- This page is about the main-universe N. Tropy. For his alternate-universe counterpart, see N. Tropy (female).
Nefarious Tropy, commonly called N. Tropy, is a time-traveling evil scientist from the Crash Bandicoot series. He is a self-proclaimed master of time and the inventor of the Time Twister Machine, which is a time machine. He was first introduced to the series as working for the evil mask Uka Uka alongside Neo Cortex to achieve world domination in Crash Bandicoot: Warped. However, he has also worked independently from or against them in some games, and partners with other evil characters as he pleases. N. Tropy's name is a pun on the word "entropy", a property of physics representing chaos or randomness.[2]
A baby version of N. Tropy, created following the collapse of the Time Twister at the end of Warped, appears along with the adult N. Tropy as a separate playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. An alternate-dimension counterpart to N. Tropy was introduced as his partner in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, appearing in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! and Crash Team Rumble as well.
Appearances[]
Crash Bandicoot: Warped[]
Nefarious Tropy's introduction in the opening cutscene of Crash Bandicoot: Warped.
Nefarious Tropy was first introduced to the series in Crash Bandicoot: Warped. In the game's opening cutscene, he is called upon by the evil mask spirit Uka Uka to work with Neo Cortex on a plan to use crystals to enslave the Earth. Using N. Tropy's Time Twister Machine, Cortex and allies open Warp Orb portals across various points in time to gather crystals. Crash Bandicoot, Coco Bandicoot and Aku Aku discover this plan and use the Time Twister to take the crystals back. While Crash and Coco collect crystals in the third zone of the Time Twister, he appears to them via hologram to taunt them and warn them to stop.
N. Tropy is the game's third boss. Like all bosses in Warped, he is fought after all five crystals in his zone of the Time Twister have been collected. N. Tropy's boss arena takes place in what is presumably an area of the Time Twister itself. He and Crash stand opposite each other on either side of a pit. N. Tropy attacks by firing homing energy balls and creating lasers with his tuning fork. He also uses this power to rearrange platforms in the pit, which Crash can then cross. Using his powers tires N. Tropy, and once the platforms are moved, he is vulnerable to attack. Each time he is damaged with any attack, the arena shifts to a new era in time. Once defeated, N. Tropy threatens that Crash's time will soon be up, then vanishes. Additionally, Crash is awarded the Death Tornado Spin powerup.
Without N. Tropy's maintenance, the Time Twister becomes unstable. When Cortex is defeated a second time for the 100% completion ending, it finally collapses. N. Tropy and Cortex are transported through time as babies, and the game ends with them fighting over possession of Uka Uka.
N. Tropy reprised this role in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy's remake of Warped. In the introductory cutscene, he enters the scene from a Warp Orb, as opposed to walking on-screen from the shadows in the original.
Crash Team Racing[]
Promotional artwork of N. Tropy's Time Trial mode ghost in Crash Team Racing.
In Crash Team Racing, N. Tropy appears both in the Time Trial mode and as an unlockable character. Each track has an N. Tropy ghost with a record time that can be challenged. Beating his time marks the track with a gold star on the track select screen. Beating it on all 18 tracks unlocks N. Tropy as a playable character for every game mode except the Adventure mode. N. Tropy can also be unlocked by entering a cheat code on the main menu: While holding 
and 
, input 
-
-
-
---. N. Tropy shares the same driver statistics as Tiny Tiger and Dingodile, specializing in the Speed stat while having a low Turn stat. He uses Uka Uka as his Invincibility Mask. In the game's epilogue, N. Tropy took up time traveling again, and was last seen traveling to an ancient rainforest.[3]
An item called the N. Tropy Clock, which forces opponent racers to spin out and slows them for a time, can be collected from ? Crates. The Warp Orb, which chases and zaps the first-place racer, is another collectable weapon themed after the Warp Orbs created by his Time Twister in Warped.
N. Tropy would hold similar roles in Crash Nitro Kart, a sequel to Crash Team Racing, as well as Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake that includes content from both games: see § Other major appearances.
Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced[]
N. Tropy as he appears in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced.
N. Tropy is an antagonist and the true final boss of Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced. Tasked by Uka Uka with helping to conquer the universe, N. Tropy peers into the future. He sees a vision of himself standing with Crash, Coco and Crunch Bandicoot, and concludes that he'll succeed by getting them on his side. N. Tropy creates a vortex and abducts Crunch and Coco Bandicoot, as well as Fake Crash, whom he mistakes for the real Crash. He also recruits N. Trance, a self-proclaimed master of hypnotism, to hypnotize all three of them into doing their evil bidding. Crash eventually frees his friends, finds N. Tropy and N. Trance's hideout, and defeats N. Trance in a boss fight. N. Tropy then declares that he can't beat the bandicoots on his own and flees.
