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Nitrus Brio, commonly called N. Brio, is an evil scientist and recurring character in the Crash Bandicoot series. He is commonly credited as the inventor of the Evolvo-Ray, a device that turns ordinary animals into soldiers for Neo Cortex. N. Brio first appeared in the original Crash Bandicoot game as Cortex's chief henchman, but his allegiance has varied throughout the series since. He commonly uses potions both as weapons and to transform himself.

Crash Bandicoot
N. Brio debuted in the series with the first Crash Bandicoot game. He is the chief henchman of Neo Cortex, as well as the inventor of the Evolvo-Ray used to create Crash Bandicoot and the other animal characters in the game. N. Brio first appears in the introductory cutscene. During Crash's creation, he warns Cortex of the instability of the Cortex Vortex, a machine intended to brainwash Crash into being loyal to them. He is ignored, and Crash escapes.

N. Brio is also the fifth boss of the game. Crash must defeat him in order to make it through Castle Cortex and rescue his girlfriend Tawna Bandicoot. N. Brio's boss fight takes place in his laboratory inside the castle. Each phase, he throws two types of potions. The first type spawns blobs that chase Crash around, while the second only damages Crash on contact. For each blob defeated, a point is deducted from N. Brio's life bar. Eventually, he drinks one of his potions and transforms into a large, green monstrous form. His pounding the ground causes stones to fall from the ceiling, which Crash can jump from to land on Brio's head and defeat him.

In the game's 100% ending epilogue, N. Brio returns to his old passion, tending bar, following the defeat and disappearance of Cortex.

N. Brio reprised his role in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which includes a remake of the first game. Some animations were added in his boss fight. Blobs spray slime at Brio's face to deduct health. He drinks both potions to transform himself. He also backs into his desk and falls out the window upon defeat.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
N. Brio returns as the second boss of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Having fallen out with Cortex during the events of a previous game, Brio now rejoins him in his plot to conquer the multiverse. Brio is the chief antagonist of the Tranquility Falls area, where he has made its inhabitants more deadly with his potions. He communicates with Crash and Coco Bandicoot using potions scattered throughout the levels, challenging them to defeat his creations and reach his boss arena in Trouble Brewing. He also implies that he intends to mutiny against Cortex with their help. Though he attacks one of the bandicoots in Potion Commotion, a version of Tawna Bandicoot from an alternate dimension interrupts him, causing him to miss his shot.

As a "reward" for surviving his challenge, N. Brio tests his potions and his strength against the bandicoots. During his boss fight, he throws potions that create expanding rings of fire. He also creates blobs that chase the player character around. Defeating a blob damages N. Brio. Eventually, he will drink a potion and transform into his monstrous form. Rings of fire are created where he pounds the ground. After some time, he becomes stunned. The player character can use the Quantum Mask 'Akano's power to knock him over the edge of the arena, defeating him. Once beaten, N. Brio transforms into another, winged form and prepares to attack Crash and Coco. Instead, he lays an egg and flies off, mortified. Defeating N. Brio opens the Mosquito Marsh world on the Dimensional Map. It also unlocks the N. Verted Mode for all non-Flashback Tape levels.

A past version of N. Brio appears when Crash, Coco and Cortex travel back in time to Cortex Island in 1996. The past version of Cortex orders Brio to guard the castle against future Cortex, whom he believes is an impostor; N. Brio instead makes an excuse and leaves. Eventually, the past versions of Cortex and N. Brio subject the past Crash to the Evolvo-Ray, exactly as it occurred in the original Crash Bandicoot.

N. Brio assists Cortex with his experiments on Crash and Coco during the Flashback Tapes, extra levels that contextualize events prior to the first and second Crash Bandicoot games. He is routinely humiliated by Cortex throughout their conversations. Brio runs some of the experiments without Cortex's knowledge. During Crash's tapes, Brio plots insubordination against Cortex, intending for Crash to be his ally. These plans are never realized, however, since Crash escapes the castle.

In the game's regular ending, the egg N. Brio laid can be seen on Crash's couch. In the 100% completion ending, N. Brio is put on display in the taxidermy wing of Ripper Roo's Curious Cabinet of Curiosities after being mistaken for a flying squirrel.

Other mainline titles
N. Brio returned to the series in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, a sequel to the original Crash Bandicoot game. Double-crossed by Cortex, N. Brio now opposes him and his secret plot to use crystals to enslave the planet. N. Brio and his allies (Ripper Roo, the Komodo Brothers, and Tiny Tiger) all work to stop Crash from gathering crystals for Cortex. When Crash first collects a gem, N. Brio appears before him as a hologram. He explains that he can use the power of all 42 gems to power a laser beam and destroy Cortex's space station. Once all crystals and gems in the game are collected, he invites Crash to activate the laser, destroying the station. N. Brio reprises this role in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy ' s remake of the game.

