List of Crash Bandicoot characters


Crash Bandicoot is a series of platform video games created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. Formerly developed by Naughty Dog from 1996 to 1999, by Traveller's Tales, Eurocom and Vicarious Visions from 2000 to 2004, and by Radical Entertainment from 2005 to 2008, the series is currently published by Activision. The series features a large cast of distinctive characters designed by numerous different artists, which include Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson. It also features a cast of veteran voice actors.
The series centers on the conflicts between a mutated bandicoot named Crash Bandicoot and his creator, Doctor Neo Cortex. Crash acts as the main playable character of the series, though other characters have had occasional player access, such as Coco Bandicoot and Doctor Neo Cortex, as well as Crunch
Bandicoot.

Protagonists

Crash Bandicoot

Aku Aku

Aku Aku is the guardian of the Wumpa Islands and the father figure of Crash Bandicoot and his friends. Aku Aku is the spirit of an ancient witch doctor encased in a floating, wooden mask. During Crash's missions to stop Doctor Cortex, he scattered copies of himself throughout the travels in an effort to aid him in his mission. Whenever Crash possesses an Aku Aku mask, he will be shielded from one enemy attack or contact. Collecting three Aku Aku masks gives Crash temporary invulnerability from all minor dangers, but does not protect from falling down holes. In his English speaking appearances, he was voiced by David Siller in the first game, Mel Winkler from ' to Crash Twinsanity, and Greg Eagles from Crash of the Titans onwards.
In the first game and ', he is a background character that helps Crash. He begins to play a major series role from Crash Bandicoot: Warped, in which his evil twin brother Uka Uka is introduced when the ruins of Cortex's space station crash into Earth and set Uka Uka free so Aku Aku tells Crash and Coco Bandicoot the story of how he locked Uka Uka up in an underground prison many eons ago. He then gives the two the assignment of gathering Crystals that lay scattered throughout time and keep them from the hands of Uka Uka and Doctor Cortex. During Crash's final fight against Doctor Neo Cortex, Aku Aku fends off Uka Uka's attacks while the fight is in session. Aku Aku appears in Crash Team Racing as a tutor for Crash, Coco, Polar and Pura, giving them useful tips and tricks throughout the game. He also appears as a power-up during the races, protecting the said characters from all attacks and obstacles while giving them a speed boost. However, he cannot protect the characters from chasms and deep water. In Crash Bash, in order to resolve his constant fighting with Uka Uka, Aku Aku summons Crash and Coco as part of a contest between his players against Uka Uka. Aku Aku is later allowed to have Tiny and Dingodile into his team as to even out the number of players between them. During the course of the tournament, Aku Aku begins to suspect that Uka Uka is using the tournament to disguise a secret plot of his own. He discovers this plot to steal Crystals just in time for his team to win. Aku Aku locks the Crystals up into a secret cabinet for safekeeping, and banishes Uka Uka into the vacuum of space as punishment for trying to abuse the power of the Crystals.
When disasters ravage the world in ', Aku Aku discovers that Uka Uka and Doctor Cortex have unleashed a group of destructive masks known as the Elementals, and calls upon Crash and Coco to gather Crystals and return the Elementals to their hibernation state. In ', Aku Aku saves Crash from being kidnapped by Nefarious Tropy and N. Trance, and sends him off to gather Crystals so that he may be able to reach the villains. Aku Aku reprises his role from Crash Team Racing in Crash Nitro Kart, giving useful advice and acting as a power-up for the characters Crash, Coco and Crunch. In Crash Twinsanity, Aku Aku convinces Uka Uka to join him in order to defeat the Evil Twins, but both are easily defeated when they attempt this. Aku Aku has a cameo appearance in Crash Tag Team Racing as the tiki masks in the "Tiki Turbo" track. He also appears as the tutor in Crash Boom Bang!, giving the player instructions on how to play the game. In Crash of the Titans, Aku Aku is captured by Doctor Neo Cortex, but is rescued by Crash Bandicoot. Throughout the game, Aku Aku gives the player basic instructions, shields Crash from enemy attacks, and transforms into a skateboard to help Crash traverse slippery terrain. He reprises this role for . Aku Aku is one of the only two characters in the game unable to be controlled by Cortex's NV device, as the device is too small to fit on his head.
A reviewer for Game Revolution compared the mechanics of the Aku Aku masks to the shields of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. John Scalzo of Gaming Target commented that the "booooo-ahhhhhh!” chant made by Aku Aku is "pretty slick". The sound quality of Aku Aku's voice in Crash Team Racing was praised by SolidSnake of PSX Extreme, while Arnold Katayev, in his review of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, negatively described Aku Aku's voice as "melodramatic". Steven Rodriguez, in his Nintendo World Report review of Crash Nitro Kart, described Aku Aku's voice when giving advice between races as "sexy" and cited it as the best part of the game's audio, but admitted that "even he gets rather annoying." In his review of Crash of the Titans, Brian Rowe of Game Revolution, while citing the ability to "slap Aku Aku’s face into the ground and ride it like a surfboard" as "harshly inconsiderate", considered it "payback for his gratingly poor impersonations of that other floating head of wisdom – Frylock."

