The Eel Deal

The Eel Deal is the tenth level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. It is the first sewer level in the game, introducing Crash to a series of new obstacles including spinning fan blades, pyromaniacal Lab Assistants (introduced in Sewer or Later), rolling barrels of toxic waste, mutant rats, Scrubbing Bubbletrons, and electric eels that will shock Crash if he steps into the water at the wrong time.

Crash will encounter two forks in this level's path. At the first, the right fork seems to lead to a useless dead-end room, filled with Nitro Crates; clever players, however, will see this field of greenness and take the hint, as they can walk straight through the back wall to a secret path that takes them to the Green Gem. They will still need to return to the fork and take the left path to continue in the level. At the second fork in the road, the right path leads to the end of the level, but players will have to take a brief detour to the left to find one of the few almost-slightly-hidden Crystals in the game.

Trivia

 * The level's title is possibly a pun on "the real deal", a popular saying referring to something that is genuine or authentic.
 * The fish commonly referred to as "electric eels" in the real world are not, in fact, actually eels, but rather, knifefish. Fans believe that Naughty Dog was actually aware of this mistake, but opted to use "eel" in the title anyway, as there is no synonym for "deal" in the English language that rhymes with "knifefish".
 * Supposedly, the beta version of Crash 2 contained an extra crate in the Bonus Round, off screen and only reachable by jumping on top of the stack of iron crates.
 * Outside of the bonus round, there are no pits in this level, other than a small pit that leads to another section of the level, so this is the first non-boss level in the series where all types of death can be protected by Aku Aku.
 * In a beta version of Crash 2, the exit passage is the same as Warp Room 1's levels, so it might've been possible that it was meant to be a level for Warp Room 1, but was changed in the final project.