Doctor N. Gin

—Doctor N. Gin, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Doctor N. Gin is an insane mechanical genius and the right-hand man of Doctor Neo Cortex, replacing Doctor Nitrus Brio after the events of Crash Bandicoot. As of Crash: Mind over Mutant, he has been replaced (without his knowledge) by the very person he succeeded.

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-series history

N. Gin's Peter Lorre-esque accent and taste for polka music suggest that he is of European ancestry, though no other evidence of this exists in the games. According to him, N. Gin has or had a superficial brother named George (a reference to entertainer Liberace), and has ruined at least one prom. As a child, N. Gin was a classmate of Neo Cortex and Nitrus Brio in Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil. After working at a stapler factory for a time, N. Gin went on to become a world-renowned physicist in the defense industry. However, due to a budget cut, one of his missile projects ended up faulty and, as a result, went awry, lodging itself into N. Gin's head. With his intellect, N. Gin was able to stabilize the weapon and reconstruct it as a life support system at the cost of his sanity. Because the missile is still live, it activates whenever N. Gin is stressed or angry, leaving him with a large headache (a trait inspired by creator Jason Rubin's own chronic migraine headaches). Shortly after the missile incident, Doctor N. Gin was taken in by Doctor Neo Cortex to replace the double-crossed Doctor Nitrus Brio.

[edit] Naughty Dog era

Doctor N. Gin as he appears in the Naughty Dog games

[edit] Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

"Like Dr. Cortex said, Give those twenty crystals you've collected to me!"

In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Doctor N. Gin studies a large Crystal found by Cortex after his defeat to Crash Bandicoot and discovers that 25 smaller Crystals are needed alongside this "Master Crystal" in order to power Cortex's new "Cortex Vortex" device. When Crash is ordered by Doctor Cortex to give the Crystals he has gathered to N. Gin, N. Gin attempts to take the Crystals by force, only to be sent spiraling into the vacuum of space when Crash destroys his prized mecha.

[edit] Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

"Prepare to be pulverized Bandicoots!"

In Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Doctor N. Gin constructs a superior model suit of mobile armor that can transform into a space fighter and dock with a huge weapon platform.

N. Gin uses this machine to confront Coco Bandicoot on the Moon, only to fail once again. For some reason, during his second form Pura comes into view in Coco Bandicoot's craft.

[edit] Traveller's Tales era

[edit] Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

In Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, N. Gin is an attendee of Uka Uka's bad guy convention, and is ultimately the one who reveals the secret of Crunch Bandicoot, Cortex's new superweapon. For the rest of the game, N. Gin serves as an obstacle in some of the levels.

[edit] Crash Twinsanity

In Crash Twinsanity, N. Gin appears during the first boss battle, piloting the Mecha-Bandicoot in an attempt to eliminate Crash. When all of its weapons are destroyed, the Mecha-Bandicoot stomps a hole into the floor and falls into a cavern. N. Gin is later seen as the captain of his own battleship. At the crow's nest, N. Gin tries to destroy Crash with a barrage of missiles, occasionally tossing a TNT Crate. This leads to the eventual collapse of the crow's nest, causing N. Gin to land on his head onto a pile of TNT Crates, creating a large explosion that sinks the battleship. N. Gin is last seen teamed up with N. Tropy and N. Brio, with all of them trying to steal the Evil Twins' riches. However, they are driven out by Spyro the Dragon.

[edit] Radical Entertainment era

[edit] Crash of the Titans

In Crash of the Titans, N. Gin opposes Doctor Cortex's replacement by praising Cortex's stationery. N. Gin is next seen in his weapons factory, which appears on the outside as a version of the Statue of Liberty modelled after N. Gin. This factory constantly bombards the surrounding area with all kinds of explosives in an attempt to hinder Crash. Inside the factory, N. Gin communicates to his workers through the factory intercom, making announcements, singing inspirational songs or alerting the workers of Crash's presence. In the factory's crown, N. Gin spends his days performing on his enormous pipe organ. When confronted by Crash and Aku Aku, N. Gin indirectly reveals to them that he has mixed feelings over Cortex's replacement to Nina. One side likes Doctor Cortex and the abuse he brings to him and wishes for his return, while another side approves of Nina's new way of doing things, believing that she is a more efficient leader than Cortex. Eventually, the two sides reach a compromise, and tell Crash of Uka Uka's whereabouts in hopes that he will also free Cortex, planning to shower them with doom later on.