Coco Bandicoot

Coco Bandicoot is the younger sister of Crash Bandicoot. Just as her older brother, she was genetically engineered through the use of Doctor Neo Cortex's and Doctor Nitrus Brio's Evolvo-Ray. Coco is highly intelligent, and her intelligence quotient is said to be as much as 164. Like her brother, Coco has a heroic personality and a fearless nature, as she is willing to take any chance to help her family save the world from evil, unafraid of making mistakes. She is a fan of martial arts films, wrestling and NASCAR. She is also shown to be a skilled scooter rider, using this talent to outrace a Japanese tsunami on one occasion. Coco was designed by Charles Zembillas and Naughty Dog as a counterbalance to Tawna that would appease Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, who were not comfortable with a "super sexy" character being alongside Crash. Charles Zembillas' first sketches of Coco were drawn on March 18, 1997, when ' was in development. She is voiced by Vicki Winters in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Hynden Walch in Crash Team Racing, and Debi Derryberry from ' onwards. In the third season of the Netflix original animated series Skylanders Academy, Coco is voiced by Tara Strong instead of Derryberry.
Before the events of the series, Coco was an ordinary bandicoot like Crash until she was taken from the jungle and genetically enhanced by Doctor Neo Cortex. Coco is first seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back living on N. Sanity Island with Crash. One day, when the battery for her laptop runs out, she sends Crash off to find a replacement battery for her. When Coco discovers that Crash is gathering Crystals for Cortex, she becomes suspicious of Cortex and decides to hack into Cortex's computer to find what he is really up to. What she finds are "detailed schematics for an improved Cortex Vortex and a suspicious looking space station". She learns of Cortex's real plan just as Crash has gathered all the Crystals, and reveals Cortex's intentions to Crash before he can give the Crystals to Cortex. After Cortex's plan is foiled, Coco is called upon by Aku Aku in to use Doctor Nefarious Tropy's Time-Twisting Machine and gather the powerful Crystals in their original places before Cortex does so. Coco helps by gathering the Crystals in 17th-century Imperial China, the 18th-century Pacific Ocean, and World War I Europe. She is also responsible for the defeat of Cortex's right-hand man Doctor N. Gin on the Moon, with her new pet tiger Pura assisting her. Coco is a playable character in Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. The epilogue of Crash Team Racing states that Coco opened up her own internet dating service after the events of the game.
When the Elementals wreak havoc on the Earth in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Coco activates a new Portal Chamber for Crash to use. She helps Crash gather the Power Crystals needed to stop the Elementals by collecting them in a tsunami-ravaged China and an avalanche zone. She also stops an armada of Cortex's space stations from striking Earth. Near the end, she helps Crash and Crunch escape from Cortex's malfunctioning space station. In Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Coco is abducted by N. Trance and is brainwashed alongside Crunch and Fake Crash. Coco battles Crash in a large battleship inside an active volcano, with Crash attacking the craft while it is reloading its weaponry. Upon snapping out of N. Trance's control, Coco becomes a playable character, gathering two Crystals in space while escaping the wrath of a fireball created by N. Tropy. Coco is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart as well. In one cutscene, she uses her hacking skills to put the hyperactive Nash to sleep. In Crash Twinsanity, a teenage Coco is ambushed by Doctor Neo Cortex, who disguises himself as her in order to lure Crash into a trap so he can finally destroy him. Many moments later, Coco believes that Cortex kidnapped Crash, and travels to the Iceberg Lab to confront him. With a swift kick, she attacks Cortex and sends the Power Crystals he was holding flying into the Psychetron. The resulting chain reaction leaves Coco paralyzed until the end of the game. In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Coco teams up with the Professor to track down Ripto and Doctor Cortex. Later in the game, they're both kidnapped by Doctor Cortex's niece, Nina Cortex, who keeps them locked up in cages. After being freed from her cage, Coco suggests that Crash and Spyro put a tracer on Cortex and Ripto as to allow the heroes to track the villains back to their hideout. Coco's last major contribution to the story is constructing a portal to Cortex's and Ripto's lair.
Coco is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the game's story, Coco discovers the sole clue to whoever stole MotorWorld's Power Gems, which is Wumpa Whip. Because of Crash's high consumption of the beverage, she briefly believes that Crash is the culprit, despite the fact that Willie Wumpa Cheeks is the park's lone source of Wumpa Whip. At the end of the game, Coco returns the park's deed to Von Clutch, to whom it belongs. Coco plays a central role in Crash Boom Bang!, in which she is invited by the Viscount to the World Cannonball Race in his search for the Super Big Power Crystal. In Crash of the Titans, Coco is on the verge of creating a device that will be able to recycle butter when she is captured along with Aku Aku by Doctor Neo Cortex. When Nina replaces Cortex, Coco is brainwashed and is forced to finish the Doominator. She ends up completing the Doominator, but is rescued by Crash and is able to stop it at the end of the game. In the Nintendo DS version of the game, she appears as a vendor selling upgrades for Crash's abilities. Coco is a playable character in the cooperation mode of the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of Crash: Mind over Mutant. At the beginning of the game, Coco converts the Doominator's eye into an entertainment system. After seeing an infomercial advertising the "NV", a do-anything personal digital assistant, she receives an NV along with Crunch and quickly becomes addicted. Soon enough, the NV, which Dr. N. Brio filled with negative Mojo, transforms her into a ferocious beast who tries to kill Crash using a giant basketball-launching machine. After being defeated and informed that the NV had a negative influence on her, she uses the Doominator's eye to access Cortex's blog and learn what Cortex is planning. She is accessible as the second player's character from that point on. Coco's availability as a playable character in Crash: Mind over Mutant was omitted from the PlayStation 2 version of the game due to her distinct animations taking up much of the console's memory. In the PlayStation 2 version, she is replaced by a white-furred version of her brother named "Carbon Crash".
Coco has been featured in two series of Crash Bandicoot action figures produced by the now-defunct Resaurus. For Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Resaurus produced a Coco Bandicoot figure bundled with figures of a penguin and lizard from the game. The Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped series featured two different figures of Coco, including one bundled with Aku Aku and Crash Bandicoot figures. Coco's inclusion and incorporation as a playable character in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was met with a generally lukewarm response among critics. Hilary Goldstein of IGN felt that Coco was a "less powerful" and "less enjoyable" character than Crash and that "she was just not fun the way Crash is". On the subject, Hilary added that "Crash is a silly creature to look at. He's almost absurd, which works great with his various animations. Coco isn't really silly at all. The game isn't called Crash and Coco so why must I be forced to play her? Rather than add variety, Coco detracts from the only real selling point of the game – Crash Bandicoot." Matthew Gallant of GameSpot noted that "When you play a level as Coco instead of Crash, there's no explanation or warning given – you'll simply enter the level's portal as Crash and come out the other end as Coco. It's not all bad, but compared with Super Mario Sunshine, it seems very uneven." Debi Derryberry's voice acting as Coco has garnered mixed reviews in the series as a whole. Arnold Katayev of PSX Extreme was positive about her voice in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, while Matt Keller of PALGN felt that her voice in Crash of the Titans was "annoying".

