In this game the player controls Crash in his mission to revenge against Doctor Neo Cortex and to rescue his girlfriend Tawna. The adventure is divided into three islands: N Sanity Island, Wumpa Island and Cortex Island. Each island has a certain number of levels, which you will have to play in a predetermined order. Once you have completed a level you can access the next one. You can go back to previous levels anytime you want. Every 4 or 5 levels you will also have to face a boss, the last of which is obviously Doctor Neo Cortex.
The levels all have a three-dimensional setting. There are front scrolling, side scrolling and mixed levels. In each level you will have to proceed by defeating the enemies you encounter, avoiding obstacles and jumping over the gaps. You will also have to destroy boxes to find items to help you progress, including Wumpa fruits that will earn you extra lives and the masks of the sorcerer Aku Aku, which will protect you from enemy attacks. In many levels there are bonus rounds that can be reached by collecting the three corresponding pieces (Tawna, Nitrus Brio or Neo Cortex) at the end of which you can save the game or get a password. The goal of each level is simply to get to the end of it and to exit through a special portal. In fact, this guide contains only a brief description of each level. There are no puzzles to solve, choices to make or particularly difficult points, so you can always proceed without problems. An experienced player can get to the end of the game in a relatively short time.
However, completing the game 100% is much more challenging and can take a long time. To do this, in addition to passing each level, you will also need to get the relative gem. There are a total of 20 clear and 6 colored gems to obtain, and collecting them requires patience. You will have to overcome each level by breaking all the boxes present and without losing lives, to get the gem. In some levels, you won't be able to destroy all the boxes without first getting a colored gem from another level. There are also levels that have boxes hidden in secret areas, which you will have to discover with intuition and cunning. Only when you have obtained all the gems, including those of the two secret levels, will you have truly completed the game. If you succeed, you will have the opportunity to see an alternate ending, in which the fate of the various characters will be revealed.
On some levels, getting to the end without losing a single life can be frustrating. The problem is that the game system, when you die and restart the level from the last C box reached, does not "remember" the boxes you broke earlier, therefore, to get the gem, you must not lose lives. This problem was then solved in subsequent games of the series: starting from the second chapter, in fact, to get a gem it is enough to break all the boxes of a certain level, no matter if you lose lives or not.