Komodo Brothers

The Komodo Brothers (Japanese: コモドきょうだい/Komodo kyōdai) are genetically engineered komodo dragons created by N. Brio, named Joe and Moe. Joe is the skinny one with a lot of speed who can be able to spin for a long time until getting dizzy. Moe on the other hand may not be as fast, but delivers brute strength at the same time. He is also good at throwing swords.

Development
The Komodo Brothers were designed by Charles Zemballis for the first Crash Bandicoot game. But they, along with Tiny Tiger, were cut and moved to the second game in the franchise. They still have a soundtrack piece for their boss fight.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
This is the Komodo Bros. first appearance, they are the second boss in the game. They were hired by Dr. Nitrus Brio to thwart Crash's progress in order to stop him from collecting Crystals for Dr. Neo Cortex, but they failed. Their main attack pattern was Komodo Moe hitting Komodo Joe so as to spin him rapidly. When he's done spinning, he'll be dizzy, giving Crash the opportunity to hit him and send him directly towards Moe, damaging both Joe and Moe. Moe will throw his swords to hit Crash on every turn. On their last hit point, while Joe spins, Moe will throw his swords more rapidly. After being defeated, Joe and Moe will fall down dazed. They are fought in a circus tent.

Crash Team Racing
In CTR, only Komodo Joe is present. He appears as the third race boss. His home track is Dragon Mines. In Adventure Mode, he races against the player for the right to face Nitros Oxide by "crusshhing you into brick dusssttt". He constantly throws TNT and drops Nitro crates to try to stop the player. When he is defeated, he hands over the third of the four keys required to face Oxide. Joe's stats are actually the same as Crash, Cortex, and Fake Crash; in other words, he has intermediate stats. He can be unlocked by holding the L1 + R1 buttons and pressing Down, Circle, Left, Left, Triangle, Right, Down at the main menu OR winning the Blue Gem Cup in Adventure mode. In the epilogue, Joe opened a jewelry store in Zurich, "Honest Joe's Wedding Ring and Rare Gem Outlet". Unfortunately, he was caught and convicted of smuggling (apparently stolen) cubic zirconias for the Couch Slouch Shopping Network.

Stats

Speed: 3/5

Acceleration: 3/5

Turning: 3/5

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, Joe and Moe are back working together and they serve as the third boss in the game, and wield a huge tank. Uka Uka summoned them to fight as a challenge. The tank consists of three floors; 3 cannons (Floor 1), 4 lasers (Floor 2), and 2 Missile Launchers (Floor 3). Driving a small tank, the player must shoot the cannons, lasers and missile launchers twice each. When the giant tank is destroyed, Joe and Moe appear to try to defeat the player themselves [also appearing in small tanks]. The player has to hit them until they run out of HP. The Komodo Bros. shoot lasers that bounce around the area, sometimes hitting themselves as a result.

Cameos
The Komodo Brothers only appear as a cameo in a painting from Wrath of Cortex, a statue of Joe in Jungle Boogie in Crash Nitro Kart. In Crash Twinsanity, Komodo Joe only appears in a Purple Gem concept art. The Komodo Brothers were originally going to have an appearance in Twinsanity, where they would have challenged Crash and Cortex to a race and the winner would be rewarded a Crystal, the only catch was that the car would have no brakes. Their course would have been on Wumpa Island and it would have been set up on the base of the Uka Tree.

Personality
In CTR, Komodo Joe speaks with an accent similar to Kaa the Python from "The Jungle Book", that is, with long S, C or Sh syllables, such as "Let'sss Raccce" (but this doesn't necessarily always happen). Joe tends to give future blame towards a worthy opponent; for example, after losing a race and warning you about Oxide, he says "We're going to lossse our planet, and it will all be your fault!". Joe is more agile and intelligent than Moe, and does all the planning before combat. Nevertheless, they fail, often because things do not go exactly according to plan.

As of yet, it is unknown whether or not Komodo Moe speaks the same way, as his only given sound is a mean chuckle. What is known about Moe is that he seems to be the brother that does most of the attacking, but his attacks are not without mistakes (for instance, he'd likely trip before landing his attacks). Maybe the mistakes in Moe's attacks are because he has got one less finger in each one of his hands and feet than Joe.

Manga
The Komodo Bros. appear in Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken Volume 2 where they are Treasure Hunters. Moe is more friendly in the Manga and speaks normal, while Joe (Joe's name in this is Aniki) is the more aggressive one and also speaks normal. They have no connections to Dr. Cortex or Brio and do not wield their swords.

Trivia

 * It is possible that their combined names are a pun on the word "Mojo".


 * In CTR, Komodo Joe is the only boss not from Crash Bandicoot (not including Oxide); Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, and Pinstripe are the other three, but they all are from Crash Bandicoot.


 * Komodo Moe, along with Koala Kong, Doctor Nitrus Brio, Tawna and Baby T are the only known characters of the Crash universe before Crash Bash that were not playable characters in CTR.


 * From CTR onwards, the Komodo Brothers no longer work for N. Brio, and not for Cortex, either. However, Uka Uka is Joe's "invincibility" item, so whether or not they are still evil is unknown. Also, in Crash Bash, Moe and Joe are faced by any character, including their creator N. Brio, regardless whether from the good side or bad side.


 * Komodo Joe is one of five racers not to reappear in Crash Nitro Kart, the other four being Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Pinstripe and Penta Penguin.


 * Moe and Joe, along with Papu Papu and the doctor characters (With the exception of Dr. Cortex), are the only villains not to appear at Crash's "Birthday Party" in Twinsanity. As for Moe and Joe, they make no appearance in the game.


 * In Crash Bash, Komodo Joe and Moe's health bars are mixed up. If you hit Moe then Joe's health bar decreases and vice versa.


 * Since Moe was absent from CTR, some fans think it is possible that he and Joe had a falling out. This theory has been disproved in Crash Bash where both brothers are fought together in tanks.


 * It is possible that Komodo Joe wanted to beat Oxide rather than race for him as when you race, he says that he will have the right to race Oxide if he wins.


 * They were going to be bosses in the first game as there was a music track made for them but they were cut.


 * In CTR, Joe's boss garage logo portrays Joe with two sharp, pointy fangs that stick out of his mouth; his before and after driver speech model does so as well. However, his in-game driving model shows him with square buck teeth instead.


 * If the player uses a language glitch, his head switches to N.Oxide.


 * While playing the Purple Gem Cup in CTR, Komodo Joe always appears to be in third place, though Ripper Roo is seen to be faster than him on rare occasions. It depends if the player always attacks the other bosses or him and sometimes, if he always get last position, it is possible to overlap him too.


 * Oddly enough, Komodo Moe is the only one to have an action figure and a plush toy modeled after him.
 * In an Interview with Naughty Dogs Co-President, Evan Wells, he revealed that, due to the memory limitations of the Playstation, some of the original ideas and content had to be removed from Crash Team Racing. This is the reason why only Komodo Joe is present and Komodo Moe is not; Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe were originally going to be in one cart.