Ratcicle

The Ratcicle is a Titan that appears in the Crash of the Titans saga. It resembles a tall, muscular bipedal that has the ability to freeze it's enemies. According to it's name, doctor Neo Cortex must have created the Ratcicles by mutating rats. All Ratcicles have blueish fur and sharp claws and teeth.

Abilities
Ratcicles are strong and fast attackers, very muscular and capable of taking on on multiple opponents at once. Their basic special ability is to freeze enemies. In Crash of the Titans, Ratcicle's special attack (Freeze Punks) consists of slamming the ground with it's right arm, thus creating a frost-wave that can divide in up to two sections, freezing any enemy it encounters in a large block of ice. Enemies frozen in this way can't move until the ice taws (which takes a few seconds), and should the player use Ratcicle's overslam attack (the block-breaker) on such enemies, they would be killed instantly (not stunned, killed).

In Crash: Mind over Mutant, the Ratcicle has an aditional ability called Freeze Sneeze, which is basically a powerful sneeze that can freeze anything it touches. This is a lot weaker version of Freze Punks, and enemies frozen in this way are only stunned for a moment, but it requires no special bar to execute it. This ability is vital in the game's progress as the Ratcicle can use any of the above abilities to freeze bodies of water to create temporal bridges and move across. It can also jump in this game.

In the same game, the Ratcicle is the only titan that can surf in shallow water, creating a block of ice under it's feet in a form of a surf-board. This is not necessary to proceed in the main plot, but it is useful to reach secret areas.

Appearances
Crash and Aku Aku first encounter the Ratcicles on their way to N.Gin in Crash of the Titans, when they enter his own version of Statue of Liberty. The Ratcicles are also encountered while showering in their personal locker room, and they also appear in the battle against N.Gin. They later appear in various other episodes of the game In Mind over Mutant, the Ratcicle is the first titan introduced in the game. It appears next to a river, where it demonstrates it's Freeze Sneeze ability to freeze it and crossed over for the two to fight him and jack him after being defeated. Crash later used the Ratcicle to defeat Coco, who has gone frenzy because of the NV on her head. After Crash lured Coco down from her ball-launching machine, Ratcicle freezes her in a nearby pound thus inflicting damage. By doing this over and over, Coco regains her senses.

It is later revealed that since the events in Crash of the Titans, after the Ratcicles escaped Cortex's control, they founded their own home land, the Ratcicle Kingdom, at the east of Wumpa Island. The Ratcicles encountered there are much smaller and show more relation to Crash and Coco. Among the notable caracters that appear there (all Ratcicles) are the "great architect", his translater, a passionate dancer, an old cleaner, and a kid that sits in the shadow of the Ratcicle statue. It is later revealed that this is the son of the Hero Ratcicle. All of these show very little relations to classic Ratcicles, including their abilities to freeze stuff.

There is also a slightly upgraded Ratcicle: the Ratcicle Hero. It is a palette swap of a regular Ratcicle, with more white than blue fur. It also has a fancy haircut. In order to obtain him, the player must return to Ratcicle Kingdom after some of the plot events of the game, and talk either to the kid or the old Ratcicle, both which will lead Crash to a mission to save the Ratcicle Hero. It is found in the same room where the first TK was obtained, guarded by evil Ratcicles and some Scorporillas, frozen in a block of ice. The player must use the Scorporilla to break him free, after which it can be jacked. Once this is done, it will respawn next to the kid in Ratcicle Kingdom. The same as all Heroes, it has it's own bar that fills up after collecting mojo, and it is upgraded in the way that is separate from the rest of it's kind.

Trivia
Interestingly, the playable Ratcicle Hero is practically naked, but while he is trapped in the pillar of ice he's wearing body armor. The same kind of outfit can be seen in the in-game artwork, under "Ice Pack".

One of the additional missions in Mind over Mutant involves both players in co-op mode to jack a Ratcicle at the same time, which is not repeated with other titans.

Etimology
The name Ratcicle probably derives from the phrases 'rat' (persuming all Ratcicles were rats before being mutated by Dr. Cortex) and 'icecicle' (reffering to their ability to freeze).