Crash Bandicoot: WARPED - General Findings

This was one of the first screenshots released on the game's official web site. The buttons look completely different and there's one with the number 6 instead of the boss icon, aligned with the rest of the buttons instead of at the center. When Crash stands on a button, he is engulfed in a white light, similar to the one in the middle that seems to be the level entrance instead of the usual warp sphere. The background is also noticeably blander.

These screenshots come from a promotional video from when the game was still being developed. They show the level Under Pressure without a background.

The underwater mines used to have a different design, looking more green and sporting flashlights. The mine in the final version are yellow and red with small, pulsating lights.

The blowfish used to be purple instead of red.

Bone Yard also used to have the Baby-T egg at first. It ended up being placed in Dino Might! and Eggipus Rex only.

• The Bonus segments in the medieval levels used to be completely different. Rather than a lift taking you to a path along a castle wall, a lid would open for you to fall in. This was common in Crash 2, but no Bonuses use the lid in Crash 3 anymore.
• That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. The Bonus segments themselves weren't the usual wooden platforms along the castle walls. They were dark, underground paths with metallic structures and modern machinery.  This could be explained by Cortex altering the past, but it might have been too confusing and out of place to keep.
• When you got out of the Bonus stage, a lift would have taken you back up.  This lift's appearance didn't match the lid that would let you in, something that never happens in any game. Neither the lid or the lift appear in the final version.

At one point, Crash would tap his left foot after being sliced by a knight and before his legs walked away.

The same round, dull shadows from Crash Bandicoot 2 were once in use. Some of the enemies in these screenshots didn't even had any to begin with. In the final version, the shadows are much more realistic.

The triceratops used to have a Lab Assistant riding it. This can also be seen in concept art. Naughty Dog explains:
"We originally envisioned one of Cortex's minions riding the triceratops as it chased Crash through prehistoric times. Rob Titus even did the animation. Whenever the trike got stuck, it thrashed the poor little guy around. The rider was cool, but had to be removed for technical reasons."

The Time Twister computer used to look noticeably different. This can be seen in some warp spheres from pre-release footage.

The Crash icon from the level stats was originally the regular life icon.

Tiny and Cortex used to have their icons from the previous games. The final version uses new icons.

The levels Toad Village and Gee Wiz were once switched with each other. A possible explanation for this is that Gee Wiz was the first level to contain locked crates, which are introduced in the game after obtaining the Super Belly Flop. While Crash could break these crates using the regular belly flop in Crash 2, it seems that the developers wanted to introduce them in this game as soon as you obtained this power. Another theory is that because the Gee Wiz is more difficult than Toad Village, the two were switched.

• The first screenshot shows an Aku Aku crate that isn't usually there (though it does appear in Time Trial mode).
• The second screenshot shows a single locked crate, instead of the usual 8.
• The third screenshot shows that Gee Wiz originally had 93 crates.

The picture here isn't clear, but it shows the level Tomb Time with some tar before the first hole with the jumping crocodile. In the final version, the tar is on the other side of hole.

The level Bye Bye Blimps used to have Crash instead of Coco as the playable character. It's very likely that she wasn't always intended to fly a plane like Crash, especially since this is the only level where she does so. It's hard to see because of the game logo, but instead of Crash's face, the health bar used to have an icon of his plane.

The barrel carts in Pura's levels used to have a row of 3 barrels. The final version adds 2 barrels on top.

It isn't known where this screenshot came from, but it shows the Cortex boss fight with a crystal and 2 gems in the HUD. Boss fights never have collectibles of this kind.

Time Trial mode used to be activated by hitting an iron box with a clock on it, instead of touching a golden stopwatch.

Breaking the yellow time crates would subtract seconds from the timer rather than freezing it. This could be exploited to get shorter times by breaking these crates near the exit of a level. For example, if you broke a lot of time crates near the exit, your time would have had several seconds subtracted from it.

Using a GameShark reveals that level 31 originally had its own button just like all the others (except for level 32). It was located in the 6^th Warp Room.