I think something that makes Cortex such a good character is persistence. Cortex is somebody who is an incompetent boob 99% of the time, but his sheer dedication to his WORLD DOMINATION schemes and his ability to weasel his way back into the main villain role despite the genuine threats of Uka Uka and N. Tropy is part of what makes him so endearing. Cortex is a character who can't ever win outright, but is dedicated enough to keep his role in the status quo.
I mean also the opening cutscene. Clearly the plot twist is only meant as a plot twist _for_ Crash. Like, they don't even _try_ to make the _player_ believe him.
As Caddicarus described him "Cortex looks like a cross between a toddler and an old man." Which is accurate because he acts like a cross between a toddler and an old man.
When this implies Neo Cortex actually creates a legitimate villain who is also a buffoon but is self-entitled and becomes the real villain who all others take seriously, Cortex realizes he is merely miffed over Crash’s existence and can bury the hatchet, and Cortex becomes a distant ally to Crash who provides Crash with some technology when Crash needs to adventure to save the world again.
I hate how long it took me to realize that the scheming, self important, absolute failure of a villain of the flagship playstation system had a big "N" on his forehead... like the N that cancelled their third party disk drive feature that lead to a certain stereo manufacturer miraculously busting into the video games industry with the playstation in the first place. DAMN it's all metacommentary.
Cortex is proof that you don't need to be a complex villain to be a likable villain. He's hilarious, badass, and a bit tragic, all at the same time. One of my favorite video game villains.
Well yeah lol. Number 1 rule of making a character is to make them appealing first! You can make them have any personality or quirk you want but if it’s appealing..it’ll succeed. Sad it’s taken y’all decades to realize this
@@Noah.Seth07Except when I don't, which happens to be... not _most_ of the time, but a shockingly large amount of the time. Still gotta keep up my cool villain cred though.
I think the key to Cortex is that he DOES stand in opposition to Crash on a moral/philosophical bend in at least one distinct way: Withdrawl vs. Opening up. Cortex refuses to be vulnerable in the presence of others because it's traditionally resulted in him getting hurt in some way. When he faces hardship and betrayal, he just writes it off as inevitability. Even when he tried to go out of his way to treat Crash like a son in the only way he really knows how to, Crash's escape registers as the last straw in his head that he can't afford to open up to people again. So he just takes his insecurities out on anyone and everyone near him. He has learned that trying to be earnest with people is a farce people do to look important, and in the end the only thing you get is pain. And in the process, he grows to resent everyone around him as either someone who hurt him or someone who WILL hurt him. Crash meanwhile, never seems to have a hateful bone in his body for ANYONE, and that even includes Cortex. With the way he's so genuinely happy to work with him in 4, and how he reacts if you elect to retry a level after finishing it, you get the sense that he never escaped because he wanted to leave, he just wanted a _break_ from the constant testing and would have come back eventually if left to sit. He routinely trusts people on their word, and whenever they turn out to be lying, he's never really driven to despair or anger. He just shows disappointment and hopes they'll act better next time. The way he was raised has taught him that to earn peace, both in mind and in the face of villainy, you need to be prepared to get hurt in the pursuit of it.
I see Crash's universe as made up of people who don't want to be cartoon characters. They all try to make some facade of dignity and control, and inevitably it comes back to bite them because they are all goofballs deep down and the physics of their universe punishes arrogance the same way it does Wile E Coyote. The exceptions tend to be Crash, who is perfectly and dimly happy how he is, and Cortex who has just kinda caught on he can't escape it and rolls with it miserably. They are both oddly similar in how they are the only one decensitized to all the slapstick and stupidity while everyone else struggles in vain to keep a image of level headedness and explodes when their cover is blown. I think this is something Crash 4 sort of misses for example. They treat Crash and Cortex as the comic relief of their sides and the others leading as genuinely serious and competent in every way and sick of them screwing it all up, when it was more a 50/50 sort of thing. Yeah they were relatively more intellectual and lucid, but they weren't as self aware, the goofiness of their world and very being still often bit them as often, and unlike Crash or Cortex, they couldn't take it. Like, AT ALL. Look at the N Sane Trilogy, Crash is indifferent to all his humiliating deaths or at worst looks sternly at you for wasting time failing to get a gem. Coco seethes or even THROWS A STOMPING TANTRUM AT YOU. You made her look like a goof! HER! This is also shown brilliantly in Warped with Cortex, the new villains Uka Uka and Tropy take over top dog from Cortex, convinced he is a bumbling failure. Within short time Crash outdoes them too and they are screaming bloody murder at you at how could THEY be bested? HOW? HOOOOWWW?, while Cortex the entire game is just "First time, huh?". XD Tropy in fact goes down midway into the game after he lost his cool at Crash (and shrewdly dooms the whole plan in the process), Cortex meanwhile is the last to go, and his response when you face him? He laughs in your face. In the end both Uka and Tropy get the same humiliating defeat as Cortex that he knew was coming, they didn't come out looking a shred better than him. Hell even Crash 4 SORT of accomplishes this, as despite the game genuinely trying to make Tropy look like the real deal his boss fight is considered the easiest most rushed part of the game. They tried to make something 'better, with grandeur and drama, and it just came off a bigger joke than the comical bits. Consider it the benefits of accepting you'll be a 'loser' at some points in life.. Just move on, cut your losses, and even try to capitalise on it, while others just try in vain to look like a perpetual strong competent 'winner' and only double their efforts when that image starts to crumble. You could see it similar to the series trying new ideas and accepting failures and misteps will happen, compared to many other series which are adamant THEIR way is the RIGHT way and throw a snit fit when it doesn't work out only making one mistep look like a total ongoing train wreck. The fans and critics must be wrong!
@@Beowolf-jy5rc You're thinking of depression. You don't suffer from nihilism- that's a philosophy, not a disorder. Sure, it could be depressing to think that nothing you or anyone will ever do will actually matter, and that you were spawned without any greater purpose. But on the other hand, that kind of thought is actually pretty uplifting. You have no purpose and nothing you do in this life matters? Cool! That just means you're free to make your own purpose, to do what matters to you!