In order to access N. Tropy's boss fight, all of the gem shards and the three colored gems in the game must be collected. N. Tropy attacks by firing fireball- and wave-shaped projectiles at Crash from across a gap. At the end of his attack pattern, he floats over to the farthest end of the gap, then collapses. A series of gem platforms appear, allowing Crash to cross and attack N. Tropy. For every three points of damage N. Tropy takes, the arena shifts to a new point in time. Once he is defeated, the bandicoots capture N. Tropy. They take a picture together with him to celebrate their victory, recreating what he saw in his vision at the beginning of the game.
N. Tropy is also a playable character in the Atlasphere multiplayer mode.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time[]
N. Tropy and Neo Cortex escape their prison through a Quantum Rift in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
N. Tropy stars as the fourth boss and one of the main antagonists of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which follows directly from the events of Crash Bandicoot: Warped. The game begins with Uka Uka using the last of his power to open a Quantum Rift, a trans-dimensional portal allowing N. Tropy and Cortex (now fully grown) to escape their prison in time. Abandoning Uka Uka, they begin construction of the Rift Generator, which creates Quantum Rifts at will. N. Tropy at first aims to use the Rifts to conquer all of space and time. However, he abandons Cortex and their plan after meeting an alternate-dimension version of himself, whom he is romantically attracted to. He decides to instead destroy the timeline and rebuild it to his liking. The two N. Tropys hijack a spaceship belonging to Nitros Oxide and order him to guard their Rift Generator. A version of Tawna Bandicoot from the other N. Tropy's dimension attempts to stop them on her own, but is defeated by the time Crash and company arrive. Amused by this, the N. Tropys decide to give the group a "sporting chance", and use their powers to split them up. Crash and Coco wake up near a Quantum Rift in the void of space and pursue the N. Tropys to their Rift Generator.
N. Tropy and his counterpart at the Rift Generator.
N. Tropy shares his boss fight with his counterpart in the level A Hole in Space. Either Crash or Coco must complete a rail section to pass through the Quantum Rift, then cross platforms in space while dodging laser blasts to reach the Rift Generator. The two N. Tropys then take turns chasing them around the Generator's perimeter, with security lasers and energy balls as hazards. The N. Tropys take damage once every laser on their side of the Generator is destroyed. Upon defeat, both N. Tropys are banished elsewhere through a Quantum Rift. The last of their Rifts are closed up by Crash's allies, the Quantum Masks. Completing the fight unlocks the Sn@xx Dimension on the Dimensional Map.
N. Tropy is mentioned during one of the Flashback Tapes, extra levels that contextualize events prior to the first and second Crash Bandicoot games. In the tape Resilience Evaluation, he attempts to contact Cortex, who ignores him to run experiments on Coco Bandicoot instead.
In the game's 100% ending epilogue, the narrator (Crash) explains that "The dimensions have heard nothing more of the Doctors Tropy since Crash foiled their plans... but evil geniuses are harder to squash than cockroaches".[4] It is a direct reference to Neo Cortex's epilogue from the first Crash Bandicoot game.
Other major appearances[]
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, N. Tropy (erroneously referred to as "N. Trophy" in-game[5][6]) works with Cortex's other minions to stop Crash Bandicoot from thwarting Cortex's plans to take over the world. In the level Tornado Alley, he is an enemy pilot that will fire at Crash's plane. In Smokey and the Bandicoot, he must be beaten in a jeep race in order to earn the level's crystal. In Eskimo Roll, Medieval Madness, and Solar Bowler, he is a hazard; facing one direction, he fires a single projectile with his tuning fork every few seconds that can destroy Crash's Atlasphere vehicle on contact.
N. Tropy appears along with N. Trance and Coco Bandicoot in the loading screen art for Frozen Frenzy in Crash Nitro Kart.
