N. Tropy

Doctor Nefarious Tropy (or N. Tropy for short) is the self-proclaimed master of time and quantum warp technology. He is an acquaintance of Uka Uka, called upon the latter to help take over the world in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. It is stated in the Wrath of Cortex manual that he can be seen causing time paradoxes for laughs. He is shown to be a good friend of N. Trance.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Doctor Nefarious Tropy is introduced by Uka Uka in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped as the creator of the Time Twister Machine, a device that will aid Neo Cortex in his quest to gather the Crystals in their original places in time. He later acts as the third boss of the game, battling Crash with his gigantic tuning fork. After defeating him, he flees to the space/time vortex, and Crash earns the Death Tornado. After the Time Twister Machine is destroyed by not being maintained by N. Tropy at the end of the game, Cortex, Nefarious, and Uka Uka are trapped in a time prison and are turned into infants.

His battle style includes a wave of what appears to be electricity horizontally and vertically. Then, he switches up the platforms which form a path to him. N. Tropy kneels down to rest and he is now exposed. When he is hit he uses his time warp/teleportation ability which allows him to warp other side of the room. But, if Crash waits too long and is close to N. Tropy, he will smash Crash with his tuning fork, vaporizing Crash across time and space.

Crash Team Racing
N. Tropy makes a return in Crash Team Racing, appearing as an unlockable character. To unlock him, the player must beat all records in the time trial mode or via cheat code. Tropy drives a sky-blue, high speed but bad turning and average acceleration kart. He has the same stats as Tiny Tiger, Dingodile and Papu Papu.

Stats

 * Speed: 5/5
 * Acceleration: 4/5
 * Turning: 3/5

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
"There must be something we can come up with...say, Doctor, haven't you been 'tinkering' with some sort of new, secret weapon in your laboratory?"

N. Tropy has a minor appearance in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, in which he is an attendee of Uka Uka's convention and an occasional enemy in the game, attempting to hinder Crash's progress by shooting at him with his tuning fork, and racing against him in a car. He only has one line in the whole game.

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, Dr. N. Tropy is first seen after the Rusty Walrus chase in High Seas Hi-Jinks, with Cortex's old colleague, Dr. Nitrus Brio, who were seeking the whereabouts of the Evil Twins' treasure. After not getting any information from Crash they decide to 'wring it out of him'. Right after that, N. Tropy orders N. Brio to transform. The now frog-like Brio springs into the air and hits the iceberg's edge, sending Crash flying to Cortex's Lab. N. Tropy reappears in the level, Ant Agony, along with Nitrus Brio and N. Gin to steal the Evil Twins' treasure but was burned by Spyro the Dragon.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
N. Tropy is the main antagonist of Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, in which he teams up with his inter-dimensional servant, N. Trance, kidnaps Crunch, Coco and Fake Crash, and hypnotizes them into working for him. He is later defeated by Crash and is forced to take a group picture with the Bandicoots, much to his anger.

Crash Nitro Kart
N. Tropy is an unlockable character in Crash Nitro Kart, where he races under Neo Cortex's team. His face is shaped like an hourglass here. To unlock him, defeat all of his ghosts in Time Trial mode.

The epilogue of CTR, which most likely happened after all this, states that he began tinkering with his time machine again and he was last seen entering a time portal.

Crash Boom Bang!
N. Tropy makes a cameo appearance in the Silhouette Quiz mini-game.

Personality
Nefarious Tropy is, needless to say, a nefarious and smug character, as opposed to the bad temper of Doctor Cortex, with a smooth British accent to match. He appears to be the smartest out of all the doctors (having built a time travel device), but tends to get frustrated when he repeatedly misses his target, and as a result, tires easily. This usually works to Crash's advantage and results in Tropy's many defeats at the hands of the bandicoot. He also sometimes enjoys making puns referring to time.

His outward appearance reflects an unhealthy obsession with time. Frequent travel through the cold and hostile vacuum of space and time has caused his skin to become light-blue and extremely cold. He has long eyebrows and two equally long and skinny beards, giving him an Asian-esque appearance (this might be why he has an Asian themed Warp Room chamber in Warped). His legs are long and skinny. His clothing has changed over the years, now seen as gold armor covering most of his body, except his waist. He also wears a golden-brown, smog-producing, piston-driven time machine, which appears to obscure his lab coat. He wears a tall hat with a small silver fork. His left arm now has a huge metal glove with a clock on it.

Origin
The creators of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped have stated that because the plot of Warped involved time travel, a time traveling boss was called for. This led to Nefarious Tropy's initial creation. Tropy's shortened name is a pun on the term "Entropy", a measurement of chaos, randomness, and disorder.

Errors and Glitches
When defeated, N. Tropy makes one last quote just like other bosses. However if the player stands too close to Tropy after having finished him off, the player will be instantly warped to the Warp Room.

Instead, if the player uses a slide, a then-powered-up Double Jump and finally a Tornado Spin in order to glide towards the other main platform, the player will hear N. Tropy saying "My time is up. But yours soon will be too!".

Also, if the player brings an Aku Aku to his boss fight Aku Aku can be seen reflected in his clock.

Portrayals
Tropy is voiced by Michael Ensign in all his speaking appearances excluding Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, in which he is voiced by Corey Burton (who also voiced Doctor N. Gin in the same game).

Trivia

 * Although N. Tropy does not appear in Crash Bash, some music elements of his and Dr. N. Gin's boss theme from Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is remixed for some minigames, most notably in Pogo-a-Gogo.
 * In Crash Team Racing, N. Tropy is one of the three characters who is never playable in Adventure mode (and plays no part in the storyline). The others are Fake Crash and Penta Penguin who are unlockable via cheat code. N. Tropy is also the only one of those three to appear in the credits.
 * In his Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped boss fight, if one looks closely at the clock that he turned on his hat, chest, and wrist, they all point at the same time of 10:10.
 * His name is a pun of a measure of chaos and disorder, Entropy.
 * N. Tropy's torso was supposed to be digital clock and uncovered instead of analog clock with brown covers.
 * After beating his Ghost in CTR, N. Tropy will say something different depending on the track. If the player beats all his ghosts, he will congratulate the player and say that he's unlocked as a racer.
 * When Crash fights Tropy in Twinsanity, the player can hear a clock ticking.
 * The ticking sound heard when fighting him in Twinsanity is most likely coming from his armor, but in the cutscene before the battle, it is quiet.
 * Even though N. Tropy doesn't appear in Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D one of the cups is named after him.
 * Nefarious Tropy is the only playable character to have a 7/7 stat in speed in the racing game Crash Nitro Kart, besides Real Velo who has a 7/7 stat not only in speed but also in acceleration and turning.
 * N. Tropy was against N. Trance in Crash Nitro Kart, which is strange, considering N. Trance served him in N-Tranced.
 * In Crash Twinsanity the pistons on his armor do not pump and are still. It is possible the animators simply forgot to make them do so.
 * Even though N. Tropy has an Asian themed hub in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, there are no Asian themed levels in his hub.