Nina Cortex

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Nina Cortex
Artwork from Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
First appearance	Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage (2004)
Latest appearance	Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (2019)
Species	Human (Cyborg)

Nina Cortex (ニーナ コルテックス, Nīna Korutekkusu) is the gothic niece of Doctor Neo Cortex. She has stretchable, mechanical arms for grabbing on to objects and punching enemies from afar. She is a pessimist who is easily annoyed, like a stereotypical goth. Nina appears as a playable character in Crash Twinsanity and later in Crash Tag Team Racing.

History

Concept and creation

Nina was originally planned as a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart when it was developed by Traveler's Tales Knutsford. She originally had red hair and wore a white lab coat similar to Neo Cortex's. She was also to be Cortex's daughter instead of his niece. In Crash Twinsanity, Cortex references this before the Rockslide Rumble level. After being scrapped from Crash Nitro Kart, Nina's was planned to debut in Crash Twinsanity, but to the surprise of the developers, her actual first appearance was in Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, which was released a few months before Crash Twinsanity.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage

In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Nina is recruited by Doctor Cortex to kidnap Coco 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 has a running prowess, and is able to keep up with Polar for some time without showing signs of fatigue.

Her personality in the game is very different from her subsequent appearances. She has a childish speaking pattern, refers to herself in the third person, and calls Spyro a "purple puppy".

Crash Twinsanity

In Crash Twinsanity, when Nina Cortex started to show signs of a kind heart, Cortex modified her arms with bionic parts and enrolled her in Madame Amberly's Private Academy. Crash and Cortex later visit the academy to sneak her out from the rooftops so that she can assist them in defeating the Evil Twins. When Crash, Cortex and Nina travel to the Tenth Dimension, Nina is kidnapped by Crash's evil counterpart, Evil Crash, and taken to his house for a tea party, but she is soon rescued by Cortex. She later helps in defeating the Evil Twins by destroying the power sources of their Deathbot.

Unlike her first appearance, she does show much personality or talk that much. Her only line is a single "Huh?" in the last cutscene.

Crash Tag Team Racing

In Crash Tag Team Racing, Nina aids Doctor Cortex and N. Gin in attempting takeover of Von Clutch's MotorWorld. Her personality was drastically changed from Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage. In this game, she is seen attempting to obliterate the Bandicoots. Nina is very disliked by Coco, who has a rivalry against her. Nina, on the other hand, doesn't appear to hold anything specific against her female opposite. She looks the same way when she appeared in Twinsanity, except her height has changed, making her shorter. At one point in the game, Nina gets a part-time job in order to purchase the Angsterator car, going as far as to practically begging Crash to help her get the job. Her three cars in the game are Organ Grinder, Angsterator, and Slave Driver.

Crash of the Titans

Artwork from Crash of the Titans.

In Crash of the Titans, when Cortex fails to dispose of Crash, Nina is called upon by Uka Uka to replace her uncle as the main antagonist of the story. In the Nintendo DS version, 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 of her betrayal but that he will still punish her.

Crash: Mind over Mutant

In Crash: Mind over Mutant, which takes place after the events of Crash of the Titans, Cortex punishes Nina by dropping her off at Evil Public School. 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.

Characteristics

Personality

Nina is more ambitious and egotistical than her uncle, and Aku Aku believes that Nina is "a lot smarter than Cortex ever could be." Despite her antisocial demeanor, Nina is said to have a love for animals.

Physical appearance

Nina is somewhat short, with partially spiked dark-blue hair, pale-blue skin, prominent buck teeth, and a metallic lowercase 'N' on her head. In most of her appearances, she is seen wearing a dark-blue sailor fuku, which is apparently the uniform of the Academy of Evil. Another notable feature is her large metallic arms, with spring-loaded steel bionic hands that can stretch a distance.

In Crash Tag Team Racing, her alternate costume is a pink and white drive-thru uniform, which she earns by getting a job as one of Von Clutch's employees. Her robotic hands even changed color.

Portrayals

• Susan Silo in Crash Twinsanity
• Amy Gross in Crash Tag Team Racing up to Crash: Mind over Mutant
• Debi Derryberry in the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans.
• Satomi Kōrogi in the Japanese version of Crash Twinsanity
• Chihiro Kusaka in the Japanese version of Crash Tag Team Racing

Reception

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.