Neo Cortex

''"You fool! Do you think I'm unaware of this situation? If we don't have any friends left on the surface, then we need to find... an enemy..." - Doctor Neo Cortex; Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back''

Doctor Neo Cortex is a professional scientist and the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He is known as the creator of his nemisis: Crash Bandicoot. In Crash Bandicoot, he is voiced by Brendan O'Brien, along with all the other characters. From Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back to Crash Nitro Kart, he is voiced by Clancy Brown. And from Crash Twinsanity through to Crash: Mind over Mutant he has been voiced by Lex Lang. In almost all games Cortex is usually the final boss.

Personality
Cortex is very impulsive and obviously wants to get rid of Crash Bandicoot. He is also cruel to Doctor N. Gin, as shown in Crash of the Titans when Cortex spits scalding tea in N. Gin's eyes. He seems to be very grumpy and grouchy in his mutant form in Crash: Mind Over Mutant. At the beginning of the Crash series, he was a pure evil genius, but slowly turned into a clumsy failure. In Crash Twinsanity he is shown to be a coward and is not very bright as he seems. He seems to be easily startled, as seen in Crash Tag Team Racing when Willie Wumpa Cheeks pops out for the first time and Cortex hides behind N. Gin.

Appearance
Unlike normal humans in the real world, Cortex has yellow skin. His head is also hammer-like in shape that became useful in Twinsanity. He has an N stamped on his forehead standing for his first name Neo. He also has a small stature which he does not like. In the series he wears a lab coat, gloves and boots that change colour throughout. In Tag Team Racing Cortex thinks he is pretty and wants to know how his backside looks.

Crash Bandicoot






Prior to Crash Bandicoot, Dr. Cortex planned to take over the world (and make the people who mocked him shut up) by creating an army of superanimals nicknamed Cortex Commandoes. So to evolve animals, he planned to make a machine called Evolvo-Ray that would do just that. He also wanted to make an evil brain washing machine named the Cortex Vortex. Cortex later joined forces with another mad doctor, Doctor Nitrus Brio and told him to make these dastardly inventions. Although it was actully N. Brio that invented them, his lack of self-esteem let his boss take the credit. Together, the doctors began experementing with the animals and plants from the surrounding islands some of them were not so sucessfull like Ripper Roo an insane creation gone wrong. But none of them compare to possibly Cortex's greatest mistake ever - Crash Bandicoot. One quiet evening at Cortex Castle, Dr. Cortex had just captured two eastern barred bandicoot's one male and one female. Cortex plans to have the male be the general of his army. The male is the first to get zapped by the Evolvo-Ray getting evolved. It is then rasied into the Cortex Vortex as Brio insists that the Cortex Vortex is not ready. It turns out he was right as the male, Crash, gets rejected by the machine and Cortex is not happy as he gives chase trying to catch the freed bandicoot. Crash escapes by falling out the window but he left his bandicoot girlfriend (the female) in the clutches of Cortex's henchmen. The female, Tawna is used as a lure by Cortex in order to get Crash back.

He does not appear again (excluding bonus rounds) until the end where he and Crash have their confrontation at sunset on Cortex's Airship and flying on his Hoverboard with his castle burning in the background. He loses and gets shot down into the castle below in a dark cavern where he finds a well hidden Crystal, Cortex starts laughing menacingly at least until his match burns out...

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
One year later, Cortex got a new partner, a half man half machine called Doctor N. Gin and has just finished building a new Cortex Vortex in space. The Crystal, Cortex found turned out to be a Master Crystal but N. Gin informs him that they will need 25 Slave Crystals to power the Cortex Vortex which Cortex plans to blast Earth with it turning everyone into brainless slaves. None of his former henchmen on Earth help him now, so he locates Crash and warps him to a Warp Room where Cortex (as a hologram) tricks Crash into getting the crystals for him with a promise that he is using it for good purposes. He sometimes drops hints of his real plan as Coco Bandicoot starts hacking into the hologram and tries to tell Crash what's really going on. By the time Coco finally tells Crash, he already gave the crystals to Cortex. So the final battle takes place in space in jet packs and Crash has to stop Cortex before he gets to the Cortex Vortex. He loses once again and blasts off to outer space saying his final words "You haven't seen the last of me, Crash Bandicoot!" However the Cortex Vortex is still in space so after Crash collects all the gems, Dr. Nitrus Brio helps blow it up with a plasma cannon. However a part of it falls towards Earth and smashes a temple freeing an evil mask...

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
It turns out that evil mask called Uka Uka has been working with Cortex and is the younger twin brother of Aku Aku who imprisoned him in the temple to protect the world from his wrath. Uka Uka is both angry and upset that Cortex lost the previous crystals and gems meaning there is no power source, but now that he's free he can continue to enslave the world and with a time travel genus, Doctor Nefarious Tropy by his side he'll make sure Cortex succeeds. Together they build the Time Twister Machine in order to go back to diffrent time periods to get crystals however Crash and Coco start retriving them. Throughout the game Cortex and Uka Uka talk to Crash/Coco via warp vortex. Cortex is also seen watching the battle with Tiny. By the end he becomes mad and has his boss fight with Crash under the time twister while Uka Uka battles Aku Aku. Cortex losses when he falls down the hole onto a platform below he lets out his fustration "Defeated again! This is not fair! Maybe I should retire to a nice big beach, with a nice big drink and a woman with nice big... bags of ice for my head." Uka Uka however still has high hopes as Crash and Coco don't have all the gems. Eventually though they do get all the gems and when Cortex and Uka Uka lose this time a warp sphere starts to engulf them and the entire Time Twister luckily, Crash, Coco, Aku Aku and the animals escape. Meanwhile, in another time period baby Cortex and baby Tropy are fighting over Uka Uka stretching him.

