Pinstripe Potoroo

Pinstripe Potoroo, full name Pinstripelli Potorotti, is a recurring anthropomorphic potoroo character created by Neo Cortex. His character was inspired by mafia movies and tropes from pop culture, and as such, he is often characterized as powerful but trigger-happy. Pinstripe debuted in the first Crash Bandicoot game as a villain and boss, and has typically held antagonistic roles in his appearances since.

Crash Bandicoot
Pinstripe Potoroo first appeared as the fourth boss of the original Crash Bandicoot game and the first boss fought on Cortex Island. Crash Bandicoot must defeat him in order to make it to Castle Cortex and rescue his girlfriend Tawna Bandicoot from the clutches of the evil Neo Cortex. Enemies working for Pinstripe, Slims and Fats, attack Crash on his way through the Cortex Power power plant.

Pinstripe is the CEO of the island's power plant, and the fight takes place in his office. With his, he sprays gunfire at Crash from various points in the room. Crash can avoid taking damage by hiding behind Pinstripe's armchairs. Sometimes, Pinstripe will change positions or his gun will jam. At these points, Crash has the opportunity to spin into him and deal damage. Upon defeat, Pinstripe accidentally shoots out the power generator in the back of his office.

In the game's 100% ending epilogue, Pinstripe moved to Chicago in the United States. He gained ownership of a city-wide sanitation company and began saving money for his gubernatorial campaign.

Pinstripe reprised his boss role in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which includes a remake of the original first game. A new animation was added of him collapsing behind his desk upon defeat.

Crash Team Racing
Pinstripe is the fourth boss and a playable character in Crash Team Racing. He is unlocked as playable by completing the Yellow Gem Cup. He shares the same driver statistics as Coco Bandicoot and N. Gin, specializing in the Accel stat. Like other playable series antagonists in the game, Pinstripe uses Uka Uka as his Invincibility Mask.

Like the rest of the cast, Pinstripe is competing for the right to race the alien Nitros Oxide and stop him from turning Earth into a parking lot. He intends to face Oxide himself in exchange for a fee, and holds the final Area Key needed to face him. Once every track is beaten in Citadel City, Pinstripe can be faced in a boss race in Hot Air Skyway. He throws bombs behind his kart to try and slow the player character down. Upon defeat, he grudgingly awards them the final key.

In the game's epilogue, Pinstripe Potoroo became a top used car salesman in New Jersey, claiming that customers "decide on a car quickly once [his] Tommy gun comes out".

Other major appearances
Pinstripe Potoroo is one of the playable characters available from the start in Crash Boom Bang!. Like the others, he participates in Viscount's World Cannonball Race in order to win $100,000,000.

Pinstripe reprised his role as a boss and playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake of Crash Team Racing. He is unlocked by winning his boss race, and his default Driving Style is Acceleration. His pre- and post-boss race cutscenes were re-animated: he introduces himself by firing his gun and rolling a bomb at the player character, and gives up his key in a suspicious manner upon defeat. His epilogue was also edited, specifying that he left racing to sell cars, but his atypical methods caused him to lose his license and return to previous work as a CEO and bodyguard.

Pinstripe was first referenced in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! when a Pinstripe-themed skin for Coco was added in Season 2, Running Outta Time!. He officially debuted as the main antagonist of Season 5, 25th Anniversary!. He was a seasonal boss for Crash and Coco to defeat. Pinstripe attacked by firing purple flames from his gun, throwing bombs, and summoning barrels of toxic waste as obstacles. Like all bosses, he was defeated by chasing him and depleting his health with Boom Berries, then using the Portal Weapons crafted beforehand to send him back to his own dimension.

Minor appearances
Pinstripe Potoroo makes a brief cameo in Crash Twinsanity. Neo Cortex organizes a "birthday party" (really an ambush) of Crash, which Pinstripe attends. Additionally, a piece of concept art unlocked by obtaining purple gems in the game depicts him playing a card game with Cortex's other animal minions.

In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, a portrait of Pinstripe can be seen on a wanted posted in the level Off Beat.

Other media
Several non-game Crash Bandicoot media entries reference a story where Tawna leaves Crash for Pinstripe following the events in the first game. Though Pinstripe does not appear in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, the manual for the Japanese version of the game states that Tawna and Pinstripe had become friends during her captivity in the first game. She had since left the islands to be with him in Chicago. In the first chapter of Ari Kawashima's Crash Bandicoot: Dance! Then Jump! Na Daibōken, a manga series that loosely follows the plot of Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Tawna leaves a parting letter to Crash explaining that she left to be with Pinstripe. BradyGames' strategy guide for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex features a section called "The Complete and Authorized History of Crash Bandicoot". In addition to a summary of the first Crash Bandicoot game, the book features Tawna's parting note to Crash. She wrote that she had fallen in love with Pinstripe, who made her "an offer [she] couldn't refuse".

