Dr. Neo Cortex

"You fool! You think I'm unaware of the situation? If we don't have any friends left on the surface, then we need to find... an enemy!"

- Dr. Neo Cortex

"Get ready to face my wrath, Crash Bandicoot! MOWHAHAHAHA!"

- Dr. Neo Cortex

'''Dr. Neo Periwinkle Cortex' is the primary antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot'' video game series. He is an evil genius who uses his intellect in his plans of world domination. Although his intentions are to destroy Crash Bandicoot, he and Crash had worked together, in the 2004 Crash Bandicoot video game, Crash Twinsanity, appearing as the deuteragonist, forcibly working with Crash to stop the game's antagonists, the Evil Twins.

History
Neo Cortex has always been a knowledgeable scientist. However, he was mocked by the scientific community for his absurd theories. Cast aside by them, he isolated himself in the distant N. Sanity Island, where he started to devise his plans to get revenge and rule the world. Alongside his partner Nitrus Brio, he created the Evolvo Ray, a machine capable of evolving animals at a super fast speed. Cortex had also created the Cortex Vortex, a machine designed to brainwash every minion that first went through the Evolvo Ray. Cortex once experimented Cortex Vortex with Crash Bandicoot, but the machine didn't affect Crash at all, allowing Crash to escape the laboratory, but only to come back later on and fight Cortex in his blimp. Crash obviously won the battle, escaping once again with his girlfriend Tawna.

However, Cortex fell into a cave and found the "Master Crystal", taking it to his lab to study it. Along his new right-hand N. Gin, they discover that these "Slave Crystals", which exists, have an incredible power, enough to destroy the world. But as they are unable to retrieve the crystals by themselves, Cortex decides to trick Crash to get the crystals for him. When Crash enters the Warp Room, an ancient temple built to give easy access to all parts of the island, a hologram of Cortex appears, saying that a big catastrophe will happen if he does not get the crystals. Unfortunately, both Crash's sister Coco and Nitrus Brio, who doublecrossed Cortex, hacked the hologram signal and unmask Cortex's true intentions, to use the crystals as a new power source for the Cortex Vortex. Crash once again defeats Cortex, and using Brio's laser device, destroy the Vortex for good.

In another strange turn of events, the pieces of the Vortex fall into an ancient sealed temple, as an evil laugh spreads across the island. The evil shaman mask Uka Uka had been accidentally freed from his confinement. Uka Uka finds Cortex and mocks him for his incompetence in conquering the world, as it turns out that Cortex was working for Uka Uka all the time. Cortex begs for another chance, so Uka Uka calls his trusted friend Nefarious Tropy, who brings his time machine to create portals to different times in history and retrieve the crystals from different ages. Aku Aku, sensing the danger, uses his power to enter the time machine and sends Crash and Coco to stop Cortex once again. Crash makes his way to Cortex once again, and fights him as the two masks fight each other. The battle ends with Cortex and Uka Uka being sucked into a time portal as their battle broke up the time machine.

Personality
Cortex tends to be very bossy because of his knowledge, which also makes him a coward, leaving the hard work for his minions. He is also pompous, loud, but also very sophisticated, and refined.

Similar Villains

 * Yosemite Sam (Looney Tunes)
 * Buzz Buzzard (Woody Woodpecker)
 * Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Both are comical Mad Scientists, bent on world domination but are usually thwarted by their mammalian foes, thus causing them to make experiments to defeat their foes.
 * Shredder (1987 TMNT cartoon) - They both want to take over the world with certain army of mutants, though the certain mutants betray them and stop their plans of world domination (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Shredder, Crash Bandicoot for Dr. Neo Cortex), whilst the certain remaining mutants who are loyal to their creators are often idiots (Rocksteady and Bebop for Shredder, Tiny Tiger for Cortex).