Lab Assistant



Lab Assistants are Dr. Neo Cortex's henchmen that Crash Bandicoot encounters throughout the Crash Bandicoot series. The Lab Assistants are used as minions to try and stop Crash from foiling Cortex's plans. The Lab Assistants appear throughout the Crash Bandicoot series disguised in different outfits and costumes that usually correspond with the theme of a level. They also have their own methods of attacking Crash depending on their disguise. The most prominent feature of the Lab Assistants are their glasses lens, which appear on all forms of Lab Assistants that Crash may encounter in the game.

Later in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, a secret room in the central hub displays how the Lab Assistants are mass produced and sent into different worlds. This suggests that the Lab Assistants all along were robots created by Cortex to serve as henchmen. When Crash destroys Cortex's time traveling machine though, Cortex lost a line of his production of Lab Assistants. However, in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Cortex is seen again with more Lab Assistants, implying that Cortex may have morn than one way of creating Lab Assistants.



Crash Bandicoot
The Lab Assistants were seen in the original Crash Bandicoot, where they are seen taking Tawna hostage. They served as henchmen for Dr. Cortex during the game. The Lab Assistants are found later on certain levels in the third islands. They use different types of chemicals and electricity to attack Crash in these levels.

Roles
Crash Bandicoot features the least variety of Lab Assistants in the series, with them making an appearance only in the third island of the game. Aside from the Lab Assistants that hold Tawna captive in the introduction, only two forms of Lab Assistants appear in the game.


 * Beaker Tossing Lab Assistants - In the level Slippery Climb, there will be various Lab Assistants that toss chemical beakers in Crash's direction. Crash can avoid the beakers by standing clear of the path of the beakers landing spot. Crash can defeat this Lab Assistant by simply spinning him away when he is not tossing a beaker.
 * Electric Barrier Lab Assistants - These Lab Assistants appear in the last level of the game, The Lab. They will usually stand near the edge of the path, and create an electrical barrier in front of Crash. If Crash touches the electricity, he will get shocked and either lose his Aku Aku mask, or lose a life as a result of the electricity. Every few seconds the Lab Assistants will lower their electric barrier. This gives Crash a chance to spin them back towards the edge, where they can only be defeated by being knocked over it.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
The Lab Assistants return in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back as henchmen for Cortex once again. In this game, the Lab Assistants play a larger role as an adversary that Crash must try to overcome. The Lab Assistants in this game are more specialized than they were in the original game. In this game, they perform different jobs throughout the game including working in sewers and in space.

Roles
The Lab Assistants make more frequent appearances in this game, and take on more specialized roles than the previous Crash Bandicoot game.


 * Crate Lifting Lab Assistants - In the Polar levels of Cortex Strikes Back, Crash will encounter a pair of Lab Assistants lifting and dropping heavy metal crates. Crash must judge when the Lab Assistants will lift or drop the crates because he must either jump over the crates or run under them depending on the position of the crates. These Lab Assistants cannot be defeated.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
The Lab Assistants return yet again in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped as Cortex henchmen yet again. The Lab Assistants play even a larger role than the past games, and now coincide with theme of each level. It is revealed in Warped that the Lab Assistants are mass drones mass produced by Cortex's time machine, and are warped all over the world due to a teleporter. The player can visit this room once they earn five Sapphire Relics.

Post-Naughty Dog era
After Naughty Dog, the robots seemed to have more and more appearances, such as various ones seen in The Wrath Of Cortex (with the "Afro Assistant" even being shown in the game's credits), as well as many ones appearing in the first two Vicarious Visions GBA titles.

Crash Nitro Kart(cameo)
Statues of Lab assistants are seen on the track Tiny Temple.

Crash Boom Bang!(cameo)
Lab assistants host some mini-games.

