Doctor Neo Cortex

Doctor Neo Cortex, often shortened to N. Cortex, Doctor Cortex, or just simply Cortex, is a video game character and main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He has directly appeared in all the Crash Bandicoot games thus far except Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced for Game Boy Advance, 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.

Cortex appears as a balding mad scientist with a giant 'N' on his forehead and is usually the 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 world domination and doing so ever since his debut in the first Crash Bandicoot game.

Conception and creation
Cortex's name is a reference to the brain region neocortex, referring to Neo's high intelligence. Very little (if any) information has been revealed about Cortex's original conception, with the only piece of information being a comment on Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot website that cites "We envisioned Dr. N. Cortex as a madman... literally."

Actor portrayal
In his first appearance in Crash Bandicoot, Neo Cortex is voiced by Brendan O'Brien, the game's lone voice actor. His take on Doctor Cortex gives the scientist's voice a noticeably raspy quality that is absent in subsequent games, with the exception of the Japanese dubs of the games, in which he is voiced by Shōzō Iizuka (Yōsuke Akimoto in Crash Boom Bang!). From Crash Bandicoot 2 to Crash Nitro Kart, Cortex is voiced by The Shawshank Redemption star Clancy Brown, who would later voice Uka Uka in the same series. Brown, alongside Mel Winkler and Debi Derryberry, would become one of the longest-lasting cast members of the English Crash Bandicoot series, voicing Doctor Cortex for six years in five games. After Crash Nitro Kart, Lex Lang took over the role of Doctor Cortex, with Alex Fernandez (and later John DiMaggio) taking over the role of Uka Uka.

Personality
Before Crash Twinsanity, Cortex embodied many of the classic traits of psychopathy, being short-tempered, reckless, having no apparent conscience (as cited by Doctor Nefarious Tropy), and frequently manipulating others to get what he wants. While Cortex still retains some of these traits, his villainy has since been downplayed for comedic value, with the later games portraying him as more of a bumbling coward than a psychopathic threat.

Like many stereotypical villainous mad scientists, Cortex holds a grudge against other scientists for ridiculing his outlandish (yet nearly workable) ideas, and was originally driven towards world domination by the desire to prove his colleagues wrong. This has since been retconned in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, in which it is revealed that Doctor Cortex has been working under the influence of Uka Uka, who appears to be a domineering force in Doctor Cortex's existence, being able to bring the normally fearless doctor to his hands and knees with but a single glance. This stemless fear has lessened over time, with Doctor Cortex being able to stand on his legs before Uka Uka in Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity, and at one point opposes him as shown in Crash of the Titans, in which Doctor Cortex refuses to be replaced, on the grounds that his name is on the stationery. Other characters that have been shown to be capable of breaching Cortex's cocky exterior include the likes of his schoolmaster Madame Amberly and his mutated parrots Victor and Moritz.

Another notable personality trait is Doctor Cortex's inability to plan ahead or learn from his mistakes; he frequently relies on his minion Tiny Tiger to eliminate Crash all by himself, despite the fact that Tiny is too incompetent to do so alone. This inability to listen to reason is first witnessed in the opening cinematic of Crash Bandicoot, in which Cortex refuses to heed the warnings of his then-henchman Doctor Nitrus Brio and tries to make Crash the general of his army, despite numerous past failures. It is this very trait that leads to Cortex's downfall in the first game; without N. Brio to guide him in his final struggle against Crash Bandicoot, Cortex only shoots at Crash randomly with his raygun, barely changing his strategy throughout the fight. Cortex can become quite irritated or agitated when things don't go his way, as shown in both Cortex's violent tantrums in Crash Bandicoot Warped and Crash Twinsanity, and his frequent linguistic thrashings in Crash Tag Team Racing. As a result, he is unable to form long lasting, mutually supportive relationships with other characters, as shown in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, in which Doctor Cortex temporarily teams up with Spyro the Dragon villain Ripto to destroy both Crash and Spyro, only to start bickering with Ripto at one point.

