The game takes place on a fictional group of islands near Australia. "Crash Bandicoot 2" follows the adventures of the hero bandicoot Crash. Crash is taken by series villain Doctor Neo Cortex. Cortex does this, because he now wants to "save the world". Crash has to compete in several levels of N. Sanity Island in order to gather Crystals. Crash must gather Crystals for Cortex to save the planet. Cortex wants to use the Crystals to give him enough power from an upcoming planetary alignment. Crash's sister CoCo joins Crash in several levels. She believes Cortex is still up to no good. She is also concerned about Doctor Nitrus Brio, who wants Crash to gather Gems instead of Crystals.