I also love the name "Crash". In isolation it seems meaningless, but in context of a sceintific tone it opens up a lot of threads, to atomic crash and nuclear fission. As if to say that the nature state of things is to come as they are, but when we impart meaning on it it's almost like the observation of Schroedinger's Cat. I really find it unfortunate that the Sonic movie wasn't about Crash instead, Jim carrey's performance is much closer to perfect for THIS role, and the symbolism would have elevated Tom as the audience surrogate that accepts such a Crash into his own life.
Love how at 35:22, Cortex literally falls into a shortcut that takes him to first place in the race by getting blown up as the narrator talks about him stumbling into a roundabout path to being remembered :)
You make note of Eggman briefly as a comparison, but I think there’s actually a LOT of interesting parallels between the Crash/Cortex dynamic, and the Sonic/Eggman dynamic. In both cases, the hero refuses to take things seriously, and is the Achilles heel of the villain who wants to be taken seriously, but keeps finding himself shown up Of course, there’s also a key difference: Cortex is shown up because the universe he lives in runs on absurdity and comedy. Any attempt to deviate from that snaps back with a slapstick. Crash is a hero who saves the world, but the animosity between him and Cortex is one sided, with Crash barely even realizing how much of a fool he’s made of Cortex. Even if Cortex had succeeded in removing Crash, he likely would have found himself in a similar loop of comedy, just not one where he’s the punchline. He’d graduate from a Wile E Coyote to a Daffy Duck: often a loser, but just as often an unluckily lucky survivor. Because his universe is incompatible with such seriousness. He’s Silly because he must be, despite his attempts to be serious Eggman, however, is only considered a “silly” villain BECAUSE his archnemesis refuses to take anything seriously, and is so incredibly powerful that he can get away with it. Sonic is the embodiment of Chaos theory, being that one stray variable that Eggman can never tie down, and always manages to spiral out of control. Yet the few times he’s had a chance to do something without Sonic being right on his heels to stop it? The world around him quickly proves powerless to stop him. And the few hints we’ve received to his backstory in the main games, rather than painting a picture of a loser, or some “born under an evil star” villain, suggest that his colorful circus of machines aren’t just weapons of war, but something that exist in direct mockery of the serious, professional, “heroes” that had his grandfather killed for treason. He CHOSE silliness, because he could afford to. The serious people of the world couldn’t hope to stop him at their best, and the bright colors merely remind them of this. Sonic is the comedic karma to this.
I also remember an interesting element to Sonic and Eggman's dynamic that mirrors Crash and Cortex. In one of the comics, they actually ponder in-universe over a question that often hovers among fans, whether Eggman is a competent menace who only loses because Sonic is just THAT amazing a hero, or if he is a bumbling imbecile who was never really a threat in the first place. His servant Orbot assesses it as "Ehhh, it's about fifty-fifty". :P As in Eggman IS a genius who makes grand schemes and machinations, but he's also a VERY flawed human being regardless of his intellectual capabilities, and that clouds his ability to beat Sonic or even just think through every detail of his plan. Sonic IS an awesome hero and the key reason the world is safe, but in the case of Eggman, it's less because he's an unstoppable force of nature that defeats this ultimate evil and more because he's a wily little smartass who knows how to wind up arrogant people. I feel like Crash's dynamic with Cortex (and arguably most of the other villains in the series) is just as much this taken to its chaotic extreme. This query whether Crash is actually a deceptively brilliant hero that outsmarts intellectual menaces over and over, or is it merely all the villains are pompous buffoons with such flawed plans that even a simpleton rodent that can't even talk could defeat them.
Cortex started out as a threatening force of villain, a superscientist making mutant monsters from illegal experiments. There was not a single redeemable thing about him in the first game. As we saw him fight, try, fail and then try again, more and more people found his existance relatable rather than detestable. I liked the direction IAT took his character... he's still obsessed with erasing Crash from the surface of the world, but now he wants peace and a happy life instead of world dominion. I really hope we'll see more of "good Cortex". Dude failed all his life and needs to realize that creating Crash, an indestructable, simple-minded yet heroic and extremely daring creature was not his mistake, but the biggest accomplishment he could've ever done.
I feel like if Crash didn’t exist and Cortex was paired against anyone else, he’d actually be a real threat to the world as well as other people. Crash just happens to be his kryptonite in trying to accomplish his schemes which he just can’t be rid of no matter what.
@@rayvenkman2087 That’s the same vibe I get from Sonic vs Eggman, just that it’s portrayed more directly in that series: there, the only true counter to a master planner is someone that is the very embodiment of small threads becoming unpredictable, Chaos Theory Incarnate. Here, it’s similar, but with a Looney Tunes type of spin. The only person who can beat a mad scientist with brainwashing and mutation tech, is someone so incredibly stupid that he doesn’t even have enough brain to wash
@@spindash64 also another thing with sonic vs eggman is that if left unchecked, robotnik can be a genuine threat, most of the time his plans re foiled *because* sonic is fast, robotnik can be producing thousands of robots in a day, then boom, funny blue hedgehog starts destroying over 100 of your robots every 15 minutes while said redgehog is going straight to your main base to fight you the fact robotnik can even collect materials and MAKE his army is proof of his genius(until he fucking fumbles by getting angry at sonic)
I mean, has Cortex really "failed all his life"? He was successful with most of his experiments, even Crash, which now canonically was a failure due to deux ex machina. His nitro crates, his space station, his castle, his minions, his tools... Honestly, out of the main villain cast, most pale in comparison to his achievements. His main problem is just that being evil is really tough with Aku Aku around, and that the rest of the villains don't particularly value him. But if Twinsanity proves anything, it's that Neo is very effective when treated somewhat decently (and that's the game where he's used as a snowboard and sees his mother at a brothel, so that really gives an idea of how desperate he must be for even an ounce of validation).
