"Ssssssso, you've beaten all the racersssss on these tracksssss... Well, now you'll sssssee why I'm the most feared driver on the ccccccircuit... I'll earn the right to face Oxide by crusssshing you into brake dusssst... Let'ssss racccce...
You're not so slow after all... Surprisssed me, you did... Here'ssss a key for the win... Ssssstill, I think you're not fasssst enough to out-race Oxide... We're going to loosssse our planet, and it will all be your fault."Komodo Joe, Crash Team Racing
The Komodo Brothers (Japanese: コモドきょうだい/Komodo kyōdai) are genetically engineered komodo dragons from Indonesia that were created by N. Brio, their names were Joe and Moe. Joe is the skinny one with a lot of speed who is able to spin for a long time until getting dizzy. Moe, on the other hand, may not be fast like his brother Joe, but delivers brute strength at the same time. He is also good at throwing swords.
Development
The Komodo Brothers were designed by Charles Zembillas for the first Crash Bandicoot. But sadly they, along with Tiny Tiger, Coco Bandicoot and Doctor N. Gin were cut out of the first game and moved to the second game Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back in the franchise. They still have a soundtrack piece for their boss fight, and are also featured in the cut, 2D, beginning cutscene.
Appearances
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
This is the Komodo Brothers' first appearance; they are the second boss in the game. They were hired by their creator Dr. Nitrus Brio to thwart Crash's progress in order to stop him from collecting 25 Crystals for Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor N. Gin, but Crash defeats the brothers and they failed to stop Crash Bandicoot. Their main attack pattern was Komodo Moe making Komodo Joe spin rapidly. When he's done spinning, he'll be dizzy, giving Crash the opportunity to hit him by spinning, or slide dash him, and send him directly towards his brother Moe, damaging both Joe and Moe. Moe will throw his swords to hit Crash on every turn one by one. On their last hit point, while Joe spins, his brother Moe will throw his swords more rapidly one by one. After being defeated by Crash, Joe and Moe will fall down dazed before Crash continues to the next warp room 3. They are fought in a circus tent. If Crash Bandicoot gets closer to Komodo Moe he'll slash him with his sword and laughed and turn Crash into a angel just like other enemies and bosses like Tiny Tiger except Ripper Roo, Doctor N Gin, Doctor Neo Cortex.
Crash Team Racing
Komodo Joe in Crash Team Racing.
In Crash Team Racing, only Komodo Joe is present. He is the third boss in adventure mode. His home track is Dragon Mines. In Glacier Park, he races against the player for the right to face Nitros Oxide, challenging the player by saying "crusshhing you into brick dusssttt let's raccce". He constantly throws TNT Crates backwards (causing them to explode on impact) and drops nitro crates in an attempt to slow the player down. Once he is defeated, he hands over the third one of the four keys required to face Oxide, but still has doubts about the player's skill, thinking that the planet will be destroyed if its fate rests on the player.
Joe's stats are the same as Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex and Fake Crash; in other words, he has intermediate statistics. He can be unlocked by holding the L1 + R1 buttons and pressing Down, 
, Left, Left, 
, Right, Down at the main menu, or by winning the Blue Gem Cup in adventure mode. After the events of the game, Joe opened a jewelry store in Zurich, "Honest Joe's Wedding Ring and Rare Gem Outlet". Unfortunately, he was caught and convicted of shoplifting cubic zirconias for the Couch Slouch Shopping Network.
Stats
Speed: 5/7
Acceleration: 5/7
Turning: 5/7
Difficulty: Intermediate
Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, Joe and Moe are back working together and they serve as the third boss in this game, and wield a huge tank. Uka Uka summoned them to fight as a third challenge at Big Bad Fox. The tank consists of three floors; 3 cannons with mace (Floor 1), 4 lasers (Floor 2), and 2 Missile Launchers (Floor 3). Driving a small tank, the player must shoot the cannons, lasers and missile launchers twice each. When the giant tank is destroyed, Joe and Moe appear to try to defeat the player themselves (also appearing in small tanks). The player has to hit them until they run out of health bars and are defeated.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
The Komodo Brothers return in the N. Sane Trilogy reprising their role from Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.
Cameos
The Komodo Brothers only appear as a cameo in a painting picture from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex in the Medieval level Wizards and Lizards, while a temple with a statue depicting Komodo Joe can be found on the race track Jungle Boogie and home world Terra in Crash Nitro Kart.
In Crash Twinsanity, Komodo Joe only appears in a piece of Purple Gem concept art where he was playing poker cards along with Pinstripe Potoroo, Koala Kong, Dingodile, and Ripper Roo at Cortex Island in Cortex's Lab just as Dr. Neo Cortex appears as the ice melt with the seagull on his head about three years ago. The Komodo Brothers were originally going to have an appearance as a boss fight in Crash Twinsanity, where they would have challenged Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Neo Cortex to a race called Krazy Komodo Crash Course and the winner would be rewarded with a power crystal. The only catch was that the car would have no brakes. Their course would have been on Wumpa Island inside the cave and it would have been set up at the base of the Uka Tree but they were cut out of the game, along with the second island.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Appearances
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Crash Team Racing (Komodo Joe only)
- Crash Bash
- Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (Cameo as a painting)
- Crash Nitro Kart (Cameo as a statue, Komodo Joe only)
- Crash Twinsanity (Komodo Joe only in concept art)
- Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Personality
In CTR, Komodo Joe speaks with a hiss accent similar to Kaa the Python Snake from Walt Disney's classic film "The Jungle Book", that is, with long S, C or Sh syllables, such as "Let'sss Raccce" (but this doesn't necessarily always happen). Joe tends to give future blame towards a worthy opponent; for example, after losing a race and warning the player about Nitros Oxide, he says "You're not so slow after all. Surprisssed me, you did. Here'ssss a key for the win. Ssssstill, I think you're not fassssst enough to out-race Oxide. We're going to lossse our planet, and it will all be your fault!". Moe isn't necessarily more intelligent than his brother Joe, but he seems to do all the planning before combat. Nevertheless, they fail, often because things do not go exactly according to plan.
