Proto:Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back/Bear It Demo

This is a sub-page of Proto:Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

The first and only public demo of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back released to the European and Australian audiences, available on some demo compilation discs. It features Bear It as a playable level. The modification date of the files suggests that this demo is dated around August 12th, 1997.

General Differences

Gameplay

• The warp animation doesn't make any sound effects.
• Crash only has the sigh idle animation. The shivering and breathing on his hands to warm them in snowy and rainy levels is missing.
• Crash's moves are slightly more limited: during the landing animation after a high or long jump, Crash has no movement control until the animation finishes.
• You can perform a slide move while spinning, which results in the spin move being cancelled.

Demo	Final

• The snow footstep sound effect is different.
• The Nitro detonator doesn't make the explosion sound effect when triggered.
  • Activating the detonator won't update the total number of broken crates in the box tally.
• The box counter will not disappear after you collect the gem and lose a life, meaning that if you break all the crates again, the gem will respawn.
• Whenever Crash jumps into the exit portal, he doesn't display his usual exit animation where he's sucked up. Instead, the screen simply turns white.
  • The exit portal does not emit a sound effect either.
• The ice stops reflecting the player if they die once.

Pause Menu

Although not normally accessible, as pressing Start does nothing, the pause menu can be restored by hacking.

Demo	Final

• Due to an error, the crystal color is gray (the default) instead of heliotrope. It is also slightly to the left.
• Selectable options are colored gray with a gradient. The highlighted option, level name and completion percentage do not occasionally flash white.
• The gem stats area has a lighter background.
• The clear gem is smaller and the colored gems are slightly placed to the right.
• Only the audio option exists. As a result, there is no sub-menu with screen centering or analog calibration settings.
• The crystal and gem count automatically increases whenever any of them are grabbed.
• Pressing Start to unpause the game while hovering over the audio output option will toggle it.

Level Differences

Bear It

• Since the dynamic difficulty adjustment wasn't set properly, all extra checkpoints were regular checkpoints, resulting in a lot of checkpoints during the level - at least four extra ones are present.
• The bear is silent.
• There is no invisible barrier to prevent Crash from jumping past the bear before riding him. Going too far will make the bear despawn, and Crash will be stuck in his hurling animation until he is thrown forward and dies.
• There is no galloping sound. It plays the snow footstep sound instead.
• The sound effect for landing out of a jump is slightly different.
• Jumping over ? crates will make the bear bounce on them.
• You don't twirl on a checkpoint after respawning.
• Crash shouts "Whoa!" after smacking into a totem statue.
• The bear's walking sound effects will play when he approaches Crash after they trip over a fallen totem.
• There is a glitch where the player can fall through the ground while going uphill, right after the third checkpoint.
• If you die and respawn at the last checkpoint, the game will always remove a box from the counter, making it impossible to collect the gem as there will always be a box missing.
• There is no sound effect when Polar launches Crash across the giant chasm.

Soundtrack Differences

Demo	Final	Notes
File:Crash2-Demo PolarTheme.ogg	File:Crash2 PolarTheme.ogg	Some different instruments, and is processed differently.

Unused Content

Level Names

By using a memory viewer, it's possible to see all the strings of text used in the pause menu:

• Bee-Having is called "Bee Haven".
• Totally Bear and Totally Fly were absent at this point.

Unused Animations

• The animated Aku Aku model used in the hints feature of the Japanese localization is present in the level file, even though the model can only be found in the final NTSC-J release.
• Crash's dance animation is also present, for some reason. It's possible that it was planned as an extra idle animation for the NTSC-J release, similar to how Crash has an extra idle animation in the NTSC-J version of the first game.
  • He would eventually perform his dance as an idle animation while in the warp room in the sequel.