"Ssssssso, you've beaten all the racersssss on these tracksssss... Well, now you'll sssssee why I'm the most feared driver on the ccccccircuit... I'll earn the right to face Oxide by crusssshing you into brake dusssst... Let'ssss racccce...
You're not so slow after all... Surprisssed me, you did... Here'ssss a key for the win... Ssssstill, I think you're not fasssst enough to out-race Oxide... We're going to loosssse our planet, and it will all be your fault."Komodo Joe, Crash Team Racing / Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
"Sure, I can make these spin."
Komodo Moe, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
The Komodo Brothers (Japanese: コモドきょうだい/Komodo kyōdai) are genetically engineered komodo dragons from Indonesia that were created by N. Brio, known simply as Joe and Moe. Joe is the skinny one with a lot of speed who is able to spin for a long time until getting dizzy. Moe, on the other hand, may not be fast like his brother Joe, but delivers brute strength at the same time. He is also good at throwing swords.
Development
The Komodo Brothers were designed by Charles Zembillas for the first Crash Bandicoot. But sadly they, along with Tiny Tiger, Coco Bandicoot and Doctor N. Gin were cut out of the first game and moved to the second game Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back in the franchise. They still have a soundtrack piece for their boss fight, and are also featured in the cut, 2D, beginning cutscene.
Appearances
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
This is the Komodo Brothers' first appearance and they are both the second boss in the game. They were hired by their creator Dr. Nitrus Brio to thwart Crash's progress in order to stop him from collecting 25 Crystals for Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor N. Gin, but Crash defeats the brothers and they failed to stop him. Their main attack pattern was Komodo Moe making Komodo Joe spin rapidly. When he's done spinning, he'll be dizzy, giving Crash the opportunity to hit him by spinning, or slide dash him, and send him directly towards his brother Moe, damaging both Joe and Moe. Moe will throw his swords to hit Crash on every turn one by one. On their last hit point, while Joe spins, his brother Moe will throw his swords more rapidly one by one. After being defeated by Crash, Joe and Moe will fall down dazed before Crash continues to the next Warp Room. They are fought in a circus tent. If Crash gets closer to Komodo Moe, he'll slash him with his sword, laugh and turn Crash into an angel just like the other enemies and bosses (except Ripper Roo, N. Gin and Neo Cortex).
Crash Team Racing
Komodo Joe in Crash Team Racing.
In Crash Team Racing, only Komodo Joe is present. He is the third boss in adventure mode. His home track is Dragon Mines. In Glacier Park, he races against the player for the right to face Nitros Oxide, challenging the player by saying "crusshhing you into brick dusssttt let's raccce". He constantly throws TNT Crates backwards (causing them to explode on impact) and drops nitro crates in an attempt to slow the player down. Once he is defeated, he hands over the third one of the four keys required to face Oxide, but still has doubts about the player's skill, thinking that the planet will be destroyed if its fate rests on the player.
Joe's stats are the same as Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex and Fake Crash; in other words, he has intermediate statistics. He can be unlocked by holding the L1 + R1 buttons and pressing Down, 
, Left, Left, 
, Right, Down at the main menu, or by winning the Blue Gem Cup in adventure mode. After the events of the game, Joe opened a jewelry store in Zurich, "Honest Joe's Wedding Ring and Rare Gem Outlet". Unfortunately, he was caught and convicted of shoplifting cubic zirconias for the Couch Slouch Shopping Network.
Stats
- Speed: 5/7
- Acceleration: 5/7
- Turning: 5/7
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, Joe and Moe are back working together and they serve as the third boss in this game, and wield a huge tank. Uka Uka summoned them to fight as a third challenge at Big Bad Fox. The tank consists of three floors; 3 cannons with mace (Floor 1), 4 lasers (Floor 2), and 2 Missile Launchers (Floor 3). Driving a small tank, the player must shoot the cannons, lasers and missile launchers twice each. When the giant tank is destroyed, Joe and Moe appear to try to defeat the player themselves (also appearing in small tanks). The player has to hit them until they run out of health bars and are defeated.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
The Komodo Brothers return in the N. Sane Trilogy, reprising their role from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Komodo Joe reappears as an unlockable playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, retaining his design from N. Sane Trilogy. He is unlocked after completing the boss race in adventure mode. As in the original Crash Team Racing, Komodo Joe is classified as a intermediate character. For his epilogue, Joe still opens his Wedding Ring and Rare Gems outlet at Zurich. After multiple sting operations, he was convicted when it was revealed he was hording cubic zirconias for the Couch Slouch Shopping Network. After his conviction, Moe announced the opening of his jewelry auction house. After the conclusion of the Nitro Tour Grand Prix, It was confirmed that Komodo Moe would also join the game as part of a future Grand Prix alongside Nina Cortex and Doctor Nitrus Brio.
Komodo Moe appears as a playable racer as part of the Spooky Grand Prix. He can be unlocked in the game's Pit Stop for 1500 Wumpa Coins. Like his brother, he has intermediate stats. This also marks the first time Moe is given an actual speaking voice.
Cameos
The Komodo Brothers only appear as a cameo in a painting picture from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex in the Medieval level Wizards and Lizards, while a temple with a statue depicting Komodo Joe can be found on the race track Jungle Boogie and home world Terra in Crash Nitro Kart.
