5. Crash Bandicoot
In 1994, en route from Boston to LA, two games developers named Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin came up with an idea for a 3D platform game and, owing to the amount of time the camera would be focused on the characters rear end, referred to it as "Sonic's Ass Game". While Sonic would not make an appearance, their sense of humour almost certainly would, with the product of those sessions eventually being christened a Bandicoot named Crash. Created in an experimental lab by Dr Neo Cortex, Crash was deemed unstable, being flung to Earth from a great height (what appeared to be the Earth's upper atmosphere) and landed in the shallow tide on a beach. What was even more miraculous then his survival from this fall was that Crash would soon go on to become one of the PlayStation's most recognizable mascots.
First shown to the public at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 1996, Crash Bandicoot was released on August 31st of the same year, combining classic Platform adventures with the fun of breaking crates and collecting Apples. Because of PlayStation's limited graphics, there were no more than one or two enemies on screen at any one time, meaning that players were treated to alternative traps such as rolling stones and deep pits. Saves could only be recorded when the player had reached specific bonus points, giving the sense of urgency and importance to treading carefully. But more than anything it made PSOne marketable to the younger gamer, who could find comfort in associating with the marsupial, encouraging their parents to purchase a copy of the console so that they could help Crash defeat his unwitting creator.