Crash Team Racing
Cortex later joins the good guys to fend off Nitros Oxide, a smug alien racer who challenges Earth to a game he calls 'Survival of the Fastest' the aim is simple Oxide race's the best driver of Earth for the planet if they win he'll leave the world alone but if he wins he'll turn Earth into a giant parking lot. The doctor's home track is his old castle also his airships are seen on Hot Air Skyway. When Oxide is defeated and flees to Gasmoxia, (his home planet) Cortex returns to working for Uka Uka. As told in the credits, he returned to scientific research and he found the 117. element "Cortexrulestheworldium". His speed, acceleration and turning is intermediate like Crash.

Crash Bash
Cortex is later (in the middle of a new scheme) forced to participate on the bad side in a battle of good and evil by Uka Uka and Aku Aku. Cortex is also joined with old henchmen, N. Brio, Koala Kong and newcomer Rilla Roo. In the minigames both the doctors have great stats but also have their weaknesses. In the Crate Crush minigames, whilst Cortex has a terrific throw with the boxes as he has his Ray Gun his kick is very poor. In the Polar minigames, Cortex has a jetpack which pays off nicely but he can only use it once at a time and it takes a while for his boost meter to fill up again. He has the fastest weapon in the tank minigames which is a laser.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex
Sometime after Warped, Cortex had built a new space station. Uka Uka holds a meeting to discuss evil with Dr. Cortex, Dr. N. Gin, Dr. N. Tropy, Tiny and Dingodile. Uka Uka claims that their atempts at evil are pathetic although they say that Crash is to blame. N. Tropy lets on that Cortex is working on something in his lab he denies it though N. Gin then foolishly tells Cortex that N. Tropy was probably refering to a super secret weapon he has making day and night since the last time Crash defeated him. Cortex then admits he was and is almost finished making a superweapon of unbelievable strength. The power source is the final solution at which point Uka Uka thinks of The Elementals Cortex agrees then he'll have a weapon that's stronger than Crash and will wipe him off the face of the earth with an evil laugh he declares "Get ready to face my wrath, Crash Bandicoot!" The only way to get rid of The Elementals is to gather ancient crystals which is what Crash and co. set out to do. Like the previous games he talks to Crash on a big screen he also introduces his newest creation and superweapon: Crunch Bandicoot. However even with the aid of The Elementals Crunch keeps losing.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
In a space station orbiting the Earth, Uka Uka is upset with Doctor Neo Cortex for failing him once again, but Cortex promises a plan that will bring Earth's inhabitants down to size. Cortex then introduces his Planetary Minimizer, which he immediately uses to shrink the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit. The situation is brought to Aku Aku's attention when Cortex taunts the now-microscopic people of Earth. Crash eventually manages to return Earth to its normal size, foiling Cortex's plans once again.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
Doctor Neo Cortex and Ripto from the [http://spyro.wikia.com/wiki/Spyro_2:_Ripto's_Rage! Spyro the Dragon series] joined forces to rid themselves of their respective nemesis Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, by genetically modifying Ripto's "Riptoc" minions and disguising them as Crash and Spyro, leading the two protagonists to believe they are against each other. The two heroes eventually discover this and work together to defeat the two evil-doers. Spyro eventually ends up tagging Cortex with a transmitter which leads both Crash and Spyro to Cortex and Ripto's headquarters in outer space where they are defeated.

Crash Twinsanity
Taking place three years after the Wrath of Cortex

Crash Of The Titans
In Crash of the Titans, Cortex uses Mojo to mutate the island's residents into Titans. After the Yuktopus failed to kill Crash after the first boss fight, Uka Uka replaces him with his niece, Nina Cortex. At the end of the game, Nina is defeated and Cortex "forgives" Nina for what she did.

Crash: Mind Over Mutant
In Crash: Mind over Mutant, Cortex has sent Nina to Evil Public School as punishment for betraying him, then reconciles with his old colleague Dr. Nitrus Brio to invent the NV, a personal digital assistant that controls whoever uses it by transmitting bad Mojo, unwillingly supplied by Uka Uka through the use of a milking machine. He later engages in a fight with Crash inside his new Space Head space station, empowering himself with the use of a mutagen formula stolen from N. Brio. Upon losing the fight, Cortex throws a tantrum, causing the Space Head to plummet towards Earth. Returning to normal, he escapes the Space Head in a smaller shuttle with an unnamed Znu.

Alignment

 * In most games he has been the main antagonist. There has been exceptions, most noticably in Crash Twinsanity.


 * After the player defeats him in Twinsanity, he becomes (by force) an ally,. However, he is still evil and this is only temporary.


 * The N on his forehead could possibly stand as the first letter of his name which is Neo.

Trivia

 * Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced is the only game not to feature Cortex because he failed to stop Crash again.


 * Cortex appeared in all Crash games as a final boss except Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced, Crash Twinsanity, and Crash of the Titans.


 * His name is a pun on the neocortex, a part of the brain.


 * Cortex's middle name has been revealed to be Periwinkle.


 * Some fans speculate the N on his forehead is supposed to be reference to the Nintendo 64 logo. Many of these fans believe the team behind the original trilogy and CTR would've preferred to create games for that console instead. It took until wrath of Cortex for a Crash game to appear on a Nintendo console.


 * Cortex is one of the few characters to ever break the fourth wall during the series, Tiny Tiger, Ebenezer Von Clutch, and a certain Crash of the Titans enemy type being the only others.
 * his theme in crash bandicoot 2 is his fastest theme hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s67WsTvbASU
 * his theme in the huge adventure is a remix of his theme in warped.
 * in warped his boss icon was originally going to be the same as the from crash 1 and 2 but was changed to a new one.

Gallery
Neo Cortex