N. Tropy is a playable character in the home console version of Crash Nitro Kart. Like its predecessor, Crash Team Racing, each track has a ghost that can be beaten in the game's Time Trial mode. Beating N. Tropy's ghosts on all 13 tracks unlocks him as a playable character, as well as the more challenging Emperor Velo XXVII ghosts. Though N. Tropy is not a selectable character in the game's Adventure mode, in other modes he is classed as a member of Team Cortex and uses Uka Uka as his Invincibility Mask. He has high Speed and Accel stats with a lower Turn stat. The N. Tropy Clock from Crash Team Racing returns as a collectible in this game, while the Warp Orb was replaced by a functionally identical weapon called the Tornado Top.
In the Game Boy Advance and N-Gage versions of Crash Nitro Kart, N. Tropy is unlocked as a playable character by beating the Adventure mode as Team Evil. In the Game Boy Advance version only, he can also be unlocked at any point by connecting it to the GameCube version of Nitro Kart via link cable. His highest stat is Turn, while his lowest is Accel. In these versions, N. Tropy is not associated with the Time Trial mode in any particular way.
In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, N. Tropy has a cameo appearance on a trading card. It is earned in-game by defeating Cortex and Ripto in the final boss level, Space Chase. Alternatively, it can be obtained in a trade with another copy of Purple or its sister game, Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. As long as his card is kept, N. Tropy will be a playable character in the Ballistix and Ship Shuffle minigames in Purple's multiplayer mode.
In Crash Twinsanity, N. Tropy teams up with N. Brio and N. Gin to find the Evil Twins' stolen treasure, which was gathered from other dimensions. He and N. Brio share the game's fifth boss fight, set on an iceberg at the end of the level High Seas Hi-Jinks. When Crash arrives, N. Tropy and N. Brio are unable to get him to reveal the treasure's location and attack him instead. The two take turns attacking Crash in separate phases. Following one of N. Brio's phases, N. Tropy lands in the center of the iceberg and splits it into pieces that sink when Crash stands on them. He also swings his tuning fork at Crash from inside a glowing force field. After a time, the force field dissipates and N. Tropy becomes vulnerable to attack; afterwards, he disappears and the iceberg reforms into a whole. Once N. Tropy's health is depleted, N. Brio body-slams the iceberg, ending the fight. N. Tropy later appears briefly in a cutscene just before the final boss fight against the Evil Twins. He, N. Brio, and N. Gin claim the Twins' vault of treasure for themselves, only to be attacked by Spyro the Dragon reclaiming his stolen gems. N. Tropy also makes various appearances in Twinsanity's unlockable concept art and storyboards. One such storyboard, unlocked by collecting the red gem in Ice Climb, features N. Tropy, even though its corresponding cutscene doesn't in the final game. His appearance in that scene was cut because it would not have been cost-effective to create a high-resolution model of him for that single shot.[7]
N. Tropy reprises his Crash Team Racing role in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake of the original. As the game includes additional content from Crash Nitro Kart, his ghost in Time Trial mode must be beaten in all tracks from both games (31 total) in order to unlock him as playable. His default Driving Style is Speed. His epilogue was also changed from the original: he traveled to a city in the future, met a Marty McFly-like character, then decided he had to come back.[8] The N. Tropy Clock and Warp Orb items return from the original Crash Team Racing. According to a blog post from Activision, the game's publisher, the cast of Nitro-Fueled visits the track Prehistoric Playground using N. Tropy's staff.[9]
A related character, Baby N. Tropy, was added to Nitro-Fueled with the Post-Grand Prix update on March 26th, 2020.[10] Baby N. Tropy's default Driving Style is Acceleration, and like N. Tropy, his Invincibility Mask is Uka Uka.
Although the original N. Tropy is only referenced in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, his alternate-universe counterpart from Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time features as a boss and the main antagonist of Season 2, Running Outta Time!. Said counterpart is also a playable character in Crash Team Rumble. Storyboard artwork for the opening cinematic of Rumble suggests that the original N. Tropy was at some point intended to be playable, though this never came to be.[11]
Minor appearances[]
N. Tropy has made cameos and been referenced in several spin-off game titles. In Crash Boom Bang!, N. Tropy sometimes features in the Silhouette Quiz minigame, where players must identify a character by their silhouette to win. In Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, the N-Tropy cup is named after N. Tropy. Skylanders: Imaginators features N. Tropy's staff as a potential ability upgrade for Neo Cortex to unlock. While N. Tropy himself did not appear in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, an N. Tropy-themed skin for Crash was added in Season 2, Running Outta Time!, on May 6, 2021.
Characteristics[]
Physical appearance[]
Adult[]
Promotional art of N. Tropy for Crash Bandicoot: Warped.
