10 Most Iconic Levels In Video Game History

3. N. Sanity Beach - Crash Bandicoot

It was a tough call putting this up against something like Crash 3's bike races, but N. Sanity Beach not only looked spectacular for the time - Naughty Dog's artists figuring out a technique that allowed them to maximise detail in the foreground whilst the background loaded later - but because playing a tropical setting infused with Aztec and Mayan elements felt unique and identifiable.

Like with many of these older examples, it can't be overstated just how much your brain did the heavy lifting and put you in the shoes of the character at hand.

There was no questioning of frame rates, jagged polygonal edges or detail in general - we were Crash Bandicoot, and we were playing the level we'd seen in magazines, adverts and on TV, but in real time, with Crash "woah"'ing himself into the history books.