As of yet, it is unknown whether or not Komodo Moe speaks the same way as his brother, as his only given sound is a mean chuckle. What is known about Moe is that he seems to be the brother that does most of the attacking, and is only messed up when Joe trips him after being attacked by Crash. Moe shares his laugh with the Barrel Thrower enemy from the previous game.
Curiously, despite often appearing as antagonists to Crash Bandicoot, they are among very few mutant adversaries that have never served Doctor Neo Cortex or aided evil; apart from Komodo Joe having Uka Uka as his mask during a power up, their allegiance remains ambiguous throughout the series.
Manga
The Komodo Bros. appear in the book Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken Volume 2 where they are treasure hunters. Moe is more friendly in the manga and speaks normally, while Joe (Moe calls Joe "Aniki", Japanese for brother, in the manga) is the more aggressive one and also speaks normally. They have no connections to Dr. Neo Cortex or their creator Dr. Brio and do not wield their swords. As a result, they seem to respect Crash Bandicoot, stating that he is a good treasure hunter.
Gallery
Trivia
- In CTR, Komodo Joe is the only boss not from the first Crash Bandicoot game (excluding Oxide); Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, and Pinstripe are the other three, but they all are from the first Crash Bandicoot.
- Komodo Moe, along with Koala Kong, Doctor Nitrus Brio, Tawna, and Baby T are the only known characters of the Crash universe introduced before Crash Bash that were not playable characters in CTR.
- From CTR onward, the Komodo Brothers no longer work for their creator, Dr. Nitrus Brio, but they don't work for Dr. Neo Cortex either. However, Uka Uka is Joe's "invincibility" item, so whether or not they are still evil is unknown. Also, in Crash Bash, Moe and Joe can be faced by any character, including their creator Dr. N. Brio, regardless of alignment.
- Komodo Joe is one of the five racers not to reappear in Crash Nitro Kart, the other four being Papu Papu, Ripper Roo, Pinstripe, and Penta Penguin.
- Moe and Joe, along with Papu Papu and the doctor characters (with the exception of Dr. Cortex and Dr. N Gin), are the only villains not to appear at Crash's "birthday party" in Twinsanity. As for Moe and Joe, they make no appearance in the game whatsoever.
- In Crash Bash, Komodo Joe and Moe's health bars are mixed up. If players hit Moe then Joe's health bar decreases and vice versa.
- They were going to be bosses in the first Crash Bandicoot game, but were cut along with Tiny Tiger and Doctor N. Gin.
- In Crash Bash's early demo of Big Bad Fox, Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe's icons are replaced with Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson from The Simpsons. Their health bars were also mixed up, like in the final release. If Crash hits Komodo Moe, Bart Simpson's health bar drains, and when he hits Komodo Joe, Homer Simpson's health bar drains as well.
- In Crash Bash's early demo of Big Bad Fox, when the Komodo Brothers rise up on the tank, there are two Komodo Joes. Also, Komodo Moe is on the left and Joe is on the right, and when Crash hits Moe, Moe has Crash's voice.
- In the Cortex Strikes Back beta, after Crash defeats the Komodo Brothers, Komodo Moe will throw swords after he is defeated before Crash disappears.
- In CTR, Joe's boss garage logo portrays Joe with two sharp, pointy fangs that stick out of his mouth; his before and after driver speech model does so as well. However, his in-game driving model shows him with square buck teeth instead.
- If the player uses the language select glitch, his head switches to N. Oxide.
- While playing the Purple Gem Cup in CTR, Komodo Joe always appears to be in third place, though Ripper Roo is seen to be faster than him on rare occasions. It depends if the player always attacks the other bosses or him and sometimes, if he always get last position, it is possible to overlap him too.
- Komodo Moe is the only brother to have an action figure and a plush toy modeled after him.
- In an interview with Naughty Dog's vice president, Evan Wells, he revealed that, due to the memory limitations of the PlayStation, some of the original ideas and content had to be removed from Crash Team Racing. This is the reason why only Komodo Joe is present and Komodo Moe is not; Komodo Joe and Komodo Moe were originally going to be sitting in one kart, just like Polar and Pura.
- They are the only evolved animals in the series whose species did not originate from Australia, but a different island, Indonesia.
- In the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, both of them are shorter than they were in the original game and they also now have brown teeth and spots on their hands and tails.
- In Crash Team Racing, Komodo Joe's poster has green eyebrows (matching his scale color), and his helmet is now orange.
- The swords that the brothers use strongly resemble the Klewang, a cutlass-like sword commonly used in Indonesian martial arts.
| Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy | ||
| DLC Content | Crash Bandicoot: Stormy Ascent Crash Bandicoot: Warped: Future Tense | |