In Crash Twinsanity, Komodo Joe only appears in a piece of Purple Gem concept art where he was playing poker cards along with Pinstripe Potoroo, Koala Kong, Dingodile, and Ripper Roo at Cortex Island in Cortex's Lab just as Dr. Neo Cortex appears as the ice melt with the seagull on his head about three years ago. The Komodo Brothers were originally going to have an appearance as a boss fight in Crash Twinsanity, where they would have challenged Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex to a race called Krazy Komodo Crash Course and the winner would be rewarded with a power crystal. The only catch was that the car would have no brakes. Their course would have been on Wumpa Island inside the cave and it would have been set up at the base of the Uka Tree but they were cut out of the game, along with the second island.
Appearances
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Crash Team Racing (Komodo Joe only)
- Crash Bash
- Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (Cameo as a painting)
- Crash Nitro Kart (Cameo as a statue, Komodo Joe only)
- Crash Twinsanity (Komodo Joe only in concept art)
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Personality
In CTR, Komodo Joe speaks with a hiss accent similar to Kaa the Python Snake from Walt Disney's classic film "The Jungle Book", that is, with long S, C or Sh syllables, such as "Let'sss Raccce" (but this doesn't necessarily always happen, also unlike Kaa he has a deeper voice than him). Joe tends to give future blame towards a worthy opponent; for example, after losing a race and warning the player about Nitros Oxide, he says "You're not so slow after all. Surprisssed me, you did. Here'ssss a key for the win. Ssssstill, I think you're not fassssst enough to out-race Oxide. We're going to lossse our planet, and it will all be your fault!". Moe isn't necessarily more intelligent than his brother Joe, (with Joe in fact being the more intelligent but weaker of the two) but hot-tempered and he seems to do all the planning before combat. Nevertheless, they fail, often because things do not go exactly according to plan.
What is known about Moe is that he seems to be the brother that does most of the attacking, and is only messed up when Joe trips him after being attacked by Crash. Moe shares his laugh with the fat enemy from the previous game. In Nitro-Fueled, his personality is fleshed out. He is shown to be boisterous and confident. He also takes losing better than Joe, as while Joe cries and curses out, he simply feels upset and disappointed while reassuring that he can win the next battle. Also, Moe has a sense of brotherhood, as when he wins, he gives the credit to the Komodo Brothers (who consist of him and Joe) as a whole suggesting he does care for his brother. He also like his brother speaks in hiss with S, C, and Sh syllables though in a less menacing tone.
Curiously, despite often appearing as antagonists to Crash Bandicoot, they are among very few mutant adversaries that have never served Doctor Neo Cortex or aided evil; apart from Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe having Uka Uka as his mask during a power up, their allegiance remains ambiguous throughout the series.
Manga
The Komodo Bros. appear in the book Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken Volume 2 where they are treasure hunters. Moe is more friendly in the manga and speaks normally, while Joe (Moe calls Joe "Aniki", Japanese for brother, in the manga) is the more aggressive one and also speaks normally. They have no connections to Dr. Neo Cortex or their creator Dr. Brio and do not wield their swords. As a result, they seem to respect Crash Bandicoot, stating that he is a good treasure hunter.
Gallery
Trivia
- Komodo Moe, Koala Kong, Doctor Nitrus Brio, Tawna, and Baby T are the only characters introduced before Crash Bash that were not present in CTR.
- In Crash Bash, Komodo Joe and Moe's health bars are mixed up. If players hit Moe then Joe's health bar decreases and vice versa.
- They were originally made for the first Crash Bandicoot game, but were pushed back and introduced in the sequel, along with Tiny Tiger.
- Komodo Joe and Moe were originally going to be called Kimodo and Kimono, respectively, before being renamed to the "Kimodo Brothers" early during the development of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
- In Crash Bash's early demo of Big Bad Fox, Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe's icons are replaced with Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson from The Simpsons.
- In Crash Bash's early demo of Big Bad Fox, when the Komodo Brothers rise up on the tank, there are two Komodo Joes. Also, Komodo Moe is on the left and Joe is on the right, and when Crash hits Moe, Moe has Crash's voice.
- In CTR, Joe's boss garage logo portrays Joe with two sharp, pointy fangs that stick out of his mouth; his before and after driver speech model does so as well. However, his in-game driving model shows him with square buck teeth instead.
- If the player uses the language select glitch, his head switches to N. Oxide's.
- While playing the Purple Gem Cup in CTR, Komodo Joe will try to be in third place.
- Komodo Moe is the only brother to have an action figure and a plush toy modeled after him.
- In an interview with Naughty Dog's vice president, Evan Wells, he revealed that, due to the memory limitations of the PlayStation, some of the original ideas and content had to be removed from Crash Team Racing. This is the reason why only Komodo Joe is present and Komodo Moe is not; Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe were originally going to be sitting in one kart, just like Polar and Pura.
- They are the only evolved animals in the series whose species did not originate from Australia, a komodo dragon's habitat is in Indonesia.
- In Crash Team Racing, Komodo Joe's poster has green eyebrows (matching his scale color), and his helmet is now orange.
- Komodo Moe's Master Skin is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars franchise.
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