Crates will burst when falling in any multiplayer mode. Same with barrels.

In offline modes (including single player), they can be made to break if you manage to get them stuck inside a masked tile. The best way to do this is to get them to fall on top of a rapidly blinking tile (set it to 60 or 70 fps). This will basically ensure that it breaks the moment it hits the "floor" (which is actually only solid 50% of the time).

If it's an area the player can touch, it's a bit trickier to get away with it since you can get stuck inside it. But there are tricks involving invisible tiles and triggers.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2zyw3q