Ripper Roo

Ripper Roo (Japanese: リパールー/Ripārū) (also known as Doctor Roo) is an insane blue mutated kangaroo, though both his head and face closely resemble a dog. He is considered to be Dr. Cortex's first and failed experiment with the Evolvo Ray, which is debatable seeing as how he managed to complete university-level education as of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. He frequently uses explosive crates when battling Crash. This can be seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, where he lays down TNT squares and nitro squares with his tail, in Crash Team Racing where he drops TNTs, and in his appearance in Crash Bash where he will randomly lay down TNT squares on random tiles. He also has razor sharp toe nails as stated in the Crash 1 instruction booklet. In Crash Team Racing he has a course named after him, called Roo's Tubes.

Crash Bandicoot
In the original Crash Bandicoot game, Ripper Roo was one of the many animal test subjects of Dr. Neo Cortex. After being captured, he was zapped at least twice by Cortex's Evolvo-Ray which caused his fur to turn blue and for him to go insane. He was sent out to destroy Crash, but unfortunately for him, Crash used the Big TNT crates that were floating by to blow Ripper Roo up.

In the alternate ending to the original game, it's revealed that after Cortex disappears, Ripper Roo undergoes intense therapy and eight years of higher education, after which he writes a well-received book: Through the Eyes of the Vortex: A Study of Rapid Evolution and Its Consequences. This is the reason for "Doctor" Roo's change in character between the first and second game.

Although a genuine kangaroo, because of his floppy ears, sharp teeth, hanging tongue and the way his nose is rendered in this game, many people mistook him to be a dog. However, this is unintentional considering the art-style of the game is cartoony.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
After going through college, becoming his former genius self, and building a library, Ripper Roo reappeared in Cortex Strikes Back as the first boss in this game. This time, he's working for N. Brio, and is known as "Doctor Roo", mostly because of his uniform: a bow tie, glasses, a mustache, a cane, and a top hat. He apparently went to college to become a psychologist. He also turned his home into a library. However, it's revealed that one explosion is enough to return him to his former, dangerous self. Once again, however, he fails to stop Crash. Right before the battle starts, when he is seen reading books, the top book on the stack has the word "Crash" on the spine. When battling him, he hops around on his cane, turning regular squares into TNT squares. When the first square explodes, the rest lead straight to Ripper Roo, turning him insane again and revealing a blond wig. This time he creates Nitro squares. For some reason, when he's done he hops on top of the last Nitro square, detonating the entire field and leaving himself stunned and vulnerable (and turning him into "Doctor Roo" once more, and the whole method goes over again until he's defeated). Under his top hat is shown hair the same color of his mustache.

Crash Team Racing
Ripper Roo made another appearance in CTR as the first race boss and an unlockable character. His home track is Roo's Tubes. When racing him, he is constantly dropping TNTs onto the track. After defeating him, he gives you the first of four keys needed to race Oxide. The key given by him leads to Gem Stone Valley and The Lost Ruins.

Ripper Roo's kart in the game was orange and was enabled to handle tight corners with slightly lower speed than average karts, much like Polar and Pura. He can be unlocked by completing the Red Gem Cup in adventure mode. He can also be unlocked by holding the L1 and R1 buttons while pressing Right,, , Down, Up, Down and Right on the main menu.

In the CTR epilogue, he has been elected State Governor (much to everyone's surprise) with the slogan "Crazy is as Crazy does!" Rumor has it he's also running for President.

Crash Bash
In this game, he made a cameo appearance in the third Pogo Pandemonium stage El Pogo Loco in Crash Bash as his Doctor Roo look (But his regular, insane self), where he creates TNT, Nitro and 4-way tiles by hopping around on his cane.

Crash Twinsanity
Ripper Roo didn't return until Crash Twinsanity, where he made a brief cameo at Crash's "Birthday Party". After Cortex and the Mecha Bandicoot are defeated, he nods in agreement with Dingodile's suggestion to go out for lunch.