Cortex is not above the powers of lying and deception when it comes to fulfilling his evil desires, most of which include gathering Crystals to power up his doomsday weapons. He frequently uses the gullible Crash Bandicoot to complete these deeds, claiming in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Tag Team Racing to use the said weapons for "mass helping people". Cortex's egotistical tendencies also cause him to alter facts about his life, claiming himself to be the most popular student in his school, even though in reality he was an object of hatred among many students, one going as far as to toss a dagger in his direction. His excessive pride is also displayed in the epilogue of Crash Team Racing, which states that Cortex names a new element in the periodic table "Cortexrulestheworldium", albeit not without numerous lawsuits attempting to change the boldly-chosen name. Cortex's vain side becomes most obvious in Tag Team Racing, in which he often calls himself such things as beautiful and pretty. Despite his usually narcissistic demeanor, Cortex can sometimes be self-conscious about his appearance, citing that his large head causes him to "stick out like a chocolate bar in a swimming pool" (this line is a reference to the 1980 film Caddyshack).

Cortex doesn't care for the lives and feelings of others, thinking only about himself and what he wants. He refuses to help anyone in need unless if it benefits him in any way, though he usually has to be informed of such benefits by his right-hand man Doctor N. Gin. While this seems to be the case in most games, the one moment in which Cortex displays concern for someone other than himself is when his niece, Nina Cortex, is kidnapped by an evil version of Crash. Nina is apparently the only living thing that Cortex is willing to protect, with the latter going as far as thoughtlessly putting himself in danger of being mauled by the ferocious Evil Crash. However, this affection is nothing more than a supeficial act used to make himself look more human in front of others; Cortex does not display any guilt about replacing Nina's forearms with metallic death-traps, let alone have any knowledge of the pain and suffering he may have caused her in the process. This lack of empathy is another symptom of his mental illness.

Appearance
Cortex appears as a short, balding, yellow-skinned (peach in Crash Bash), large-headed, middle-aged human with a giant 'N' located on his forehead. In all of the games before the Radical Entertainment era, this N appears to be painted or branded on; in Crash Tag Team Racing and Crash of the Titans, the N is shown to be metal-plated. He is most often seen wearing a lab coat, with some sort of black clothing underneath, and donning 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 (blue in some games) and frazzled. He is also shown to have a short beard with the same color along with this. While Cortex is a person of short stature in much of the earlier games in the series, he has since become taller, almost being taller than Crash in Crash of the Titans.

Abilities
While Cortex's lacks physical strength, he makes up for it with his numerous inventions. His most widely-used invention is his raygun, which he has used in many of his appearances. The weapon first appeared in the boss fight against Cortex in Crash Bandicoot, in which Cortex uses it as his sole weapon. The raygun (which for some reason Naughty Dog lists as the Evolvo-Ray). is capable of firing numerous types of energy, including bursts of red rapid-fire bullets and green bullets that can be ricocheted back at Cortex. This has been used against Cortex, leading to his downfall in the first game. The raygun includes a variety of other settings, such as "love", "stun", "burn", and "kill", as demonstrated in the opening cinematic of Crash Twinsanity. Cortex's main mode of transportation is the Cortex Glider, which he has also used in Crash Bandicoot's final boss fight. The Glider generally appears as a large, red hoverboard-like device with two small turbines on the bottom. The Glider is prone to destruction, as evidenced in the opening of Cortex Strikes Back and at the end of the first boss fight in Twinsanity, and it usually explodes when Cortex is defeated. Besides this, Cortex also owns a large dirigible to use as a secondary mode of transportation, usually to travel larger distances than it is possible with the Glider. Cortex also possesses other means of transportation, such as an unseen device that allows him to teleport short distances, and a pair of jet boots as revealed in Crash of the Titans.

Cortex's larger inventions include the Evolvo-Ray and the Cortex Vortex. The Evolvo-Ray is the first Cortex invention to be seen in the series and also one of Cortex's first inventions ever, being used as early as Cortex's school days in an attempt to create an army of super-animals. The Cortex Vortex was created shortly before the events of Crash Bandicoot, used to turn creatures genetically-altered by the Evolvo-Ray into a mindless follower of Cortex. When the first Cortex Vortex was destroyed in the fire that burned down Cortex's Castle, Cortex created a larger version of the Cortex Vortex to be mounted onto his space station. This version of the Vortex would be powered by the force of an upcoming planetary alignment (harnessed by special Crystals) and turn everyone on Earth into Cortex's slaves. This was destroyed by Doctor Nitrus Brio before the events of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, and the Cortex Vortex hasn't been rebuilt since. The most devastating weapon in Cortex's arsenal is the Planetary Minimizer, which has the power to shrink entire planets down to bite-size proportions. The only time the weapon is used is in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, in which Cortex uses it to shrink Earth down to the size of a grapefruit. This is the only weapon to cause widespread panic among the people of Earth, as seen in the opening of The Huge Adventure. The weapon was destroyed by the end of the game, along with the space station it was used in.

