Doctor Nitrus Brio

Doctor Nitrus Brio (Japanese: ドクター ニトラス ブリオ, Dokutā Nitorasu Burio), or N. Brio for short, is the former henchman of Doctor Neo Cortex. He first appears in the first game of the series, Crash Bandicoot. Ever since, he has worked against Cortex in a few subsequent appearances or sometimes on his own accord.

Brio is voiced by Brendan O'Brien in the English versions of Crash Bandicoot and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. He is voiced by Mitsuru Ogata in the Japanese versions of the games up to Crash Bash.

Conception and creation
Brio's name is a play on the word "embryo". He was created by Naughty Dog as a foil for Doctor Cortex; "meek to Cortex's strength, logical to Cortex's emotional, successful to Cortex's failure".

Crash Bandicoot
In Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Nitrus Brio is the penultimate boss. He is the first person Doctor Neo Cortex swayed to his side. Both of them studied at Madame Amberley's Academy of Evil where the first Evolvo-Ray was designed. Prone to random fits of stuttering and giggling (seen in Crash Bandicoot 2), his lack of self-esteem let Cortex take credit for the Evolvo-Ray that Brio perfected. While he is initially loyal to Cortex, he does have his doubts over whether Cortex's plans can actually work. However, the uncredited creator of the Evolvo-Ray is betrayed by Cortex and resigns from his position. In the epilogue it is shown rediscovered his true passion for bartending.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Nitrus Brio reappeared in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, attempting to convince Crash Bandicoot to save the world by gathering the Gems he needs to destroy Cortex's space station instead of the Crystals that Cortex needs to control the Earth. When Crash continues to gather Crystals, Brio recruits Ripper Roo and creates the Komodo Brothers and Tiny Tiger to assassinate Crash to keep him from gathering the Crystals for Cortex. Once Crash has collected 42 gems, Brio destroys Cortex's space station and disappears after Crash activates his ray gun. Throughout the game, Nitrus Brio is shown to be prone to random fits of stuttering and giggling.

Crash Twinsanity
Brio does not return again until Crash Twinsanity when he teamed up with N. Tropy to defeat Cortex and gain the Evil Twins Treasure. He appears alongside Tropy in a boss fight, immediately following Crash's escape from N. Gin's battleship, in which Brio (after being instructed by N. Tropy to "get changed") drinks a potion to transform himself into a large, green frog-like monster. He then appeared (in his human form) alongside N. Tropy and N. Gin again in the Evil Twins' fortress, claiming the treasure for themselves. However, they were thwarted by Spyro the Dragon, who had been trapped in the Twins' vault. In this game, he remains mute, and his only response to another character is nodding in reply to N. Tropy.

Crash: Mind over Mutant
Brio rejoins Cortex in Crash: Mind over Mutant, aiding him in the development of a device that controls whoever uses it.

Other appearances
In Crash Team Racing, there is a weapon named after him, N. Brio's Beakers, which cause the player to spin out upon impact with the weapon.

In Crash Bash, for the contest between good and evil, Brio is summoned by Uka Uka to play for the side of evil. The PAL instruction manual suggests that he may have been the creator of Dingodile.

Physical appearance
Brio appears as a taller figure than Doctor Cortex, with an equally tall head, which has two bolts attached to the sides. While Cortex and N. Gin wear white lab coats, Brio wears a green one in most of his appearances, but wears a lab coat similar to that of Doctor Cortex in Crash Twinsanity. Unlike Cortex, who has black hair, Brio has almost no hair to speak of, with his eyebrows being the only pieces of visible hair on his body, though a piece of concept art for Crash Twinsanity suggests that Brio had a strand of blonde hair on his head during his childhood. In Crash Twinsanity, Brio's skin has become more wrinkled, and has noticeably darkened, taking on an almost grayish hue.

Personality
Unlike Doctor Cortex, Nitrus Brio is far from evil in intentions. He is Cortex's lone voice of reason in the first game of the series, but because of his supposedly low self-esteem, his words often go unnoticed by the ignorant Doctor Cortex, who only cares about making more mutated soldiers despite past failures.

Powers and abilities
Brio in his human form is not very powerful physically, relying on a numerous array of potions as a means of attack or increasing his own power level. In the first Crash Bandicoot game, Brio initially attacks by tossing two distinct kinds of potions contained in beakers; when his green beakers are destroyed, they release a medium-sized blob that hops after the intended target. The red beakers explode upon contact with the ground. By consuming a mix of the two beakers, Brio can transform into a large, muscular, green creature with superhuman strength. Brio uses a similar mix to transform into a large, frog-like creature to fight Crash in Crash Twinsanity.

In Crash Bash, Nitrus Brio uses a raygun similar to Cortex's, although this is the only game where he uses one.