As with most other characters, Ripper Roo's appearance drastically changes in Twinsanity. His fur becomes slightly darker, and his eyes have lost the swirly effect in favor of red circles which constantly move to the center. In addition, his ears are straight instead of being slightly floppy like in previous games. His eyebrows are spiky and he lacks any teeth, as well as a squared-off muzzle and a shorter tongue. Judging from his overall appearance, he looks more realistic as a kangaroo, closely resembling the Red Kangaroo (Macropus Rufus). He is silent in this game, like all the other party guests. Before the Cortex boss fight, he hops up to the camera twice.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Ripper Roo appeared in Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D as a playable character who teams up with Cortex and Nitros Oxide. He has a different look: he takes after the classic stereotype of the boxing kangaroo, with boxing gloves instead of his trademark straitjacket. He looks nothing like his original design.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2
Roo appeared again in Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 as an unlockable character. He went back to his CTR look, but wears his Dr. Roo top hat. He does his trademark laugh when he hits another racer with a weapon. He is unlocked by getting 62 mission points. His kart is unlocked by getting 67 points.

Personality
Ripper Roo is famous for his insane, psychopathic, and somewhat dangerous, behavior. As a result of his insanity, he can be fearless, reckless, impulsive and unpredictable, often blowing himself or others up repeatedly with explosives. He has also proven to be highly tolerant and resilient to pain, as demonstrated in his boss battles when he gets caught in a TNT or Nitro blast, either getting knocked out cold, becoming dizzy or just laughing it off, displaying courage. It's not safe to say, however, that he'll always be this way. In fact, before Cortex Strikes Back, he spent a year to become a psychologist, proof that he was still civilized and sophisticated in some way. Another hint of his sane characteristic is that he wrote books, such as "Through the Eyes of the Vortex" which was well received. Being very intelligent, he has shown to be able to read as well. However, an explosion is enough to return him to his usual self. He is unique as the only speech he is capable of is insane laughter. In CTR, luckily for the player, subtitles are used while he is "speaking". In the Japanese version of the game, however, he spoke coherently.

Appearance
Ripper Roo is a boomer (male kangaroo) with blue fur that covers most of his body with a lighter shade for his face and belly, black eyebrows and nose, red and yellow eyes with black pupils which swirl to the center that indicate his insanity, sharp teeth, claws and a pink tongue. He wears a white straitjacket that is completely buckled around his arms, limiting movement. The length of his tongue varies depending on the game, ranging from a very long one in the Naughty Dog games to a more realistic length in Twinsanity. In his Dr Roo getup, he retains generally the same appearance, but also takes some elements of a gentleman in Victorian England, with a top hat, glasses, blonde wig and mustache, and a bow tie. He is also seen with a cane in this form.

Manga
Ripper Roo appears in Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken Volume 1 where he is a doctor who spends his time researching. Instead of Crash and Aku Aku calling him 'Ripper Roo' they just call him 'Ripper'. When Crash and Aku Aku arrive at his house, he becomes obsessed with snatching the Power Stone from them and asks them to do some chores in return for some food and shelter. Unfortunately, Crash flattens his books and destroys his research. Ripper accidentally went crazy by bouncing around on his cane demanding them to hand over the Power Stone. After a brief battle with Crash, a chandelier drops onto Ripper's head knocking him out before he snatches the Stone from the exhausted Crash. He soon turned back to normal and decides to make them some food, but it turns out the food is not what Crash had in mind. His design is based off of his Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back look, and wears a long sleeved shirt instead of a straight jacket. He speaks perfect English and acts as a normal citizen with no relations of Dr. Cortex or Brio creating him.

