Ruination

Ruination (からくりの はいきょ lit. Ruins of Mechanism in Japanese) is the nineteenth level and is the fourth level of the fourth warp room in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. This level follows a theme similar to Road to Ruin.

Level design
Ruination takes place during a stormy night in an ancient set of ruins. Crash travels along a path full of stone structures such as rotating pillars and giant statues carved out of rock. This level is filled with many different perils, including platforms that rotate and fall when Crash steps on them. There are also a wide variety of enemies in the level including rats, chameleons, and gorillas that toss logs at Crash.

Types of crates

 * Aku Aku Crate
 * Arrow Crate - iron
 * Basic Crate
 * Bounce Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate
 * ! Crate
 * Iron Crate
 * Locked Crate (bonus round only)
 * Nitro Crate
 * Nitro Switch Crate
 * Outline Crate
 * ? Crate
 * TNT Crate

Enemies and obstacles

 * Rats - These rats will appear abundantly throughout the level, and usually remain motionless when Crash comes across them. He can defeat them easily by spinning them away or jumping on them. Sometimes, they will appear on rotating platforms, making it harder to avoid them and jumping on the platform at the same time.
 * Monkeys - These monkeys will attack by jumping back and forth along the path. They are usually seen jumping over nitro crates and TNT crates. Crash can defeat them by jumping on them while they are on the ground or spin them away.
 * Lizards - These lizards simply walk back and forth, causing Crash to lose a life if he touches one of them. They cannot be defeated with Crash's normal spin or jump because of the frill they have, protecting them, but rather by sliding into them.
 * Gorillas - These gorillas attack Crash by throwing logs at him. He can avoid these logs by either spinning them away when they approach him, or by jumping over them. Crash can defeat the gorillas by spinning them away when he gets close to them.
 * Fire-Breathing Tikis - These statues attack Crash by venting flames out of their gaping mouths. Crash can avoid them by either jumping over their line of fire or by waiting until they momentarily cease their fire breath. Some of the tikis pan across the pathway, while others are face one direction and are still.

Translation of Aku Aku Hints in the Japanese Version

 * Papa Bear broke the planks and sank. Fall down there intentionally, don't be afraid.

Trivia

 * As it was shown in the E3 preview video, this level used to have a stone signpost, which rose from the abyss, showing an "easy" and "hard" path. Although the signpost has been removed in the final release, the code and data for it still remain in the game's files and is completely functional. The "hard" path since became the green gem path.
 * This level's gem path is accessible without the green gem by doing a glitched high jump: pressing while moving right then quickly pressing  +.
 * This is one of only four levels in the Crash platforming series from Crash 2 onwards that has more crates on the bonus path than the main path, the others being Night Fight and Spaced Out, also from Crash 2, and Drip, Drip, Drip from Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure.
 * The first switch crate in the level does not need to be activated as it only makes nitro crates appear, activating the nitro switch crate at the end will destroy them and they will count towards your crate tally regardless. If you return to this switch crate after hitting the nitro switch, all of the outline crates will be gone and activating the switch crate will do nothing.
 * This level has the most crates in the bonus round in the game, with 49 crates.
 * It also has the most floating Aku Aku masks (masks not located inside of a crate) in the game, with 3.
 * This is one of the three levels in the game that happens in the dark but still has light (apparently coming from the moon). The others are Road to Ruin and Totally Bear.