Un-Bearable

Un-Bearable is the fifteenth level in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Once again, Crash finds himself fleeing from imminent death, but this time it's not boulders or snowballs, but rather, vicious rampaging adult polar bears! The final giant bear is much faster than the others, but Crash is able to escape using an ursine trick of his own, riding Polar for the rest of the level!

This level contains two secrets that set it apart from other chase levels. When the giant polar bear breaks the giant bridge and falls into the abyss below, Crash should counterintuitively follow him, leaping off the three remaining planks into black inky nothingness. He will be transported to a secret route, a side-scrolling jungle area introducing Crash to rifle-toting Lab Assistants and metal-armored armadillos. Traversing this route is necessary to break all this stage's crates. (A Nitro Switch Crate is located further down the main path of the level - it might be helpful to activate this before returning to the gap to take the plunge into this secret area.) Much later in the level, after outrunning the last polar bear and being flung from Polar's back, Crash can slide-jump across the gap and backtrack until he encounters Polar again, who will warp him to the secret sixth warp room with Totally Bear newly unlocked!

Trivia

 * This level's Death Route is considered to be among the hardest in the game, as the player faces several jumps, several turtles, and even worse, several Hunter Lab Assistants, who will continuously fire ongoing shots.
 * If the player jumps back across to where Crash jumped of Polar after the final bear they will find Polar sitting there barking.