Nefarious Tropy is a tall, blue-skinned human character with a large nose, high cheekbones, thin black eyebrows and two small beards on his chin. He often carries a grey tuning fork about as tall as he is, which enables him to use his time-based powers. In some games, using these powers physically exhausts him, as seen in his boss fights in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, and Crash Twinsanity.
N. Tropy wears a particular set of armor, the exact appearance of which has varied throughout the series. It typically includes a cylindrical helmet and a broad-shouldered chest piece, each with a clock face in their centers. Beginning with his debut in Warped, the armor is bronze-colored. His helmet has two grey prongs in the shape of a tuning fork on top, a circular green clock face, and two circular pieces covering his ears.[12] His chestpiece has a similarly green quadrilateral clock face, as well as two silver pistons protruding from his back shoulders that pump while he is wearing it. The right side of his chestpiece has three gears on the outside connected with a pulley, while the left side has a metal pipe that wraps around to his back and widens at the end. Underneath it, he wears a tube-like belt, a white lab coat and pants, and brown boots. He also wears a bronze-colored gauntlet with a green clock face on his left arm, and brown gloves on each hand. Though first seen in Warped, these design elements would all return unchanged in Crash Team Racing, N-Tranced, Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, and Crash Nitro Kart. A stylized depiction of this design would be used in Crash Boom Bang!, minus the belt, back pipe and pistons.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, N. Tropy has a small nose and green sclera in his eyes. His pistons point straight up from his shoulders as opposed to out behind him. His tuning fork has a thin base and pointed prongs.
In Crash Twinsanity, N. Tropy's helmet and chestpiece are mainly gold-colored, his clock faces are blue, and his earpieces are black. His eyes have yellow sclera. His left arm well outsizes his right and is covered by silver metal armor. The shoulder joint has red gems around it, while the wrist gauntlet has tubings holding the timepiece in place. His left hand's fingers are also mechanical, each having a yellow stripe around the base. On his right arm, he wears a black glove. N. Tropy also wears gold-plated armor around his legs, black knee guards, and steel boots. The pistons behind his shoulders do not move in this game.
In Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy's remake of Warped, N. Tropy's nose is more bulbous than pointed as it was in earlier designs. He also has yellow irises and freckles on his face. The metal around the timepiece on his helmet was made gray, as opposed to the same bronze color as the rest of his helmet. His left hand's fingers are mechanical, and he wears a yellow glove over his right hand. N. Tropy wears U-shaped buckles over his kneecaps. There are coils around the bases of his shoulder pistons and the grip of his tuning fork. This design was modified slightly in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled; the pipe that wraps around to his back was removed, likely to prevent it from clipping into the seat of his kart. While jumping, his helmet can come off, revealing his bald head.
N. Tropy's most recent appearance as of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, N. Tropy has teal eyes, and his beards appear to be part of his skin. His armor is styled similarly to his appearance in Warped, with some details changed. Most notably, his prongs are attached to the front rather than the top of his helmet, and his chestpiece's clock has an octagonal frame. His back pistons are black, bronze-tipped and taper at the ends; they also do not move in this game. His left hand is mechanical, his pant sleeves are black with U-shaped kneepads, and his brown boots are steel-toed. His tuning fork has a black grip, a green clock face embedded in the base, and bronze-colored tubing wrapped around either end.
Baby N. Tropy[]
Promotional render of Baby N. Tropy for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
Baby N. Tropy is an infant form of N. Tropy seen in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. In the original Warped, Baby N. Tropy wears a smaller version of his helmet with pale pink lace around it. He also has a small white lab coat with pointed shoulder pads, a silver belt with a large green timepiece in the center, a white diaper, and dark blue sleeves and leggings. He wears a yellow glove on his right hand and his usual bronze-colored gauntlet on his left. He also has a single small tooth that sticks out from his lower lip.
In N. Sane Trilogy's remake of Warped, the lace around Baby N. Tropy's helmet is bright magenta. On the upper half of his body, he wears only the shoulder guard from his adult form's armor. His diaper also has magenta lace around it and a safety pin. Like his adult design in this game, his left hand is mechanical. His eyes are red, and none of his teeth are visible. This design was re-used for Nitro-Fueled, where he additionally holds a magenta and teal pacifier in his mouth.
