History YMMV / CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack

** "Bee-Having". Grenade spitting plants, swarms of bees that chase you, two-faced moving statues, and a TON of Nitro boxes make this an extremely tricky level to finish.

** "Plant Food" can be this if you're trying to get the Yellow Gem. Much like "Hang Eight," there's a time limit. However, if you're in a hurry, the Jet Board can be tricky to control. There is also a part of the level where you're wedged between two plants on the Jet Board and you have no choice but to take the hit unless you want to waste time by killing them beforehand. Finally, even if you make it to the exit of the level, if the timer ends, the Gem goes away if you don't reach it on time.

** "Bee-Having". Grenade spitting plants, swarms of bees that chase you, and a TON of Nitro boxes make this an extremely tricky level to finish.

** "Piston It Away" in the final warp room is just as bad, if not worse. There's a DeathCourse about 1/3 of the way into the level, and just like in "Cold Hard Crash", it has crates in it. But unlike the one above, this Death Course leads to an ''alternate exit'', so doing the whole thing means missing all the boxes on the normal path. So how do you get the Gem? Simple. Go through the entire level the normal way, then ''backtrack all the way back to the Death Course''. Bear in mind, the entrance to the Death Course disappears if you die once in the main level, so you have to do all this on a NoDeathRun too. Also, [[GuideDangIt several jumps are tricky to make backwards without leaving certain enemies alive.]] This level is so crazy that {{Speedrun}} videos often have to point out: [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer "No, this is not a Speedrunning trick, this is how they ACTUALLY INTENDED you to 100% this level."]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Whose side is Tiny on? Ripper Roo and the Komodo Bros are easily N. Brio's henchmen, and The N. Gin boss battle is where Cortex's charade definitely starts to fade. But while Tiny could be N. Brio's helper trying to stop Crash, the first in-game hint as to Cortex's true nature is that the boss battle takes place the first time you see a space level; the rest of them take place almost exclusively on Cortex's spaceship in the fifth warp room. And in all games afterwards, Tiny is suddenly Cortex's most [[UndyingLoyalty Undyingly Loyal]] henchman.]]

** Many a fan have admitted to losing the final boss on purpose just so they could hear the full version of [[spoiler: Neo Cortex]]'s theme.

* DisappointingLastLevel: The final warp room introduces the jetpack mechanic, which is featured in two of the last five levels. In contrast to the rest of the game's free-flowing fast-paced platforming, the jetpack uses a completely different control scheme to the rest of the game, is awkward and finicky to use, and requires the player to move extremely slowly and carefully around tightly enclosed areas. Additionally, the camera is positioned directly behind Crash rather than above him facing downwards, as in the other levels, which makes discerning the relative positions of obstacles even harder than it ought to be. The final boss battle against Cortex is based around the jetpack mechanic - as in, the mechanic that was only introduced five levels ago in a game 25 levels long. And the final boss battle is extremely anticlimactic - Crash just chases after him and spin-attacks him three times, and he doesn't even attempt to defend himself or fight back. The only thing that makes the battle challenging is the awkward jetpack controls and the limited time to finish him off.

* GameplayDerailment: Trying to grind some more lives on Turtle Woods? You think the moment when you fall into pit with cyberrats is annoying? Well, there is a legit way which, if doesn't work at first, is possible to pull off with some skill: just jump above the pit through the faux-walls. In fact, this trick was one of the many objects of this game's ToolAssistedSpeedrun, kindly demonstrated [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaCb--OkQB8#t=87s here]]. The same moment in [[spoiler:"Un-Bearable"]] is also avoidable, but this time, with a simple slide jump.

** Death-Warping. Once you collect a crystal or gem, it will remain in Crash's inventory as long as he remains in the level, even after he dies. Since extra lives are handed out like confetti, simply killing yourself the moment you get a gem from an alternate path seems far more appealing than backtracking manually. This also allows you to get the purple gem in Bee-Having without getting through the rest of the secret path and get 2 gems at the same run from Turtle Woods, Hang Eight, Plant Food and Spaced Out when you normally need separate runs for each of them. You can also reduce the run from 3 to just 2 in Air Crash by dying after getting the Death Route gem.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Whose side is Tiny on? Ripper Roo and the Komodo Bros are easily N. Brio's henchmen, and The N. Gin boss battle is where Cortex's charade definitely starts to fade. But while Tiny could be N. Brio's helper trying to stop Crash, the first in-game hint as to Cortex's true nature is that the boss battle takes place the first time you see a space level; the rest of them take place almost exclusively on Cortex's spaceship in the fifth warp room. Not to mention in all games afterwards, Tiny is suddenly Cortex's most [[UndyingLoyalty Undyingly Loyal]] henchman.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Whose side is Tiny on? Ripper Roo and the Komodo Bros are easily N. Brio's henchmen, and The N. Gin boss battle is where Cortex's charade definitely starts to fade. But while Tiny could be N. Brio's helper trying to stop Crash, the first in-game hint as to Cortex's true nature is that the boss battle takes place the first time you see a space level; the rest of them take place almost exclusively on Cortex's spaceship in the fifth warp room.]]

