Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, (ネオ・コルテックス Neo Cortexin Japanese) most known as Doctor Neo Cortex, N. Cortex, Cortex, or Doctor Cortex, is a professional evil scientist born in Peoria, Illinois and the primary antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He is known as the creator of his nemesis: Crash Bandicoot. In the games Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, he is voiced by Brendan O'Brien. From Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back to Crash Nitro Kart, he is voiced by Clancy Brown. In the games Crash Twinsanity to Crash: Mind over Mutant he has been voiced by Lex Lang. In almost all games, Cortex is usually the final boss, the exception being N-Tranced (where he is a playable character in multiplayer), Crash Tag Team Racing (where he is a playable character), Crash Twinsanity (where he is the first boss and then becomes a playable character in some levels) and Crash of the Titans (where he is also the first boss).
Role in the Series[]
Dr. Cortex works with Queen Vixion. He is usually the smartest one's according to Queen Vixion and Shadow Moon. He appears to be Sonja's enemies and until Crash Twinsanity that he is forced to work together to stop the evil twins.
Personality[]
Cortex embodies many of the classic traits of psychopathy, being short-tempered, reckless, having no apparent conscience (as cited by Doctor Nefarious Tropy in Crash Twinsanity), and frequently manipulating others to get what he wants.
Like many stereotypical villainous mad scientists, Cortex holds a grudge against other scientists for ridiculing his outlandish (yet nearly workable) ideas, and was originally driven towards world domination by the desire to prove his colleagues wrong.[1] This no longer seems to be the case, as it is revealed in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped that Cortex is working under the orders of Uka Uka, one of the only two individuals that Cortex fears (beside Madame Amberly). Although Cortex talks big and acts confident in most of his appearances, he can be shown to become nervous (sometimes downright spineless) when put in the face of extreme and immediate danger (i.e. confronting Uka Uka, running out of ammo while fighting enemies, etc.).
Another notable personality trait is his inability to plan ahead or learn from his mistakes; he often relies on his minion Tiny Tiger to eliminate Crash by himself, despite the fact that Tiny is too incompetent to do so alone. This impulsive behavior is first witnessed in the opening cinematic of Crash Bandicoot, in which Cortex refuses to heed the warnings of his then-henchman Doctor Nitrus Brio and tries to make Crash the general of his army, despite numerous past failures.[2] Cortex can become quite irritated or agitated when things don't go his way, especially in Crash Tag Team Racing; while most other characters express mild annoyance when Crash fails to perform an errand for them, Cortex scolds and lashes out at him the minute he comes back empty-handed, calling him a "blithering imbecile", "Cantankerous twerp" and saying "You're the worst mutation I've ever created!". Mutually supportive relationships with other characters is also evident in the crossover game Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, in which Doctor Cortex temporarily teams up with Spyro the Dragon villain Ripto to destroy both Crash and Spyro, only to start bickering with Ripto at one point.
Cortex is not above lying and deceiving others to fulfill his evil desires, most of which include gathering Crystals to power up his doomsday weapons. He frequently uses the gullible Crash Bandicoot to complete these deeds, most evident in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Tag Team Racing, claiming in both games to use the weapons for "mass helping people" as he puts it. His egotistical tendencies also cause him to alter facts about his life, claiming himself to be the most popular student in his school, even though in reality he was an object of hatred among many students, one going as far as to toss a dagger in his direction.[3] Cortex's vain side becomes most obvious in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which he often calls himself such things as beautiful and pretty.
For most of the time, Cortex doesn't care for the lives and feelings of others, caring only for himself and what he wants. While this seems to be the case in most games, the one moment in which Cortex actually shows concern for someone else is in Crash Twinsanity, in which at one point his niece, Nina Cortex, is kidnapped by an evil version of Crash. It is at this point clear that Nina is the only living thing that Cortex cares about, with the latter going as far as thoughtlessly putting himself in danger of being mauled by the ferocious Evil Crash during the level "Bandicoot Pursuit". Besides this instance, Cortex is largely unempathetic, seeing others only as tools for his quest in world domination (although presumably he likes N. Gin, Tiny and Dingodile really, as he puts up with them despite their past failings). It is unknown whether Cortex feels any regret for replacing Nina's hands with metallic death-traps, though this is unlikely, given Cortex's psychopathic tendencies.
Relationships[]
Sonja Farrington[]
Sonja and Cortex are enemies. Cortex is sometimes sent by Vixion to capture Sonja and destroy Crash. Sometimes Cortex doesn't listen to Vixion orders but instead he plans to brainwash Sonja in order to make her work for him.
Crash Bandicoot[]
When Cortex initially mutated Crash, he planned to have him become general of his mutant army. However, Neo was in such a rush to turn Crash evil he ignored N. Brio's warning of the Cortex Vortex being unstable, thus sealing his future with Crash.
Pixie Dark[]
Pixie Dark is Cortex's girlfriend.
Queen Vixion[]
Dr. Cortex is working for Vixion and he is always with her in Vixion's dark palace. He gets pretty scared about Vixion being angry and yelling. Cortex reminds Vixion of Uka Uka when she yells at him.