 Upon beginning development of Crash Nitro Kart , Vicarious Visions chief executive officer and chief creative officer Karthik Bala noted that Crash 's physical appearance had been inconsistent since his debut in 1996 and decided to " explore the original vision of the character " in an attempt to bring him back to his roots . Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson were tracked down and enlisted for guidance during development of the game and were faced with the challenge of evolving the character and the franchise visually while retaining their " cartoon @-@ like charm " . To redesign Crash and the other mainstay characters of the series for Crash Nitro Kart , the Vicarious Visions team reviewed a number of original development sketches from Zembillas 's archives and then redesigned the main characters by incorporating details from the concept art and adding girth to the characters ; Crash 's appearance in the game , compared to the previous two games , sports a slightly larger nose , fuller eyebrows , and a far more textured body . Zembillas noted that " Crash is slimmer and more appealing now . There 's also more emphasis on his eyes , and you can see the craftiness in his personality . That 's Crash to me , and he 's alive again in Nitro Kart " . 
