Developed by Dimps, this was the first Crash Bandicoot game made in Japan.
A sequel to this game named Chokkan? Crash Bandicoot was made for the DoCoMo SH904i mobile phone. It was never released outside Japan.
The Viscount is called Viscount Devil in Japan, and he was still referred to by that name in Western press releases. The "Devil" part of his name refers to his species (Tasmanian Devil), but it ended up being omitted from the game outside Japan to avoid religious associations.
Crash's 3D model was changed outside Japan to accomodate the Western style. Due to a goof, Crash still has his original Japanese model in the mini-game Crash On Ice.
References
The ghostly girl in the Tower board is a reference to the 2002 movie The Ring. She looks exactly like the character Samara Morgan.
There is a purchasable item in the game called "Vice-Versa Reversi". This may be an obscure reference to an unused element in Crash Twinsanity, the Vice-Versa Reverser Device.
Sometimes Pinstripe will look like he's going to launch a Kamehameha, an attack used by several characters from the Dragon Ball franchise. It's worth pointing out that Dimps already had several Dragon Ball games under their belt at the time.
The Viscount's grandfather's story about his ship colliding with an iceberg and sinking, along with Coco's line: "Sounds like a movie", is a reference to the infamous ship Titanic, and most likely James Cameron's iconic film of the same name.
