Cortex is an egomaniacal mad scientist who seeks to achieve world domination with the use of the Evolvo-Ray, a machine capable of creating genetically enhanced soldiers from ordinary animals.

Cortex was created by Naughty Dog founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin, and was originally designed by Joe Pearson and Charles Zembillas.

Cortex has been positively received by reviewers, with much of the praise going to Brown's and Lang's vocal performances as well as the character's portrayal in Crash Twinsanity.

During the development of Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin conceived the idea of Cortex while eating near Universal Interactive Studios.

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".

[4] Crash Bandicoot co-artist Joe Pearson wrote a full backstory for Cortex as part of the game's production bible.

[7][8] Cortex was kept stationary in many of his early appearances because his game model was unable to walk properly due to the short length of his legs.

[11][12][13][14][15] Brown eventually left the series due to his dissatisfaction with the video game industry's financial compensation for voice actors.

[18] Lang eventually created a depiction of Cortex that was "master evil with a bit of a childish feminine side that leaks out in his tirades" that had everyone laughing at the lines and the character.

[4] Cortex is depicted as a mad scientist who is ruthlessly and obsessively motivated to dominate the world by the desire to exact vengeance upon a humanity that spurned and humiliated him.

[6][29] He possesses an outrageously high intelligence quotient, which he believes makes him the logical choice to control the world, and he is frequently frustrated by the inferior mentality and failures of his underlings.

Cortex is a lifelong loner whose sole friend has been his assistant and childhood associate Doctor Nitrus Brio, whom he treats with contemptuous affection.

As a result of his traumatic childhood experiences, Cortex flies into an hysterical rage at imagery of clowns, laugh tracks, seltzer bottles and bananas.

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.

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 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.

In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which retcons the games following Warped from continuity,[32] Cortex and Tropy escape from their temporal prison, which creates rifts leading to different dimensions, and they begin a plot to conquer the multiverse.

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.

The figure depicts a scene from the boss fight against him in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, in which Cortex wields a ray gun and a timed mine.

[67] Eddie Makuch of GameSpot, discussing the demo for Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, was delighted by Cortex's "cartoonishly evil" personality, and Alessandro Fillari of the same publication appreciated his humanization after observing him from a distance in the original games, describing him as "sort of like the Wile E. Coyote, but with more advanced technology and a bigger ego.

[68] Alicia Haddick of GamesRadar+ characterized Cortex as a tragic villain who lacks an intimidation factor or much control over his subordinates, is frequently betrayed by his allies, and is never thanked on the rare occasions that he saves the world from a greater threat.