Honestly I say let Cortex stay there. Let Tropy or Brio take the spotlight. If Cortex wants to come back, let him. I would also like a Remake of Twinsanity. Finished this time.
In Crash 2, his right-hand man goes from N. Brio, someone who successfully evolved the animals to super soldiers, to N. Gin, a pathetic, hodgepodged, cybernetic yes-man. He made himself seem like a more competent villain by lowering the competence of his minions and finding someone more of a punching bag than himself. That's pitiful in it of itself; but then the salt that doubles the pity wound is that, despite this, N. Gin had a better and more intimidating boss battle in Crash 2 than him!
@@justice8718 I know these guys get bodied by their cartoon world all the time but I doubt they actually have much tech relating to biological waste... Experimental*
I like how that's a recurring theme in the series really, all the pretentious characters hanging around a bumbling loser to look more classy and competent....and said loser still generally looking better than them. Take how Komodo Joe is interpreted as the brains of the Komodo Bros with Moe the dumb muscle of the two...and yet JOE fucks up their boss fight.
I feel something major you missed were the titans games, even if they’re not everyone’s favorites I feel both important towards Cortex’s character, in Titian’s Uka Uka finally is tired of Cortex’s failures and replaces him with his dau-Neice, at the end of the game Cortex realizes that he should be more ruthless and evil, and MOM goes out of its way to remind you why this guy is such a threat in the first place, getting rid of Nina by putting her in a school he runs so she can be humiliated for replacing him last game, managing to patch things up with Brio and basically creating millions of mini Cortex Vortexes using Uka Uka as a power source finally getting back at the mask for effectively replacing him as the main antagonist for so long it’s only by chance that Aku Aku and Crash didn’t fall victim to the control of the NVs which would’ve made Cortex win, no questions asked, and at the end of the game despite loosing all of his advantages Cortex goes down swinging confidently deciding to fight Crash and instantly wiping the laughing grins off of Crash and Aku Aku when he pull outs Brio’s mutation potion and hulks out. But what’s great about this, is that he’s still Cortex, his entrance in the game has him complaining that someone ate a sandwich in the bathroom. Cortex may be pathetic but if he’s pushed to it, he can be a legitimate threat without losing his comedic charm that we all love him for.
Oh totally agreed! Sorry, you're right I didn't quite go into greater detail with it, but I felt like it was a natural progression of the series' characterization - Cortex does get replaced by Nina because the devs want to try something new and Uka Uka is sick and tired of Cortex's continued bumbling, an extension of how he was feeling with the elemental masks in Wrath of Cortex and wanting to beat up Cortex on-sight in Twinsanity! I definitely agree with all that's said here, sorry it wasn't elaborated on quite as much, I was worried about the whole thing getting a smidge long in the tooth and really loved what the Titans games represented for the ambitions of Radical Entertainment in a similar vein to the first ambitious draft of Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity in general!
@@DesigningFor Nah it’s cool, I’m glad at the very least you acknowledged them. I kind of think the titans games saved Nina as a character even if it feels like they had to ignore her actually disturbing backstory to do so, but you can just handwave it off as Nina finally taking joy from what her Fath-Uncle did to her so long ago.
@@smashers6971 You can see it as Cortex teaching Nina TOO well to be evil. :P One subtle victory I also noticed with Cortex in the Titans games. He did what no other villain did before and finally got under Crash's skin. Crash has been insulted and challenged over and over and acted totally vaccuous about it the whole time. What's the first thing Cortex does in Titans? Go after his FRIENDS first. Crash is almost serious in parts of Titans because of this, even angry or fearful about what the villains will do to Aku or Coco, it really feels like he's trying his hardest in that game, not just doing what the others are telling him to. Like Nina, Crash actually shown development in the Titans games and guess who pivoted that. Cortex actually made this seemingly one sided rivalry actually go somewhere at long last.
@@DesigningFor Everything you said about Crash Twinsanity, that is precisely why Sonic '06 failed in comparison. Crash Twinsanity is like that friend who likes to tell stories of a moderate understanding in humanized characters, giving some serious moments to balance out the comedic stuff. Sonic '06 is like that one bad fanfiction writer that fails to understand how narratives work, and tends to be inconsistent with how it correlates to the point he's trying to give.
@@e-122psi3 If you were to make Amy in Sonic Origins consistent with your old Sonic hack, would you give "Origins" Amy some of her Adventure/Advance mechanics and replace her default spinjump with a normal jump?
Considering that eggman is betrayed by his minions, bowser is His minions have been brainwashed and wily is being rebelled by robot masters. I think Cortex deserves praise for betraying Crash's loyal subordinates such as Tiny Tiger and pretending to be Crash's comrades.
Another notable detail is that the reason the Cortex Vortex doesn't work on Crash is because at the end of Crash 4 the future Crash knocked over a gizmo which caused a malfunction... but that only happened because of Cortex's attempt to go back in time to stop it in the first place. On two different levels Cortex is responsible for creating Crash.
I don’t know how to feel about this retcon. On one hand, it’s funny that Cortex’s strong of failures were caused by someone who wasn’t supposed to be there. On the other hand, it makes the miraculous luck Past Crash had in avoiding ending up like Pinstripe feel less of a result of Cortex trying to rush the process than it is a case of destiny or whatever cliched stuff it is that caused it; it actually takes away the significance of the fact that Cortex created his own failure because he was being impatient and has him as a constant reminder of his mistake.
@@rayvenkman2087 Yeah, I mean it still TECHNICALLY works because Cortex didn't see that part, but I think it kinda takes out Cortex's agency in the whole thing. One thing I liked is how the earlier games made fun of intellectuals, people like scientists who thought they were infallible and never made mistakes. Dumb people make small mistakes, smart people make BIG mistakes. Crash 4 on the other hand pulling a 'only doo doo dunderheads like Crash make mistakes' for real kind of undermines that nuance though. Crash was surrounded by smarter people, but that was the fun twist, that they were somehow all just as buffoonish and destructive as this simpleton because of their many other character flaws.
