Red gem

The Red Gem is one of the coloured Gems first featured in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Some people confuse the pink gem from the original Crash Bandicoot with the red one, however the red gem didn't appear until the next game, possibly "replacing" the pink gem. It is also featured in Crash Bandcoot 3: Warped, Crash Team Racing, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Nitro Kart.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
The red gem can be found on the second level, Snow Go. In order to acquire it, the player must find the secret warp exit in Air Crash which unlocks the hidden entrance to Snow Go, however the gem is visible from the normal level path to tease the player. This backfires, however, as the gem is actually (unintentionally) available to collect from the normal level path by sliding and bouncing from the nearby arrow crate, spinning and belly flopping under the gem, although this is extremely difficult to pull off and it is better to just get the gem normally.

The red gem is required to acquire the Clear Gems on the levels Snow Biz and Spaced Out, the latter requiring all the other coloured gems as well. This is because the red gem path contains certain boxes on the level.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
The red gem returns for the next game and can be found on the second underwater level, Deep Trouble. It is relatively diffucult to acquire. Towards the end of the level, there is a split path, one that goes up and one that goes right. The right path is blocked off by a mix of Iron Crates and TNT Crates, the latter not able to be triggered as they are blocked off by the Iron Crates. There is also a single Outline Crate at the upper left of the cluster. The player must head up to the end of the level, and trigger the ! Crate. This "fills" the Outline Crate, transforming it into a TNT Crate. The player must then backtrack to the cluster and trigger the new TNT Crate. When it explodes, the other TNTs will explode as well, the higher Iron Crates drop down and provides a pathway similar to a Death Route and provides a tricky challenge. The Red Gem awaits at the end as well as an alternate exit to the level. There are regular crates here too so this path is required to get the normal gem for Deep Trouble.

The Red Gem is required to find the second Clear Gem on the level Bone Yard and is one of the five gems needed for the multicolour path in Bug Lite, in the same fashion as Spaced Out. The gems appear in the same order as they did on Spaced Out with the exception of the switch-around between the Purple and Red gems.

Crash Team Racing
The five coloured Gems from the latter two games appear in Crash Team Racing as well as the successor game Crash Nitro Kart. There are five Gem Cups of each colour, with Red being the first and easiest, consisting of Crash Cove, Tiger Temple, Coco Park and Blizzard Bluff, all of which are short, simple races. The player must collect the four Red CTR tokens to unlock the Cup.

The player is awarded the Red Gem upon victory in the Cup. This also unlocks Ripper Roo for the player.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
The Red Gem returns again alongside the other four, Yellow, Green, Purple and Blue, and is found on the twenty-first level, Crash and Burn, on the death route. There are some tricky jumps involving lava and fire, and the last jump is very difficult, it requires the player to slide to the edge, double jump, then tornado to the other end, where the Red Gem and the alternate level exit lies. This Gem is one of the harder ones to obtain and is more difficult than that of Crash 2 & 3, being on a later level in the game.

The Red Gem is required to fully complete Banzai Bonsai, where the Red Gem Path is located.

Crash Nitro Kart
It has the same role as in CTR, except the races are different.