Hot Coco

Hot Coco (はっけん！ カリブのだいじけん lit. Discovery! Caribbean Big Event in Japanese) is the thirty-first level in the game Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. It is a secret level in the game, accessed by hitting an alien sign in level 14, which is called Road Crash.

This level is similar to the levels Makin' Waves, Tell No Tales, and Ski Crazed. It is at sunset and the level itself appears to be one big circle as Coco starts right at the exit, but it's surrounded by nitro crates. The only way to complete the level is to find the nitro switch crate and head back to the start. Coco can collect only a gem and relic from this stage. The trick for getting the relic is to remember where the nitro switch crate is and to head straight there after hitting the stopwatch. The player may need to repeat the level a few times (if necessary) to remember it.

Types of crates

 * Basic Crate
 * Checkpoint Crate - wooden
 * Nitro Crate
 * Nitro Switch Crate
 * ? Crate
 * Time Crate (2 seconds)

Trivia

 * The level's name is a pun on the drink Hot Cocoa.
 * In Crash Nitro Kart, one of Coco's racing quotes is "Hot Coco!", which may be a reference to this level.
 * In the NTSC-U version, the relic times in this level are the same as those of Road Crash, the level that warps Crash to this level. This is probably due to a glitch where the game doesn't change the relic targets upon warping from Road Crash. As a result, the platinum relic in the NTSC-U version is extremely easy as the required time is much slower than the time required to get a sapphire relic in the PAL version. The Japanese version of the game, despite being NTSC, seems to have this glitch fixed, so the player is required to beat the times that were also intended to be beaten in the NTSC-U version if it wasn't for this glitch.
 * Aku Aku is banned from this level. That is, even if the player enters the level with an Aku Aku mask, the player loses the mask. This is so that the player can't detonate the nitro crates guarding the warp orb right from the start.
 * Using the extra items cheat, it is possible to enter this level via the secret warp room, instead of through Road Crash. To do this, the player must acquire 31 crystals and then a button for this level will be in the secret warp room. However, entering the level this way in the NTSC-U version of the game will also load the correct relic times.
 * It's possible to finish the time trial in less than 2 seconds, through the use of the waves. With enough luck, the player can jump over the Nitros at the start and finish the level. A similar trick can be performed in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, where the Nitro crates can be broken without taking damage by driving towards them with the right angle. This is also tricky to perform as the player also must not drive too far away from the entrance, as it will cause the stopwatch to despawn.