Crash Crush

Crash Crush is the ninth level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. It is a sequel of sorts to Crash Dash, in which Crash is again tasked with running away from gargantuan snowballs during the evening. Crash still has to dodge mines and electric barriers, but this time he is assisted by turbo pads scattered around the stage. Players will have to make efficient use of these turbo boosts on the final snowball run, as it contains a Locked Crate that Crash won't have enough time to belly-flop open unless he has a significant lead over the snowball. Shortly after the first checkpoint, there is a brief split path Crash must take if he wants all the crates - this is, interestingly, the only time in the series, pre-Warped, that the player is expected to run away from the camera in a chase level.

In this level, nitro crates are destroyed by the snowball, and there is no nitro switch crate. The problem is that it's possible to get very far ahead of the snowball and so if the snowball running over the nitro crates is outside of the range of the camera, then they won't be destroyed. Therefore, if Crash is very far ahead of the snowball, he must wait to see it hit the nitro crates, in order to get the gem. For whatever reason, this warning is not stated in most walkthroughs of the game.

Trivia

 * Most fans seem to agree that the split path area, featuring an electric fence Crash must slide under directly before a bottomless pit, is the hardest thing in this game, as they claim that they have literally only one one-hundredth of a second to tap X or Crash won't make the jump.
 * As with the other chase levels in this game, Aku Aku is banned from this level, so even if the player has Aku Aku mask(s) when entering the level, the player loses the mask(s).