Coco Bandicoot

Coco Bandicoot (ココ・バンディクー in Japanese) is a major character in the Crash Bandicoot series and the highly intelligent and spirited younger sister of Crash Bandicoot. She often aids her big brother by building gadgets ideal for the situation or even tagging along with him in his journeys, using self-taught martial arts to defend herself. She first appeared in Crash Bandicoot 2.

Just as her brother was, Coco was an ordinary bandicoot until she was taken from the jungle and genetically enhanced by Doctor Neo Cortex. It is unknown how she came to live with Crash afterwards.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Coco is first seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back living on N. Sanity Island with Crash. One day, when the battery for her laptop runs out, she sends Crash off to find a replacement battery for her. When Coco discovers that Crash is gathering Crystals for Cortex, she becomes suspicious of Cortex and decides to hack into Cortex's computer and see what he's really up to. What she finds are detailed schematics for an improved Cortex Vortex and a suspicious-looking space station. She learns of Cortex's real plan just as Crash has gathered all the Crystals, and reveals Cortex's intentions to Crash before he can give the Crystals to Cortex.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
In Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (in which she is a playable character), Coco is called upon by Aku Aku to use Doctor Nefarious Tropy's Time Twister Machine and gather the powerful Crystals in their original places before Cortex do so. Coco helps by gathering the Crystals in 17th century China, the 18th century Pacific Ocean, and World War I Europe. She is also responsible for the defeat of Doctor N. Gin on the Moon, with her new pet tiger Pura assisting her.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Coco activates a new Portal Chamber for Crash to use when the Elementals wreak havoc on the Earth. She helps Crash gather the Power Crystals needed to stop the Elementals by collecting them in a tsunami-ravaged Asia and an avalanche zone. She also stops an armada of Cortex's space stations from striking Earth. Near the end, she helps Crash and Crunch escape from Cortex's malfunctioning space station.

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, Coco is ambushed by Doctor Neo Cortex, who stuns her, and disguises himself as her in order to lure Crash into a trap. Many moments later, Coco believes that Cortex kidnapped Crash, and travels to the Iceberg Lab to confront him. With a swift kick, she attacks Cortex and sends the Power Crystals he was holding flying into the Psychetron. The resulting chain reaction leaves Coco paralyzed until the end of the game. In an earlier version of the game, Coco was to have a much larger role, helping Crash and Cortex gain access to the Airship by hacking into the security system of Cortex's old castle in stages that parodied the Matrix series. Additionally, a deleted level named "Gone a Bit Coco" would see Cortex traveling into Coco's Brainovial Hyperbarium through a malfunction in the Psychetron, encountering many "pastel-colored horrors". Crash will be hurt if he touch's her while she is paralyzed.



Crash of the Titans
Coco is in the intro where she is seen creating a device that would have recycled butter. She is captured by Dr. Neo Cortex's airship and is taken to Cortex Castle. When Nina replaces her uncle, Dr. Neo Cortex, Coco is brainwashed and is forced to finish the Doominator. As you can see Coco looks more like a teen in this Crash Bandicoot game. She ends up completing the Doominator, but is rescued by Crash and is able to stop it at the end of the game. She eats pancakes with Crash and Crunch in celebration at the end of the game.

Crash: Mind Over Mutant
Coco is a playable character in the cooperation mode of the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of Crash: Mind Over Mutant. Because her animations would take up too much memory in the PlayStation 2 version of the game, she is replaced by Carbon Crash, a white version of Crash Bandicoot. At the beginning of the game, Coco converts the Doominator's eye into an entertainment system. After seeing an infomercial advertising the "NV", a do-anything personal digital assistant, she receives an NV along with Crunch and quickly becomes addicted. Soon enough, the NV transforms her into a ferocious beast who tries to destroy Crash using a giant basketball-launching machine. After being defeated and informed (to her disappointment) that the NV had a negative influence on her, she uses the Doominator's eye to access Cortex's blog and learn what Cortex is planning. She is accessible as the second player's character from that point on.

Crash Team Racing
Coco is a playable character in Crash Team Racing, driving a pink high-acceleration kart. Her home track in the game is Coco Park. In the game's epilogue, Coco opens up her own Internet dating service after the events of the game, even though it isn't going well share prices are through the roof.

