Water gives life, unless you’re a video game character. Seems like every time there’s a water level in a game it has to be the hardest, most frustrating stage of all. Whether you run out of air, get tossed around by strong currents, or encounter freakishly large marine life, you’re likely to hate it and want to drown the level designers.

One of the first water levels I hated with a passion was the one from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES. It had it all: horrible controls, a time limit, a maze, death rays, moving obstacles, and those f***ing electric plants! Konami knew this game would mostly be played by kids, so why be so sadistic?

Sonic the Hedgehog also had irritating underwater stages. The controls were so floaty and slow, it made you forget all about “blast processing”. To top it all off, when Sonic’s air supply is running low, the most annoying music starts playing, getting increasingly faster and agitating. You could develop hydrophobia because of this game.

The stuff of nightmares.

Then there’s the Water Temple from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. My adventure came to a screeching halt when I couldn’t figure out how to navigate this hellish temple. Raise the water level, Iron Boots on, lower it, Iron Boots off, hookshot here, closed door there, raise water level again… It was hell! The craziest thing is that I found my way out in a dream. That’s right -- my subconscious worked it out on its own while I recharged my batteries. True story!

Few games do water levels right. Bubble Man’s stage from Mega Man 2 had some pretty fun jumping mechanics, and Jolly Roger Bay from Super Mario 64 brought a relatively painless underwater experience in a 3D space, with really interesting objectives.

Any water levels you particularly despised?