Doctor Neo Cortex

Doctor Neo Cortex
Crash Bandicoot character
Doctor Neo Cortex as he appears in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
First game	Crash Bandicoot (1996)
Created by	Andy Gavin Jason Rubin
Designed by	Charles Zembillas Joe Pearson
Voiced by (English)	Brendan O'Brien (1996) Clancy Brown (1997–2003) Lex Lang (2004–present) Debi Derryberry (child; 2004)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Shōzō Iizuka (1996–2005) Yōsuke Akimoto (2006) Noriko Suzuki (child; 2004)

Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex (often referred to as Doctor Cortex, Neo Cortex, or simply Cortex) is a video game character and the primary antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. His name is a play on the term neocortex, an area of the brain.

In the series, Cortex is depicted as a mad scientist and terrorist who seeks to achieve world domination as an act of vengeance for the ridicule he has suffered in the past. Hoping to achieve this by mutating the local animals into his soldiers, he eventually creates Crash Bandicoot, the titular character of the series, but soon rejects him as unworthy of being in his army and removes him from his castle. As Cortex's actions endanger the sanctity of the islands the games are set in, Cortex's plans for world domination are often hampered by Crash along with other characters. Crash's constant interference has made eliminating Crash one of Cortex's top priorities along with world domination.

Cortex was created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin, and was originally designed by Joe Pearson and Charles Zembillas. Critical reception of Cortex has been mostly positive, with much of the praise going to his portrayal in Crash Twinsanity. The character's reception before and after the game, however, has varied.

The idea for Cortex was conceived while Andy Gavin, Jason Rubin, Dave Baggett and Mark Cerny were eating "mediocre Italian" near Universal Interactive Studios. Gavin came up with the idea of an "evil genius villain with a big head" who was "all about his attitude and his minions". Rubin, having become fond of the animated television series Pinky and the Brain, imagined a "more malevolent Brain" with minions resembling the weasel characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. After Gavin performed a "silly villain voice" depicting the attitude in mind for the character, the villain's name, Doctor Neo Cortex, was instantly formulated. Gavin and Rubin described Cortex to character designer Charles Zembillas as "[having] a huge head but a tiny body, he’s a mad scientist, and he dresses a bit like a Nazi from the Jetsons". Jason Rubin owns the original sketches of Cortex by Zembillas. Because Cortex's game model was unable to walk properly due to the short length of his legs, the character was kept stationary in much of his appearances. Cortex is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the first Crash Bandicoot game, by Clancy Brown from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back up to Crash Nitro Kart and by Lex Lang from Crash Twinsanity onwards. In the Japanese versions of the games, he is voiced by Shōzō Iizuka up to Crash Tag Team Racing and by Yōsuke Akimoto in Crash Boom Bang!. In a flashback to Cortex's childhood in Crash Twinsanity, he is voiced by Debi Derryberry in the English version of the game and by Noriko Suzuki in the Japanese version.