@@e-122psi3 Problem with the use of time travel is that Past Cortex is aware of the future or at least has an idea on what’s to come thanks to his future self coming back to hijack his castle. Also I don’t agree with Crash being created as an idiot than he is simply crazy after the botched Cortex Vortex. Considering the Taz influence, I think they wanted him to be a wild one and him being chaotic goes well with Cortex’s stuffiness. I hate, hate how Crash 1 Era Cortex was portrayed in 4. We know Lex Lang could do a good Clancy Brown impression in NST and we know pre-Twinsanity Cortex was someone who was meant to be a comedically serious man but 4 makes it looks like he was always a clown.
After crash four, a funny thing i personally think a sequel could do is just, have a comedic villain of sort that just travels to the end of time to find cortex and just goes "Wakey wakey it's time to get molly whopped by the marsupial again" but part of me fears it'd be too on the nose
As far as I know, Clancy Brown was replaced with Lex Lang because of Clancy being too 'scary', and they were intentionally deciding to change the voice actor. They didn't ask Clancy Brown to do Twinsanity to start with.
Bear in mind-that all happened long after Naughty Dog exited the series. EVERYTHING about Dr. Neo Cortex being a flamboyant villain had nothing to do with his original creators and is effectively missing the point. Multiple studios have flanderized his character into being incompetent and inept, but the 5 Naughty Dog games clearly crafted him as a sinister and diabolical (but impatient) maniac. Toys For Bob did the good doctor DIRTY.
Man, I didn’t appreciate this guy until I played through the N. Sane Trilogy just recently, but he was absolutely a highlight when going through each game
What I think helps Cortex so often is that he is a buffoon but a self aware buffoon. The Crash universe is a cartoony universe where nearly EVERYONE is a buffoon to some level. It's not like say, the Sonic series where unironically serious demi gods and monsters exist, even the worst guys have some really pathetic Wile E Coyote-ish dents to them they try to hide. I think a fun element to Crash is that all the cast most of the time are silly cartoons, but they don't WANT to be, they want to be dignified action flick material, they always demand dignity and try to act serious and high brow, but something always ruins it for them, even the heroes in many instances. Crash and Cortex meanwhile are the two guys who just roll with it and even weaponise how silly and pathetic they are and everything around them is. The difference is that Crash is so purely cartoony and goofy that he doesn't really care, while Cortex is just....decensitised to it.
Eggman’s a particularly interesting contrast to me, since when you stop to look at it, you realize he’s a character who CHOSE to be somewhat silly in a world that wants to be serious, for much the same reasons that sonic clowns on him: without sonic, the world around him genuinely holds no chance of putting up a fight against him, so why bother pretending they ever stood a chance? From day one, his front line weapons of war aren’t painted in Terminator chrome, army camo, or nefarious darkness. No, everything is a garish, Flying Circus of ladybug unicycles, monkeys, mini choppers with angry faces. He doesn’t need to try to be taken seriously. People need to desperately try to NOT take him seriously, and they find it impossible
@@spindash64 Yeah, I think it's an interesting contrast to Cortex, who started off demanding dignity though as time went on, realised it was impossible, and even just rolled with how silly his universe gravitates towards making him and everyone else. Cortex by contrast is a rather pathetic character, though weaponises how everyone else has the same delusions of grandeur and thinks he's pathetic as well, no one thinks he'll sneak his way back up to the top cause they're so smart and grand and their dramatic monologues are way better. Notice how Uka often tries to replace Cortex or another tries to usurp him, they never last because ultimately they're even more thin skinned than Cortex (Velo is the perfect personification of it, an swanky imposing all powerful tyrant that is just a petulant tiny elf thing hiding in a giant suit, said suit exploding and blowing his cover because, you guessed it, he lost and threw a tantrum). Maybe that's also why Crash is such a thorn in his side, Crash is openly silly, he doesn't care about outshining others and having an air of grace, so lacks any of the same hubris and thin skin.
The Dr Doofenschmirz of Video Games Also the plot of 3 is literally something that happened in One Piece a few chapters ago. Wont go into detail cuz spoilers
A man forever cursed to be a clown, not a conqueror. I've noticed this trajectory for Cortex too and I rather like it. Granted, I prefer the *angry little dictator* of the first two games, but I'm willing to accept where things have gone. One thing I've come to retroactively enjoy about the series is seeing Cortex basically acknowledging that his endeavours into world domination are _expensive._ In the first game, he's got the mine complex under the second island, implied to be funding his experiments; in _Twinsanity_ he can't pay the penguins and wants the Evil Twins' riches; in _CTTR,_ he needs Von Clutch's theme park, because he's broke and has had every other fortress/space station/lab he has destroyed by the Bandicoots. It just adds to him eventually wanting to give up on the endeavour altogether. 🤣
Excellent video as always. As an outsider who was never a Crash fan, anytime I would see this goof in a magazine or in-store ad, I would always think he looks like some cheesy 90s cartoon villain...turns out I read the entire book by it's cover. But that appears to be his appeal, and you as always fleshed out this character design into a much more digestible form, but such is your specialty. Well done! Please do more videos on cheesy 90s/00s cartoon villains and/or gods.
Funny thing. A few weeks ago, I looked for a Doctor Neo Cortex character analysis, since I had listened to ones on Majora and Gruntilda, and Cortex is one of my favorite villains of all time, and was disappointed to not find any. So imagine my happiness when i come across this in my recommended. Thanks a lot!
