If the Crash Bandicoot franchise is known for anything, it’s for its cast of bright, brash, colorful characters. Crash himself is dripping with personality, as is everyone from his sister Coco to his many enemies.

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The nefarious Doctor Neo Cortex has a lot of hench-creatures which oppose our bandicoot buddy time and again. A lot of these villains are just so engaging to watch that we can’t help but love them, while others are little more than throwaway distractions. Whether they were successful in their various evil deeds or not, here are some of the best and worst villains in the series.

10 BEST: Uka Uka

Where else could we begin than with Uka Uka, the raging, universe-destroying Yin to Aku Aku’s benevolent, suave-voiced Yang? This evil spirit is the mastermind behind a lot of the dastardly deeds in the series, though he prefers to have others act on his behalf.

Uka Uka is the younger twin of Aku Aku, a force of nature whose only goal is to take over the world by means of the Crystals, Gems and any other power source he can get the hands he doesn’t have on. His older sibling managed to imprison him, but Uka Uka’s escape and subsequent plotting (set the stage for the series’ overarching plot as of Crash Bandicoot: Warped). His success rate is… less than stellar, but if it’s a furious, powerful, brooding presence you want, you need look no further.

9 WORST: Pinstripe Potoroo

Now, we can appreciate Pinstripe Potoroo, we definitely can. He’s a potoroo gangster in a pinstripe suit with a tommy gun, whose full name is Don Pinstripelli Potorotti, after all. Of the many absurd anthropomorphic characters in the game, Pinstripe probably takes the cake.

The major issue where he’s concerned is that he’s just criminally underused. He serves as a short-lived boss in the original game, blasting away at the room with his tommy gun while Crash dashes from cover to counterattack. Beyond that, he doesn’t feature in the plot of the main series at all, with just a cameo in Crash Twinsanity, appearance in the story mode of Crash Team Racing (as a boss again) and playable role in Crash Boom Bang! (he’s also available in CTR) to his name.

8 BEST: Doctor N. Gin

The first of the pun-tastically named doctors with dubious medical degrees on our list, N. Gin is Doctor Neo Cortex’s ingenious assistant. He was introduced in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, making numerous appearances in the series thereafter and proving his aptitude with technology and physics.

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N. Gin has a crucial role to play in Cortex’s plots and brings some of the series’ most enjoyable boss battles to the table (the space shooter encounter with Coco and Pura in Crash Bandicoot: Warped being a particular highlight). The active missile lodged in his head which reacts to his angry outbursts makes him a very unique villain too.

7 WORST: Ripper Roo

Now, it’s impossible to deny that Ripper Roo is one of the most iconic and colorful characters in the franchise. This unfortunate kangaroo was one of many victims of Cortex’s experimentations with the Evolvo-Ray, which reduced him to the vicious, cackling creature he became.

Ripper Roo just doesn’t have much of a purpose or backstory beyond this. His transformation into a Doctor (apparently) between the first and second titles were really nothing more than a funny little aside, and he really lacks motivation for following Cortex’s orders. His boss battles occur early in the games too, meaning that he’s not much of a challenge either.

6 BEST: Doctor N. Brio

While villains who simply want to achieve world domination can be entertaining, they also have the potential to get a little tiresome. Sometimes, we need an antagonist who’s a bit more multi-faceted, whose outlook and motivation shifts in interesting ways as the plot goes on.

Doctor N. Brio may not exactly be on Resident Evil’s Albert Wesker’s level in that regard, but he makes for an intriguing villain nonetheless. In Crash Bandicoot, he serves Cortex in the same capacity N. Gin would later, but turns against his master after realizing that Cortex never gave him his due. He encourages Crash to gather the Gems in Cortex Strikes Back and is instrumental in the destruction of the Cortex Vortex. He has also fought alongside Cortex again in Crash: Mind Over Mutant, making him an all-around interesting character with complex allegiances.

5 WORST: Papu Papu

Like Pinstripe Potoroo, Papu Papu is a classic foe who hails from the very first game. He has little impact on the story, seeming to battle Crash simply because the bandicoot happened upon the leader’s lair and accidentally woke him up. The ‘battle’ is infamous for being super easy, which really doesn’t help his case either.

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In an otherwise notoriously difficult game, Papu Papu was barely a momentary distraction. He’s also relegated to an appearance as a boss/playable racer in Crash Team Racing and its recent remaster, with only fleeting roles elsewhere in the series.

4 BEST: Doctor N. Tropy

As far as Crash Bandicoot villains go, Nefarious Tropy really has it all. He has actual powers worth fearing, having command of the flow of time. As the creator of the Time Twister machine, he’s the key to Uka Uka and Cortex’s Crystal-gathering plot in Warped, serving as the boss of the third area.

He’s a speedy racer in Crash Team Racing and has only a brief role in The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity, but takes a leading evil role in Crash Bandicoot: N-Tranced, alongside colleague N-Trance. A formidable presence in the series.

3 WORST: Tiny Tiger

As we’ve seen, there are a lot of supposed doctors in the Crash Bandicoot’s repertoire of villains. With the amount of times they’ve been foiled by our favorite furry funster, we can’t really say much for their overall intelligence, but Tiny Tiger is here to serve as the brawn to their brains regardless.

Created by N. Brio to (you guessed it) put an end to Crash and Coco’s heroism, he later serves Cortex. He’s a boss enemy in Cortex Strikes Back, Warped, Crash Team Racing and Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure. These are more appearances than many of his fellow villains have mustered, but his bumbling nature and slapstick antics in them really don’t do him any favors.

2 BEST: Doctor Neo Cortex

When it comes to iconic villains, the series has none better to offer than Cortex himself. Right from the original's opening cutscene, his villainy, brilliance and ambition is firmly established. He made the ultimate supervillain error of creating his own worst enemy, but we just can’t bring ourselves to hold this against him.

Cortex tends to be subservient to Uka Uka, the true mastermind of most devious plots in the series, but he is truly committed to the cause of world domination (having attended Madame Amberly’s Academy of Evil alongside his fellow villains from the age of four). Some of the many boss battles against him have been damp squibs (Cortex Strikes Back barely had a ‘final boss’ at all with that limp jetpack segment), but his villainous resume speaks for itself.

1 WORST: Nitros Oxide

While the fanchise’s villains are certainly a bumbling bunch, they at least tended to have some kind of solid devious plot in mind. You know, a serious evil goal to work towards. Sadly, Nitros Oxide, the alien being from the planet Gasmoxia, didn’t seem to get that memo.

The entire story mode of Crash Team Racing revolves around the planet’s heroes and villains competing to race Oxide for the fate of the planet. What did he threaten to do to it? Turn it into one big parking lot, that’s what. He has previous experience in this, one of the worst diabolical schemes of all time. It’s no wonder this forgettable character barely appears elsewhere in the series, beyond cameos, Crash Nitro Kart 2 (in which the concrete parking lot plan is back on and foiled again), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D and a boss battle in Crash Bash.

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