* ScrappyMechanic: So you decided to play it safe and avoided destroying any crates next to the nitros, thinking that you'll be getting them anyway since triggering the green !-block at the end of the stage causes all of them to explode? Too bad, since that only affects the nitros and nothing next to them. Time to start the level again.
** Crash 2 was really big on the whole backtracking thing through some of the levels, but some of them really don't account for Crash having to do that like the boulder levels in which the camera pans out away from Crash so the player can see what he's doing. Many of the really hard gems in the game come from the simple fact that Crash has to backtrack a lot in highly dangerous levels that the player can't easily anticipate the hazards coming.

** [[SlippySlideyIceWorld "Cold Hard Crash"]], a nightmare if you're trying to get the [[OneHundredPercentCompletion "destroy all crates" gem]]. There's ''155 crates'' in this level, more than any other level in the game by far. You have to play through the first half of the level without dying to reach the DeathCourse, a difficult, checkpoint-free path covered in crusher traps and nitro crates, almost entirely on slippery ice. When you reach the end of the death course, you need to activate a switch and backtrack ''all the way to the beginning of the area'' to get the new crate spawned there by the switch, at which point you take the platform back to the main level and complete it. [[GuideDangIt Oh, and there's a single, hard-to-find crate hidden just offscreen in the bonus stage]]. Missed it? DO THE WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN.

** [[SlippySlideyIceWorld "Cold Hard Crash"]], a nightmare if you're trying to get the [[OneHundredPercentCompletion "destroy all crates" gem]]. There's ''155 crates'' in this level, more than any level in the game by far. You have to play through the first half of the level without dying to reach the DeathCourse, a difficult, checkpoint-free path covered in crusher traps and nitro crates, almost entirely on slippery ice. When you reach the end of the death course, you need to activate a switch and backtrack ''all the way to the beginning of the area'' to get the new crate spawned there by the switch, at which point you take the platform back to the main level and complete it. [[GuideDangIt Oh, and there's a single, hard-to-find crate hidden just offscreen in the bonus stage]]. Missed it? DO THE WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN.

* GameplayDerailment: Trying to grind some more lives on Turtle Woods? You think the moment when you fall into pit with cyberrats is annoying? Well, there is a legit way which, if doesn't work at first, is possible to pull off with some skill: just jump above the pit through the faux-walls. In fact, this trick was one of the many objects of this game's ToolAssistedSpeedrun, kindly demonstrated [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaCb--OkQB8#t=87s here]]. Same moment in [[spoiler:"Un-Bearable"]] is also avoidable, but this time, with a simple slide jump.

----

** "Road to Ruin" and "Ruination" are also among the hardest in the game. Swiveling, tilted platforms, very narrow platforms, and monkeys that throw logs at you ([[GuideDangIt though you can always spin the logs away]]). On top of that, there's one bit in Ruination where you find a helpful little ! crate, and a bunch of wire frame boxes ready to appear for you to destroy so you can get the gem! Smack the block, and...no wooden crates, just a field of [[HairTriggerExplosive Nitro Crates]] with barely any room to maneuver. Good luck!

* NightmareFuel: The level "Un-Bearable". Most levels in the game where you run towards the screen have you running from a boulder. However, in this level, you are chased by a large polar bear with a creepy grin.

* ThatOneLevel: [[SlippySlideyIceWorld "Cold Hard Crash"]], a nightmare if you're trying to get the [[OneHundredPercentCompletion "destroy all crates" gem]]. There's ''155 crates'' in this level, more than any level in the game by far. You have to play through the first half of the level without dying to reach the DeathCourse, a difficult, checkpoint-free path covered in crusher traps and nitro crates, almost entirely on slippery ice. When you reach the end of the death course, you need to activate a switch and backtrack ''all the way to the beginning of the area'' to get the new crate spawned there by the switch, at which point you take the platform back to the main level and complete it. [[GuideDangIt Oh, and there's a single, hard-to-find crate hidden just offscreen in the bonus stage]]. Missed it? DO THE WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN.

* GoodBadBugs: The "jump-spin". You jump, then you immediately spin, causing Crash to jump higher than normal. This can be done with the slide-jump (which isn't a glitch) for an even higher jump. This is the source of many SequenceBreaking in the game.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Whose side is Tiny on? Ripper Roo and the Komodo Bros are easily N. Brio's henchmen, and The N. Gin boss battle is where Cortex's masquerade definitely starts to fade. But while Tiny could be N. Brio's helper trying to stop Crash, the first in-game hint as to Cortex's true nature is that the boss battle takes place the first time you see a space level; the rest of them take place almost exclusively on Cortex's spaceship in the fifth warp room.]]

** You can clearly hear Mark Mothersbaugh's Devo roots in the BGM of "Piston It Away".

* CaptainObviousReveal: Cortex being the game's BigBad and betraying Crash can be easily deducted by just looking at the game's subtitle. Never mind in-game, considering how obviously shady he is while interacting with Crash.

