Road to Ruin

Road to Ruin (まよいの はいきょ lit. Ruins of Illusion in Japanese) is the fourteenth level and is the fourth level of the third warp room in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy remaster of the second game. It is somewhat similar to the city ruin-themed levels from the first game, specifically The Lost City and Sunset Vista, though this time it takes place at night.

In order to gain this level's box gem, the player must break all the level's crates, which can be achieved by entering the level via the Secret Warp Room through the portal found in Diggin' It.

Types of crates

 * Aku Aku Crate
 * Arrow Crate - iron (death route only)
 * Basic Crate
 * Bounce Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate
 * ! Crate
 * Iron Crate
 * Nitro Crate (secret entrance area only)
 * Nitro Switch Crate
 * Outline Crate
 * ? Crate
 * Time Crate (1/2/3 seconds)
 * TNT Crate

Hazard Count

 * Possums:
 * Cyborg Clamidosaurs:
 * Fire-Breathing Tikis:
 * Gorillas:
 * Monkeys:

Translation of Aku Aku Hints in the Japanese Version

 * Spike Lizards can only be defeated with sliding.
 * A fake dead end exists in Slop-slop Underpass.
 * Have you got the red diamond? Then go to the direction of Disks on the Snow Mountain!? for good luck.
 * If you want to meet the boss again, ride on the elevator in the Warp Room while pressing and holding the green triangle button.

Trivia

 * The level's name is a reference to the 1978 Ramones album of the same name.
 * As with Ruination, the third and final island from Crash Bandicoot 1 can be seen in the background of this level, an allusion to the 'ruination' of Cortex's empire, this island can be physically reached in Crash Bandicoot 2, albeit only in the form of a secret warp room, where the other two islands from the previous game can be seen also.
 * It is possible to reach this level's secret area by doing a glitched spin jump.
 * This glitch can no longer be performed in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, due to the platforms being farther apart.
 * This level only has four nitro crates, all located in the secret area. Unlike Turtle Woods and Hang Eight, the nitro switch appears along the main path of the level. This is because there were originally going to be Nitro Crates on the main path of the level, which ended up being swapped with similar crate configurations in Ruination. This can be seen in the beta version of Crash Bandicoot 2.
 * This level and Air Crash are the only levels in the game which have two alternate routes (both a secret entrance and a death route).
 * This is one of the three levels in the game that happens that is dark but still has light (coming from the moon), and the others being Ruination and Totally Bear.
 * The name of the level could also be a pun on the saying road to riches, and riches is replaced with ruin to reference the level design.
 * In the secret area, there is a wumpa fruit above a crate indicating a TNT crate is underneath.  This wumpa was removed in N. Sane Trilogy, but then added back via update on June 29, 2018 (which coincided with the release on other platforms).