Crunch Bandicoot

Crunch Bandicoot is a genetically altered bandicoot who was originally created by Doctor Cortex to destroy Crash Bandicoot. After his defeat, Crunch had a change of heart and now tries to be a positive role model to children. Crunch also protects Crash and Coco from harm. He is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Nitro Kart, Chris Williams in the Radical Entertainment games, and Ike Amadi in Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled.
Crunch was created by Doctor Cortex in private as a superweapon that would be capable of frightening power. Doctor N. Gin and Doctor Nefarious Tropy were the only other individuals who knew about the weapon. During a bad guy convention held by Uka Uka, Tropy and N. Gin reveal the weapon in desperation for one good plan to defeat Crash Bandicoot, whom Uka Uka wants eliminated. Doctor Cortex formally announces the superweapon, but reveals that it is still missing a power source. Hearing the word "element", Uka Uka brings up the Elementals, a group of destructive masks that could create enough energy to bring the secret weapon to life. The weapon, who is Crunch Bandicoot, attempts to defeat Crash with the aid of the Elemental masks, but when Crunch is defeated in Cortex's space station, he snaps out of Doctor Cortex's control. Although his first instinct is to introduce his fist to Cortex's face, Aku Aku informs Crunch of the space station's imminent destruction, and the group decides to flee back to Earth. Back on Earth, Crunch shows his gratitude toward the Bandicoots, and becomes part of the Bandicoot family. In Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Crunch is abducted by N. Trance and is brainwashed alongside Coco and Fake Crash. Crash battles Crunch on a flying carpet over the skies of Saudi Arabia, with Crash firing shots of energy at Crunch whenever the latter is stunned by exploding Nitro crates. Upon snapping out of N. Trance's control, Crunch becomes a playable character in some of the Atlasphere levels. Crunch is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart as well. In Crash Twinsanity, Crunch has a cameo in Crash's "birthday party", which is a gathering of past Crash villains. While Crunch is in the gathering, he actually believes that it is really Crash's birthday, donning a green paper crown and holding a slice of cake. Crunch has a minor appearance in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, aiding Crash in the "Weightlift" segments of the game.
Crunch appears as a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart Crash Tag Team Racing and Crash Boom Bang!. In Crash of the Titans, Crunch is ambushed by Doctor Cortex during the beginning of the first episode, leaving him frozen from the neck down. He stays this way until the end of the game, in which the Doominator's collapse is able to set Crunch free. Crunch does not appear in the DS version of the game. In the Game Boy Advance version, Crunch is taken prisoner by Tiny Tiger by order of Neo Cortex. He is freed upon Tiny's defeat. Crunch appears in Crash: Mind over Mutant and becomes addicted to the NV device alongside Coco to the point where he is unable to help Crash and Aku Aku when they are attacked by N. Gin's Ratnician army. He is later mutated by the bad Mojo transmitted by the NV and runs off, leaving a mutated Coco to fend off Crash. He is later found at the Junkyard, where Nitrus Brio commands Crunch to attack Crash. He is soon freed from the NV's control, but continues to be beaten up by Crash for a short time. He then decides to go back home and get some sleep.