* GoodBadBugs:
** The "jump-spin". You jump, then you immediately spin, causing Crash to jump higher than normal. This can be done with the slide-jump (which isn't a glitch) for an even higher jump. This is the source of many SequenceBreaking in the game.

** In the secret path of Un-Bearable, there'll be a checkpoint crate, 2 OneUp crates above, and a BottomlessPit nearby. You can break the two crates and gain 2 lives, then get into the pit, respawn on the checkpoint and get the 2 OneUp crates again. The catch is, if you don't get it yet, OneUp crates normally turn into normal crates after they're broken once, if you die and respawn, but ''not'' for these two.

* NightmareFuel:
** The level "Un-Bearable". Most levels in the game where you run towards the screen have you running from a boulder. However, in this level, you are chased by a large polar bear with a creepy grin.

* ThatOneLevel:
** [[SlippySlideyIceWorld "Cold Hard Crash"]], a nightmare if you're trying to get the [[OneHundredPercentCompletion "destroy all crates" gem]]. There's ''155 crates'' in this level, more than any level in the game by far. You have to play through the first half of the level without dying to reach the DeathCourse, a difficult, checkpoint-free path covered in crusher traps and nitro crates, almost entirely on slippery ice. When you reach the end of the death course, you need to activate a switch and backtrack ''all the way to the beginning of the area'' to get the new crate spawned there by the switch, at which point you take the platform back to the main level and complete it. [[GuideDangIt Oh, and there's a single, hard-to-find crate hidden just offscreen in the bonus stage]]. Missed it? DO THE WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN.
** "Piston It Away" in the final warp room is just as bad, if not worse. There's a DeathCourse about 1/3 of the way into the level, and just like in "Cold Hard Crash", it has crates in it. But unlike the one above, this Death Course leads to an ''alternate exit'', so doing the whole thing means missing all the boxes on the normal path. So how do you get the Gem? Simple. Go through the entire level the nomal way, then ''backtrack all the way back to the Death Course''. Bear in mind, the entrance to the Death Course disappears if you die once in the main level, so you have to do all this on a NoDeathRun too. Also, [[GuideDangIt several jumps are tricky to make backwards without leaving certain enemies alive.]] This level is so crazy that {{Speedrun}} videos often have to point out: [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer "No, this is not a Speedrunning trick, this is how they ACTUALLY INTENDED you to 100% this level."]]

** "Plant Food" can be this if you're trying to get the Yellow Gem. Much like "Hang Eight," there's a time limit. However, if you're in a hurry, the Jet Board can be tricky to control. There is also a part of the level where you're wedged between two plants on the Jet Board and you have no choice but to take the hit unless you want to waste time by killing them beforehand. Finally, even if you make it to the exit of the level, if the timer ends, the Gem goes away if you don't reach it on time.

** The extra box glitch that occurs if you finish a bonus level, then die before all of box count of the bonus level are added to the level's total box count. You'll then respawn in the most recent checkpoint you made (or the start of the level, if you didn't break any) with the boxes between the bonus level and the checkpoint (that you might've broken) intact. That's normal, but what's not normal is that, due to the game still adding the box count after you respawn the crate count now counts both the crates in the bonus level ''and'' any of those crates that you broke before the bonus round, the latter of which normally shouldn't happen. You can then break those same crates again and the game will still count them. This glitch is only possible if you have numerous enough crates in the bonus round and/or the bonus round finish platform brings you quickly enough to the main level. This allows the player to get more crates without taking the harder-to-get ones, allowing for easier box completion. However, it's possible for the box count to reach more than the level expects you to have, making you unable to get the "destroy all crates" gem, so one should watch out for the box count as they respawn and go to the level's finish. Oh, and unless you get another checkpoint, dying after respawning from the above will make the game remember the true amount of crates.

** Death-Warping. Once you collect a crystal or gem, it will remain in Crash's inventory as long as he remains in the level, even after he dies. Since extra lives are handed out like confetti, simply killing yourself the moment you get a gem from an alternate path seems far more appealing than backtracking manually. This also allows you to get 2 gems at the same run from Turtle Woods, Hang Eight, Plant Food and Spaced Out when you normally need separate runs for each of them.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Who's side is Tiny on? Ripper Roo and the Komodo Bros are easily N. Brio's, and N. Gin is where Cortex's masquerade definitely starts to fade. But while Tiny could be N. Brio's helper trying to stop Crash, the first in-game hint as to Cortex's true nature is that the boss battle takes place in the first time you see a space levels; the rest of them take place almost exclusively on Cortex's spaceship in the fifth warp room.]]

** Death-Warping. Once you collect a crystal or gem, it will remain in Crash's inventory as long as he remains in the level, even after he dies. Since extra lives are handed out like confetti, simply killing yourself the moment you get a gem from an alternate path seems far more appealing than backtracking manually. This also allows you to get 2 gems at the same run from Turtle Woods and Hang Eight when you normally need 2 separate runs for each of them.

** Death-Warping. Once you collect a crystal or gem, it will remain in Crash's inventory as long as he remains in the level, even after he dies. Since extra lives are handed out like confetti, simply killing yourself the moment you get a gem from an alternate path seems far more appealing than backtracking manually.