The 5 Hardest Crash Bandicoot 2 Gems

It's no secret that sometimes the Crash Bandicoot games can present an unfair level of difficulty. Some of the secret areas in the later levels in particular are full of difficult platforming sections, sudden death drops and tons of enemies and Nitro crates - mix that with having to complete sections with no Aku Aku masks or having to do a ton of backtracking - these five gems are in my opinion the hardest ones in the entire game.

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While this box gem is tough, I quite enjoy the challenge because I'm a big fan of the polar bear levels. The main issue with polar bear levels is that you can only move in one direction; miss a box? You'll have to kill yourself and respawn. Totally Bear is easily the hardest of the polar bear levels, complete with tons of obstacles, water hazards and jumps that require expert timing. It's also DARK - making it hard to predict what's coming up next. To add insult to injury, Totally Bear is a SECRET LEVEL, so if you screw up the box gem, too bad - you'll have to complete one of the secret warps in order to get back to the warp room.

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Every Crash Bandicoot game has a token level with a secret area that requires all of the coloured gems to access - Crash 2’s is level 25, Spaced Out. This consists of area after area of tricky jumps, awkward enemies and lots of instant death pits to fall into. This area combines every single enemy and hazard from the space factory style levels, such as pistons, electric spiders, scientists with shields and more.

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This box gem requires both the use of a skull platform and tons of backtracking - backtracking that is made 10 times harder by electrified fences, tons of pits and BEES. There's beehives everywhere and the bees will relentlessly chase you as you try and dodge the pits and time your jumps so you don't get electrocuted. You can make the skull platform section easier for yourself if you run ahead and hit the Nitro destruction box, but that means even more backtracking! You decide, backtracking, or Nitros.

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What's more frustrating than having to complete a tough skull platform section then do a ton of backtracking? Backtracking through a skull platform section that is made up entirely of ICE. Ice, pits, crushing tree stumps and tons of Nitro crates. In order to get the box gem in this level, you need to make it all the way to the end of this section, hit an awkwardly placed exclamation box and then slide all the way back to the main level, avoiding all of the poxy Nitros. This level also features the most easily missed box in the whole game. This box in the bonus stage caused me so much grief as a kid, I can tell you. There's nothing more annoying than being told you missed ONE box.

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This is the one gem in the entire game that caused me the most grief. For starters, this box gem involves both a skull platform and backtracking - a theme you may have previously noticed. However - on your first attempt at this gem, you'll likely screw it up. If you take the skull platform FIRST, you'll reach a end of level warp and won't be able to go back to clear the rest of the boxes, including the bonus stage. What you need to do is essentially play the level as normal, right to the end - then TURN AROUND and go back to the skull platform. What makes this so difficult are hard to time slide jumps, pistons that squash you and those god damn laser beams that shrink you. By far the most frustrating box gem in the game.

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