Crash Bandicoot 2 (N-Sane Trilogy) - Level 18: Cold Hard Crash (Crystal/Double Gem)

Behold, the hardest level in Crash 2 to complete, and do you remember why?

Its death route has a challenge Gem at the end of it. However, getting to it means falling down a pit that takes you to the last third of this level instead of the 2nd third you found the death route in.

What makes this painful is that there are also regular crates in this death route, so even if you break them all and then take the challenge Gem in the pit, you still won't be able to get all of the crates in the level because you just skipped them. You would have break all of the crates in the death route, then backtrack to get more after hitting a "!" Crate. THEN you would have to take the death route platform back down to the main route and continue from there to get the rest of its crates before dropping to the last 3rd of the level.

My personal goal, which is the same as it was in the PS1 version, was to STILL TRY AND GET BOTH GEMS IN ONE SITTING!

This was never an easy task, and in N-Sane Trilogy, it felt even harder than before! The death route definitely has an emphasis on "death", because it's full of bottomless pits, wooden and stone smashers, and Nitro crates you have to both skate under and jump over. That part can be made much easier if you can bring an Aku Aku invincibility with you for that, especially since you have to backtrack through everything, too.

Pretty much this:

1. Carefully get through the death route to the end for the challenge Gem
2. Die afterwards and respawn before the death route.
3. Go through the death route again and get every crate this time, backtracking after hitting the ! Crate to hit the remaining crates.
4. Take the death route platform back to the main route and break every crate from there to the very end to get the crate Gem.

One more thing, N-Sane Trilogy also made it easier to find an extremely tricky crate in the Bonus Round. In the PS1 version, finding that crate was actually more frustrating than going through the death route.

So hell yeah. If you managed to do this, give yourself a pat on the back! You might not have to do this ever again! I'd rather not after the many times I died trying to make this video and within the video itself!
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See this brutal stage in its original glory, here!:
   • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Bac...