Hang Eight

Hang Eight is the third level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. It reprises the "stream" level archetype from the first game, but this time, Crash has a shiny new jet-board to take out for a test drive! If Crash reaches the first checkpoint quickly, a timer will be activated - reaching the end of the level, without dying, before time runs out will reward Crash with a Clear Gem, a precursor of sorts to the Relic challenges introduced in this game's sequel. In order to obtain the other Clear Gem, the typical crate Gem, the player will first need to obtain the Blue Gem from Turtle Woods, as more than half the crates in this level are found on the secret Blue Gem Route.

Trivia

 * This level's name is a pun on the phrase "Hang Ten", often uttered by surfers, with "Ten" being replaced with "Eight" because, according to some fans, Crash only has eight toes, not ten. However, this is only speculation, as Crash's feet are never, ever seen in-game, always being covered by cheap sneakers. In fact, prodigous hackers who hacked away Crash's shoes found that Crash has no feet at all, because Naughty Dog did not bother to code feet underneath Crash's shoes, because of technical limitations and laziness. This might imply that Crash has, in fact, no toes whatsoever, zero, though in that case it is unknown what the "Eight" in the level's title is referring to, perhaps his height.
 * While in many ways Naughty Dog has improved the stream-based physics from the first game, it is still mysteriously never explained in-game why the floating crates throughout this level (as well as in Air Crash and Plant Food) don't drift with the current, like they logically would. This misrepresentation has somehow gone unreported on in the main stream media.