[edit] Crash: Mind over Mutant

In Crash: Mind over Mutant, N. Gin leads an attack on Crash Bandicoot when Coco and Crunch become addicted to Cortex's and Brio's personal digital assistant, fleeing to a small observatory on Wumpa Island afterwards. When Crash and Aku Aku catch up to him, N. Gin reveals that ever since Doctor Cortex escaped the Doominator, he has been secretly watching the Bandicoot family and collecting information on them, hoping to be rewarded with the ownership of Wumpa Island if Cortex is triumphant in his current plot. For some reason, he also expresses a desire to eat Coco, calling her "delicious". After Crash fends off N. Gin's army of Ratnicians, N. Gin is sternly told by Aku Aku to leave the island, to which he reluctantly complies.

[edit] Spin-offs

[edit] Crash Team Racing

Doctor N. Gin is a playable character in Crash Team Racing, driving a purple high-acceleration kart. His home track is N. Gin Labs. The epilogue states that N. Gin opened a custom auto parts store in Toledo, Ohio, only to have it close down after a massive recall due to the damage caused by his patented "Clear-the-Road" missile system.

[edit] Crash Bash

In Crash Bash, Doctor N. Gin appears as an obstacle in a "Ballistix" level, launching balls at random players.

[edit] Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure

In Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, N. Gin battles Crash in the skies with a weapon platform similar to the one he piloted in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. He is later merged with Doctor Cortex, Tiny and Dingodile, and becomes Mega-Mix. After chasing Crash down a space station hall, Mega-Mix is left inside the space station, which explodes with the villains in it.

[edit] Crash Nitro Kart

N. Gin is a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart, driving for Cortex's team in a kart with high turning prowess. In one cutscene, N. Gin considers creating cybernetic sharks as new henchmen after racing Nash.

[edit] Crash Tag Team Racing

N. Gin is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the game's story, N. Gin convinces Neo Cortex to join in the search for Von Clutch's missing Power Gems so that he can use Von Clutch's theme park as a new base of operations (although Cortex later claims the idea as his own).

[edit] Crash Boom Bang!

N. Gin has a cameo appearance in the "Silhouette Quiz" minigame in Crash Boom Bang!.

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Personality

During his first appearances, N. Gin is portrayed in a similar light to that of Cortex's previous henchman Doctor Nitrus Brio: he is less impulsive than Doctor Cortex or Uka Uka and prefers to think over the situation rather than rushing to a solution, which usually leads to a loud rebuttal by his superiors whenever he questions their way of doing things, as shown in the opening cinematics of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the latter in which N. Gin actually contemplates the fact that Crash Bandicoot might simply be too powerful for him and the others to defeat.

N. Gin's behavior becomes more deranged by Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Twinsanity, becoming prone to fits of giggling. In a deleted scene from Crash Twinsanity, it is shown that he has developed somewhat of a crush on Crash's sister, Coco, as evidenced when Cortex disguises himself as Coco and is kidnapped by N. Gin as a result, who attempts to make "her" his sea bride. No reference to this crush is made in the finished version of Crash Twinsanity, rendering the crush non-canon. In the games starting with Crash Tag Team Racing, Doctor N. Gin is depicted as a bipolar, sado-masochistic and extremely effeminate madman, prone to fits of yelling, sobbing, giggling and acting with feminine mannerisms and making doomsday weapons out of such odd items as fuzzy slippers. He is shown to have low self-esteem and crossdressing tendencies, at one point asking Crash to buy him a ballerina outfit so that he can feel more attractive.

