platforming series.
Is the N. Sane Trilogy the same game as the originals?
Not exactly. It's a 2017 remaster built by a different studio, Vicarious Visions, with rebuilt visuals and some adjusted physics and difficulty tuning compared to the original PS1 releases.
Sourcing and corrections
Release dates for the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy, Crash Team Racing, and the N. Sane Trilogy remaster were checked via web search against sources including Wikipedia in September 2026.