Doctor Neo Cortex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Neo Periwinkle Cortex
Cortex in Crash Tag Team Racing.
Game series	Crash Bandicoot
First game	Crash Bandicoot
Creator(s)	Naughty Dog
Voice actor(s) (English)	Brendan O'Brien (Crash Bandicoot) Clancy Brown Lex Lang (Crash Twinsanity, Crash Tag Team Racing)
Voice actor(s) (Japanese)	Shōzō Iizuka Yousuke Akimoto (Crash Boom Bang!)

Doctor Neo Cortex (ドクター ネオ コルテックス, Dokutā Neo Korutekkusu^?, often shortened to "N. Cortex") is a video game character and main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. Cortex is a balding mad scientist with a giant 'N' on his forehead, and is usually a main antagonist in the Crash games in which he stars. He is the creator of Crash and many other characters of the series, attempting to use them to aid him in his quest for global domination, and doing so ever since his debut in the first Crash Bandicoot game.

Contents 1 Personality and appearance 2 Biography 2.1 Childhood 2.2 Crash Bandicoot 2.3 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back 2.4 Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped 2.5 Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex 2.6 Crash Twinsanity 2.7 Other appearances 3 Base of operations 4 Theme songs 5 Voice actors 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Personality and appearance

Cortex's personality is based on a typical mad scientist, being cocky, pompous, egotistical, arrogant, and cowardly. Cortex's massive intellect fuels his ego, and despite being very physically weak, Cortex seems to think he is not only highly attractive and popular, but invincible (especially in Crash Nitro Kart), which can get him into trouble. However, his most loyal and powerful creation, Tiny Tiger, occasionally comes to his aid and protection, whom Cortex can hide behind, further convincing Cortex of his power. Although most loathe him, his small group of minions (Doctor N. Gin in particular) look up to and obey him without question. Cortex himself is a servant of Uka Uka in return, who feels Cortex is imcompetant and treats him very badly, in contrast to Doctor Nefarious Tropy, whom Uka treats more as an equal. The possible jealously that would stem from this has not yet been explored, but Cortex's warped view of himself may prevent him from ever feeling jealously, instead considering it the fault of others if they do not like him. In a reflection of Uka, Cortex treats Tiny rather badly, and blames him for most of his mistakes, although he relies on him for much of his evil deeds.

Cortex is a short, balding, yellow-skinned, large-headed human with a giant 'N' (which according to the old official Crash website and Wrath of Cortex official stratedgy guide, stands for "Nerd") located on his forehead. He most often wears a lab coat with rubber (leather in later installments) gloves and boots. Cortex is balding, with hair only on the sides of his head and a thick strand on top. Whatever hair he does have is black and frazzled. He is also shown to have a short, black beard along with this. Cortex is a person of short stature in most of is games, never being taller than Crash in any of them.

Like many mad scientists, Cortex's weapon of choice is a raygun, which he uses prominently in his battles with Crash. Despite this, he has used other weapons alongside the raygun, including bombs (Twinsanity) and land mines (Warped).

[edit] Biography

[edit] Childhood

Cortex spent most of his childhood in Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil, as evidenced in Crash Twinsanity. He was apparently the object of much jealousy and hatred among the other students, contrary to what he believes.^[1] There, he created the prototype of the Evolvo-Ray, giving birth to his ambition to create an army of genetically-advanced animals. His first subjects were his two pet parrots Victor and Moritz, the creatures he claims to be the only ones he didn't loathe or eat.^[2] Unfortunately, the Evolvo-Ray prototype ended up sending the parrots to the 10th Dimension. But Cortex showed little sympathy for the parrots and continued his studies.^[3]

Cortex appears to have virtually no connection with his parents, but his mother is known to exist and work at the Moulin Cortex, as evidenced in a Humiliskate sequence in Twinsanity in which Crash and Cortex slide through the building in an attempt to catch up with N. Gin's battleship.^[4]

