Doctor Neo Cortex

"Finally, after all these years of abuse, the tables have turned! Who's the little guy now?"

- Dr. Neo Cortex

Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex (also known as N. Cortex, Neo Cortex or simply Cortex) is the main antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot franchise. He is a mad scientist bent on world domination. He is the creator of Crash Bandicoot, and vows to eliminate him for repeatedly foiling his plans. Neo Cortex serves under the command of Uka Uka, although he also leads his own army of villains, including N. Gin, Tiny Tiger and Dingodile.

Neo Cortex is a short human with yellow skin and a big head with green tattooed "N" on his forehead. He is half bald, and has black hair and a goatee. Neo Cortex wears black clothes with a white lab coat on top, rubber gloves, and rubber boots. His name is a pun on "", a part of the brain.

Early history
Neo Cortex was the youngest son of a clown couple, he was different from his parents in spending his time reading science books. At the age of 3, started to be ridiculed by a particularly cruel group of performers and they tattooed on his head an N which means Nerd. Be cause this, Cortex causes a mysterious explosion in the circus that lived and his sinister goal that he was assigned is rule the world for this. The survivors is some brother who would generate Nina Cortex.

At the age of 6, Cortex enrolled in a high school where he meets N. Brio and the pair were bulled by students. Be cause this, the pair cause an explosion destroing the high school affecting a part of town and the both took shelter in an abandoned plutonium mine.

At the age of 8, Neo along with N. Brio enrolled at the Academy of Evil where mostly Cortex was overwhelmed by director Madame Amberly and was where he met N. Gin. It was here that Cortex developed the Evolvo-Ray and used his pet parrots Victor and Moritz as animal experimentations sending to the 10th Dimension.

In adulthood, Cortex served in the Da Nang Air Base during the Vietnam War. and worked in a community scientific where he is mocked by his colleagues for his outlandish theories and became motivated by the desire to silence his opposition. For their criminal activities, Cortex along with Brio were wanted by military forces and they were forced to take shelter on one from 3 islands. In one of the islands that is his base operations, he knows Uka Uka where he gives instructions on how to take over the world. So he establishes his facilities and capture various animals from the 3 islands to create an army of superanimals.

Crash Bandicoot
In Crash Bandicoot, Cortex created a bandicoot called Crash Bandicoot to be the Cortex Commandos general until failed by Cortex Vortex defects and intends to test Tawna Bandicoot. After Crash ruin his world, Cortex decides to personally eliminate him on his hoverboard atop his airship shooting 3 types of plasma until be hit by green plasmas countless times. When it crashes on his own island, he finds a crystal mine where he would begin his new plan.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, set one year after the events of the previous game, Neo Cortex establishes a space station where is accompanied with N. Gin to enslave the world with Cortex Vortex. He has a master crystal, but needs slave crystals to execute this plan and then he needed the help of an enemy that is the Crash. He asks Crash to get all the crystals in warp rooms with good intention to stop the planets aligning until his farce is revealed by Coco Bandicoot. He tries to escape with crystal, but is taken from his hands by Crash. But his final defeat was the destruction of the space station caused by N. Brio.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped
In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, his tutor Uka Uka is released from prison where he gets scolded for failing twice and gets help from N. Tropy which is summoned by Uka Uka. Cortex begins production of Lab Assistants and call his goons to capture gems and crystals over time periods. When Crash and Coco defeat their henchmen, Cortex try attack Crash with plasmas and time bombs to be defeated for being thrown into a vacuum. But his final defeat was swallowed whole by distant past warp sphere turning into a baby and disputing the Uka Uka with N. Tropy.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Cortex designs another space station where he and his goons get scolded by Uka Uka during the reunion. When N. Tropy and N. Gin talks about the super secret weapon, Cortex start remembering, would need a power source which is the final solution and in point which Uka Uka thinks of the Elementals. Neo Cortex presents his secret weapon to the Crash, Coco and Aku Aku which is the Crunch Bandicoot where the same is controlled by the evil scientist. After the first failure, there was a chance to collect the gems to resurrect the elementals. But the last flaw he was going to be eliminated by Uka Uka until he dodged the attack hitting the machinery. With the station about to be destroyed, Cortex along with Uka Uka goes to a capsule that is thrown to the south pole and Cortex is attacked by Uka Uka.