Antagonists

Doctor Neo Cortex

Doctor Nitrus Brio

Doctor Nitrus Brio is a scientist who formerly worked under Doctor Neo Cortex. Brio was created by Naughty Dog as a foil for Doctor Cortex: "meek to Cortex's strength, logical to Cortex's emotional, successful to Cortex's failure." Brio is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the English versions of Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bash; Maurice LaMarche in Crash: Mind over Mutant and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy; and Tom Kenny in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. His name is often abbreviated to "N. Brio", a wordplay on "embryo".
As a child, Nitrus Brio was a classmate of Neo Cortex and N. Gin in Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil. Brio is responsible for creating the first fully functional Evolvo-Ray. However, his lack of self-esteem allowed Doctor Cortex to take credit for the creation. Brio is the penultimate boss of the first game, transforming himself into a hulking beast, to combat Crash. After his failure, Brio left Cortex to become a bartender. Whilst away, he plotted to destroy Cortex for good with the use of a giant laser. Brio manages to convince Crash to gather the 42 Gems needed for the laser to be operational, and gives him the honor of activating the weapon, destroying Cortex's space station. While Brio does not appear in the original Crash Team Racing, a brand of beakers used as weapons during the races feature his name. Brio reunites with Cortex as a playable character in Crash Bash.
In Crash Twinsanity, Brio teams up with Doctor Nefarious Tropy to defeat Crash and steal the Evil Twins' treasure. He appears alongside Tropy in a boss fight, immediately following Crash's escape from N. Gin's battleship, in which Brio drinks a potion to transform himself into a large, green frog-like monster. He then appears alongside N. Tropy and N. Gin again in the Evil Twins' fortress, claiming the Twins' treasure for themselves. However, they are thwarted by Spyro the Dragon, who had been trapped in the Twins' vault. Brio reunites with Neo Cortex once more in Crash: Mind over Mutant, in which he aids in the development of the NV, a personal digital assistant that can control both mutants and bandicoots. He uses recycled parts from the Sludge Junkyard to mass-produce NVs and create a new space station for Doctor Cortex. Throughout the game, he claims to be the inventor of numerous things, including recycling, Slinkies and endings. He is found in the Junkyard with a brainwashed Crunch Bandicoot by Crash and Aku Aku, who are then attacked by Crunch under Brio's orders. When Crunch is broken free from the NV's control, Brio is forced to reveal the whereabouts of Uka Uka, who is acting as the source of the negative Mojo needed to control those wearing NVs. He is then told to leave the island, but promises that it is not the end.

Doctor N. Gin

Doctor N. Gin was the right-hand man of Doctor Neo Cortex, replacing Doctor Nitrus Brio after Crash Bandicoot. He has since been replaced by the person he succeeded, Nitrus Brio. He is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the Naughty Dog games, by Corey Burton in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, by Quinton Flynn in Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Twinsanity, and by Nolan North in the Radical Entertainment games. His name is a play on the word "engine", and his first name has never been revealed.
As a child, N. Gin was a classmate of Neo Cortex and Nitrus Brio in Madame Amberley's Academy of Evil. After working at a stapler factory for a time, N. Gin went on to become a world-renowned physicist in the defense industry. However, due to a budget cut, one of his missile projects ended up faulty and, as a result, went awry, lodging itself into N. Gin's head. With his intellect, N. Gin was able to stabilize the weapon and reconstruct it as a life support system at the cost of his sanity. Because the missile is still live, it activates whenever N. Gin is stressed or angry, leaving him with a large headache. Shortly after the missile incident, Doctor N. Gin was taken in by Doctor Neo Cortex to replace the double-crossed Doctor Nitrus Brio. Studying a large Crystal found by Cortex after his defeat by Crash Bandicoot, N. Gin discovers that 25 smaller "Slave Crystals" are needed alongside this "Master Crystal" in order to power Cortex's new "Cortex Vortex" device. When Crash is ordered by Doctor Cortex to give the Crystals he has gathered to N. Gin, N. Gin attempts to take the Crystals by force, only to be sent spiraling into the vacuum of space when Crash destroys his prized mecha. After the destruction of this mecha, N. Gin constructed a superior model: a suit of mobile armor that could transform into a space fighter and dock with a huge weapon platform. N. Gin uses this machine to confront Coco Bandicoot on the Moon in , only to fail once again. N. Gin appears as a playable character in "Crash Team Racing" and as an obstacle in a "Ballistix" level in "Crash Bash". The epilogue of Crash Team Racing states that N. Gin opened a custom auto parts store in Toledo, Ohio, only to have it close down after a massive recall due to the damage caused by his patented "Clear-the-Road" missile system. In the Nitro-Fueled remake, his liking for flair and destruction then netted him a job as a commentator on a robot fighting channel after that.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, N. Gin is an attendee of Uka Uka's bad guy convention, and is ultimately the one who reveals the secret of Crunch Bandicoot, Cortex's new superweapon. For the rest of the game, N. Gin serves as an obstacle in some of the levels. In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, N. Gin battles Crash in the skies with a weapon platform similar to the one he piloted in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. He is later merged with Doctor Cortex, Tiny and Dingodile, and becomes Mega-Mix. After chasing Crash down a space station hall, Mega-Mix is left inside the space station, which explodes with the villains in it. N. Gin is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart. In one cutscene, N. Gin considers creating cybernetic sharks as new henchmen after racing Nash. In Crash Twinsanity, N. Gin appears during the first boss battle, piloting the Mecha-Bandicoot in an attempt to eliminate Crash. When all of its weapons are destroyed, the Mecha-Bandicoot stomps a hole into the floor and falls into a cavern. N. Gin is later seen as the captain of his own battleship. At the crow's nest, N. Gin tries to destroy Crash with a barrage of missiles, occasionally tossing a TNT Crate. This leads to the eventual collapse of the crow's nest, causing N. Gin to land on his head onto a pile of TNT Crates, creating a large explosion that sinks the battleship. N. Gin is last seen teamed up with N. Tropy and N. Brio, with all of them trying to steal the Evil Twins' riches. However, they are driven out by Spyro the Dragon.
N. Gin is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the game's story, N. Gin convinces Neo Cortex to join in the search for Von Clutch's missing Power Gems so that he can use Von Clutch's theme park as a new base of operations. He has a cameo appearance in the "Silhouette Quiz" minigame in Crash Boom Bang!. In Crash of the Titans, N. Gin opposes Doctor Cortex's replacement by praising Cortex's stationery. N. Gin is next seen in his weapons factory, which appears on the outside as a version of the Statue of Liberty modelled after N. Gin. This factory constantly bombards the surrounding area with all kinds of explosives in an attempt to hinder Crash. Inside the factory, N. Gin communicates to his workers through the factory intercom, making announcements, singing inspirational songs, or alerting the workers of Crash's presence. In the factory's crown, N. Gin spends his days performing on his enormous pipe organ. When confronted by Crash and Aku Aku, N. Gin indirectly reveals to them that he has mixed feelings over Cortex's replacement to Nina. One side likes Doctor Cortex and the abuse he brings to him and wishes for his return, while another side approves of Nina's new way of doing things, believing that she is a more efficient leader than Cortex. Eventually, the two sides reach a compromise, and tell Crash of Uka Uka's whereabouts in hopes that he will also free Cortex, planning to shower them with doom later on. In Crash: Mind over Mutant, N. Gin leads an attack on Crash Bandicoot when Coco and Crunch become addicted to Cortex's and Brio's personal digital assistant, fleeing to a small observatory on Wumpa Island afterwards. When Crash and Aku Aku catch up to him, N. Gin reveals that ever since Doctor Cortex escaped the Doominator, he has been secretly watching the Bandicoot family and collecting information on them, hoping to be rewarded with the ownership of Wumpa Island if Cortex is triumphant in his current plot. After Crash fends off N. Gin's army of Ratnicians, N. Gin is sternly told by Aku Aku to leave the island, to which N. Gin reluctantly complies.

