Crunch, a brute built to match the bandicoot, debuts in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Traveller's Tales' 2001 platformer is the fourth main Crash game, with Doctor Neo Cortex still funding the disaster and elemental masks stirring the islands.
Crates, a spin, and a chase level between the platforming are the familiar verbs. Crunch is the new body in the boss slots, a rival designed as Crash's opposite rather than another scientist in a lab coat.
Naughty Dog had already left the series by this point. Traveller's Tales kept the crates and added Crunch, the muscle Cortex had been missing.