Bear It

Bear It is the eighth level and is the third level of the second warp room in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. This level introduces Crash to his newest ally, Polar, a polar bear cub that he can ride. This gameplay idea is very, very similar to the hog-riding in the levels Hog Wild and Whole Hog of the previous game in the series. The bear/bandicoot team is tasked with dodging totem poles, seals, killer whales, and TNT crates in a snowy valley climate.

Trivia

 * Bear It is based off the phrase "bear it", which means to deal with something one may not want to do.
 * Outside of the level warp door, if Crash jumps on Polar enough times, he gets ten lives. This can only be done once without starting a new game.
 * Polar, the bear Crash rides in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, is later angry at Crash for riding on him. He then joins Crash's "birthday party", in Crash Twinsanity, in which Crash's enemies from previous games have a gathering with Dr. Neo Cortex.
 * In the beta version of this game, Polar would have said "Nyeh" instead of his usual squeaking. This was just a placeholder until the squeak could be added in.
 * As with the other bear levels in this game, Aku Aku is banned from this level, so even if the player has an Aku Aku mask when entering the level, the player loses the mask.