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, Cortex disguises himself as Coco to make Crash follow him into a trap. At the end of the line, Cortex reveals himself by preparing a marsupial birthday (which is actually a convention of villains). Cortex tries to attack with plasmas and bombs until be hit by green plasmas countless times, but he does not give up and calls the Mecha Bandicoot (controlled by N. Gin). Cortex is very angry at his defeat and starts attacking Crash in which the two fight, find a crystal and try to survive along with Crash. The Evil Twins' appearance makes Cortex start having a complicated life, he is attacked by bees, chased by a bear and imprisoned by Tribesman until saved by Crash. With this, he starts to make a truce with his enemy showing his lab which begins operations to go in the 10th Dimension even have some setbacks and was even used as a surfboard by Crash to go on N. Gin's Battleship. As he was about to prepare everything, Cortex is attacked by Coco when he thinks he kidnapped a crash, Cortex is attacked by Coco when she thinks he kidnapped a Crash, When Coco sabotages the preparations, Cortex needs the help of his niece Nina Cortex to fix it and for that he needs to go to the Academy of Evil. In this institution he gets stuck in a pipe on boiler room, betrayed by Dingodile, faced several complications at the academy to search Nina and fight against Madame Amberly. Cortex already remembered who the Evil Twins are when he was 8 years old. In the 10th dimension, Cortex is once again used by Crash to save Nina, chased by the Evil Crash and is the second to battle against Evil Twins' machine. In ending, Cortex tries to send Crash to another dimension, but he is trapped on brain of same.

Crash of the Titans
In Crash of the Titans, Cortex kidnaps Coco and steals a large quantity of Mojo from an ancient temple, planning to use it to create an army of "Titans", which will aid him in the construction of the Doominator, a giant robot capable of destroying the Wumpa Islands. After failing once more to destroy Crash, Cortex is lambasted by Uka Uka, who replaces him with Nina. Incapacitated for much of the game, Cortex is denied the opportunity to watch his Doominator in action. At the end of the game, Cortex rescues Nina from the collapsing Doominator and praises her for her treachery, but nevertheless promises retribution.

Crash: Mind over Mutant
In Crash: Mind over Mutant, Cortex deposits Nina at his Evil Public School, then reconciles with Brio to invent the NV, a personal digital assistant that controls whoever uses it by transmitting negative Mojo; the Mojo is forcibly extracted from Uka Uka after Cortex takes him captive. Cortex later engages in a fight with Crash inside his new Space Head space station, empowering himself with the use of Brio's mutation formula. Upon losing the fight, Cortex throws a tantrum, causing the Space Head to plummet towards Earth. Cortex returns to normal and escapes the Space Head in a smaller shuttle.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Cortex and Tropy escape from their temporal prison, which creates rifts leading to different dimensions, and they begin a plot to conquer the multiverse. After another defeat to Crash, Cortex prepares to retire until Tropy announces his own plot to reshape the multiverse, which would erase both Crash and Cortex from existence. Cortex, incensed by Tropy's betrayal, teams up with Crash and his group to stop Tropy and seal the dimensional rifts. Following a celebratory trip to a futuristic metropolis, Cortex kidnaps Kupana-Wa − a magical Quantum Mask with time-altering powers − and uses her to travel back in time to his original bid for world domination and avert Crash's creation. However, he is unable to convince his past self to abandon the experiment, and is again defeated by the present Crash. The present Cortex is banished by the Quantum Masks to the end of the universe, where Cortex relaxes on a beach and enjoys the peace and quiet until Uka Uka suddenly appears before him.

A series of collectible Flashback Tapes in the game detail Cortex's training of the then-unnamed Crash prior to his initiation into Cortex's army, and the final tape featuring Crash includes Cortex christening him with the name "Crashworth Cortex the First", or Crash for short. In the subsequent tapes, which take place following Crash's escape from Cortex's castle, Cortex trains Crash's sister, whom he codenames Coco, hires N. Gin, and creates Dingodile as a potential substitute for Coco, who ultimately escapes Cortex's castle under the guise of undertaking another trial.

Crash Team Racing
In Crash Team Racing, Cortex is owns a hub called Citadel City, his home track is Cortex Castle and his protector is Uka Uka.

Crash Nitro Kart
In Crash Nitro Kart, Neo Cortex is a playable character and the leader of Team Cortex, which is named after him.

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, Neo Cortex is on the side of the evil team.