Crash Bandicoot was originally released for the Playstation 1 in 1996 as a third person 3D platformer to release the earth of the scourge known as SUPER MARIO. Clearly, this didn't pan out very well, but the technological prowess used to make a game about a shirtless orange beast running about in the woods was so impressive that the beast still goes...strong-ish today.
Basically, the plot of Crash Bandicoot is that there's some evil scientists by the names of Neo Cortex and Nitrus Brio way out in an Australian archepelago making anthros to do their evil bidding so they can rule the world. One day, one of those little freaks (the titular animal Crash Bandicoot) escapes and decides to raid their evil lair in search of Tawna, his EPIC FURRY GIRLFRIEND (who breaks up with him offscreen in the second game and is never seen again) and burns down the evil lair in the process.
Please watch the video these images are from. Genuinely one of my favorite things ever.
N. Brio makes the smart decision and leaves the project after the first game, but Dr. Cortex just doesn't let things slide. Thus, the entire remainder of the series is Cortex and his evil scientist co-conspirators (who haven't left him to go to Brazil yet) beefing with that orange rat thing for the rest of time. (He's never going to put a shirt on, Cortex. You can't make him do it. Just accept that.)
This page is aesthetically formatted with the FIRST game in mind, but my actual favorite games in the series are pretty much everything from the 2000s era. I don't even care that this is apparently controversial, I just like them a lot.
For the uninitiated, the difference between 90s Crash and 2000s Crash is that 90s Crash is like Looney Tunes and 2000s Crash is like Planet Sheen, or some other kind of Cartoon Network show noone really cares about but is inexplicably batshit crazy. It's my favorite thing. According to my research, Crash Twinsanity is the game that truly started the "Sheen Era", though traces of its beginnings can be found in games as early as Crash Nitro Kart. The Sheen Pathogen spread completely during the Radical Entertainment era and that was my golden age. I refuse to lie about it. It's peak.
Left: Looney Tunes (Normalcy). Right: Sheen begins to take over.