Doctor Nitrus Brio

Doctor Nitrus Brio, 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. Since attending the Academy of Evil, N. Brio has been on Cortex's side. After the events of Crash Bandicoot, N. Brio has turned against Cortex, and in most appearances, he is working against him.

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, N. Brio serves as Cortex's right hand man. As Cortex prepares to brainwash Crash, N. Brio warns Cortex that the Cortex Vortex is not ready yet, but Cortex ignores him.

N. Brio is later fought as the penultimate boss in his laboratory in Castle Cortex on Cortex Island. He attacks Crash by throwing chemicals at him, some of which create blob-like creatures. Once his health is low, N. Brio drinks one of his chemicals to transform into a giant, muscular, green monster. N. Brio's method of attack becomes charging at Crash, who can then jump on N. Brio's head to damage him.

After Cortex's defeat, N. Brio ditches Cortex due to him taking credit of N. Brio's inventions such as the Evolvo-Ray. In the 100% completion ending, it is stated that after Cortex's defeat, N. Brio rediscovered his true passion for bartending.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
In Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, N. Brio first appears as a hologram when he contacts Crash in the Warp Room. He tries to convince Crash to collect Gems instead of Crystals, as the Gems would allow N. Brio to destroy Cortex's space station. N. Brio threatens to send his minions after Crash if he does not comply. As Crash continues to gather Crystals, N. Brio follows through with his promise and recruits Ripper Roo as well as create both Komodo Brothers and Tiny Tiger to try and stop Crash.

Once Crash has collected every gem and defeated Neo Cortex, N. Brio uses the gems to power his laser. He gives Crash the honors of turning on the laser, which blasts the space station, causing it to plummet to Earth.

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

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, for the contest between good and evil, Brio is summoned by Uka Uka to play for the side of evil. Similar to Cortex, N. Brio uses a blue ray gun to stun his opponents. He is also the champion of the Crate Crush levels. The PAL instruction manual suggests that N. Brio may have been the creator of Dingodile.

Crash Twinsanity
In Crash Twinsanity, Brio teams 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
In Crash: Mind over Mutant, N. Brio partners with Cortex to assist in the development of the NV, a personal digital assistant that can control both mutants and bandicoots. He uses recycled parts from the Sludge Junkyard to mass-produce NVs and create a new space station for Doctor Cortex. Throughout Crash's adventure, N. Brio claims to be the inventor of numerous things, including Evil Recycling, Slinkies, and endings (although N. Brio acknowledges that he did not invent LiteBrite). Crash and Aku Aku find N. Brio is found in the Sludge Junkyard, where N. Brio has control over a brainwashed Crunch, who attacks Crash and Aku Aku under Brio's orders. When Crunch is broken free from the NV's control, Brio is forced to reveal the whereabouts of Uka Uka, who is the source of the negative Mojo needed to control those wearing NVs. He reluctantly complies when told to leave the island, but promises that it is not the end.

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.