Crash was originally a wombat named Willy the Wombat, and he went through various designs before his final one.
The game was jokingly codenamed "Sonic's Ass Game" during development. The name came from the player being forced to look at the backside of a character in a third-person platformer, which was a new concept at the time.
Charles Zembillas, one of the main artists along with Joe Pearson, would later create the designs for the characters in Spyro The Dragon, Crash's buddy franchise.
Crash was named after his tendency to break crates.
Dr. Neo Cortex's name comes from a part of the brain called neocortex.
The Wumpa Fruits in this game and its next two sequels are not actually 3D objects. They're animated sprites that always face the camera, which gives them a 3D look (this type of objects is known as billboards). This was necessary due to hardware limitations. These Wumpa fruits were re-used in Crash 2, Crash 3, Crash Bash, The Huge Adventure/XS, N-Tranced and Purple/Fusion.
Crates were implemented very late into the game. Their purpose was to fill some of the empty spaces around the levels and to give the players something fun to do while running through levels.
Tawna was removed from the series by Naughty Dog because Sony of Japan wasn't comfortable with Crash having a sexy girlfriend. Ironically, she made a comeback ten years later in the Japanese game Crash: Boom, Bang!, with more revealing clothes.
There was only one voice actor for all the characters in the game - Brendan 'O Brien. His work with the series spanned all of Naughty Dog's Crash games.
Besides Crash, Aku Aku is the only character to have been in every game so far (if you count the minor cameo in Crash Tag Team Racing).
This game was dedicated to the memory of Tae Min Kim, who passed away after working at Naughty Dog on Way of the Warrior.
Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers were originally created for this game by Joe Pearson, but their introduction was pushed over to the sequel.
Crash Bandicoot was one of the first platformers in full 3D, alongside Jumping Flash! and Super Mario 64.
This is one of the best-selling western video-game series in Japan.
The Crash Bandicoot series as a whole has sold 39.2 million units as of 2009.
This game was featured as the 49th top console game in the Guiness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition book.
The first 3 levels to have been finished were moved to the third island for being too hard. Crash fan and hacker Hacc found out these were Cortex Power, Generator Room and Heavy Machinery.
References
The level "Rolling Stones" is named after the music band.
"Up The Creek" is named after the 1984 movie with the same name.