N. Gin briefly shows a misogynistic side when he informs Crash of his sister's whereabouts in Crash of the Titans, expressing disgust at the thought of girls and eventually is disgusted of Coco. This contradicts with a statement he makes over his factory's intercom, in which he expresses a desire for women. On a miscellaneous note, N. Gin enjoys muffins and cupcakes, but hates preppies, citing their music and wavy hair as reasons for his ire against them. While N. Gin is a masochist, he only enjoys pain if it is bound to logic, demonstrated by his reaction to Neo Cortex spitting scalding hot tea all over his face despite having dumped his entire tea cup prior to that. He is shown to be schizophrenic due to his regular mood changment and crazy personality that he seems to don't care about it.

[edit] Physical appearance

Doctor N. Gin is a stocky, red-haired (black in Crash Tag Team Racing and dark blue as of Crash of the Titans) cyborg with only half a face. He wears an identical attire to Cortex, with a notable difference being a numerous amount of large bolts located all over his lab coat. A distinguishing feature of his is the large missile protruding from the right side of his head. After the incident that provided the missile, N. Gin reconstructed it as a life-support system, turning nearly half his head into metal. The missile is still live, and was only thought to activated only when N. Gin was stressed or angry, but as revealed in Crash Tag Team Racing, he can activate the missile at will, usually to stabilize a vehicle. While the eye located on the non-mechanical side of his head is somewhat small, the eye on the other side of his face is large, circular, and with a small black pupil occupying it (although in Crash Nitro Kart, this eye is replaced by a black electronic eye with a red pupil). In terms of height, N. Gin is somewhat shorter than Cortex, but appears to be as tall as him in Crash Tag Team Racing. In the same game, N. Gin's skin takes on a grayish tone, as opposed to the peach/pink of earlier games (Doctor Cortex once described N. Gin as "hav[ing] bad complexion). An alternate costume in the game depicts N. Gin in a ballerina outfit, bought by Crash to increase his effeminacy and self-esteem. In Crash of the Titans, N. Gin's skin and hair color take on a bluish scheme, and the pupil on the robotic half of his face is larger. Besides these differences, N. Gin looks similar to what he did in past games. According to the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans, N. Gin is 1.25 meters tall (4 feet, 1 inch) and weighs 63 kilograms (139 pounds).

As a child in the Academy of Evil, N. Gin is shown to have a paper airplane stuck in his head, foreshadowing the missile lodged in his head later in his life. This is revealed in an unlockable piece of concept art in Crash Twinsanity.

[edit] Portrayals

N. Gin's voice in most of his appearances is styled after classic movie actor Peter Lorre, who was often regarded as the quintessential simpering, creepy henchman archetype. In the Naughty Dog games, Doctor N. Gin is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the English versions and by Vincent De Bouard in the French versions. In the English version of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, N. Gin is voiced by Corey Burton, who also voices Doctor Nefarious Tropy in the same game. In Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Twinsanity, he is voiced by Quinton Flynn in the English versions and by Bernard Bouillon in the French versions. In the games starting with Crash Tag Team Racing, he is voiced by Nolan North in the English versions and by Christophe Lemoine in the French versions. In the Japanese version of the series, he is voiced by Kazuhiro Nakata in his speaking appearances up to Crash Twinsanity and by Mitsuru Ogata (who also voiced Doctor Nitrus Brio and Rilla Roo in the series) in Crash Tag Team Racing.

[edit] Trivia

• For a time, N. Gin held the record for the most hit points in a boss battle for the boss fight against him in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (5 and 7, equalling 12). This record would be broken by the Evil Twins in Crash Twinsanity (6, 3, and 4, equaling 13).
• In the Nintendo DS version of Crash of the Titans, when N. Gin is defeated by Crash, the missile in his head explodes, sending him flying around in the style of a deflating balloon.
• The name N. Gin is said to be a pun on the word "Engine."
• For some reason, in Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, N. Gin had Tiny's theme, Tiny had Dingodile's theme, and Dingodile had N. Gin's theme. The reason for this mix-up is not explained.
• N. Gin is one of two characters who appeared at Crash's "birthday" who later appeared as a boss (the other being Dingodile).
• From Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back up to Crash Twinsanity, the human side of N. Gin's head resembles the Hamburglar, one of many mascots for the restaurant chain McDonald's.
• The weapons factory from "Crash of the Titans", most likely has N.Gin's face above the entrance before the missile accident.