That's right, a beta version of Crash 2 has started circulating, and here is what it has to offer. Credit to cater0mcf ( / cater0mcf ) for the original find! Keep annotations ON to know what the heck's going on :P
Originally bought off a market stall in approximately 2001, this version of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back appears to be a PAL pre-release build. Its complete nature and subtle distinctions indicate it was compiled not long before the final version of the game was; as such, there aren't many major changes from the final game to be seen, but there's certainly a lot of small things that are interesting to observe. Enough to make a 30-minute video about, so that's gotta be something, right? It's likely that the disc was either originally used for PAL beta testing, or as a demo disc in retail outlets.
There's so much stuff in the video that it'd take forever to write it all down here, meaning that, for a change, you're all not getting a long description :P But to save disappointment, I'll say that there are no hidden levels shown off here. The majority of changes are either music, sound effects, or object placement, with some exceptions. Unlike the Crash 1 prototype, for instance, most of the game is clearly completely developed here.
So, enjoy the video! Hopefully some of the stuff inside will be interesting and new to people, including those who have hunted beta material for this game in the past. And here's hoping that more discoveries like this will appear in future to do with the Crash series, as it is always interesting to see how it developed and evolved over the PlayStation 1 era.
...By the by, by far my favourite feature of this is the polar bear that says "Nyeh".