Slippery Climb

''Very good! You've managed to reach Cortex's castle, but can you climb to the top and find the Red Gem?'' - Level description

Slippery Climb (あらしの こじょう lit. Stormy Old Castle in Japanese) is the twenty-fourth level (including boss fights) and is the seventh level of the third island in Crash Bandicoot and the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy remaster of the first game. In this level, Crash must traverse the outside of Cortex Castle while avoiding a gauntlet of traps and tricky jumps. There is only one checkpoint crate in the whole level, or two if the player enters the N. Brio bonus round. It is the only castle exterior type of level in the game. The Tawna bonus round in the previous level, The High Road, saves at this level.

Level design
Slippery Climb takes place during a stormy night on the exterior of Cortex Castle. Crash must reach the top of the castle by jumping through a series of moving platforms and elevators. The majority of this level requires the player to performed time jumps in order to reach other platforms. There are also times where a bird must be jumped on to reach other platforms. Some of the the enemies that Crash will meet include lab assistants that will throw beakers at him and evil hands that will try to swipe at him. Crash will be able to collect tokens for a Brio bonus round. The red gem can be obtained from this level if the player successfully breaks all of the crates without dying.

Types of crates

 * Aku Aku Crate
 * Arrow Crate - iron (Brio bonus round only)
 * Basic Crate
 * Bounce Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate
 * Crash Crate
 * ! Crate (Brio bonus round only)
 * Iron Crate (Brio bonus round only)
 * Outline Crate (Brio bonus round only)
 * ? Crate
 * Time Crate (1/2/3 seconds)
 * TNT Crate (Brio bonus round only)

Hazard Count

 * Evil Hands: 6
 * Birds: 19
 * Beaker-Throwing Lab Assistants: 2

Stage parameters

 * Aku Aku Crates: 1 (3 in Japanese version)
 * TNT Crates: None.
 * Other Crates: 30 (34 in Japanese version)
 * Tawna Bonus Round Crates: None. (11 in NTSC-J)
 * Brio Bonus Round Crates: 19
 * Cortex Bonus Round Crates: None.
 * Total Crates: 50

Password
This corresponds to a save file at this level (68%, 0 keys, 14 gems).

Translation of Aku Aku Hints in the Japanese Version

 * The second island is also to be finished. Climb the castle, and two researchers are placed there. Cortex's fortress has been spread out. Hurry, Crash!
 * See the trivia below.

Trivia

 * Because of the amount of bottemless pits, the enemy placements, the fact that there is only one checkpoint and the tricky jumping and platforming sections, Slippery Climb is considered by many fans to be one of the hardest levels in the original Crash Bandicoot.
 * Interestingly, despite many high-risk platforming levels (such as Native Fortress and The High Road) becoming considerably harder in the N. Sane Trilogy due to the changes in controls and hit detection, this particular level's N. Sane Trilogy version is of similar difficulty to the original.
 * In the Japanese version, this level was switched with Sunset Vista in the level order, and this level contains a clear gem instead of the red gem. Also, in the Japanese version, this level contains a Tawna bonus round, which is not included in the other versions.
 * In the prototype there are more platforms and the level was harder than the final version.
 * This is the first level of the game and the entire series to contain Lab Assistants.
 * This is the only level to contain a non-Tawna bonus round (in this case Brio) without also containing a Tawna bonus round (except in the Japanese version). Interestingly enough, the cut level Stormy Ascent which has the same theme as Slippery Climb was supposed to be the other such level. That level was going to contain a Cortex bonus round but no Tawna bonus round.

Slippery Climb