As seen in Crash of the Titans, Cortex appears to be somewhat skilled in playing the piano.

Past history
Cortex's age is uncertain, but his appearance suggests that he is in his late forties or early sixties (Cortex's time frozen in Antarctica has stopped his ageing by three years). Although the installment Crash Tag Team Racing is a spin-off and isn't normally considered canon, a clue to Cortex's age lies in one of Cortex's comments during the game's races. The quote "Just like back in Da Nang!" suggests that Cortex is a veteran of the Vietnam War, which took place between 1959 and 1975. Because soldiers were drafted into the war at the age of 18, Cortex's birthyear can be estimated to be between 1941 and 1957. Nevertheless, the game in which the comment is made isn't usually considered canon, and the comment could be just a gag made for comedic purposes. Besides this information, Cortex's exact age remains unknown.

Cortex spent most of his childhood in Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil, as evidenced in Crash Twinsanity. He was the object of much jealousy and hatred among the other students, while Cortex believes otherwise, believing that he was the most popular and beloved student of them all. Aside from his classmates' frequent attempts to kill him, Cortex also had to put up with a cruel schoolmaster who would often call him a crybaby and the numerous attempts of escape by his pet parrots, Victor and Moritz. One day, 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 Victor and Moritz, the only two creatures that he claims not to have loathed or eaten. 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.

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. Because Cortex has a niece (Nina Cortex), it is possible that Cortex has or had a sibling, though his or her existence hasn't been mentioned. While Neo almost accidentely calls Nina his daughter at one point in Crash Twinsanity, this was intended to be a humorous reference to the production of Crash Nitro Kart, in which Nina was originally to make her debut as Cortex's daughter. With the possibility of Nina truly being Cortex's daughter, it would imply that Cortex has/had a wife.

1996-1998
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, and then buying the Wumpa Islands and building his fortress, he began creating his mutant army of once-animals, now-armored beasts that'll supposedly help him achieve world domination. Among these beasts was Crash Bandicoot, whom Cortex decides to make his general and leader of the "Cortex Commandos", despite warnings from his partner Brio. Upon being inserted into the untested Cortex Vortex, Crash is deemed a reject and a failure by Cortex, and chased out of Cortex's castle base. Before the female bandicoot Tawna could be subjected to the Cortex Vortex, Crash returns to the castle from N. Sanity Island, setting the castle on fire in the process. Determined to eliminate Crash from this world, Cortex, raygun at hand, pursues Crash on his Cortex Glider and, with a growl of "Darn you, Crash Bandicoot!", declares Crash his mortal enemy. However, Crash is able to defeat Cortex and send him plummeting to his assumed death. The epilogue of the game explains that Cortex disappears and is never heard from again, ultimately causing the following games to never exist. This ending is non-canonical, as Cortex Strikes Back takes place as soon as Cortex is defeated.

In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, it is revealed that Cortex survived his 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, 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. With Cortex gone, Nitrus Brio is able to destroy Cortex's space station, temporarily ending his threat.

In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Cortex's ruined space station crashes on Earth, inadvertently freeing one of the very few people Cortex 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, but his life is spared since he indirectly set him free. 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. In the end, he is once again defeated by Crash and is caught in the imploding Time Twister, trapped in a prison of time alongside Uka Uka and N. Tropy as an infant with a lower case "n" on his head.

2001-2004
After somehow escaping from the time prison, 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. He claims that the superweapon is unbelievably strong, but it is still missing a power source. He soon decides to use the Elementals as the power source, which successfully bring the secret weapon, Crunch Bandicoot, to life. But Crunch 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.