Tiny Tiger

Tiny Tiger is a thylacine minion of Doctor Neo Cortex. He is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the PlayStation games, by John DiMaggio in Crash Nitro Kart, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, by Chris Williams in Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind over Mutant, and by Nolan North in the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans.
It is implied in at least two instruction manuals that Tiny was Doctor Cortex's first foray into genetic alteration. However, this conflicts with what was established by Naughty Dog, who confirmed that Ripper Roo was Cortex's first serious creation. Following the orders of Doctor Nitrus Brio, Tiny attempts to eliminate Crash as the third boss of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, but is unsuccessful in the end. By Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Tiny has joined forces with Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka. His first duty working under Cortex is attempting to take whatever Crystals Crash and Coco have gathered and bringing them to Cortex in the Colosseum. Tiny is once again unsuccessful, as a fight against Crash in the Colosseum proves fruitless. Tiny appears as a playable character in Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. The epilogue of Crash Team Racing states that Tiny moved to Beverly Hills and founded a chain of fitness clubs after the events of the game, his exercise videos being particularly successful. In the Nitro-Fueled remake, he instead posted his exercise videos online before starting his fitness club chain, where he also sold his own brand of lemongrass and avocado protein supplements.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Tiny is an attendee in Uka Uka's bad guy convention, not speaking a single line in the entire game. He later serves as an obstacle in certain levels, literally standing in Crash's way in an attempt to hinder him, as well as operating various flying vehicles in levels involving planes or spaceships. In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Tiny serves as the third boss, fighting Crash near a large waterfall. He is later merged with Doctor Cortex, N. Gin, and Dingodile, and becomes Mega-Mix. After chasing Crash down a space station hall, Mega-Mix is left inside the space station, which explodes with the villains in it. Tiny is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart. In the game's story, Tiny is seen playing checkers with himself when the tower the villains are standing in is abducted. When Emperor Velo is defeated, Tiny, Cortex, and N. Gin are teleported to Terra, where Tiny gains the respect of the inhabitants. Tiny has a cameo appearance in Crash Twinsanity during Crash's "birthday party". In the crossover game Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Tiny acts as the second boss, attempting to obliterate Crash in a frozen tundra with a tank. Tiny has a cameo appearance in Crash Boom Bang!, appearing in the "Silhouette Quiz" minigame. In Crash of the Titans, Tiny protests Neo Cortex's replacement alongside Doctor N. Gin by praising Cortex's stationery. Tiny is the one in charge of the mining operations seen in Episodes 5 through 7, responsible for destroying a portion of the jungle and obtaining minerals from the volcano. When Crash disrupts these operations, Tiny confronts Crash directly and voices his displeasure in both Crash's antics and the fact that he wasn't invited to Crash Tag Team Racing. When Crash confronts Tiny with the Shellephant, Tiny decides to reveal the whereabouts of Crash's sister; he is also the one who reveals that Uka Uka replaced Cortex for Nina. Although Tiny isn't seen physically in Crash: Mind over Mutant, his voice can be heard in the game's credits when he tries to correct Crunch when he mixes up his metaphors.

