Not Sony's answer to Mario on the Playstation, but a good effort none the less.
So if you're imagining Crash Bandicoot to be a copy off of Super Mario 64, I have two things to say. One: Crash Bandicoot came before Mario 64. Two: Crash is quite a bit different than Mario 64 in terms of gameplay, graphics style and music. Starting with gameplay, Crash isn't a sidescrolling platformer nor a free roaming platformer. In Crash you are running straightforward, and literally straightforward. You are running and jumping a lot. You hit crates, kind of like bricks from Mario and you collect apples. There are checkpoints and extra lives and power ups such as the mask that helps you by giving you a second chance in case you hit something bad. There is no health so the mask acts like a mushroom would in the original Super Mario Bros.
There are quite a bit of levels in the game, and the game is roughly 10-15 hours long. There aren't much extras so that drains from the replay value a bit but you may have the urge to play through this more than once. Just like most other platformers like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, this game has level themes like snow levels, ground levels, etc. The storyline is about the evil Dr. Neo Cortex who kidnaps Crash's girlfriend so Crash goes on his mission to rescue her.
The graphics look pretty good. The level themes look right, the character models are decent and the game has some slowdown but sure not enough to make it that noticable. The backgrounds look great and it is overall a nice looking game although not the smoothest. The music is fast and catchy and it suits the game in each level but it is not spectacular. It is good enough though.
You can probably find Crash Bandicoot for a very cheap price now and I suggest you try it out now if you haven't because it is much better than any other Crash Bandicoot game after Crash 3 so in other words, buy this game now!