I'm all for challenge, but this game is infuriating and annoying almost the entire run. It's not fun at all. I can't stand this game. They ruined Crash, even his voice is so much worse than the originals, I hate his screams they make me want to die. I wanted to love this game so much, but I hated every minute of it. All the gimmicks, all the different characters. Just let me play Crash. And I'm the kinda guy that liked the hardest levels of Crash 1. I 100% that game. I never want to replay these levels again. I'm finding it hard to find the drive to hit the final push. Call me a whiner gamer of today that wants my hand held, but this is how I feel playing this. The story is fine but I just don't care anymore. The kicker is, the game's difficulty is probably normal if you ignore the gem challenges, but that just makes me even angrier, like I'm letting the game win or not getting the full experience. Ugh