The first, and so far only, reference to these events in the game series is in Crash Boom Bang!, which notes that Tawna "is crazy about Pinstripe".

Physical appearance
Pinstripe is a tall and thin anthropomorphic potoroo character. In his debut appearance in the first Crash Bandicoot game, his fur is brown and light-colored around his mouth. He has dark slicked-back hair, short ears, yellow eyes, dark eyebrows, and dark markings around his eyes. He also has a long snout. He wears a red suit over a green undershirt, a black tie, and black dress shoes. He also commonly carries a with him. This design was used in Crash Team Racing as well.

Different games have changed various elements of his appearance. In his cameo in Crash Twinsanity, Pinstripe wears a purple pinstriped suit and gold rings on his fingers. In Crash Boom Bang!, Pinstripe has red fur and a chiseled jaw. In the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, the fur around Pinstripe's mouth is the same brown color as the rest of his body. In Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, the sclera of his eyes are white instead of yellow and his ears are larger. His suit has a pinstripe pattern in Twinsanity, N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled, and On the Run!; earlier games did not include this detail.

Personality
Being a character inspired by mafia movies such as The Godfather, Pinstripe Potoroo displays many traits of a stereotypical mafia gangster, such as having a Brooklyn accent, dressing in a pinstriped suit, carrying a Tommy gun, and leading a gang of mobster enemies (see: Slim and Fat). One of Pinstripe's voice lines in Crash Team Racing and Nitro-Fueled, "Say goodnight!", references a line from the mafia film Scarface. According to the manual of Crash Bandicoot, Pinstripe is loyal to his creator, Neo Cortex, considering him "The Don of Doctors". His profile in Crash Boom Bang! describes him as "extremely dangerous".

Throughout the series, Pinstripe is almost never seen without his Tommy gun and tends to fire it recklessly. In the first Crash Bandicoot game, he opens fire on Crash Bandicoot in his office. He accidentally shoots out the power plant generator in the back upon defeat. In both Crash Team Racing and Nitro-Fueled, Pinstripe fires his gun on the podium in celebration when he wins a race. In Nitro-Fueled only, he also cradles his gun for comfort when defeated. After becoming a used car salesman in the epilogue of Crash Team Racing, he used his gun to intimidate customers into purchasing a car quickly. He is quick to become frustrated and strike the gun when it jams, however, as seen in the original Crash Bandicoot and Crash Team Racing.

Pinstripe is sometimes portrayed as ambitious and successful in business. In the original Crash Bandicoot, Pinstripe is CEO of Cortex Power & Gas Co. and goes on to run a sanitation company in Chicago, with plans to run for governor. In the epilogue of both Crash Team Racing and Nitro-Fueled, he becomes a top used car salesman each month due to his aggressive sales techniques.

Creation and early development
Pinstripe was designed by Naughty Dog for the first Crash Bandicoot game as one of Neo Cortex's minions. He was originally envisioned as a bandicoot character, but was named as a potoroo later in development. He was planned to be a boss character fought on the third island in the game.

The earliest known mention of the character was in the February 20, 1995 edition of the production bible for the first game. Called simply Pinstripe, he briefly appeared in Cortex's castle along with the other animal characters in a script for the game's opening sequence.

The May 5, 1995 edition of the production bible, seen in The Crash Bandicoot Files: How Willy the Wombat Sparked Marsupial Mania, was the first to include concept art of Pinstripe. Besides the pinstripe pattern on his suit, the design depicted is essentially unchanged from what made it into the final game. His character brief states that his boss fight was to be in the middle of a planned minecart section of the game. An undated list of levels also included in The Crash Bandicoot Files places him after a power plant area on the game's third island instead, which was retained in the final game.

A full character profile and history of Pinstripe were written for the August 15, 1995 edition of the bible. It also gave him the full name Pinstriped Bandicoot. Put off by the apparent disloyalty of the Dragon Brothers, Cortex and N. Brio subjected a striped bandicoot to the Evolvo-Ray and Cortex Vortex. Pinstripe's treatment consisted of exposure to mafia movies such as The Godfather in order to make him a loyal soldier. Considering Cortex to be his don, Pinstripe immediately took over operations of his private power station, replacing its workers with his own bandicoot mafia. He also employed another of Cortex's creations, Koala Kong, as his bodyguard. Pinstripe saw the Dragon Brothers as a rival family and advised Cortex against trusting them. His bandicoot mafia warred with their lizard army, and each would send their own hitmen to attempt to eradicate the other.

At some point during development, the character was renamed Pinstripe Potoroo, being called as such in the final game. This was likely related to Naughty Dog's decision to rename the game's main character, previously called Willy the Wombat, to Crash Bandicoot. Pinstripe's positions as CEO of Cortex Power & Gas Co. and protector for Neo Cortex are referenced in the game and its manual; his interactions with Koala Kong and the Dragon Brothers were not. None of Cortex's animal henchmen appear in the game's opening cutscene.

Gallery
Main article: Pinstripe Potoroo/Gallery