In Crash Twinsanity, N. Brio shares his boss fight with N. Tropy. The fight takes place on an iceberg at the end of the level High Seas Hi-Jinks. Once per phase, N. Brio will emerge from the water in a monstrous form, chasing Crash around by bouncing on his stomach for a few seconds. He cannot be damaged, only avoided. He then returns to the water for N. Tropy's phase to begin. N. Brio later appears briefly in a cutscene just before the final boss fight against the Evil Twins. He, N. Tropy, and N. Gin all claim the Twins' stolen treasure for themselves, only to be attacked by Spyro the Dragon.

In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, N. Brio partners back up with Cortex to create the NV, a virtual assistive device that mind-controls its wearers. They also betray and capture Uka Uka, using his bad mojo to power the devices. N. Brio creates their base, the Space Head, and mass-produces NVs by recycling scrap from the Junkyard. The devices are then delivered to mutants all across Wumpa Island, as well as the Bandicoot family. Coco and Crunch Bandicoot are both controlled by the NV. Though Crash and Aku Aku free Coco from NV control, Crunch flees to the Junkyard, where he and N. Brio share a boss fight in the ruins of N. Gin's Weapons Factory. After Crunch is defeated, Crash can jack him to use his powers and take out N. Brio, ending the fight. N. Brio accidentally reveals the news of Uka Uka's capture to Aku Aku, then leaves. Later, Cortex uses some of N. Brio's mutation formula to power himself up before his boss fight, becoming a mutant himself.

Spin-off titles
Though N. Brio does not himself appear in Crash Team Racing, the weapon N. Brio's Beaker is named after him.

Nitrus Brio is one of the possible playable characters in Crash Bash, summoned to play for Uka Uka's team in a contest between good and evil. According to the North American version manual, he is also back in partnership with Neo Cortex. Like Cortex, N. Brio has a long throwing range in Crate Crush minigames and can fire a laser in Tank Wars. If the player beats the game as N. Brio, the Evil ending is earned, wherein Uka Uka steals the crystals and uses their power to doom the Earth. In the added epilogue of the Japanese version of Crash Bash, Brio, emboldened by his victory in the tournament, plans to take over the world with an ill-conceived hybrid of a kangaroo and a bandicoot. Said version also implies that he created Rilla Roo using Ripper Roo's genes.

N. Brio was added as a playable character in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled during the Spooky Grand Prix, which was released on October 4th, 2019. He can be purchased from the Pit Stop for 1500 Wumpa Coins. His default Driving Style is Acceleration, and he uses Uka Uka as his Invincibility Mask.

In Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, N. Brio was a boss character. He attacked by beating his chest to make blocks fall from the sky to form obstacles, and by throwing large boulders at the player character. Like all bosses, he was defeated by chasing him and depleting his health with Boom Berries, then using the Portal Weapons crafted beforehand to send him back to his own dimension.

N. Brio is a playable character in Crash Team Rumble. He is in the Blocker role, which makes an N. Brio player's main goal blocking players on the other team from depositing Wumpa Fruit in their bank or activating gem platforms. His moveset and stats are listed in the table below.

Other media
Brio is a minor character in the original Crash Bandicoot manga, which follows an abridged version of the first game's events. Brio appears in the first chapter, but does not take a prominent story role until the second. Brio and Cortex attempt to thwart Crash's plans to rescue his friend Tawna from Cortex Castle. However, Cortex wastes all of Brio's potion by drinking it, then accidentally shoots him with his blaster. As a last resort, Brio initiates the castle's self-destruct sequence, though everybody survives.

N. Brio appeared briefly in the Crash Team Rumble promotional comic titled "Catbat". He and Cortex are responsible for the creation of Catbat. They were intended to be another of their animal soldiers, but N. Brio failed to properly secure their straps and couldn't hold them down, allowing them to escape.

Human form
Nitrus Brio is a human character whose most prominent features are his tall, bald head and two bolts embedded in his temples. He is typically depicted with fair skin, large brown eyebrows, a protruding lower lip, and a snaggletooth. His body, arms and legs are thin.

In Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bash, N. Brio wears a long green lab coat with teal sleeves, a triangular red coat collar and red boots. In these games only, he also has a five o'clock shadow above his upper lip. In Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy ' s remakes of the first two games, his collar is green and his boots are teal instead.

In Crash Twinsanity, N. Brio wears a dull green lab coat with a black hem and stripe down the side in the same style as Neo Cortex's coat. His skin appears darker, and his eyebrows are nearly black.

