While comparisons to game difficulty yardstick Dark Souls may have been misguided, there’s no doubt that the original trilogy ofCrash Bandicootgames packed in more than their fair share of challenging stages: a fact that became extremely clear to modern gamers when the three games were remastered for 2017’s N-Sane Trilogy.
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From dusty tombs to shimmering cities, from snowy climes to slippery climbs, the original Crash Bandicoot games took you on a whirlwind tour of magical worlds that doubled as a brutal test of personal resolve. We’ve gathered the ten toughest trials these games had to offer, levels where getting through with your nerves and lives intact was a true test of mettle.
10Native Fortress
While not as difficult as many other levels in thefirst Crash Bandicoot, Native Fortress gets a lot of bonus points for how early in the game it appears. Capping off the game’s first island, the Fortress serves as a difficulty spike that you can easily impale yourself on if you’re not careful.
Developing the mechanics introduced in The Great Gate earlier, Native Fortress sees Crash navigating a 2D plane, dealing with slippery ramps, bouncy flame-torch platforms, spiked columns, and shield-bearing natives. This all culminates in a triple jump over three torches that may just be one of the toughest in the game if you don’t know about the semi-hidden platform in the background.
9Piston It Away
First impressions are incredibly important, so they say, and Crash Bandicoot 2’s final warp room certainly makes a powerful one with its opening level, Piston it Away. At first glance, this seems like a reasonable introduction tothe space themethat defines much of the warp room, with simple enemies and obstacles to deal with, until the other shoe drops and the level hits you with its cruel twist.
To break all the crates in Piston it Away, you’ll need to ignore the Death Route platform at first, make your way to the end of the level, then backtrack all the way back to the platform and finish the route. And while the level was simple enough the first time, it proves much trickier in reverse and impossible if you didn’t leave a key octopus enemy alive your first time through.
8Rings Of Power
The final stage in Crash Bandicoot 3’s secret warp room, unlocked by collecting 25 Relics, Rings of Power, much like the recent Amazon show of the same name, feels more like a punishment than a reward. It’s a biplane race level, tasking you with weaving through the titular Rings to gain enough speed to overtake your competitors and claim victory.
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The difficulty comes in the extremely tight turns required to avoid missing any rings and the rote memorisation necessary to know which ones are safe to boost into. It will likely take you many attempts to finally finish this level, by which point you’ll be fully convinced that a Dark Lord forged these Rings of Power as well.
7The High Road
Probably the most infamous level in the original Crash Bandicoot, if not the entire N-Sane Trilogy, The High Road is a pure test of positional platforming, relying on its fixed camera perspective for much of its difficulty. Beginning with some sneaky hidden crates over some invisible planks behind the starting point, things only get trickier as the level progresses.
While Road to Nowhere, the first rendition of this level type, featured bouncy turtle enemies sparingly, here they’re used almost exclusively to progress forward, meaning you’ll need to master both their jump timing and flipping them over close enough to the edge to succeed. It’s a mercifully short stage, but it certainly won’t feel that way when you finally limp your way to the end of it for the first time.
6Totally Bear
One can only imagine the creative meeting in which Totally Bear was conceived: ‘Let’s take the bear-riding levels, where players need to keep one eye on upcoming obstacles at all times and obscure those obstacles with a thick layer of darkness that makes reacting in time nigh-impossible. Done. Time for lunch.’
This cruel and baffling decision led to one of the trickiest stages in the N-Sane Trilogy, one which will undoubtedly require many attempts to get right from all but the most clairvoyant of players. And that goes doubly so for breaking all the crates, as many are tucked away on risky side paths that you may not even notice during your first frazzled run.
5Tomb Wader
Stellar pun title aside, the difficulty level in Tomb Wader is no laughing matter. The stage combines the switch-based Egyptian tomb theme with a new hazard: a rising and falling water level that can end your run regardless of how many Aku-Aku masks you have stacked up.
This turns the level into a series of paranoid waits and frantic dashes, leaving you desperately hunting for higher ground before the tide comes in and swallows you whole. Factor in a Death Route that packs in even denser obstacles and longer lowland stretches, and you have a level that could very well end up as your final resting place.
4The Lab
One of the more experimental stages in the original Crash bandicoot, and the trilogy as a whole, The Lab ties the movement of certain key obstacles in the level to crates, letting you directly influence the path ahead of you many times throughout. You can use these crates to open gates and close metal floors, effectively setting a timer for you to pass through or over them before they reset.
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This is easier said than done, given the densely-packed obstacles in the stage, which include laser gates, scientist and slime enemies, and good old-fashioned TNT, some of which is sneakily hidden in an innocent-looking crate pile early on. A stage with both creativity and difficulty to spare, The Lab is awork of maddening genius.
3Cold Hard Crash
One of the most notorious proponents of retro video game ice physics, Crash Bandicoot 2 featured a range of levels that were difficult by sheer virtue of being hard to control, chief among which was Cold Hard Crash. This was the game’s sadistic crowning achievement: a tricky stage by itself that became downright nasty when you factored in its gems.
In order to break all the crates in Cold Hard Crash, you’ll need to survive until the Death Route platform, make it to the end, through an icy Nitro crate gauntlet, stop right before the sheer drop at the end, then backtrack through the hell you’ve just survived and ride the platform back to the stage proper. It’s a thoroughly unreasonable expectation that makes Cold Hard Crash a true ordeal to perfect.
2Stormy Ascent
The legendary ‘level so hard it was removed from the original Crash Bandicoot,’ Stormy Ascent makes a triumphant return in the N-Sane Trilogy. The level is a continuation of the castle wall theme seen in the similarly challenging Slippery Climb, with the difficulty ratcheted up to 11.
You’ll still need to contend with fast-moving platforms, bouncy birds, and vial-throwing scientists, but now the margins for error have been shaved down to nothing, forcing you to walk a razor’s edge for the level’s entire considerable runtime. While many bemoaned the lack of Stormy Ascent in the original game, the level itself proves a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for.’
1Future Tense
Added in the N-Sane Trilogy as an additional level forCrash Bandicoot 3, one that would make full use of Crash’s extensive moveset in that game, Future Tense feels like a final exam for the trilogy. It tests everything you’ve learned across the series’ many levels and then some, with some truly devious secrets thrown in for good measure.
All of classic Crash Bandicoot is here: multiple camera perspectives, tricky platforming, a Death Route, a Bonus Route, a difficult hidden gem, and an even more difficult crate gem. Fully completing this level will take everything you have, but by the end, you can rest easy, knowing you’ve conquered the toughest challenge the N-Sane Trilogy has to offer.