I adore that Cortex in WARPED is just progressivly getting more and more disilusioned with the entire scheme and evil plan, beeing used as a host by Uka Uka (the giant headache that gives him might play a part here) and you can see that at the end he's just giving up, and I love that this is directly followed in Crash 4 with his existencial crisis (And Crash accepting him IMMEDIATELLY) and the fact that him getting his punishment is... actually all he wanted and NEEDED - a vacation, time to reflect and rest. He couldn't do it with Uka Uka and N.Tropy around in his previous prison, but now? He's free... untill the 100% ending that is. Dude just needs to retire, take care of his daugh.... eee.. niece and chill out. Maybe soe day he'd understand that THIS is gonna be his biggest win.
Also in Crash 3, most of the time Uka Uka takes control of Cortex by going his face like a mask similar to how Aku Aku goes on Crash face for invisibility. You see this on the original game's gameover and final boss fight before the fight starts.
A lovely essay on a character I've known pretty much my whole gaming life. In some ways Cortex is the star of the show, and the villain essentially being the conduit for developers expressing their feelings is novel but works for Cortex due to his general bumbling tendencies. And after Team Rumble he's gonna be as miserable as ever with Uka Uka dragging him around again. You made a subscriber out of me here. And yes, RIP Brendan O'Brien, without whom none of us would be here revelling in the misadventures of our beloved orange marsupial and his endearing mad scientist adversary.
Unrelated to Dr.Corex, but: It's interesting to think how much of a force of chaos and destruction, Crash Bandicoot actually is from the end of the first game alone.
I think taking Cortex from pitiful to outright dangerous in the future could be very interesting if done properly. He's interesting because after Crash 2, it became fairly evident that he really doesn't want to be a villain anymore... but keeps kinda getting pulled into it. And I really like this angle for a villain - it's like he's almost evil by necessity. After Crash 1, he likely was a bit surprised he lost and thought maybe it was a fluke, so he tried again and Crash 2 and got his ass handed to him. And I think those two losses were enough to teach him to leave the Crash gang well enough alone. But then Uka Uka comes back into the picture with Warped, and you can tell across several games that he clearly doesn't want to be going through this shit again. He's over it, but keeps getting forced to do evil things. He'd much rather retire (on an island somewhere, perhaps with a woman with nice big bags of ice for his head). You can tell in several post game cutscenes that when he's stranded somewhere, just for a moment, he's found peace. Crash 4: It's About Time, provided something interesting to me. When Cortex is defeated mid-game, you can tell during his whiny monologue immediately afterward that it's almost like a cry for help. And when N. Tropy threatens the universe, his temporary turn to good is understandable really, if not surprising. But you can tell Cortex is conflicted. Who wouldn't be in his position? Imagine being forced to be bad for such a long time. It's almost like he's having an existential crisis. Of course he betrays Crash in this time, but his plan isn't a gallant one, but rather escapism - go back in time and start from scratch and pretend it never happened. It's a temporary regression which leads to his second defeat and Uka Uka finding him again. And the cycle continues. I feel like Cortex needs some serious alone time to gather his thoughts and either return as a truly, brutal badass, or turn to good completely.
Was thinking for Crash 5 what if Uka Uka actually drops Cortex like in Crash of the Titans but it's N Brio the man Cortex treated horribly replacing him. Like it's one thing it's N Trophy but N Brio. And re introduced Crunch into the series.
@@ci7210 That could be interesting. Uka Uka drops Cortex completely, and Cortex needs to crawl his way back to the top to either reclaim his dignity, or usurp Uka Uka entirely. I think the latter would be better.
And rather than pout, he CELEBRATES finally having some time to himself, and the fact that he was considered to BE enough of a threat to banish. For once, he wasn’t just unceremoniously tossed aside, or bonked in some accident. No, these masks decided he was a threat that needed to leave. And that’s _exactly_ the Ego boost he needed.
To be fair to Skylanders Imaginators, the main reason why Fake Crash overthrew him as the villain, was because he was his own Skylander, and it wouldn't make too much sense to have Cortex fighting Cortex.
Well, a big thing with Imaginators is that for some reason some Skylanders are NPCs. This was likely done to tie in with the Netflix cartoon, given that aside from Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy’s single-level appearances, the Skylanders picked for these roles were the exact same group of five. If Spyro can get a mission from Spyro, why not Cortex fighting Cortex. It’d fit with the whole designing for pity thing. The only way for him to win is to fight himself, and even then there’s army (a near infinite one considering you can make your own characters in Imaginators) who can absolutely do this on their own and don’t need him.
0:47 ah yes, Monstro, from binding of isaac, trully, one of if not the most fascinating villains up there, such nuance and depth, he even rivals the duke of flies
And here I was on a Crash Binge. Unfortunately I can't watch due to not playing Crash 4 yet but whatever happens in this video, I can at least say that none of the later stuff would've happened if he just retired to a nice, big beach with a nice, big drink. And a woman with nice, big...Bags of ice for his head. *edit: The video is segmented so I think I might be fine. Thanks for that format.
LOL same. But for me I finally finished Crash 4. But Cortex is an interesting character. But always funny he has simps like N Gin and Tiny and sometime N Brio. Dude always returns to Cortex. In Might Over Mutant and 4 It's About Time
The thing I love about Cortex is the fact that he can be a pathetic dumb goofball but he can also be a intimidating and dangerous villain. In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Uka Uka isn’t the one to betray Cortex, Cortex betrays Uka Uka. In Crash 4, Cortex is a tired lonely loser that has completely given up but once N. Tropy is out of the picture, Cortex takes center stage and is the main villain once again. If you look at his backstory, it’s honestly very dark and disturbing. He knows he’s just a villain that’s always gonna lose and he embraces the fact that he is just a trope. He never gives up and always tries again, he has shown to take a vacation and find more in life than playing the role of the bad guy. He feels more like a movie character or even a real life person in real life. He is self aware and knows what he is. Even with bigger and better threats, he still manages stay at the top as the main Crash villain. He has layers to him and has other priorities and goals than just being the main antagonist. He can take a vacation and retire but no matter what, he will always come back being the villain he was meant to be. In Crash 3 Warped, he is frustrated and has completely lost it. He is channeling his anger, he calming himself down. He believes that he is finally going to win and finally get what he wants. He now has a mask helping him and he feels he’s lost so many times that he will finally have victory. The final epic showdown to conclude the original Crash trilogy. Fighting Crash and Aku Aku in the center of the Time Twister. He knew Uka Uka and Aku Aku would fight as well because not only is this his fight with Crash, it’s their fight as well. He knows Aku Aku and Uka Uka would get in the way making it more difficult and giving the Bandicoot a harder time. Even with this being Cortex’s last stand, even though Cortex believed he would win, even with this being the best chance he had at winning. He still loses…
Genuinely I love Cortex, one of my favorite game villains. He's incredibly well written, and funny. If he didn't let things go to his head, he'd honestly be incredibly threatening.