Jobs for assistants in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes back

 * Throwing potions at Crash
 * Blocking Crash's way by lifting metal steel crates when you are racing with that cute little polar bear.
 * Attacking Crash
 * Whacking at Crash with sledgehammers and cause you to transofrom into a grave that reads "RIP Crash."
 * Burning Crash with a blow torch while working in the sewer levels. Man, these guys scream lodly.
 * Electrifying you in space and scream when you spin them into the heat doors. These guys MUST be spinned into the laser door to deactivate the red hot heat that covers the door.
 * Though these guys are VERY secret and they only appear in two levels: when you jump into the "abyss" part of Un-Bearable and the purple gem path of Bee-Having. They are dressed as poachers/hunters and shoot this weird looking gun/bazooka at you. These guys are VERY hard to take down, especially when combined with the metal-covered Armadillo.

Jobs for Lab assistants in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

 * Dressing as a wizard and casting spells to turn you into a frog.
 * Dressing as a knight and slicing you in half with their big long pointy lance.
 * Pulling Crash underwater.
 * Race in cars against Crash.
 * Slicing up Crash's pants to reveal his boxers.
 * Hovering around in an attempt to abduct Crash.
 * Jumping around in their sarcophagus and either squishing Crash, or if you break it, they will kill Crash.
 * Same as before, except their sarcophagus is half the size and covered with spikes, and the top half of the "mummified" lab assiant can be seen holding onto his sarcophagus. These are only seen in the "Tomb Raider" level, and maybe "Bug Lite."
 * Occupy a little rowboat in Coco's levels, and if you hit their boat, you break not only your ski but their boat as well. As revenge, they grab their paddle and smash your head so hard you go flying underwater.
 * Also in Coco's levels, they sit up in a mast located randomly in the water, and swing an achor at you in a wide circle.
 * In Coco's tiger levels, they act as Chinamen/Oriental Men and seem to just lift weights, and not attack you. They serve as obstacles only.
 * Yet again in Coco's tiger levels, they are dressed as the same, excpet they run around and carry baskets of what looks like it is filled blueberries. These guys are a lot harder to avoid.
 * Again with Coco's levels, but these guys just hold a little ramp open which if you hit you fly to the top of a little structure, which can give you a bit of a shortcut if you are going for trials.
 * In the Arabic levles, these guys stand still and throw swords at you.
 * In the Arabic levels, they dress up as genies and float around on flying carpets, That's it.
 * Have deformed/mutated into two headed giants, which hold clubs in their two hands. Though they can't be killed, they can be knocked over and jumped on their big fat stomachs. If they hit you, they actually "break" the fourth wall. It
 * They have been transformed into frogs. If you hit them they kiss you and turn into a beautiful prince.

Jobs for Lab assistants in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

 * Blocking Crash's way dressed as a knight
 * Dressing up as a wizard
 * Dressing up as a royal servant while blocking Crash's way
 * Throwing potions at Crash
 * Spewing toxic acid at Crash
 * Shooting a harpoon gun at Crash
 * Blocking Crash's way in a diving suit
 * Dressing up as a ninja
 * Dressing as a wagon carrier intending to run into Coco'''Lab_Assistant_riding_a_triceratops.jpg
 * Drives a Car intendind to run over Coco
 * Shoots a laser at Crash
 * Dancing with Crash in Credits
 * Banging Gongs with beaters.Lab-asst-wizard.gif

Trivia

 * The fact that there are so many variants of Lab Assistants makes them similar to Nintendo's Shy Guys, which also have the most variants of Nintendo enemies.


 * There was supposed to be a "Prehistoric" Lab Assistant riding the Triceratops in Warped, but it was later scrapped.
 * In the animated series Super Duper Sumos, The character of Billy Swift resembles a dark version of the Assistants.
 * Although they were revealed to be androids in Warped, a hint was given out in the two levels of Crash Bandicoot 2, Rock It and Pack Attack, as there was a bit of the assistant's face replaced with metal.
 * The only time BS didn't resemble the Lab Assistants was when he does an evil laugh in the Super Duper Sumos episode That Was Zen, This is Tao".