Nina Cortex

Nina Cortex is the niece of Doctor Neo Cortex, the main antagonist of the series. She has mechanical arms that are used to grab faraway objects and attack enemies. She sometimes aids her uncle in his quest for world domination, though they have had a recent falling-out due to a failed plot headed by her and Cortex's boss Uka Uka.

Pre-series history
Not much is known about Nina's parents, her childhood or how she came to be under Doctor Neo Cortex's care. It is said that when Nina began showing signs of a kind heart, Doctor Cortex modified her arms with bionic parts and enrolled her in Madame Amberly's Private Academy, which he himself attended as a child.

Crash Twinsanity
Nina doesn't see her uncle again until Crash Twinsanity when Doctor Cortex sneaks her out of the school so that she may help him and Crash fight the Evil Twins, who threaten to destroy the Wumpa Islands. When Crash, Cortex and Nina travel to the Tenth Dimension, Nina is kidnapped by the feral Evil Crash and taken to his house for a tea party, where Cortex soon rescues Nina. She later helps in defeating the Evil Twins by destroying the power sources of their Deathbot.

Crash of the Titans
In Crash of the Titans, when Neo Cortex fails to dispose of Crash Bandicoot, Nina is called upon by Uka Uka to replace her uncle as the main antagonist of the story. In the Nintendo DS version of the game, Nina attempts to take over Cortex's plot on her own accord when she realizes that she's merely a henchman. When Crash confronts her inside the Doominator, Nina boards her giant Arachnina Titan and battles Crash, only to lose. When the Doominator is disabled, she is rescued from the falling contraption by Doctor Cortex, who reveals that he is proud that she betrayed him, but claims that he is still going to "spank [her] stupid" for all that has happened.

Crash: Mind over Mutant
In Crash: Mind over Mutant, Nina is dropped off at the Evil Public School by Doctor Cortex as punishment for her actions in the previous game. When she is eventually visited by Crash and Aku Aku, she angrily accuses Crash of ruining her life and refuses to help them stop Cortex's ongoing plot. When Crash and Aku Aku get desperate, she forces the two to kiss each other and save her science fair project. She then uses the said project to determine the location of Crunch and Brio, who are at the Sludge's Junkyard.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Nina is recruited by Doctor Cortex to kidnap Coco Bandicoot and the Professor. When Spyro and Crash arrive to save Coco and the Professor, Nina chases down Crash, only to soon be captured in a cage, where she is left to weep over the unfairness of the situation.

Crash Tag Team Racing
Nina is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which she aids Doctor Cortex and Doctor N. Gin in trying to take over Von Clutch's MotorWorld. At one point in the game, Nina gets a part-time job handling the park's edible meats in order to purchase the Angsterator car, going as far as to practically begging Crash to help her get the job.

Personality
In her first appearance in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Nina has a childish personality and speaking pattern, referring to herself in the third person and calling Spyro a "purple puppy". This personality was retconned in subsequent games. Canonically, Nina is known to be more ambitious and egotistical than her uncle; even Aku Aku believes that Nina is "a lot smarter than Cortex ever could be." She is very spiteful and sadistic and has gothic look. Despite her self-admittedly antisocial demeanor, she is said to have a love for animals. She dislikes Evil Public School due to the perceived inferior value of her schoolmates (whom she describes as the "dregs of society") to those of Madame Amberly's Private Academy, where she saw herself as "the queen". She additionaly hates Crash for being the reason for her stay at the Evil Public School.

Physical appearance
Nina has partially spiked black hair, light-blue skin, prominent buck teeth and a metallic lowercase 'N' on her head. Nina's most distinguishing features are her spring-loaded steel bionic hands, which were given to her by her uncle Doctor Cortex. Nina stands about four feet and eleven inches (1.5 meters) and weighs 110 pounds (50 kilograms). In her early appearances, she wears a dark-blue sailor fuku, apparently the uniform of the Academy of Evil. In the Radical Entertainment games, she wears a black dress shirt with short sleeves, a red tie, a blue, pleated miniskirt and black tanker boots. In Crash Tag Team Racing, her alternate costume is a pink and white drive-thru uniform, which she earns by getting a job as one of Von Clutch's employees.

Portrayals
Nina is voiced by Susan Silo in Crash Twinsanity, by Amy Gross from Crash Tag Team Racing onwards and by Debi Derryberry in the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans. In the Japanese version of the series, she is voiced by Satomi Kōrogi (who also voiced Polar in Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash) in Crash Twinsanity and by Chihiro Kusaka in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the French versions of the games, she is voiced by Patricia Legrand, who also voices Coco and the Brat Girls.

Trivia

 * Nina Cortex was originally created by Traveller's Tales as a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart before development duties of the game were transferred to Vicarious Visions. During her conception it was undecided whether she would be Neo Cortex's daughter or niece, hence the deliberate discrepencies regarding her relationship with Cortex in Crash Twinsanity ("My daugh-err... niece!"). Her appearance was based on one of the designers working at Traveller's Tales. An early design of her depicted her wearing a white lab coat similar to her uncle's.

Other Links

 * Nina Cortex at Crash Mania