In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, his coat is dull green and double-buttoned with a black sash around his waist. He also wears black boots and gloves.

In It's About Time and Rumble, N. Brio wears a light green coat with a purple stain on the collar. He also wears teal pantashoes, as well as a teal, silver-buckled belt with holsters for his potions. In these games, his eyes are yellow-tinged.

Other forms
N. Brio is a character that often transforms himself using potions. He has taken a few distinct forms throughout the series, though they are all large, green-skinned, and retain the bolts in his skull.

In Crash Bandicoot, N. Brio transforms into a muscular version of himself. This form has a large upper body and thin legs. It returned in On the Run!, named his "mutagen" form, and was his main form in the game. In It's About Time and Rumble, back spines were added to the design. He briefly takes on a similar form in one of the stylized animated cutscenes of Mind Over Mutant. He becomes larger and his entire body glows green, but his clothes stay on.

N. Brio has had two other unique forms in the series. In Crash Twinsanity, he takes on a less humanoid form with a large mouth, a large-bellied body that he bounces around with, sharp teeth, clawed digits and three-toed feet. It's About Time features a winged, pterodactyl-like form for Brio seen only in a cutscene after he is defeated.

In the original Crash Bandicoot only, N. Brio's monster form has teal cuffs around his wrists, red boots, and gray underpants. In the N. Sane Trilogy, the wrist cuffs are absent. In It's About Time and Rumble, his shoes break, revealing red socks with white polka-dots underneath. In On the Run!, he wears a thin white spandex top, patched purple shorts, and pink boots, all of which are torn. He also has a smiley-face and purple triangle sticker on his left pectoral. In Twinsanity and Mind Over Mutant, his outfits do not change when he transforms.

Personality
In the first Crash Bandicoot game, N. Brio displays a meek personality. Though he is wary of continuing further experiments with the Evolvo-Ray and Cortex Vortex, which had previously produced failures, his objections are overruled by Cortex and he follows orders anyway. According to the manual, Brio's low self-esteem allowed for Cortex to steal the credit for his invention, the Evolvo-Ray. In the game's epilogue, he is revealed to have a passion for bartending.

More of N. Brio's character was shown in Cortex Strikes Back. Having left Cortex, he seeks revenge against him for some previous slight. He giggles near constantly while speaking and has a noticeable twitch. He also has a stutter, a trait that returned in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy ' s remake of Cortex Strikes Back, and each game after it so far in which he has dialogue. N. Brio is hostile to Crash Bandicoot at the beginning of the game, but is friendly by the end. Once Crash defeats Cortex and acquires every gem, he invites him and Coco Bandicoot to activate the laser that destroys Cortex's space station.

The North American manual of Crash Bash describes N. Brio as a typical mad scientist. The European version manual lists him as "the megalomaniac who refuses to give up".

In Crash Twinsanity, N. Brio is motivated by the prospect of finding the Evil Twins' treasure to ally with N. Tropy and N. Gin, attacking Crash.

In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, N. Brio has a more forward personality compared to other games. Despite partnering with Cortex once again, he remains bitter over his past mistreatment, particularly that Cortex took the credit for the Evolvo-Ray. To compensate, Brio obsessively reminds others of the things he's created, even taking credit for things he could not possibly have invented, such as and the. He also tends to go off on tangents. At one point, this causes him to accidentally reveal crucial details of Cortex's evil plan to Crash and Aku Aku. N. Brio is shown to transform when agitated, and drinks mutagen to calm down. His parting line, "Why don't people take me seriously?", later became a catchphrase of sorts for him, returning in Nitro-Fueled and It's About Time.

In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, N. Brio is twitchy and tends to laugh maniacally. He also claims to have invented the Skull Rider, a callback to his personality in Mind Over Mutant.

In It's About Time, emphasis is placed on N. Brio's character as a scientist. He frames his challenge to Crash and Coco as a "test" with a reward at the end, complimenting their dedication to science. He also exclaims "For science!" during his boss fight. N. Brio is also treacherous. He joins Cortex's evil plot with the explicit intent of betraying him later. Though he makes a point of calling the bandicoots his (only) friends, he later attacks them in Potion Commotion and Trouble Brewing. In the Flashback Tapes, it is revealed that N. Brio plotted insubordination against Cortex as early as during Crash's creation. Though he resents Cortex and the menial chores he's tasked with, N. Brio never confronts Cortex directly.

In Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!, N. Brio in his mutagen form is described as angry and with a fondness for spandex.