Uka Uka

Uka Uka is the evil younger twin brother of Aku Aku. Uka Uka was created by Naughty Dog as a presence that was able to cause even Neo Cortex to cower in fear. He was voiced by Clancy Brown from 1998 to 2003, by Alex Fernandez in Crash Twinsanity and Skylanders: Imaginators, and by John DiMaggio in Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind over Mutant, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
Uka Uka first appears in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, where he shares the role of main antagonist with Doctor Cortex. Several eons before the events of the series, he was locked away by Aku Aku in an underground prison due to his malevolent nature. Several millennia after his incarceration, Uka Uka recruits Doctor Cortex to fulfill his desire to enslave humanity, only to have Cortex lose the Crystals and the Gems, and have his space station destroyed. The rubble of the ruined space station eventually crash-lands onto Earth, destroying the underground prison, and finally freeing Uka Uka. Upset with Cortex's failure to retrieve the Crystals and the Gems, Uka Uka recruits Doctor Nefarious Tropy, who has created the Time Twister, which will allow them to collect the Crystals and the Gems in their original places. And, since Cortex's failure also managed to set him free after so many years of imprisonment, Uka Uka still felt a sense of gratitude and generosity. When Crash intervenes and destroys the Time Twister, Uka Uka is trapped inside a time prison with Doctor Cortex and N. Tropy, who have been turned into infants. Uka Uka appears in Crash Team Racing as a tutor for the characters Cortex, N. Gin, Tiny, and Dingodile, giving them useful tips and tricks throughout the game. He also appears as a power-up during the races, protecting the said characters from all attacks and obstacles while giving them a speed boost. However, he cannot protect the characters from chasms and deep water. In Crash Bash, in order to resolve his constant fighting with Aku Aku, Uka Uka summons Cortex, Brio, Tiny, Dingodile, Koala Kong, and Rilla Roo as part of a contest between his players against Aku Aku. Uka Uka is later forced to relinquish Tiny and Dingodile to Aku Aku's team to even out the number of players between them.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Uka Uka scolds Doctor Cortex and the rest of the villains for their less-than-impressive evil productivity. Fed up with Cortex's incompetence, Uka Uka concludes that if global domination is to ever be achieved, Crash should be handled with personally. Deciding to use Cortex's new super-weapon to wipe out Crash Bandicoot, he revives the Elementals to act as the super-weapon's source of power and bring it to life. When Crash imprisons the Elementals, defeats the super-weapon, and brings it to their side, Uka Uka holds Cortex responsible and fires an energy blast at him out of anger, but in doing so causes their newly built space station to overload, forcing Cortex and Uka Uka to evacuate. Their escape pod lands in the depths of Antarctica, stranding them both on a sheet of ice. Uka Uka oversees the evil plots of both Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure and Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced respectively, becoming annoyed when both of them fail. Uka Uka reprises his role from Crash Team Racing in Crash Nitro Kart, giving useful advice and acting as a power-up for the characters Neo Cortex, N. Gin, Tiny Tiger and N. Tropy. In Crash Twinsanity, Uka Uka is freed from a wall of ice, but is enraged to see that Cortex has teamed up with Crash in order to defeat the Evil Twins, and transforms into an Ice Titan in order to kill both of them, considering that he still held a grudge against Cortex for his past failures. When he is defeated, Uka Uka attempts to flee, but Aku Aku stops him and tells him about the Evil Twins' plot to destroy the Earth. Opposed to the fact that someone else is trying to destroy the world, Uka Uka temporarily teams up with his twin brother, only to be defeated alongside him by the Evil Twins' ability to warp reality.
Uka Uka has a cameo appearance in Crash Boom Bang! as a purchaseable power-up. In Crash of the Titans, Uka Uka teaches Doctor Cortex a new process called "Mojo mutations", which uses a magical substance known as Mojo to mutate any living creature into a loyal minion of Cortex. At the Temple of Zoom, Uka Uka leaves Doctor Cortex to destroy Crash and Aku Aku while he returns to the base with an enormous amount of stolen Mojo and Coco Bandicoot at tow. When Cortex fails to defeat Crash, Uka Uka becomes furious, and announces that he is replacing Doctor Cortex, much to the shock of his minions. In a lab on the island's giant tree, Uka Uka expresses his relief with Nina Cortex's higher competence, but begins to sense Aku Aku's presence nearby, and decides to stay in the lab and kill Crash Bandicoot himself. Uka Uka confronts Crash as the penultimate boss by using Doctor Cortex's Evolvo-Ray on himself, giving him a gargantuan body made from the tree's wood. When the Evolvo-Ray is destroyed, Uka Uka claims that he will have the last laugh, as Nina is about to launch the Doominator, threatening the existence of Wumpa Island. Uka Uka is absent in the Nintendo DS version of the game. In Crash: Mind over Mutant, Uka Uka is subdued and placed in a milking machine by Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nitrus Brio so that he can be used as a source of the bad Mojo needed to control those using the mass-produced NV device. He is eventually freed by Crash and Aku Aku, and promises to take the two to Cortex's new space station if his magical bones are returned to him. When this task is completed, Uka Uka keeps his promise and warps Crash and Aku Aku to Cortex's space station as an act of vengeance against Cortex.

