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, deeply disturbing mutant rats, Scrubbing Bubbletrons, and most importantly, savage 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, a sly reference to the fact that this level does not actually resemble a genuine, authentic sewer in any way at all.


 * More likely, it could also be a reference to how eels are notorious for forming underground organizations. Most anthropologists believe that eels are quite fond of making illegal deals. One presumes that the eels in this level try so hard to savagely electrocute Crash because he is unwittingly witnessing their sinister eeling and dealing.


 * 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", and also that knives are obviously far too violent for children.


 * Supposedly, the beta version of Crash 2 contained an extra crate in the Bonus Round, offscreen and only reachable by jumping on top of the stack of iron crates. It can be presumed that this was removed because it took away from the unique terribleness of Cold Hard Crash's terrible Bonus.