Personality[]
N. Tropy aims to conquer the world, as seen in his epilogue illustration in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
Nefarious Tropy is a chiefly villainous character. He works to further Uka Uka's plans for world domination in Warped, The Wrath of Cortex, and N-Tranced. According to the manual of The Wrath of Cortex, he disturbs the temporal flow by creating time paradoxes for fun.[13] In It's About Time, he enjoys tormenting Tawna Bandicoot, and mocks Crash or Coco Bandicoot if they die during his boss fight. Though N. Tropy typically works for Uka Uka, he is also known to change allegiances for his own personal gain. In Twinsanity, he is unaligned with either Uka Uka or Neo Cortex, instead siding with N. Brio and N. Gin to find the Evil Twins' treasure. In It's About Time, N. Tropy abandons Uka Uka after he exhausts his power to release them from their prison in time. He also betrays Cortex to work with his alternate-dimension counterpart instead, aiming to erase the timeline and rebuild it to his liking.
He is often portrayed as posh and with a superior attitude. This is conveyed with his formal speaking style and British accent, which is commonly associated with prestige and intelligence in villains in pop culture. However, this is often contrasted against either his short temper or weakness. He insults Crash Bandicoot in Warped, calling him "stupid"[14] and a "little skunk"[15] for interfering with his plans. In N-Tranced, he calls his ally N. Trance a "blundering idiot"[16] for confusing Fake Crash and Crash, even though he was also fooled. N. Tropy's superiority is further subverted as he panics and flees when confronted by Crash initially. In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, N. Tropy bows on the podium upon winning a race, but struggles to lift his tuning fork immediately afterwards.
As a time traveler, N. Tropy is given to making time-related puns. In Crash Team Racing and Nitro-Fueled, he says "Time flies!" while jumping, as well as other phrases such as "Right on time" and "Like clockwork". He says similar phrases during Warped and It's About Time.
The Japanese localizations of some Crash Bandicoot games often changed aspects of the characters to better appeal to their audience, N. Tropy included; in these versions of Warped, Crash Team Racing, Nitro Kart, N. Sane Trilogy, and It's About Time, he uses English words and phrases frequently compared to the other characters.
Behind-the-scenes information[]
Creation and early development[]
Comparison of two early takes on N. Tropy. The time travel device on his chest developed into a dominant element of the design.
Nefarious Tropy was created as a villain for Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Since the game's plot would center around time travel, Naughty Dog chose to introduce a new, time traveling boss character.[17] Charles Zembillas, who had designed characters and concept art for the series' two previous games, began concept work for N. Tropy on January 22, 1998 and finished February 19, 1998.[12][18] The earliest sketches depict him with a large nose, a scowling expression, and two beards possibly inspired by the character of Fu Manchu, all of which made it into his final design.[12][19] In order to reflect his "unhealthy obsession with time", he was given a time traveling device to be worn on his body.[20] It at first had a digital display showing the year he intended to travel to, but was later drawn with an analog clock face. Over the course of new sketches, the device evolved to "encase" him.[21] His skin being blue was suggested by Naughty Dog,[12] as was the name "Nefarious Tropy".[2]
A more complex concept iteration of N. Tropy's suit.
By February 12, 1998, N. Tropy mostly resembled his appearance in the final game. However, his suit had a complex array of pistons, gears, and other clockwork, intended to add absurdity to an otherwise sinister-looking character.[22][23] Zembillas hoped these might be implemented as drawn textures placed over his model in the game. This was determined to be too complex, so the suit was further simplified in his finalized design.[18]
Trivia[]
- According to internal voice acting notes created for Crash Twinsanity, N. Tropy is 45 years old.[24]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Interactive Voiceovers. JP Karliak's website. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023 "Here lies the VO work I've done for gaming! Plus, two videos of some favorite roles: the wicked N. Tropy in his opening scene for Crash 4."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N. Tropy - Part 2. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023 "Early on I gave him a device that would allow him to travel in time. Something that he would wear. My first idea was to give him a belt like contraption with a readout as to the year he intended to travel to." / "Naughty Dog came up with the name. ... It was a play on words consistent with N Cortex or N Gin etc."
- ↑ Crash Team Racing. N. Tropy's epilogue. "N. Tropy began tinkering with his time machine hobby again." / "He was last seen entering a time warp ball traveling to some ancient rain forest. Alas, rust is timeless!"
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. N. Tropy and N. Tropy's epilogue.
