Night Fight

Night Fight is the twenty-third level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Crash returns to the jungle, for the first time since Turtle Woods and The Pits from the first Warp Chamber Room Area, but this time, it's almost unfathomably dark! Too dark, in fact, for him to see....without the assistance of the fireflies scattered throughout the level! Each firefly's light only lasts for a limited time, so players must make haste in traversing the level, lest they be left to navigate pure pitch blackness. (In this respect, it is a modified form of the level format used in Lights Out and Fumbling in the Dark, from the original game.) Along the way, he'll have to dodge weird possum things, weird lizard things, and Cortex's patented Hover-O-Spike-O-Periscope-O-Pods.

The level design itself is a mostly straightforward affair, complicated slightly by a split path after the first Checkpoint. The right path continues the main level path, but on the left, if the player is not inept, will be a special and exciting Death Route! A relatively simple series of platforming challenges will bring the player to a quasi-hidden Clear Gem. Later, very near the end of the path, are a pair of crates, necessary to getting the other Clear Gem, obviously, but finishing off the Death Route will have skipped a bunch of crates on the right route. Instead, the easiest way to get the crate Gem is to take the right path, and then at the end where the two paths rejoin, backtrack a bit on the left path until the player reaches the crates and, conveniently, a waiting firefly. (On another note, even the Bonus Round in this stage involves the firefly mechanic. It shouldn't be too hard if the player hurries enough, though it is helpful to clear out the pair of Bounce Crates before taking the second firefly, unless the player likes blind jumping and, mayhap, dying.)

Trivia

 * Continuing the trend of the darkness levels from the first Crash game (Lights Out and Fumbling in the Dark), this level's name is based on what parents around the world often do after their children are in bed, and presumed to be asleep, though obviously they can't sleep through it, and it will scar them for life, forever.
 * Alternately, it could be a sly reference to the 1985 computer boxing simulation video game Fight Night, developed by rival Sydney Development Corporation. The game pitted the player against a roster of twelve enemy boxers, offensive stereotypes from around the globe, a decision that proved unpopular so no other boxing games would ever attempt this again. Despite that misstep, it remains a notorious landmark of its genre, making it extremely likely that Naughty Dog would've named an unrelated jungle level after it.
 * Coincidentally, the words "night" and "fight" are the same, except for one letter. It is unknown if Naughty Dog realized this odd coincidence when they named the level, though probably not.
 * This level proved so popular with fans and non-fans alike that a firefly-based level would be included in all subsequent Crash games, with the notable and unfortunate exceptions of Crash Team Racing, Crash Bash, Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure, Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, Crash Nitro Kart, Crash Nitro Kart 2, Crash Twinsanity, Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash Boom Bang!, Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind over Mutant, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2. They may appear in Crash Bandicoot: Bandicoot Warrior, as well, though this is unknown, since it doesn't exist.