Coco Bandicoot

Coco Bandicoot is the intelligent younger sister of Crash Bandicoot. Since her debut in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Coco has appeared in nearly every Crash Bandicoot game.

Coco's most notable attribute is her intelligence, and she has an IQ of 164. Coco often aids Crash by building gadgets for him or joining him in his journeys, using self-taught martial arts to defend herself. Like her brother, Coco has a fearless nature and has a tomboyish nature, as she is a fan of martial arts films, wrestling, and NASCAR.

Conception and creation
On creating Coco Bandicoot, Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin stated that he understood the frustration females felt when "facing the restricted choice of playing either a male character or a sexpot" and had Coco created mainly to give female gamers a character they could identify with. Rubin felt that Coco helped the Crash series reach female gamers and become one of the most highly-played titles by female gamers during Naughty Dog's time with the series.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Coco is first seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back living on N. Sanity Island with Crash. Before the events of game, Coco was an ordinary bandicoot until she was kidnapped by Dr. Neo Cortex and genetically enhanced.

At the start of the game, the battery for Coco's laptop runs out, so she sends Crash 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 and see what he's 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.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
After Cortex's plan is foiled, Coco is called upon by Aku Aku in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped 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 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.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
When the Elementals wreak havoc on 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.

Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure
In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Coco builds a device that reverses the effects of Cortex's Planetary Minimizer.

Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
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.

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, Coco is ambushed by Doctor Neo Cortex, who disguises himself as her in order to lure Crash into a trap. 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 an earlier version of the game, Coco was to have a much larger role, helping Crash and Cortex gain access to the Airship by hacking into the security system of Cortex's old castle in stages that parodied the Matrix series.

Early concept art for the game reveals that an evil counterpart for Coco was planned, but this was scrapped. Crash Twinsanity is one of the few games where Coco is not playable.

Crash of the Titans
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 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, Coco appears as a vendor selling upgrades for Crash's abilities.

Crash: Mind over Mutant
Coco is a playable character in the cooperation mode of the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of Crash: Mind over Mutant. In the PlayStation 2 version, she is replaced by a white-furred version of her brother named "Carbon Crash" as her animations took up too much memory on this version.

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 transforms her into a ferocious beast who tries to kill Crash using a giant basketball-launching machine. After being defeated and informed (to her disappointment) 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. From that point on, she is the second player's character.

Crash Team Racing
Coco is a playable character in Crash Team Racing. In the epilogue, it is shown that Coco opened up her own Internet dating service.

Crash Nitro Kart
Coco is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart. In one cutscene, she uses her hacking skills to put the hyperactive Nash to sleep.

Crash Tag Team Racing
Coco is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing and her three vehicles are the Nostalginator, Bandibuggy, and Fairy Mobile. 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 and the others initially assume 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 its original owner, Von Clutch. In one of Coco's quotes, it is suggested that she has a crush on N. Gin.

Crash Bash
Coco is a playable character in Crash Bash.

Crash Boom Bang!
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.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage
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.

Physical appearance
In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back until Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Coco is portrayed to be age 11 or so. Her figure seems to be exactly like Crash with a smaller upper torso and a general smaller figure showing Crash's older age. Her face takes a cross between a diamond and circle figure. In these games Her hair is almost completely yellow/blonde and is done in a long pony tail. Her clothes consists of a white t-shirt and overalls with one strap undone and pink runners. The Runners Stay constant throughout the entire series, though everything else gets changed throughout the series.

In Crash Nitro Kart Coco appears to be slightly older. Her height is now only a few inches below Crash and seems to be thinning a bit. Her face has been made rounder with only a pointed jaw left. Her pony tail has been made slightly more like natural blonde and her pony tail has been made slightly shorter. Due to her aging, she has dropped her little sister look for a more teenage one on terms of clothes. She has changed her overalls for light blue sweat pants. Her shirt is at a length that when standing it exposes a small amount of her midriff and belly button. Her shirt depicts a pink flower with a yellow happy face.

In Crash Twinsanity and Crash Tag Team Racing, Coco's clothing is different. Her shirt exposes her midriff and navel and has a purple and blue star and blue lining on the sleeves. She is also wearing jeans. Coco's appearance was slightly changed again for Crash Boom Bang!.

In Crash of the Titans and Crash Nitro Kart 2, she maintains her figure from Crash Boom Bang, but has a major change in her hair and face. It is now a real blonde color and is let down and worn in a bandana. This is a first for her. her face has been made into a square shape slightly horizontal. Also her shirt sleeves are now dark blue and her Capris changed back to jeans. Another major difference is that a cream color is added to her plams and midriff to look like her brother. Her height is at par with Crash.

In Crash: Mind over Mutant Coco has a relatively short ponytail and now is taller than her brother. Despite her game artwork, her in game appearance is different past these features. She now wears a pair of welding goggles that look like her past head band. This is partially because she is constantly doing mechanical work throughout the game. Also her shirt has lost its printed star and is replaced with oil stains and a dog tag necklace. Also she now wears beige workers pants with protective knee pads and an attached flashlight. Her belly button is not shown.

Merchandise
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.

Critical reception
Coco's inclusion 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." Coco's 3D flying stages in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced have been criticized by Mark MacDonald of Electronic Gaming Monthly as "sloppy".

Voice actors

 * In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, she is voiced by Vikki Winters.
 * In Crash Team Racing, she is voiced by Hynden Walch.
 * From Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex to Crash Tag Team Racing, she is voiced by Debi Derryberry.
 * In Crash Boom Bang!, she is voiced by Risa Tsubaki.
 * In the Japanese dub of the games, she is voiced by Haruna Ikezawa.