[edit] Crash Bandicoot

Upon graduating and entering the scientific community, he was ridiculed by the other scientists for his outlandish (yet nearly workable) theories concerning the Evolvo-Ray. From this day forth, Cortex became motivated by one driving force: to shut those know-it-alls up once and for all. After teaming up with Doctor Nitrus Brio, creator of the Evolvo-Ray, he began creating his mutant army of once-animals, now-armored beasts that'll supposedly help him achieve global domination. Upon these beasts was Crash Bandicoot, whom Cortex decided to make his general and leader of the "Cortex Commandos".^[5] But upon being inserted into the untested Cortex Vortex, Crash was deemed a reject and a failure by Cortex, and chased him out of his castle base. Before the female bandicoot Tawna could be subjected to the Cortex Vortex, Crash returned to the castle from N. Sanity Island and burned the castle to the ground. Determined to eliminate Crash from this world, Cortex pursued Crash on his Cortex Glider, armed with a blaster gun. However, Crash defeated Cortex and sent him plummeting to his assumed death. If the player wins the game with 100%, it is said that Cortex disappears and is never heard from again, ultimately causing the following games to never exist.^[6] However, this ending is considered non-canonical.

[edit] Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, it is revealed that Cortex survived through the fall from the last game. It transpires that Cortex landed in a cavern that contained a Power Crystal that could assist him in his plot for world domination. During the course of a year, Cortex built a space station with a Cortex Vortex of planetary proportions mounted on it, and hired a former defense industry physicist named Doctor N. Gin to be his new henchman. When it is discovered that additional "Slave Crystals" are needed along with the "Master Crystal" for the Cortex Vortex to reach full power, Cortex decides to deceive Crash into gathering the Crystals for him,^[7] communicating with him through the use of holograms. When Coco reveals his plan to Crash, Cortex flees into outer space with the Crystals in hand. However, Crash attacks him and caused his jetpack to malfunction, stranding him in space. If the game is completed with 100%, Dr. N. Brio will blow up Cortex's space station and send it falling towards Earth.

[edit] Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Cortex's space station crashes on Earth, freeing one of the very few people he actually fears: the sentient mask Uka Uka, who turns out to be Cortex's boss. Cortex is scolded by Uka Uka for losing both the Gems and the Crystals,^[8] but his life is spared since he indirectly set him free.^[9] From that point on, he merely becomes a servant to Uka Uka, complaining about his aching head while he's at it, and at one point even contemplating retirement.^[10] In the end, he is once again defeated by Crash and is caught in the imploding Time Twister, trapped in the prison of time alongside Uka Uka and Doctor N. Tropy as a baby with a lower case "n" on his head, with seemingly no possible means of escape.

[edit] Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

After somehow escaping from the time prison, thought by many to be Doctor N. Gin, who was the only one not stuck in time, Cortex began laboring over a genetically-advanced superweapon that'll supposedly wipe Crash Bandicoot off the face of the Earth forever that he keeps a secret from the other villains. However the project is inadvertedly revealed by N. Gin and N. Tropy during a bad guy convention inside Cortex's new space station.^[11] He claims that the superweapon is unbelievably strong, but it is still missing a power source.^[12] He soon decides to use the Elementals as the power source, which successfully bring the secret weapon to life. But the superweapon once again fails to defeat Crash. Frustrated with their failure, Uka Uka prepares to kill Cortex, but in the process of trying to do so, he hits a vital part of the space station, which results in a critical overload and breaks the mind control device that was placed on Crunch's head, who ends up making friends with the Bandicoots. Uka Uka and Doctor Cortex flee into an escape pod, which lands in the frozen wastes of Antarctica. They're both forced to live on a large sheet of ice.

[edit] Crash Twinsanity

After spending three years floating across the Indian Ocean on a block of ice, Cortex finally makes it back to N. Sanity Island, where he ambushes Coco, disguises himself as her, and lures Crash over to the bay where he attempts to eliminate Crash with the 40-foot tall Mecha-Bandicoot piloted by Doctor N. Gin, which Crash easily disposes of. Frustrated with his defeat, Cortex throws a tantrum and attacks Crash in an underground cavern, eventually coming across the Evil Twins, who've come to destroy Crash's island and devastate Earth. Crash and Cortex team up to destroy these two upstarts with the Psychetron, a machine that'll allow them to travel between the infinite dimensions. However, it soon becomes apparent that these twins are from Cortex's past. Recruiting his niece, Nina Cortex, the trio set out to stop the Evil Twins, with Cortex also aiming to steal their vast treasure. Coming to a final confrontation in the 10th Dimension (in which everything is opposite), the Evil Twins are eventually defeated and eaten by Evil Crash. Back in the Iceberg Lab, Cortex has Crash stand under the Psychetron and tells him that he was wrong about Crash. He tells him that his creation was a mistake, and his existence has been a painful reminder of that mistake. He then says that he has learned something: you can't run away from your mistakes, but you can bury them. And with that, Cortex pulls a lever that would supposedly kill Crash. Unfortunately for him, the Psychetron malfunctions, and sends Cortex into Crash's brain.