One thing that helps Cortex is that when someone else does step into his role they deal with the same slapstick stuff he has to deal with. Its very much a let's see you do better type situation. Cortex getting tired of the series forumla helps him feel more human like we see in Wraith, Twinsanity and its about time. Consider that Cortex went from cowering in fear when talking to Uka Uka in warped vs flat betraying him and using him as a pawn against his will in MOM. Guy has done a lot to be proud of.
Yeah, it actually feels like a deconstruction of the old trope where the new villain is just meaner and more competent in every way. These new guys can talk big and treat Cortex as just some pathetic little defeatist to start off with, but gee, who also had a lot of that same bravado? They're pretty much just where Cortex was in the first game. Hell in Wrath of Cortex ALL the bad guys are just as fed up and deflated as Cortex is from losing pathetically. They've all suffered the same character arc. XD Cortex fails not just because he individually is a bumbling 'loser' but because the cartoony nature of his universe makes ALL villains (and even a lot of the heroes) bumbling 'losers'. Crash 4 feels like the only game where they sincerely go with the opposing villain being the successful menace Cortex fails to be, and even then only superficially. The Tropy boss battle is actually pretty damn pathetic compared to Cortex's.
I didn't even know that Cortex backstory, i legit thought that the N tattoo on his forehead was a mandatory thing or some sort of passing mark on the Academy of Evil, since Nina and Amberly herself has it as well. What's funnier is that even Cortex's "successful" mutants are failures to a degree, as he messed with the Evolv-o Ray and got very unbalanced creatures, like Koala Kong, and then made them worse with the Vortex, turning them into caricatures that would think for themselves, or just go insane in the process. I always felt more pity for N. Gin and Brio, seeing as how they're more competent, but their insecurites get the best of them and end up working under Cortex's orders time and again, especially after Crash 4 outright just stated how much Brio was abused. Could've done without the N. Gin retcon in the tapes though...
@@bepisthescienceman4202 One of the flashbacks tapes implies N. Gin doesn't know he has a rocket embedded in his head, when his backstory in the original trilogy states he was the one that reconstructed himself when the rocket hit his head.
@@DuskoolI always felt that was a weird thing to not notice. Another thing that hinted at in the flashback tapes is that cortex created Dingodile. While it could have been a throwaway gag, it would've make more since if N.brio created Dingodile to get revenge and cortex took N.brio's henchmen from him before the events of crash 3.
@@xavierlime06The Flashback Tapes are just retcons in general. We assumed Crash 1 spanned over a few days to a week but in 4, it’s apparently a few months which makes little to no sense when you think about it. Then they mention a Revivotron which seems to be a resurrection device that only creates questions on why Cortex didn’t have a new one built during the events of the later games other than it being an explanation on why we see the same enemies come back alive and well. Unfortunately, it’s also the first time we get an explanation for Coco’s existence after 1 and where was she during it. Then the last tape makes things confusing because it could only have happened because of Future Cortex going back in time. In my headcanon, some of dates are either mislabelled which wouldn’t be out of the norm for Cortex since he’s got several experiments to go through or Brio hastily put them down because I refuse to believe the events of Crash 1 took place over a span of a few months when Crash going out to rescue Tawna is his main priority. Wouldn’t be too big of a deal if 4 didn’t smugly act like it’s laying the law down on the lore.
Cortex is pretty much like Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf. The two are very pitiful, flawed as hell characters whose own stubberness and egotism blinds them acknowledging their own faults and seek self-improvement. Its because of said lack of self-awareness they present is what makes it so entertaining to watch as bad things happen to them and the comedic reaction they deliver when things that don’t go their way. Plus they both have an endearing antithesis, Crash Bandicoot and David Lister, that play off those antagonist. Said antithesis being flawed and imperfect individual who are not only aware of their imperfection but also are contempt with being such.
@@Kanohoro It's weird, though - First it was a flat tattoo, then it became a 3D "N". I actually thought it was a nod to Rimmer all those years ago, but instead it's just a odd design decision. 😆
He’s so dumb it’s genius. He was my favorite Crash character (after Ripper Roo) because of his determination and eventual exhaustion. I can relate as a gifted child turned burnt out adult. He’ll always hold a special place in my heart as an iconic villain!