After spending three years floating across the ocean in a block of ice, Cortex finally makes it back to N. Sanity Island, where he shoots 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. At this point, Cortex is at an emotional peak; not only has Crash foiled his plan once again, but now his minions have temporarily abandoned him for "lunch". Unable to contain his anger, Cortex viciously attacks Crash in an underground cavern, his rage only qualmed with the discovery of a Power Crystal. As if to take advantage of Cortex's weak condition, two mutated parrots named the Evil Twins suddenly appear and announce their plans to destroy Crash's island and devastate Earth. Crash and Cortex temporarily team up to destroy these two upstarts with the aid of the Psychetron, a machine that'll allow them to travel between the infinite dimensions. However, it soon becomes apparent that the Evil 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 Tenth 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, adding that his creation was a mistake, and his existence has been a constant reminder of that mistake. He then reveals what he has learned from the journey: "You can't run away from your mistakes, but you can bury them!" And with that, Cortex pulls a lever that would supposedly dispose of Crash the same way he did to Victor and Moritz many years before. Unfortunately for him, the Psychetron malfunctions, sending Cortex into Crash's brain.

2007-present
Continuing from where Crash Twinsanity left off, Cortex kidnaps Coco and Aku Aku (Crash rescues Aku Aku), and proceeds to steal a large quantity of Mojo from an ancient temple, planning to use it to create a huge army of Titans, which will aid him in the construction of a giant robot dubbed "The Doominator". He then attempts to eliminate Crash with the aid of his patented Yuktopus, but fails to do so. Heading back to his base, Cortex is lambasted by Uka Uka for failing to kill Crash, and is replaced by Nina Cortex. Inactive for much of the game, Cortex is denied the opportunity to watch his Doominator in action. At the end of the game, Cortex rescues Nina from the collapsing Doominator, and praises Nina for betraying him, as it is the vilest thing she could've ever done. At that moment, Cortex vows to be more villainous and horrible in the future.

Other appearances
Cortex is a playable character in the games Crash Team Racing, Crash Nitro Kart, and Crash Tag Team Racing. In Crash Team Racing, when the alien Nitros Oxide threatens the world's racers into challenging him to a race, Cortex accepts the challenge, upset that someone besides him is trying to conquer the Earth. In Nitro Kart, Cortex is abducted along with N. Gin and Tiny and is forced to compete in Emperor Velo's Galactic Circuit. When Velo is defeated and is rendered useless as a ruler, Cortex uses his scepter to return to Earth but is instead transported to Terra, where Tiny gains the respect of the citizens (much to Cortex's utter annoyance). In Tag Team Racing, Cortex attempts to win the deed to Von Clutch's MotorWorld and use it as a new base of operations. When Crash wins the deed to the park, Cortex liquifies Willie Wumpa Cheeks (the park's mascot) and is about to kill Crash when Crash retaliates by throwing a live chicken into the rotor of Cortex's death machine, causing it to malfunction.

Cortex is also a playable character in Crash Bash and Crash, Boom, Bang!. Before the third stage of 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 he is unsuccessful in the search.

Cortex has a villain role in the game Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, where he tries to conquer the world by shrinking it to the size of a grapefruit with his new Planetary Minimizer. In the game's climax, he is fused with the game's three other bosses by the malfunctioning Planetary Minimizer, forming a creature known as Mega-Mix. Mega-Mix chases Crash down the space station's hall but is unsuccessful in killing him, and it ends up trapped in the space station as it explodes.

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, but he ends up defeated by their nemesises.

Base of operations
Cortex's base of operations seems to change throughout the series and has 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 were kept. This castle caught fire near the end of the game. It was originally thought to have been destroyed, as the epilogue for Papu Papu stated that he sold the remains for tourism, but the castle does nevertheless appear in background scenes in the next game. 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, having imploded in on itself without N. Tropy's control. Another space space station is built in Wrath of Cortex, but thanks to Cortex moving out the way of Uka Uka's energy beam, 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 one of two of Cortex's bases not to be destroyed (alongside Cortex Castle). Cortex attempted to win Von Clutch's MotorWorld and use it as a new base in Crash Tag Team Racing, but he was unsuccessful in the end.