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, Coco is summoned by Aku Aku to battle against Uka Uka's team in a fight of good and evil alongside her brother, but, Aku Aku forces Uka Uka to had over two of his team as he has too many and chooses Tiny Tiger and Dingodile. Her status are equal to her brother, in the Crate Crush minigames she can spin crates far while moving, although her throwing range isn't good. In Polar Push, she can push two times in a row and has great pushing power. In Tank Wars, she shoots average moving fireballs. Her best is in the Pogo minigames where her and Crash are slightly faster on their pogosticks.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Coco builds a device that reverses the effects of Cortex's Planetary Minimizer with the power of the Crystals.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
In Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Coco is abducted by N. Trance and is hypnotized alongside Crunch and Fake Crash. Coco battles Crash in a large battleship inside an active volcano, with Crash attacking the craft while it is reloading its weaponry. Upon snapping out of N. Trance's control, Coco becomes a playable character, gathering two Crystals in space whilst escaping a Fireball.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Coco teams up with the Professor to track down Ripto and Doctor Cortex. Later in the game, they're both kidnapped by Doctor Cortex's niece, Nina Cortex, who keeps them locked up in cages. After being freed from her cage, Coco suggests that Crash and Spyro put a tracer on Cortex and Ripto as to allow the heroes to track the villains back to their hideout. Coco's last major contribution to the story is constructing a portal to Cortex's and Ripto's lair.

Crash Tag Team Racing
Coco is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the game's story, Coco discovers the sole clue to whoever stole MotorWorld's Power Gems has lead to Wumpa Whip. Because of Crash's high consumption of the beverage, she briefly believes (along with the others) that Crash is the culprit, despite the fact that Willie Wumpa Cheeks is the park's lone source of Wumpa Whip. At the end of the game, Coco, Crash, and Crunch were offered the park's deed, but Coco returns it to Von Clutch, to whom she feels it belongs.

Crash Boom Bang
Coco plays a central role in Crash Boom Bang, in which she is invited by the Viscount to the World Cannonball Race in his search for the Super Big Power Crystal.

Personality
From the moment she is introduced, Coco is established as somewhat bossy and uses Crash to perform certain errands whenever she sees fit. Her work ethic can be best described as domineering; most of the time she only works on what she wants to do and largely ignores what really needs to be done, such as cleaning the house (as displayed in Crash: Mind Over Mutant). Although she frequently uses Crash as an errand boy, she genuinely cares for his well-being and goes as far as physically attacking Cortex when she believes that Crash was "kidnapped" by Cortex. Like her brother, Coco has a fearless nature and is willing to take any chance, unafraid of making mistakes. She's great with technology as she carries a pink laptop occasionaly and skilled at hacking as seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back when she intercepts Cortex's messages to convince her brother not to listen to him. Below the Bandicoot House lies Coco's VR Hub System which resides in a secret lab seen in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, it works similer to the Time Twister in that it can warp to different places around the world the only difference being in the present time. She is a fan of martial arts films and masculine sports such as wrestling and NASCAR. In Crash Tag Team Racing, Coco's personality is different: She is more feminine, preppy and often take eccentric poses, and has liking about beauties and shopping. Coco has an unexplained grudge against Nina Cortex, openly competing for superiority above her in Crash of the Titans (Nina herself seems unaware of this rivalry).

Physical Appearance
In contrast to Crash's cartoony physical appearance, Coco's figure is more svelte and realistic. In all of her appearances, she is shown to have a full head of blond hair, usually tied up in a ponytail and with a flower stuck on the side. From her first appearance up to Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Coco wears a white shirt, light-blue overalls (with one strap undone) and pink shoes. Starting with Crash Nitro Kart, Coco changed from a young girl to a grown up teenager alothough she still wears a flower in her hair. In later games, Coco wears blue jeans and a white midriff-baring T-shirt with a red star on it. An unlockable costume in Crash Tag Team Racing has Coco dressing up in a blue and pink princess attire.

In Crash of the Titans, Coco's attire is very similar to what she wore in Crash Tag Team Racing, though the sleeves on her T-shirt have become a light-blue color. Coco does not wear her hair in a ponytail or wear a flower in it in this installment, instead having her hair straight down and wearing a blue headscarf and is seen much more grown up. Coco's design is altered once more for Crash: Mind Over Mutant, in which she once again wears her hair in a ponytail, wears goggles on her forehead and has larger, more expressive eyes.