never having played any of the Crash games I was totally unfamiliar with Cortex and if someone had simply described him to me I wouldn't get it, I'd find it a lame antagonist but learning of his history and his and how he fits into his franchise really sold me on him, I can appreciate how such a lame villain can actually be a great villain
Big Crash fan who stumbled on this video, and honestly? This is some very interesting commentary on the character, and a perspective I never considered. Even if you didn't discuss them too much, I appreciate you acknowledging the Titans era, which I guess I could call myself an apologist for but even if you're no fan of those games it's nice to acknowledge what they did at least character wise. But yeah, you have Cortex as a basically Sisyphean figure constantly doomed to repeat his failures, whether he likes it or not. I guess if there's one thing I'd have recommended looking into more, it would be the relationship with his colleague, Nitrus "my name sounds like a foetus" Brio. Like you say, Cortex doesn't actually have a lot of the stuff created himself, he was just able to basically make N. Brio his lackey and he did all the work while Cortex took the credit for everything. Cortex is consumed by his failure over Crash, while after Crash 1, it becomes apparent that Brio is obsessed with revenge against Cortex for the abuse he went other (the flashback tapes even show him being made to do some really humiliating shit), to the point where he's almost an anti-hero in the background during Crash 2, being the one to send the first three bosses after you because you're actually helping the real villain. In Crash 4, he still shows up, but Cortex doesn't even care about his betrayal because he's so done with everything at this point. Brio's scheme though? Plotting revenge on Cortex. He's just testing stuff in his levels on Crash and Coco purely to have something capable of dealing with Cortex. In a weird way, Brio might be the only person who takes Cortex seriously, but purely because of his own hatred and inferiority complex against him. Then Mind over Mutant comes around (okay I personally still think the Crash games are able to work in a single overall timeline as long as you're willing to fill in some gaps yourself, but whether you think Crash 4 is branching off or an interquel between 3 and the PS2 era just stick with me, it depends what "Crash 5" or whatever's next will even do anyway), and well this Brio has completely lost it. Maurice LaMarche delivers one of the best performances in the entire series, and shows a Brio who CLAIMS to have made up with Cortex, but it's clear he still resents the guy, with Cortex even taking his ideas again and being made to do shit for him. And also, he's lost it to the point where he's claiming credit for the most random shit, like... slinkies? Don't play with them, they're his. And in the end, he's just taken care of and anticlimactically walks out of the game's story, once again leaving Crash focused on dealing with Cortex as the main threat. Brio always gets screwed over, lol. Also something interesting worth discussing is how Cortex kind of perpetuates the same cycle of abuse and misery he went through onto others? Like, I described his relationship with N. Brio, but of course everyone else he sees as someone to dominate or control. And of course, there's his niece, Nina. Nina's backstory was she was actually really sweet and loved animals... so Cortex made her arms mechanical (aka, he fucking cut them off and replaced them) so that she'd crush any animals she'd try to hug (this was actually one of the billions of cut Twinsanity ideas, instead of those hooks or whatever the final game has, Nina would grapple onto cute little animals that would be squeezed to death as she holds on them while traversing). This made Nina into the edgy goth girl you see her as now, and well her takeover in Crash of the Titans and subsequent humiliation in Mind Over Mutant ends up having much darker subtext if you consider this. Cortex suffered, so all of his underlings and even his own family have to too, and it makes them bitter and resentful. Well, unless you're Crash Bandicoot, of course.
The 'chain of abuse' thing is also something that plays into his dynamic with the Evil Twins. They spend the whole story bullying and humiliating Cortex....because he abused them in childhood, with it made clear they still have scars and reflexes from how he treated them. The final boss centers less around heroics and more a game of psychological warfare and who can out-bully the other, with Cortex winning largely because he had Crash on his side (though to even the karma he is punished HORRIBLY when he tries to turn on Crash straight afterwards). I like how Titans played off his relationship with Uka Uka as well, how ultimately Uka is just another bully on Cortex's hit list and to try and outdo in petty abuse, just he can't get rid of Uka since he is pretty much an embodiment of all his stubborn and vindictive obsession for control and revenge in his own right. Apparently Uka STILL hates cake to this day. :P A lot of the villains (and maybe even some of the heroes) tend to be like this, petty assholes who have decided THEY'RE gonna be the ones pushing everyone around from now on.
Really excellent read! I do want to double down that I adore LaMarche's performance in Mind Over Mutant, and while I enjoy Roger Craig Smith's reads quite a lot, LaMarche is sorely missed with his less brow-beaten and more constantly looking for self-assurance take. The Radical games I'll admit I have less experience with than the other Crash titles outside of browsing and enjoying cutscenes, but I did want to give lip service to those performances and how the overall theatricality and farce of the Crash series was something that only left it in like... Crash Purple and Boom Bang. I'm kicking myself a bit for not delving into that contrast between Crash and Cortex, with Crash able to befriend basically everyone, Cortex included, and the doctor perpetuating his cycle of abuse and driving those who stick by him like Brio and N. Gin to fits of insanity, as you've illustrated that's SO good. Crash 4 seemed a bit more... shaky I suppose than other titles in achieving that, with Brio's fits of depression very understandable and linkable to his Mind over Mutant appearance but more playing off of his Crash 2 characterization, and N. Gin... kinda just there, unfortunately. But that is something I would've loved to delve in deeper to. Thank you very much for the very well thought-out comment!
@@DesigningFor Oh yeah N. Gin could even count too as mentioned, it just didn't occur to me at first because it seems his response by the Radical games is to be a total sycophant, doing whatever it takes to please his boss, even being torn up over whether to follow Nina in Titans
@@DesigningFor Crash 4 was....weird in its character handling. I feel like they thought the dynamic was just kind of an Inspector Gadget type thing where Crash and Cortex were the incompetent 'fake' leads and the real players were the side characters who were more competent and serious than them in every way. You see this especially with Coco, Tawna and the Tropies, who just seem to exist to be more badass versions of them in every way and to run the real conflict, with Crash and Cortex's rivalry only taking up the scraps afterwards. N Gin and Brio are the anomoly since they are still comedic, but....don't have much of a agency besides to fill boss slots. I get the feeling they were only in the present story to link to the Flashback content and to make it so they weren't just inanimate voices in those stages of the game.
13:25 Excuse you, there were several Looney Tunes games! Some of them were even good! (Shout out to Lost in Time, Time Busters, and Sheep Raider. The OGs.)
I like cortex as my nemesis, he's a very endearing villain, while still making you want to use him as a punching bag and for as many new characters as they want to add, if they ever gave cortex a true back seat I don't think I'd like the games as much.
It's ironic, isn't it? That I raced Nitrus Oxide while playing as Cortex. For once, he succeeded at something. Kinda like Claptrap in Borderlands. His bumbling is what makes him a fun character to be around with.
