HOLY BEEP THIS GAME IS AWSOME!
Anyway the story goes that Crash goes off into the woods to get a battery for his sister Coco. During his little jog he is teleported to a place known as the "Warp Room" by his old nemesis Dr Neo Cortex (fun fact, his voice actor in this game is actually the one who does Mr Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants.) Cortex explains the he wants Crash to collect all of the purple power cystals in the game.
The warp room is your access to levels. In the levels you run, jump, and spin crates to collect Wumpa Fruit and extra lives. In the levels you will find the power crystals no problem, so don't worry about running past them. The levels are very linear, but a lot of fun. Also in the levels you can collect gems. These can be obtained through destroying every single box in the level. However sometimes they can be collected in other ways, such as death routes. Which are very hard obstical courses, which can only be accessed if you get far enough through the level without loosing a single life.
In addition to the standard silver gems there are also coloured gems which can be obtained through other methods such as not breaking any boxes at all or finding secret areas in the level. The coloured gems can open up Gem Routs in levels which will allow you to get all of the crates in the level which would have previously been un-accessible.
Secret areas or platforms in the levels will take you to a secret warp room where you can access hidden areas of previous levels and new levels to get gems. However gems are for completionists, to complete the game it is only necessary to collect the crystals.
Anyway some levels have specific gimmicks to help separate them from over levels, such as; riding the adorable Polar bear, being chased by boulders, using rocket packs and using fire flies to light up night paths.
After every five levels there is a boss battle, each have a different strategy to beat them. For example with Ripper Roo you have to doge TNT and Nitro patches on the floor and wait for him to blow himself up and with N-Gin you have to throw wumpa fruit at his robot.
As for the graphics, they're good for PS1. Crash's animations show a lot of character and in game effects such as rain or snow are good to look at. The music is pretty good too, with catchy tunes throughout the game. The controls are fine and because the camera is always in a fixed position, it never poses as a problem.
I highly recommend this to anyone who haven't played this, especially if you are a fan of platform games. This is a crystal not to be missed.