Abilities
Coco's most notable trait is her high intelligence; her intelligence quotient is said to be as much as 164. With such high intelligence, Coco is able to create a number of complex machines and hack into virtually any computer. Aside from her high intelligence, Coco is able to physically fend for herself, knowing an array of martial arts leg moves, one powerful enough to create a large shockwave.She can spin like her brother can. She is also shown to be a skilled scooter, tiger, airplane, spaceship, kart, and tank rider.

Portrayals
In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Coco is voiced by Vicki Winters in the English version. She is voiced by Hynden Walch in the English version of Crash Team Racing. She is portrayed by Sauvane Delanoë in the French versions. Monica Ward voices Coco in all of the Italian versions. Haruna Ikezawa voices Coco in the Japanese versions of all her PlayStation appearances. In the Italian versions, Coco is voiced by Antonella Baldini. In the English versions of all her speaking appearances as of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, she is voiced by Debi Derryberry, who, as of 2008's Crash: Mind Over Mutant, is the voice actor with the longest stay in the series. She is voiced by Lucille Boulanger in the French version of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and by Patricia Legrand (who also voices Nina Cortex and the Brat Girls in the series) in the French versions of her speaking appearances as of Crash Nitro Kart. In the Italian version, Coco is voiced by Federica Valenti from Crash Tag Team Racing to Crash: Mind Over Mutant. She is voiced by Ema Kogure in the Japanese versions of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Twinsanity, by Satomi Arai in the Japanese version of Crash Tag Team Racing and by Risa Tsubaki in Crash Boom Bang!.

Trivia

 * In one of her artworks, she is seen holding a TNT Crate, however the TNT crate would normally begin a countdown and then explodes.
 * Coco's name is from chocolate, coco puffs, or coconut
 * In Crash Tag Team Racing, Coco says "Time to show you what a 1.6.4 IQ can do".
 * In Crash Tag Team Racing, Coco says she thinks Doctor N. Gin is cute, even though she fought him in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
 * In Crash Twinsanity, fans think Cortex stripped Coco to get her clothes, leaving her naked. Though this was proven wrong as later on in the game she had every single piece of the clothing she had on earlier.
 * She was the only other playable character in the main continuity until Crash Twinsanity was released.
 * She is the second character to gain a power or ability the first and only other being Crash.
 * However, the only powers she receives from Crash are the improved Stomp (Belly Flop, called Stomp when used by Coco.) and Dash powers. She cannot use the other powers Crash receives for some reason.
 * She is also the only character in the Crash series known to speak in "Leet." (Internet slang.) This is demonstrated in Crash: Nitro Kart. Two of her quotes are "Roxxor!" and "Suxxor!" These, when translated out of "Leet:" mean "rocks!" and "sucks!" respectively.
 * Coco Bandicoot's name is a sly reference on an old Native American love for dipping bandicoots in chocolate and eating them raw.
 * Along with Crash, Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor N. Gin, Coco is the only one who is playable in all the racing games.
 * Coco seems to be the only bandicoot that keeps aging throughout the series. From her introduction in the second Crash Bandicoot game until Crash Tag Team Racing came out, Coco seemed to look like a little girl (possibly 8 years old at the time of Crash Bandicoot 2 and 11 years old at the time of Crash Tag Team Racing). Starting from Crash Boom Bang, Coco started to look much more like a teenager, possibly at 13 years of age on Crash Boom Bang and 15 years of age on Crash: Mind over Mutant, and became much nicer.
 * Each game model of Coco have each name such as Naughty Coco (who belonged to Naughty Dog).
 * In Crash Team Racing, Coco has her own race track known as Coco park, but was only shown in this game.
 * In Crash Twinsanity, when she kicks the two crystals Cortex is holding out of his hands, she appears to have also kicked him in the groin, as is evident when Cortex' voice goes high when he says "My Crystals..."
 * According to the qualifications at http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Breaking_the_fourth_wall_in_video_games, she breaks the 4th Wall numerous times in the latest Crash installments by referring to things such as NASCAR, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and TiVo. She also uses leet speak in CTTR, which can also qualify.
 * Coco's personality change is most recognizable in Crash Tag Team Racing, where she acts completely dominant, albeit preppy, perfectionistic and partially more feminine rather than acting like a computer genius as she was before.