Main series
In Crash Bandicoot, Cortex and Brio prepare an evolved bandicoot, Crash, for the Cortex Vortex, a machine that will supposedly brainwash Crash into becoming the general of Cortex's army of "Cortex Commandos" and leading a campaign for world domination. After the Vortex rejects Crash, Cortex chases Crash out of his castle and prepares a female bandicoot named Tawna for experimentation. Cortex is eventually confronted and defeated by Crash, who escapes with Tawna on Cortex's airship. In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Cortex lands in a cavern where he discovers a large Crystal that he believes will aid him in controlling the world. To this end, he creates a space station armed with a larger version of the Cortex Vortex that is capable of brainwashing the entirety of Earth's populace. However, he is informed by his new henchman Doctor N. Gin that 25 smaller Crystals are needed alongside this "Master Crystal" for the new Cortex Vortex to be functional. To remedy this situation, Cortex abducts Crash and fools him into believing that he is working to save the world from an upcoming solar flux by gathering the Crystals. Cortex is later forced to flee when Crash's sister Coco discovers Cortex's real plan and reveals it to Crash, and Cortex's space station is destroyed by Brio, who has turned against Cortex. In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the ruins of Cortex's space station crash into Earth and release his master Uka Uka. Cortex takes part in Uka Uka's plan to gather the Crystals in their original places in time by using Doctor Nefarious Tropy's Time-Twisting Machine. Upon Cortex's defeat, the Time-Twisting Machine implodes on itself, trapping Cortex, Tropy and Uka Uka in a prison outside of time and space.
In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Cortex creates Crunch Bandicoot in another plot to destroy Crash, and unveils him at a meeting inside Cortex's new space station. After Crunch fails to defeat Crash, Cortex and Uka Uka flee into an escape pod after Uka Uka accidentally causes the space station's catastrophic failure. Their pod lands in a frozen Antarctic wasteland, stranding them both on a large sheet of ice for three years.[32] In Crash Twinsanity, Cortex returns and attempts to eliminate Crash. After another failure, Cortex and Crash encounter a pair of interdimensional parrots named the Evil Twins, who announce their plans to destroy Crash's island and devastate Earth. Cortex temporarily teams up with Crash to defeat the Evil Twins with the aid of the Psychetron, a machine that will allow them to travel between the infinite dimensions. Cortex eventually realizes that the Evil Twins are his childhood pets Victor and Moritz, who were sent to the Tenth Dimension following Cortex's first experiment with the Evolvo-Ray. Cortex sets out with Crash and his niece Nina Cortex to the Tenth Dimension, where they confront and defeat the Evil Twins. After the trio return to their own dimension, Cortex attempts to banish Crash, but the malfunctioning Psychetron teleports Cortex into Crash's brain, where he is trapped with a crowd of dancing Crash duplicates.
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. 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.
In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which retcons the games following Warped from continuity,[33] 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 Kupuna-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.[34]
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,[35] and the final tape featuring Crash includes Cortex christening him with the name "Crashworth Cortex the First", or "Crash" for short.[36] In the subsequent tapes, which take place following Crash's escape from Cortex's castle, Cortex trains Crash's sister, whom he codenames "Coco",[37] hires N. Gin,[38] and creates Dingodile as a potential substitute for Coco,[39] who ultimately escapes Cortex's castle under the guise of undertaking another trial.[40]
