Tomb Time

Tomb Time (ピラミッド けんせつちゅう lit. Pyramid Under Construction in Japanese) is the ninth level and is the fourth level of the second warp room in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. Crash is warped back to Ancient Egypt in this level. This level introduces players to common elements in the Egyptian levels such as slippery oil-covered floors and switches that open doors.

There is a secret path that is normally accessed with the purple gem. It allows the player to get all boxes in the level and contains a secret clear gem. However, the path can be accessed without the purple gem by long-jumping left from the middle of the stretch before the stairs to the end of the level, and then long-jumping across the platforms. An extra life trick can be performed here by breaking the crates at the start of the level and then entering time trial. After this the player should kill Crash (or pause the game and restart the trial) and then repeat the process. Since no lives are lost in time trial mode, this can be done unlimited times.

Types of crates

 * Aku Aku Crate
 * Basic Crate
 * Bounce Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate - wooden
 * Crash Crate
 * ! Crate
 * Iron Crate
 * Outline Crate (purple gem path only)
 * ? Crate
 * Time Crate (1/2/3 seconds)
 * TNT Crate (bonus round only)

Translation of Aku Aku Hints in the Japanese Version

 * The bright light spots are traps. Poisonous arrows will fly from the left. What will happen?
 * If you break all the boxes in a stage, you get a diamond. Head for perfect!
 * Have you played a time attack? Start by getting the yellow clock. You can get trophies.
 * If you get five trophies, go to the center of the Warp Room. The shocking fact will turn round.
 * The left door is opened with the purple diamond. Go to find it.

Trivia

 * The name of this level could be a reference to Tool Time, the show-within-a-show from the sitcom Home Improvement.
 * Two extra lives can be found on each side of the Cortex/Sphinx head at the start of the level using the bazooka.
 * A few ! crates in this level activate moving platforms. This is the only level in this game that contains such crates that do something other than filling in outline crates, which were also found in a few levels in Crash Bandicoot, most notably The Lab.
 * The purple gem path was originally a death route, and the gem path was in Gone Tomorrow instead.
 * This is the only level in the game where (without exploiting a glitch) it's impossible to break all boxes the first time the player enters it.
 * Using the extra items cheat, however, it is possible to get the purple gem before entering this level, making it possible to break all boxes the first time.
 * Tomb Time and Sphynxinator are the only levels with the same developer time. Interestingly, these are both Egyptian-themed levels.