[edit] Other appearances

• Cortex is a playable character in the games Crash Team Racing, Crash Bash, Crash Nitro Kart, and Crash Tag Team Racing.
• Cortex has a villain role in the game Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, where he tries to conquer the world by shrinking it.
• Before the third stage in Crash Boom Bang!, Cortex attempts to steal the Viscount's map and find the Super Big Power Crystal himself. When Cortex and the Viscount struggle for the possession of the map, it tears into four pieces. Cortex sends his Lab Assistants to find the pieces before anyone else can, but is unsuccessful in the search.^[13]
• In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy Cortex teams up with Ripto, a villain from the Spyro the Dragon series to destroy both Crash and Spyro.

[edit] Base of operations

Cortex's base of operations seems to change throughout the series, and have a bad habit of being destroyed on him. In the first Crash Bandicoot and later in Crash Nitro Kart, Cortex resides in a large twisted castle where the original Evolvo-Ray and Cortex Vortex was kept. A year after Crash Bandicoot (in Cortex Strikes Back), he is seen living in a space station floating not too far from Earth. This is destroyed by Doctor Nitrus Brio at the end of the game. In Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Cortex uses N. Tropy's Time Twisting Machine as somewhat of a base, but this too is destroyed by the end of the game. Another space space station is built in Wrath of Cortex, but thanks to Uka Uka's bad aim, the space station suffered a critical overload, forcing everyone inside to evacuate. The fate of the station is unknown. In Crash Twinsanity, it is revealed that Cortex has an Antarctica-based laboratory aptly named the Iceberg Lab. As of now, this is the only one of Cortex's bases not to be destroyed.

[edit] Theme songs

• In the first three games, Neo Cortex's theme largely consisted of the bass guitar, with the drum kit becoming more prominent in Cortex Strikes Back, and the steelpan added in Warped.
• If the Cortex Castle theme in Crash Team Racing can be considered Cortex's theme song, it starts out as a quiet pair of plucked string instruments and drum kit cymbal taps, but then expands after a short while to include brass instruments, cymbal crashes, snare drum, and a couple of woodwind instruments.
• While all of the music in Twinsanity is performed a capella, Cortex's theme during his boss fight is meant to imitate a slow, steady piece of heavy metal guitar, drum kit, and synthesizer.

[edit] Voice actors

Like Crash and Coco, Cortex has had a total of five voice actors as of 2006.

• He is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the first Crash Bandicoot game. This version has a noticeably raspy quality that is not seen in other games.
• He is voiced by Clancy Brown from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back to Crash Nitro Kart.
• He is voiced by Lex Lang in Crash Twinsanity and Crash Tag Team Racing.
• In the Japanese dubs of the games, he is voiced by veteran seiyū Shōzō Iizuka.
• In Crash Boom Bang!, he is voiced by Yousuke Akimoto.

[edit] Trivia

• It is revealed in Crash Twinsanity that Cortex can understand penguin.^[14]
• His full name is Neo Periwinkle Cortex, as revealed in Crash Tag Team Racing by Ebeneezer Von Clutch.^[15]
• He has directly appeared in all the Crash Bandicoot games thus far except Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, although he is mentioned by name and is a playable character in the two-player mode if it is linked up to Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ultimate Bandicoot's article on Cortex
• Sagertooth's character info article on Dr. Neo Cortex

[ Edit ]

 

Crash series

Heroes	Crash Bandicoot | Aku Aku | Coco Bandicoot | Crunch Bandicoot
Neutral	Doctor Nitrus Brio
Villains	Doctor Neo Cortex | Ripper Roo | Doctor N. Gin | Komodo Brothers | Tiny Tiger | Uka Uka | Doctor Nefarious Tropy | Dingodile | Elementals | Mega-Mix | N. Trance | Nina Cortex | Nitros Oxide | Emperor Velo XXVII | Evil Twins
Other Characters	List of Crash Bandicoot characters