Dingodile

Dingodile is the ally of Doctor Neo Cortex. Dingodile was conceptualized by Naughty Dog employee Joe Labbe, who requested a character that was a cross between a dingo and a crocodile. Charles Zembillas drew the first sketches of Dingodile on February 4, 1998. At certain points, the character alternatively wore an Australian-style hat, had a "mop of scruffy hair" and walked on all fours. Naughty Dog initially wanted Dingodile to be a fire-breathing character before Zembillas suggested giving him a flamethrower to make him "much more interesting". The final sketches of Dingodile were drawn on February 12, 1998. Zembillas has expressed happiness at Dingodile's enthusiastic following amongst fans. Dingodile is voiced by William Hootkins in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, by David Anthony Pizzuto in Crash Team Racing, by Dwight Schultz in Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Twinsanity, by Nolan North in the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans, and by Fred Tatasciore in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
Dingodile made his debut in the video game Crash Bandicoot: Warped as the second boss of the game. Here, he is seen serving under Uka Uka and Doctor Cortex, attempting to take whatever Crystals Crash has gathered and bringing them to Cortex during the Ice Age under his orders. Crash encounters Dingodile as he is about to kill a penguin, who runs away upon Crash's arrival. When Dingodile is defeated, he warns Crash of the more powerful enemies he will face ahead as the penguin he tried to kill earlier hops up and down on his charred body. Dingodile is a playable character in Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. The epilogue of Crash Team Racing states that Dingodile created an animal breeding program to create unique and interesting pets. In the Nitro-Fueled remake, he instead becomes a firefighter, and becomes so successful at it that he is featured on the yearly fireman calendar.
Dingodile appears as an attendee of Uka Uka's bad guy convention. He later serves as an obstacle in certain levels, firing spurts of flamethrower ammo in an attempt to stop Crash. In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Dingodile serves as the first boss. He fights Crash in a shark-infested underwater cavern, and fires torpedoes at the cavern ceiling in an attempt to impale Crash with the falling stalactites, but eventually manages to impale himself, leaving him open for attack. He is later merged with Doctor Cortex, N. Gin and Tiny Tiger, and becomes Mega-Mix. After chasing Crash down a space station hall, Mega-Mix is left inside the space station, which explodes with the villains in it. Dingodile is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart. In the game's story, Dingodile is seen assisting Doctor N. Gin when the tower the villains are standing in is abducted. The next time he is seen, he is brainwashed by N. Trance and racing under N. Trance's team, which drives green vehicles. In Crash Twinsanity, Dingodile is seen as one of the attendees of Crash's "birthday party". After watching the ensuing boss battle, he discusses lunch with Ripper Roo. Later, he is seen reading inside a small shack, but is interrupted when a large snowball crushes the shack with him in it. As Cortex laments his humiliation, Dingodile learns of the Evil Twins' treasure, and secretly follows Crash and Cortex to the boiler room of Madame Amberley's Academy of Evil, where he tries to kill Crash for the treasure, believing he already has it. However, with the help of the boiler room's emergengy sprinkler system, Crash is able to disable Dingodile's flamethrower and beat him into submission. Dingodile is last seen laying unconscious in the boiler room. While Dingodile doesn't appear in the console version of Crash of the Titans, he appears as the first boss in the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance versions on the game. In the Nintendo DS version, Dingodile is assigned to stalling Crash Bandicoot while the other villains gather materials and build Neo Cortex's new CortexBot. Dingodile attempts to defeat Crash with a new water cannon, but ultimately fails. In the Game Boy Advance version, Dingodile is given the task of sending barrels of oil from Wumpa Island to Tiki Island. He is defeated by Crash, who attacks him with inhabited beehives.