In the manga adaptation of the first Crash Bandicoot game, Brio is a foil to Cortex in much the same way that Aku Aku is to Crash. While Cortex is easily distracted and flamboyant, Brio is more serious and focused on stopping Crash: he is the one who summoned Spiked Saucers to stop Crash, threw potions to attack him and caused the castle to self-destruct. He is often frustrated by Cortex's antics.

Creation and early development
Nitrus Brio was created by Naughty Dog as a boss character for the first Crash Bandicoot game, fought early on in Cortex Castle. His personality was designed as a foil to Neo Cortex. His talent in biology was also made to complement Cortex's technological abilities.

The earliest known artwork of Nitrus Brio, produced by concept artist Charles Zembillas, was first made public in The Crash Bandicoot Files: How Willy the Wombat Sparked Marsupial Mania. It is dated to January of 1995. By this point, his design was essentially finalized to what would appear in the final game. Other concept art included in the book depicts Brio without bolts in his head; though it is undated, it suggests earlier work was done. A number of concepts for Nitrus Brio's monster form were done as well. Potential design elements included spiky claw and club arms, a cobra body, tentacles, a metal chest plate, and neck spines. Eventually, the simpler muscular form seen in the final game was decided on.

N. Brio's early personality was established by February 20, 1995 and changed little throughout development. He was designed to be a foil to Cortex, with their dynamic being compared to that of Spock and Captain Kirk of Star Trek. Where Cortex was obstinate and emotional, N. Brio would be calm and logical, to the point of seeming emotionless. He was worshipfully devoted to Cortex, who treated him with contemptuous affection in return. Though N. Brio attempted to be a "voice of reason" to Cortex, he was frequently ignored and would take the blame when their plans went awry. When this happened, he would voluntarily tighten the bolts in his head as self-punishment.

A history of N. Brio was also provided in the February draft. The only child of two research scientists, he excelled in school and soon became arrogant, considering his peers as inferiors. This changed when Neo Cortex enrolled in the same high school as him. Despite being just six years old, Cortex competed intensely with Brio and bested him every time. By the end of the semester, Brio lost all of his self-confidence, viewing Cortex as his intellectual superior. Two years later, the pair would enact a plot to destroy the town where they lived in a nuclear explosion. They then traveled the world for many years in search of greater knowledge and a place to live, eventually settling on the archipelago then known as the Lemurian Islands.

Cortex and N. Brio together created an army of animal soldiers, including Willy the Wombat (the working name of Crash Bandicoot). In the February draft's script of the game's opening cutscene, portraying Willy's creation, N. Brio accompanies Cortex, but has no speaking role. The Evolvo-Ray's flawed creations are attributed to Cortex tampering with N. Brio's design. Believing that Cortex could do no wrong, and that the other henchmen were doomed to fail to stop Willy, N. Brio would use the Evolvo-Ray on himself in an attempt to increase his own intelligence. Instead, he'd devolve into the vicious "Brio-Monster".

A later edition of the bible, published May 5, 1995, added that Cortex and Brio left a trail of destruction wherever they traveled, arriving on the islands to flee from the law. No further changes were made to N. Brio's character or history until August 15, 1995. In this version, Cortex installed the bolts in Brio's skull, which he would tighten to punish him. Instead of using the Evolvo-Ray to transform himself, Brio would instead drink a mutagen he'd designed to replace both the Evolvo-Ray and Cortex Vortex. Tawna Bandicoot would spend her time as prisoner in the castle attempting to reason with Brio. In the revised script for the opening cutscene, Cortex addresses N. Brio directly to criticize him for the Evolvo-Ray's failures.

In the final game, N. Brio remained as Cortex's right hand and as a boss at Castle Cortex. In his fight, he transforms himself using a potion. N. Brio would also be given spoken lines in the game's opening cutscene. Though his dynamic with Cortex is evident in their dialogue, their history together was not included in the game. N. Brio and Tawna never interact, either.

Development in later appearances
The sequel to the original game, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, depicted N. Brio as somewhat manic in contrast to the stoic personality with which he was originally designed. Naughty Dog chose to develop his character further because they felt Cortex's bullying had made Brio "surprisingly sympathetic".

In Crash: Mind Over Mutant, N. Brio's character was written with the voice actor, Maurice LaMarche, in mind. He was included in the story in part because writer Chris Mitchell was fond of his "personality issues". The developers at Radical Entertainment also hoped that the return of an older character from the series would be popular with fans.

In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, N. Brio's reptilian form was created by concept artist Nicholas Kole as a potential transformation during his boss fight. Toys for Bob, the game's developers, determined that his "brute" form from the first game worked better for gameplay. The design was used for his post-boss fight cutscene instead.