Road to Ruin

Road to Ruin is the fourteenth level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. It is somewhat similar to the ruin-themed levels from the first game, specifically Temple Ruins and Jaws of Darkness, though this time it takes place outside, with a beautiful panorama of other ruins serving as the backdrops for Crash's platforming hijinx. This is a stage where environmental elements are more dangerous than the actual enemies, it seems, with Crash leaping across crumbling pillars and avoiding the flaming breath expelled by hideous stone statue heads.

This level contains a Death Route, which contains no crates, but does contain a shiny new Clear Gem as a reward for surviving its gauntlet of log-throwing gorillas. In order to obtain the other Clear Gem, the usual crate Gem, the player will have to unlock this level's alternate entrance, by finding the secret warp in Diggin' It. This secret path is very, very short, but contains a big, solid mass of crates that Gem-hunting bandicoots simply cannot live without, though one should be careful about blindly spinning through it as it contains a not-terribly-delicious TNT Crate creme filling.

Trivia

 * This level's name might be a reference to the 1978 Ramones album of the same name. This is eerily appropriate, as in exactly the same way that liberal Joey Ramone and conservative Johnny Ramone pointlessly fought throughout the band's history, so too do the Crystalpublican Doctor Neo Cortex and Gemocrat Doctor Nitrus Brio pointlessly fight throughout this game.
 * Interestingly, in 1998, just a year after this game's release, Berkeley-based punk rock group The Mr. T Experience released an album also called "Road to Ruin", named in tribute to this amazing level, and NOT in tribute to the Ramones' album, as many would have you believe.


 * Most fans seem to agree that this level is situated ten miles away from The Lost City, because you can see Cortex Castle and The Lost City, and through a series of mathematical equations, geometrical extrapolations, and professional science experiments, they have apparently determined ten to be the correct number. These fans need to get a life.