N. Sanity Beach

Are you ready to start the adventure to save Tawna? - Level description

N. Sanity Beach is the first level in Crash Bandicoot, the first game in the series.

Level design
Crash washes up on the shores of N. Sanity Beach after plunging from the window of Doctor Neo Cortex's laboratory. Crash performs a single spin, informing the player of Crash's basic attack, and the level begins. The sandy path is relatively simple and introduces the player to Wumpa Fruit, crabs, turtles, bottomless pits, lives (but not inside a Crash Crate), Basic Crates, ? Crates, Bounce Crates, Arrow Crates and Aku Aku Crates. At the end of the path, there will be a stone wall that the player must scale which contains crates and many Wumpa Fruit. There is also a single Iron Crate which serves no apparent purpose.

At the top, the player will see their first Checkpoint Crate, and will come to another short sandy path that eventually forks in two. The left path contains two crates, but the right path contains a long crate bridge, the main challenge of the level. The bridge is made up of Outline Crates, the first in the series, and are "filled" using a nearby ! Crate, also the first seen in the series, turning each crate into a basic one, except the penultimate crate turns to a Crash Crate. This introduces the player to the concept of backtracking, as the player is required to head down one path then head back for the other if they seek the Gem. This concept is revised in a more extreme, difficult fashion later on in Cortex Power. After the paths join back up, the player will see the exit.

Gem
There are 49 crates in this level. No coloured gem is required to get the gem, so this will likely be the first (or one of the first) Gems the player will find. Like all levels on the first island, a regular Clear Gem is the player's reward for breaking every box without dying.

The gem is a fairly easy task, as the path is very simple. A road fork is present, but both paths are short so this doesn't create many problems. However, on the right path, there is a crate bridge that complicates matters. Breaking each box on the bridge, one by one, is not an easy task. However, running straight across the bridge with Aku-Aku invincibility (conveniently there are three Aku-Aku crates in this level, all before the bridge) will break each box as you run, making this hard task easy.

Tips and strategies

 * There are three Aku Aku crates in this level. With the 3 Aku Aku power up, it is possible to run straight to the crate bridge and cross it before the power up wears off. The power up will cause all of the crates to break as you run across them, avoiding the difficult task of breaking them one by one. If you stop running on the bridge with the power up active, you will fall as the crates beneath you break.

Appearances in other games

 * The beach itself is also featured in Crash Team Racing as the very first area visited in the game's Adventure Mode. It houses the tracks Crash Cove, Roo's Tubes, Mystery Caves and Sewer Speedway. The champion racer of them is none other than Ripper Roo. The beach also has the crystal challenge, Skull Rock.


 * It appears in the "non-100% ending" of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, as Crash and Coco lie on the shore and wonder whatever became of the Cortex Vortex, with the Cortex Vortex coming into view as the end credits appear.


 * In Crash Twinsanity, the beach is where you start at on N. Sanity Island.