Nina Cortex is the "niece" of Doctor Neo Cortex. She sometimes aids her uncle in his quest for world domination, though they have had a recent falling-out due to a failed plot headed by her and Cortex's boss Uka Uka. Nina Cortex was originally created by Traveller's Tales as a playable character in Crash Nitro Kart before development duties of the game were transferred to Vicarious Visions. During her conception it was undecided whether she would be Neo Cortex's daughter or niece, hence the deliberate discrepancies regarding her relationship with Cortex in Crash Twinsanity. Her appearance was based on one of the designers working at Traveller's Tales. An early design of her depicted her wearing a white lab coat similar to Neo Cortex's.
Nina is known to be more ambitious and egotistical than her uncle; even Aku Aku believes that Nina is "a lot smarter than Cortex ever could be." Despite her self-admittedly antisocial demeanor, she is said to have a love for animals. Nina's most distinguishing features are her spring-loaded steel bionic hands, which were given to her by her uncle Doctor Cortex. Nina stands about four feet and eleven inches (1.5 meters) and weighs 110 pounds (50 kilograms).
When Nina Cortex started to show signs of a kind heart, Doctor Cortex modified her arms with bionic parts and enrolled her in Madame Amberly's Private Academy, which he himself attended as a child. She doesn't see her uncle again until the Evil Twins threaten the existence of the N. Sanity Island in Crash Twinsanity, during which Doctor Cortex sneaks her out of the school to assist him in defeating the Evil Twins. When Crash, Cortex and Nina travel to the Tenth Dimension, Nina is kidnapped by the feral Evil Crash and taken to his house for a tea party, where Cortex soon rescues Nina. She later helps in defeating the Evil Twins by destroying the power sources of their Deathbot.
In Crash of the Titans, when Cortex fails to dispose of Crash Bandicoot, Nina is called upon by Uka Uka to replace her uncle as the main antagonist of the story. In the Nintendo DS version of the game, Nina attempts to take over Cortex's plot on her own accord when she realizes that she's merely a henchman. When Crash confronts her inside the Doominator, Nina boards her giant Arachnina Titan and battles Crash, only to lose. When the Doominator is disabled, she is rescued from the falling contraption by Doctor Cortex, who reveals that he is proud that she betrayed him, but proceeds to drop her off at his public school as punishment for doing so, as seen in Crash: Mind over Mutant. When she is eventually visited by Crash and Aku Aku, she angrily accuses Crash of ruining her life and refuses to help them stop Cortex's ongoing plot. When Crash and Aku Aku get desperate, she forces the two to kiss each other and save her science fair project. She then uses the said project to determine the location of Crunch and Brio, who are at the Sludge's Junkyard.
In Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Nina is recruited by Doctor Cortex to kidnap Coco Bandicoot and the Professor. When Spyro and Crash arrive to save Coco and the Professor, Nina chases down Crash, only to soon be captured in a cage. Nina is a playable character in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which she aids Doctor Cortex and N. Gin in trying to take over Von Clutch's MotorWorld.
Nina's introduction in Crash Twinsanity was met with a positive response among critics. James B. Pringle of IGN said that Nina "almost steals the show with her sassy skip and her Bionic Commando-like extension arm" and admitted that he "actually wouldn't mind seeing more of Nina in the future." Nick Valentino of GameZone praised her as "an inventive character", a "very welcome addition to the series" and "one of the many highlights this game has to offer". He also compared her bionic arms to Bionic Commando.
Read more about this topic: Characters Of Crash Bandicoot, Antagonists