Doctor Nefarious Tropy

Doctor Nefarious Tropy is a henchman and old friend of Uka Uka and the self-proclaimed master of time. He was created by Naughty Dog as a time-traveling boss that would fit in a time-traveling plot. Charles Zembillas drew the first sketches of Tropy on January 22, 1998. Tropy's wearable time-traveling device was conceptualized early on in the character's design evolution and initially appeared as a belt-like contraption that featured a digital read out displaying the year Tropy intended to travel to. At one point in its aesthetic development, Tropy's time machine was covered in clock gears and mechanisms, including a cuckoo clock on the machine's lower-right area; Zembillas assumed that the details could be created as a texture in Adobe Photoshop and placed over the modeled character's polygon structure. Furthermore, the pistons on the back of the machine were connected to each other through joint-like bearings. These details were ultimately omitted for being too complex for the original PlayStation console to handle. The exhaust pipes and pistons were retained due to their reflection of Tropy's unhealthy obsession with time. Tropy is voiced by Michael Ensign in all his speaking appearances excluding Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, in which he is voiced by Corey Burton. His name is abbreviated as N. Tropy, which is a play on "entropy", a comment on his clock-like form.
Doctor Nefarious Tropy is introduced by Uka Uka in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped as the creator of the Time-Twisting Machine, a device that will aid Neo Cortex in his quest to gather the Crystals in their original places in time. He later acts as the third boss of the game, battling Crash with his gigantic tuning fork. When Cortex is defeated, the Time-Twisting Machine implodes on itself, trapping Cortex, Uka Uka and Tropy in a time prison, where they are transformed into infants. Tropy appears in Crash Team Racing as the player's opponent during the Time Trial races and later as an unlockable playable character. The game's epilogue states that Tropy resumed his time machine hobby after the events of the game, and was last seen entering an ancient rainforest. In the Nitro-Fueled remake, he instead travels to a city in the future and went back after meeting a Marty McFly-like character. N. Tropy has a minor appearance in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, in which he is an attendee of Uka Uka's convention and an occasional enemy in the game, attempting to hinder Crash's progress. He is the main antagonist of Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, in which he kidnaps Crunch, Coco and Fake Crash and hypnotizes them into working for him. He is later defeated by Crash and is forced to take a group picture with the Bandicoots. Tropy is an unlockable character in Crash Nitro Kart, where he races under Neo Cortex's team. Tropy appears again in Crash Twinsanity, where he works with Doctor Nitrus Brio in order to learn the whereabouts of the treasure of the Evil Twins. When interrogating Crash proves fruitless, the duo attack him, sending him back to Cortex's Iceberg Lab. They eventually reach the treasure trove of the Evil Twins, but are chased out by Spyro the Dragon. Tropy also has a cameo appearance in the "Silhouette Quiz" minigame in Crash Boom Bang!

Nina Cortex

Nina Cortex is the gothic niece of Doctor Neo Cortex. She is voiced by Susan Silo in Crash Twinsanity, Amy Gross in the Radical Entertainment games, and Debi Derryberry in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled and the DS version of Crash of the Titans. She sometimes aids her uncle in his quest for world domination, though they have had a recent falling-out due to a failed plot headed by her and Cortex's boss Uka Uka. Nina Cortex was originally created and designed by Duke Mighten for Traveller's Tales as a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart before development duties of the game were transferred to Vicarious Visions. During her conception it was undecided whether she would be Neo Cortex's daughter or niece, hence the deliberate discrepancies regarding her relationship with Cortex in Crash Twinsanity. As everyone kept referring to her as Neo's niece, the label stuck and became official. Her appearance was based on one of the designers working at Traveller's Tales.
Nina is known to be more ambitious and egotistical than her uncle; even Aku Aku believes that Nina is "a lot smarter than Cortex ever could be." Despite her self-admittedly antisocial demeanor, she is said to have a love for animals. Nina's most distinguishing features are her spring-loaded steel bionic hands, which were given to her by her uncle Doctor Cortex.
When Nina Cortex started to show signs of a kind heart, Doctor Cortex modified her arms with bionic parts and enrolled her in Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil, which he himself attended as a child. She doesn't see her uncle again until the Evil Twins threaten the existence of the N. Sanity Island in Crash Twinsanity, during which Doctor Cortex sneaks her out of the school to assist him in defeating the Evil Twins. When Crash, Cortex and Nina travel to the Tenth Dimension, Nina is kidnapped by the feral Evil Crash and taken to his house, where Cortex soon rescues Nina though he ends up being chased by Evil Crash instead. She later helps in defeating the Evil Twins by destroying the power sources of their Deathbot.
In Crash of the Titans, Nina appears as the main antagonist. When Cortex once again fails to dispose of Crash Bandicoot, she reveals that she was behind his actions throughout the game and even has Uka Uka serve under her. In the Nintendo DS version of the game, Nina attempts to take over Cortex's plot on her own accord when she realizes that she's merely a henchman. When Crash confronts her inside the Doominator, Nina boards her giant Arachnina Titan and battles Crash, only to lose. When the Doominator is disabled, she is rescued from the falling contraption by Doctor Cortex, who reveals that he is proud that she betrayed him, but proceeds to drop her off at his public school as punishment for doing so, as seen in Crash: Mind over Mutant. When she is eventually visited by Crash and Aku Aku, she angrily accuses Crash of ruining her life and refuses to help them stop Cortex's ongoing plot. When Crash and Aku Aku get desperate, she forces the two to kiss each other and save her science fair project. She then uses the said project to determine the location of Crunch and Brio, who are at the Sludge's Junkyard.
In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Nina is recruited by Doctor Cortex to kidnap Coco Bandicoot and the Professor. When Spyro and Crash arrive to save Coco and the Professor, Nina chases down Crash, only to soon be captured in a cage. Nina is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which she aids Doctor Cortex and N. Gin in trying to take over Von Clutch's MotorWorld.
Nina's introduction in Crash Twinsanity was met with a positive response among critics. James B. Pringle of IGN said that Nina "almost steals the show with her sassy skip and her Bionic Commando-like extension arm" and admitted that he "actually wouldn't mind seeing more of Nina in the future." Nick Valentino of GameZone praised her as "an inventive character", a "very welcome addition to the series" and "one of the many highlights this game has to offer". He also compared her bionic arms to Bionic Commando.

Other characters