
The player must then race through the level as quickly as possible. To begin a Time Trial run, the player must enter a level and activate the floating stopwatch near the beginning of the level to activate the timer if the stopwatch is not touched, the level can be played regularly. To obtain a Relic, the player must initiate the Time Trial mode and race through a level in the pre-designated time displayed before entering a level. Relics can be won by re-entering a level where the Crystal has already been retrieved. When the antagonists of the game have been defeated and enough Crystals have been gathered to return to Earth, the game is won. Gems allow access to special levels necessary for full completion of the game. As more Crystals are retrieved from the levels, more dotted lines will become visible on the map, allowing for further exploration. The goal of each level is to find and obtain any Crystals and Gems hidden in the area. Connecting the portals are dotted lines which Crash can use to travel between portals initially, only a few dotted lines are visible. The inside of the bubble is displayed as a map littered with portals to different levels. Much of the game takes place in a dimensional bubble that Crash and his mentor Aku Aku are trapped in.

In N-Tranced, the player takes control of Crash Bandicoot, who must free his friends from the hypnosis of the main antagonists of the story, N. Tropy's defeat, promises the Bandicoots a real adversary in the future. Tropy saw in the future, and misinterpreted as the Bandicoots joining his side while Uka Uka, upset over N. After he is defeated in the end, the Bandicoots force him to take a picture with them, revealing this to be the image N. Tropy is then fought after Crash has gathered all of the colored gems and completed all of the levels. Trance, through the same means he can hurt Crash. Fake Crash is also defeated, though it is unclear whether he joins their side or not, since in the battle against N. Over the course of the adventure, Crunch and Coco are saved and they join Crash on his journey. He now has to save his friends and defeat N. Coco and Crunch are hypnotized and turned against Crash. Trance and Uka Uka end up with Fake Crash. However, Aku Aku prevents the teleportation from completing, and Crash is saved, while the other two are taken.

Using a teleporter, he attempts to transport Crash, Crunch, and Coco to a star base somewhere in space. Trance in order to hypnotize them into joining their side.

Tropy looks into the future and sees himself along with the Bandicoots and concludes that the only way to defeat them is to make them join their side.

After the failure of Doctor Neo Cortex's previous scheme to shrink the Earth, Uka Uka calls upon the assistance of Dr.
