Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (N-Sane Trilogy) - Level 20: Tomb Wader (Crystal/Gem/Blue Gem)

One of the most infamous levels in the entire game makes its grand PS4 return. I decided to take Coco through this Egyptian level instead of Crash because of something I found extremely bizarre with her, here.

When you use Coco in the river levels of Crash 1 and 2, her “death” animation for falling in deep water just has her floating around, but not in any danger. Blowing up Crash 2’s jetboard in those levels, as well as her own jet ski in Crash 3, like usual, has her also tread water, but nonetheless completely fine, too (though now she’ll give you a mean look for destroying her favorite jet ski).

Clearly, unlike Crash, Coco knows how to swim without scuba gear. HOWEVER, in Tomb Wader, AND IN THIS LEVEL ONLY, if you let Coco tread too deep into the water when it rises, SHE WILL INSTANTLY DROWN ANYWAY!

Mercifully, her drowning animation is much less graphic than Crash’s in this game, as well as her own in Wrath of Cortex. I think they had to go with this so that she doesn’t have a clear advantage over Crash in just this one level, but this has still left me scratching my head for months, because I’ve never encountered a case of water behavior just like this in any game I’ve played, before. Perhaps this level’s water is just poisonous to bandicoots?
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With that in mind, make sure you don’t drown on your way to the platform that takes you to the Blue Gem’s Skull Route. Right after you get that Gem, then you can drown yourself and go back to the main route to also get the Crystal and Normal Gem, as well.

Also, is it just me, or does the water here look so... silky?
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See my original PS1 run through this rather-infamous level, here!:
   • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped - Level 20:...