Un-Bearable

Un-Bearable is the fifteenth level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Once again, Crash finds himself fleeing from imminent death, but this time it's not boulders or snowballs, but rather, vicious rampaging adult polar bears! The final giant bear is much faster than the others, but Crash is able to escape using an ursine trick of his own, riding Polar for the rest of the level!

This level contains two secrets that set it apart from other chase levels. When the giant polar bear breaks the giant bridge and falls into the abyss below, Crash should counterintuitively follow him, leaping off the three remaining planks into black inky nothingness. He will be transported to a secret route, a side-scrolling jungle area introducing Crash to rifle-toting Lab Assistants and metal-armored armadillos. Traversing this route is necessary to break all this stage's crates. (A Nitro Switch Crate is located further down the main path of the level - it might be helpful to activate this before returning to the gap to take the plunge into this secret area.) Much later in the level, after outrunning the last polar bear and being flung from Polar's back, Crash can slide-jump across the gap and backtrack until he encounters Polar again, who will warp him to the secret sixth warp room with Totally Bear newly unlocked!

Trivia

 * "Un" is French for the English number "one". Therefore, one can deduce that this level's name refers to the fact that only one enemy bear in this level is able to run reasonably fast, the last, obviously. The rest are pathetic weaklings.
 * Many fans believe the second polar bear encountered in this stage is actually the Bearminator from fan-favorite game Crash Bash.
 * Many fans believe that the polar bears encountered here are actually Polar's family, angry at Crash for using the adorable cub for his own nefarious purposes. If this is true, it can be assumed that the second bear is his mother, while the final bear is his awful cannibalistic father. The first is his sexy older cousin.
 * Many fans believe the second polar bear encountered in this stage is actually Pura's stepfather.
 * Many fans believe that the polar bears encountered here are actually Polar, time-travelling back to this point in his life from various points in the future to take out Crash Bandicoot before that blasted marsupial ruins his life. The first is young college fratboy Polar, the second is middle-aged Polar, and the third is an angry geriatric Polar, so fed up with what his life has become that he intends to completely wipe out his child self.