Crash 1 NST Platinum relic notes

N. Sanity Beach
This is a nice tutorial to get you in the mood for these platinum times. From the arrow box -> time box to the box bridge with triple mask on, everything has to flow like water. Wait until the fourth box in the bridge appears and then run for your life.

Jungle Rollers
Get triple mask on and win the platinum.

The Great Gate
Don't hold jump as you ascend via the steel boxes at the start. You get two masks for this stage, so don't be afraid to spend them to go through spike pillars. Later stages do not give you that luxury...

Boulders
Being a flowchart stage the only thing you can really have influence on is hitting the time boxes.

Upstream
This and Up the Creek are a bit annoying since you have to wait for lily pads to come and take you for a ride and Upstream demands an extraordinarily long jump for platinum. You can see it at 04:20.

Rolling Stones
Same as Jungle Rollers, get triple mask and win.

Hog Wild
Hit the time boxes and you're good to go.

Native Fortress
This is a fairly long stage compared to rest of the first island, so don't lose your cool. You get one mask, so pick an obstacle to power through with it. I use it early on for the spike pillar after tnt pile, but flames near the end may not be a bad choice either. When you get upstairs for a gorgeous view, take the background shortcut.

Up the Creek
Remember that you can fall on the bootleg piranha plants as they recover from the bite to save time. Don't wait for the lilypad at 10:39, just keep going.
Get the 3-sec box at 11:27 in one spin and sacrificing the mask is not a bad idea. Just make it count.

The Lost City
Respect the bats. You cannot power through more than three bats at max. Use the 3D space at the top to ignore the red jumping lizards. The two spawning boxes at the end are not time crates, so skip the switch business.

Temple Ruins
Not much to say about this one.

Road to Nowhere
This doesn't demand you to run on the ropes as much as The High Road, but it can make the run much faster (and easier vs. hogs) if you have the consistency for it. One mask, preferably used on a hog that comes at a bad time.

Boulder Dash and Whole Hog
Just get the boxes and don't die.

Sunset Vista
I spin four times at the beginning (do it after a time trial restart) so that I don't have to wait for the Lordvessel to extinguish it's flame. This stage is really long, the sapphire time for this stage is like 5 minutes and 20 seconds, so really, if you don't get stuck at too many parts this should only be a matter of getting to the finish line. I even messed up at 21:36 and still got platinum, so don't lose hope!

Heavy Machinery
Third island gets tricky. When platforms take you down, just drop off of it and keep going. You'll need all the time you can spare in this elevator fest. If you don't lose your mask early, make sure you don't finish a stage with it.

Cortex Power
Take the right branch, then the left. Remember the mask!

Generator Room
The end has a lot of downtime where I cannot do anything, so everything else is dictated by how fast you tackle the stage before it. You get two masks, which is quite lenient. Hitting the 1-sec box from between the two TNTs may or may not be faster than going on the platform.

Toxic Waste
Good job. Go straight ahead.

The High Road
Hopefully you are good at running on the ropes. So many jumps require you to jump on a tortoise and THEN bounce off of them, you simply do not have time for that. Jumping on the ropes takes practice, but I had a couple seconds to spare on my time, so it's pretty much a necessary skill.

Slippery Climb
Another long one. Trust the birds, you can jump on them at almost any time and they provide huge vertical momentum. If you mess up 32:07, you have no business in the platinum club. The platforms are very... slippery due to their movement, don't get carried away with your jumps..

Lights Out
If you have the yellow gem unlocked, you can use it to cheese this stage.

Fumbling in the Dark
Losing your mask means you lose, so don't lose your mask. Somehow got platinum despite what happened at 36:16...

Jaws of Darkness
I power through a Lordvessel with a mask, and then waste the second mask on another one. Not that you would want to use it on the squashers at the end, the hurt animation takes ages to finish...

Castle Machinery
Yes, you can run under one of those floating saw things if you pick up the pace right from the start. I used the masks on steams. Didn't familiarise myself with the last steams' patterns so the second mask ended up being a cop out for me.

The Lab
I spin once (after a restart) to get an optimal obstacle course. You may still get hit by electiricty at the start. Try jumping to reduce the likelyhood of getting grilled. The secret to the obnoxious platinum time is to hit enemies through the doors. They'll get rid of TNTs and whatever else is out there. The rest is on you. Good luck.