Trivia

 * Although Ripper Roo's 2D/3D artwork from Crash Bandicoot depicted him as having his eyes colored yellow with red spirals, in Crash Bandicoot and Crash 2 he had normal eyes instead of the former, even when insane. The same was true for his hit point pictures, and was corrected in CTR.
 * As a result of nothing below his waist being seen, Ripper Roo's model in Twinsanity has no legs.
 * In CTR, Ripper Roo was still in his straitjacket, so he couldn't drive with his hands. Instead, his left foot was used to steer the wheel, while his right foot worked the gas pedal, therefore he is the only racer to drive with only his feet.
 * Ripper Roo's theme in the first game is the shortest theme.
 * Ripper Roo was originally going to speak normal English like most of the characters in CTR, but this was later dropped and he still used his insane laughter but with subtitles. A video at YouTube has what he would say.
 * However, if you have a disk with a certain amount of damage in certain areas, his voice will actually play instead of just his laughing.
 * Ripper Roo is the only CTR boss who isn't affected by the language glitch since he only laughs.
 * Furthermore, this makes Ripper Roo the only CTR boss who doesn't brag and warn about Oxide before and after his defeat, respectively, except in his normal English.
 * His voice is a re-tuned recording of Dallas McKennon doing the laughter from Lady and the Tramp.
 * He is seen using TNT crates, possibly because it was his first boss weakness.
 * Ripper Roo is one of five racers from CTR not to reappear as racers in Crash Nitro Kart, the other four being Komodo Joe, Papu Papu, Penta Penguin, and Pinstripe.
 * Ripper Roo's boss battle was one of the Crash 2 bosses reference in the Oblongs episode "Father of The Bribe", The Animal Control Guy drops some shaved cats is a bit similar to how Roo's pogo cane makes TNT Crates.
 * The background music of Ripper Roo's fight in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back was a remake of his original theme song.
 * Ripper Roo is also a boss in a homemade online Crash Bandicoot game where he would throw Nitro and TNT then a stone crate that can be spun back.
 * He has a doctorate in political science.
 * Ripper Roo has been known (ironically) to laugh uncontrollably when he gets hurt.
 * Ripper Roo has never been fully allied with Cortex (except in Crash Bandicoot) but he still appears at Crash's birthday party in Twinsanity. However, since Oxide, who also antagonized Cortex, was also present at the party, it's most likely that it's just a gathering of characters that Crash has fought in the past.
 * It's even questionable if he was allied with Cortex in the first game, or if Cortex simply put him in the waterfall ruins and simply attacks anyone he sees.
 * Ripper Roo has appeared in every Crash game on the PlayStation except Warped. He is the only such character. The other three characters to appear in exactly four of the five PlayStation Crash games are Coco Bandicoot, N. Gin, and Tiny Tiger, all three of which were absent in the first Crash Bandicoot game.
 * In Crash 2, Ripper Roo is Doctor Roo, as in CTR, it mentioned that Ripper Roo became the State Governor in the epilogue, so the events of CTR must have been after Crash 2, but characters from Crash 3 were already in it.
 * Ripper Roo's epilogue in the first game states that he became a doctor after going through intense therapy for 8 years. This could've been foreshadowing his return in Crash Bandicoot 2. However, in the battle between Crash and Ripper Roo in Crash Bandicoot 2, "Doctor" Ripper Roo is still wearing his straitjacket.
 * Ripper Roo's epilogue in Crash Bandicoot makes no chronological sense. It states how Roo went through intense therapy and eight years of education, however, he appears once again in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back as the first boss in the game. Roo appears to now have some sense from his therapy and education, but Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back takes place only one year after the first Crash Bandicoot.
 * The secret ending in Crash 1 is non-canon, but Ripper Roo appears in Crash 2 in his own office with a bunch of books, presumably about psychology, which means Roo's Crash Bandicoot epilogue is somewhat canon, somewhat not.
 * Ripper Roo is one of the two kangaroo characters that have been mutated by the Evolvo-Ray. The other is Rilla Roo.
 * Ripper Roo is one of 2 characters to feature in Crash Bandicoot and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and not to feature in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. The other one is Doctor Nitrus Brio.
 * In Crash 2, a book near Ripper Roo's bookshelf reads "CRASH".
 * Ripper Roo was mentioned in the coding of Crash: Mind Over Mutant.
 * In Crash Bash, if one should remember Ripper Roo's battle in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Ripper Roo doesn't become insane until he is harmed by explosives. The same may be true in Crash Bash. Furthermore, in Crash Bandicoot 2, "Dr. Roo" drops TNT much like in Crash Bash.
 * In Crash Bandicoot 2, since Ripper Roo was working with Dr. Nitrus Brio alongside the Komodo Brothers and Tiny Tiger against Dr. Cortex and Crash (unknowingly working), it can be argued that he alongside the other evolved animals and Brio are not technically villains in that game in the traditional sense since them preventing Crash from collecting crystals would save the world from Cortex's mind-control device, therefore making them anti-villains, or anti-heroes depending on how one looks at it.
 * Despite being a kangaroo, he has been heard to growl and bark. Coincidentally, real-life kangaroos have been documented making those vocalizations: the former when males attempt to assert their dominance, and the latter to warn the rest of the mob of incoming danger.
 * Crash Bash and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 has Ripper Roo use completely different laugh files than the one he used in the Naughty Dog games, the former by an unknown voice actor, and the latter by Jeff Bennett.