You did an astounding job breaking down an analyzing the character of Cortex. If you don't mind me saying, this video actually reminded me of the Character Analysis videos done on PJShow's channel about the various characters in the Sonic the Hedghog franchise, with his origional video on Knuckles (Badass to Dumbass) being a big boon to his rise of viewers. Anyway, the point is I always thought it would be cool to have a similar video series about the various characters in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, and I was wondering if you ever considered doing additional character breakdowns in the future. I would love to hear ones on Coco or even Dingodile. (Naughtydog to Good Boy amiright?)
Since Crash Bandicoot is one of my favorite franchises ever, I can only thank you for making such a great sympathetic video of the franchise as you did. Sure, it had it's ups and downs and downs and downs and... but it always had the potential and passion that made the franchise endearing as it is. I will always defend games like the Titans, Twinsanity and even the GBA spinoffs because each one of them tried so hard! It's weird how Crash has yet to find it's spot into what the games can still do beyond the nostalgia. The newest installment of the franchise being this very unique niche minigame sorta puzzle platformer game, Crash Team Rumble, definitely has me worried but I'm sure they will figure it out eventually, I hope the game does well even tho I won't be playing from launch, I only recently got the opportunity to own a console that runs It's About Time, but I hope the 'CTR' I mean 'CTR 2' I MEAN 'CTR non racing game' does well (I love how the games have matching acronyms now this feels like such a Crash thing to happen)
I have to disagree with the Warpped boss fight. I think it's the apex not only of difficulty for the original trilogy, but also of Cortex. Despite his struggles with dealing with Uka Uka, he resigns to it because he knows he needs more than just his own abilities to deal with Crash, and the both of them work in excellence together in the final fight pulling no punches. Cortex is not meekly shooting. He is calculating and aiming for the blind spots of the fight between the masks to get Crash where he would try to avoid them, as if Cortex knows his modus operandi by that point. It really cements his tiredness after losing that time, because he knew that was the best he had done thus far, and even after giving his all, it wasn't enough.
Video was amazeing The naration, the editing, everything is really well done! Crash is one of my favorite gamea of all time and this really brings some nostalgia. And the way you presented Cortex really give me some new perspective on those games i played whole my childhood.
Honestly, why Cortex works is the inspiration of the franchise itself. The fact they based Crash off of the Looney Tunes' Tasmanian Devil and Cortex off of The Brain from Animaniacs. Y'know, a mad scientist with a Napoleon complex whose failures are so constant that you can't help but love him.
What an awesome video. Cortex really is an interesting villain and you explored all his facets so well. Glad to still be a crash fan with videos like these coming out
The way you describe each Crash game makes it seem like Crash went through the same "Dark Age" period as the Sonic the Hedgehog games, but it became a core aspect of the game themselves.
Honestly not entirely wrong. It's a bit closer to DK's Dark Age, where the franchise was passed around to different production houses, but instead of the DKC Returns or Colors, we got nine years of nothing. Crash just hit the self-awareness Sonic would eventually find about a decade earlier due to hiring a bunch of comedy writers who were getting frustrated with the games they were penning being jerked around!
@@DesigningFor In the part when you talk about the development of Crash 4 being tied to the nostalgia of the N-sane trilogy it also reminded me of Sonic. Every time Sega tries to reinvent or expand the formula in some way the is a backlash, to the point Sonic was stuck in this nostalgia pandering phase for 10+ years. People forget, but Sonic 4 Episode I got high praise from critics and players despite being a mediocre mobile game. Sonic Mania's only merit is being a 1:1 copy of Classic Sonic gameplay, down to having 80% of the stages lifted from previous games. Frontiers did a lot of good and a lot of people seen to like it, but I'm very fraid of Sonic Superstars inevitable success making people say Frontiers is retroactively a bad game. I see a lot of general apathy towards Crash Rumble (the new GaaS Crash game). I read comments on the Crash subreddit and the fan base seens to be split 50/50 on this new game. If this game fails, will it kill Crash a second time? Would it be a good this to kill Crash for good? How do you evolve the Crash formula from Crash 4? Would fans be accepting of another reboot like Crash of the Titans (I loved that game growing up, I played 2P co-op with my brother).
Eggman is the most respectful villain compared to Cortex, because there are some traits of his character that makes him respectful, even if he could be goofy sometimes, especially with the presence of Orbot and Cubot.
i never knew why i liked cortex as much as i did until i watched this and realized he's just a human version of marvin the martian. surprised it took me this long to notice given how inspired the series is by looney tunes
Crash Bandicoot 4 It's About Time was what the series needed. Showed Crash doesn't need to hang on to nostalgia anymore. They could've just remade Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity which but I would've liked but they took a risk to make an original story. Yes there's issues with the game. But many of them should be fixed by Crash 5. I think having them as 2 separate timelines is good. So Wrath of Cortex to Mind Over Mutant isn't reconed. And It's About Time to future games can do it's own thing Made me optimistic on what they do in a Spyro 4 since I doubt Enter the Dragonfly is being remade
I can't believe that it took me until I saw this video for me to realize that The N on Cortex's forehead was supposed to be representing Nintendo against Crash representing the PlayStation. I should've probably picked up that up sooner. Great video by the way!
It's admirable how much he sucks at it and how hard he still tries. You can never fail if you never give up Cortex succeeded at failing with a better plan for the funny marsupial thing to foil Don't be like Cortex if it's avoidable, but if you can't do better, then at least be like him Cortex's actions in crash 4 it's about time could be described with that line: old habits die hard.
I’m not sure if we’ll get another crash bandicoot game after the events of it’s about time but Dr cortex is definitely a villain to remember, and we might see him again in the future if the crash bandicoot series keeps going on. I wish listing the sequel for this! ❤️🥰😍🤗🤩👍🏻
Can ya make a video about Sir Daniel Fortesque? Desinging for sympathy? I feel like this one thing that makes medievil, medievil and not Tim Burton´s Super Zelda 64
