Crash Bash - Unused Content - Demos - Cheat Menu
Introduction
As you probably know, the samples you could play in demo discs (remember those?) were taken from prototype builds, which led to some differences between the final versions. Crash Bash is a curious case, because even though the demo was from a prototype, it was no mere sample — the entire thing was in there, fully accessible through a hidden cheat menu!
You can experience this amazing discovery by simply starting up a Crash Bash demo (including the one hidden in Spyro: Year of the Dragon) and inputting the cheat code at the bottom of this page. It's quite strange when you think about it. Not only does this make the demo's filesize much bigger than it needed to be, but it looks like it didn't occur to anyone in the development team to remove the cheat code to access the rest of the prototype.
Truth be told, this menu was only found 9 years after the game's release, thanks to the efforts of long-time Crash Bandicoot hackers LXShadow and Hacc, but can you imagine how badly this would have hurt sales if it was discovered before the game came out? All you had to do was get a magazine with the demo, input the cheat, and presto, you'd have the full game to enjoy (or a prototype thereof, at least). Weird, isn't it?
The cheat menu also has a lot of neat quirks that you can use to your advantage, whether you're exploring the beta or just having fun. The only things missing here are the cutscenes and the ability to save and load, but who needs that when you can just award yourself anything you want and play all the levels from the start?
Not only that, but the cheat menu also works in the original (non-Platinum) PAL version of the retail game, so if you live in Europe or Australia and have one of the first copies of the game, you can enjoy all the benefits this nifty menu can provide in the final version. Yep, the cheat menu was removed so late in development that it actually made it to thousands of retail copies. But hey, who's complaining?