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Opening cutscene. Neo Cortex: "I don't know what you're talking about, N. Trophy."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. Credits sequence. "N. TROPHY" / "CORY BURTON"
- ↑ Comments by FakeNina (Paul Gardner) on YouTube. "It's not a scene, but a single shot of N. Tropy in the middle of the scene where the Twins attack Cortex's lab. It was too expensive to make a high-res model of N. Tropy for that one shot, so it was cut." / "It was a funny cutaway to N. Tropy reacting to the Twins mentioning 'riches'. He wasn't necessarily in the lab, or in earshot. It was kind of as if he was outside the game watching, then decided to join in once he'd heard about the riches."
- ↑ Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. N. Tropy's epilogue. "N. Tropy began tinkering with his time machine hobby again. He was last seen entering a time warp ball traveling to some strange distant city in the future." / "It is said he met a peculiar man in a red coat with the sweetest kicks you've ever seen. After that, he decided he had to go back."
- ↑ Get Ready to Go Prehistoric! The Back N. TIme Grand Prix is coming to Crash™ Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on August 2nd. Activision. Archived from the original on May 15, 2025
- ↑ Crash™ Team Racing Nitro-Fueled: Post-Grand Prix Content Announced!. Activision. Archived from the original on February 15, 2023 "With the Back N. Time Grand Prix, N. Tropy’s time-bending staff has thrown Crash and the gang back to the days when dinosaurs roamed the land ..." / "Be sure to check out the following new content appearing in the Pit Stop:" / "Three new characters including the Lab Assistant, Baby Cortex and Baby N. Tropy!"
- ↑ 【เบื้องหลัง】 Behind the scenes : CRASH TEAM RUMBLE. Video by RiFF Studio. The relevant artwork can be seen at 1:35. Archived from the original.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N. Tropy - Part 1. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on July 30, 2023 "[The first sketches are] dated January 22, 1998." / "He does have ears. In the final design you don't see them because of the head gear he's wearing." / "Why is he blue? I don't know. That was Naughty Dog's call."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex manual, p. 17. "Known for his diabolical work in quantum warp technology and his Time Twister device, Dr. N. Tropy can usually be found disturbing the temporal flow by creating time paradoxes just for laughs."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot: Warped. N. Tropy's pre-boss fight Time Twister cutscene. N. Tropy: "You little vermin are way too stupid to understand what you're getting yourselves into!"
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot: Warped. N. Tropy's boss fight. N. Tropy: "Now you're on my time, you little skunk!"
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced. Cutscene after Fake Crash's boss fight. N. Tropy: "N. Trance, you blundering idiot! That was not Crash! It was some sort of... Fake Crash!"
- ↑ Crash Gallery - Crash Bandicoot: Warped Character Sketches. Naughty Dog. Archived from the original on August 7, 2004 "Since the plot involved time travel, Crash 3 called for a time traveling boss. The result was N. Tropy, the nefarious and smug inventor of the Time Twister quantum warp technology."
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 8. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023 "Dated February 19 1998 these drawings are the last batch from the development of Dr Nefarious Tropy from Crash 3."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 4. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023 Q: "Hey Charles, what inspired you to give N. Tropy his two-string facial goatee? It is actually really interesting." A: "I think I was inspired by Fu Manchu. The touch would make him look more dastardly."
- ↑ Crash Gallery - Crash Bandicoot: Warped Character Sketches. Naughty Dog. Archived from the original on August 7, 2004 "N. Tropy's appearance needed to reflect an unhealthy obsession with time, so he was given a piston-driven, smog generating, time machine to wear wherever and whenever he goes."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 3. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023 "I continued with the idea of a time travelling device that would be worn on the body. Eventually this evolved into something that would encase the character."
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 6. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023
- ↑ Crash Bandicoot - Origin of N Tropy - Part 7. Charles Zembillas. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023 "The paraphernalia on his body machine was over the top for the original PlayStation console. I was thinking that it could be created as a texture in Photoshop and then placed over the polygon structure of the modeled character. The pistons were over complex as well with elements that operated as flexible joints at the top." / "He's expression is that way because he was envisioned as a mean, sinister character. Not a nice guy." / "It wasn't detail for the sake of detail. It was more about the humor or absurdity of the contraption."
- ↑ The Secret Origins of Nina Cortex. JMac & Webbsta on YouTube. Archived from the original on August 7, 2025 "He is 45 years old, with a clipped, authoritative British accent."
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| DLC Content | Crash Bandicoot: Stormy Ascent Crash Bandicoot: Warped: Future Tense | |