The 10 HARDEST Water Levels in Video Games

Terra Tubes

“Battletoads” (1991)

Here’s an entry that I’m shoehorning in here because it never gets the hatred it deserves, mainly because most players could never get this far in the game in the first place... Hell! I’d put it at number 1 if I could! But I’ll be fair. Like most NES-era beat ’em ups, the story of “Battletoads” mostly existed as an excuse to punch things as mutated frogs, and honestly, that was enough. The game. Was. Hard. And I mean, reeeeeally hard, with the infamous Turbo Tunnel getting lots of mentions when discussing difficult levels. But as one of the few who’ve managed to beat this game, I can say safely that Turbo Tunnel is just the first massive challenge, when the underwater level shows up, everything gets way worse. Adding a precision-heavy water stage packed with instant-death spikes and unpredictable hazards feels borderline cruel. Controls get slippery, obstacles come fast, and memorization becomes mandatory. Then Rare decides to throw in high-speed sections with giant spinning hazards that practically demand prior knowledge to survive. It’s bullsh*t.

Gloomy Galleon

“Donkey Kong 64” (1999)

“Gloomy Galleon” sticks in people’s memories when they think about “Donkey Kong 64,” but not in a nice way. It’s dark, murky, and overwhelmingly underwater. Visibility is terrible unless you’re following glowing fish around like annoying tour guides. Navigation turns into guesswork more than skill, a common theme on this list. Then there’s the boss: Instead of using the Kongs’ unique moves, you’re forced into piloting a barrel boat while activating generators to deal with a giant pufferfish. It feels less like a climactic fight and more like a drawn-out mini-game that overstays its welcome. It’s a dark spot on an otherwise brilliant game.

Jet Ski Section“Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” (2007)

I’m just gonna bend the definition of “Water Level" real quick, because although you aren’t IN the water for this game, you are ON the water, and I think it counts... I didn’t say “Underwater levels” after all. For most of the game, you feel like an unstoppable action hero, vaulting over ruins, climbing sheer walls, and casually dismantling waves of armed goons. Then the jet ski shows up and humbles you immediately. Instead of gliding across the water like a sleek getaway vehicle, it controls like a sluggish brick sliding across ice. Steering feels stiff, momentum is awkward, and worst of all, you have to come to a complete stop just to fire your weapon. In a level built around raging rapids packed with rocks, mines, and explosive hazards, that design choice feels almost cruel. You’re forced to halt, line up a shot, and watch helplessly as the current pushes you backward. I urge you to replay this classic to feel just how oddly outdated this section feels.

Down The Tubes

“Earthworm Jim” (1994)

Level five of “Earthworm Jim” swaps platforming chaos for something arguably worse, a claustrophobic maze of underwater pipes. Congratulations, you just described half of this list. The whole area is under the watchful eye of Bob the Killer Goldfish, while giant mutant cats patrol the tunnels, and no, you can’t fight them, it’s like “Outlast Jim” instead. In the level, you’re stuck piloting a ridiculously fragile glass submarine. It has barely any oxygen, cracks if you so much as brush a wall, and demands feather-light control inputs just to stay intact. Every tiny tap of the button feels like defusing a bomb. One careless nudge and the whole thing tumbles like a house of cards, or a glass submarine.

Minus World Water Level

“Super Mario Bros.” (1985)

“Super Mario Bros.,” is basically sacred. No gamer over the age of 25 doesn’t have some fond memory attached to this title, I for one watched my grandfather play this at the kitchen table every single weekend as a small lad. But buried inside that cheerful Mushroom Kingdom is one of the earliest examples of gaming cruelty: the Minus World. If you performed a very specific sequence of jumps and glitches near the end of World 1-2, you could slip through the wall and land in a strange alternate stage labeled “World -1.” At first, it looks like a normal water level. Nothing too dramatic. Then you realize something’s wrong. No matter how well you swim, no matter how cleanly you reach the flag, the game just loops you back to the start. Again. And again. There’s no exit. No secret warp. The only way out is to reset the NES. For a game that defined childhood joy, that’s impressively sinister.

Bat’s Tower

“Conker’s Bad Fur Day” (2001)

One of the most exhausting stretches in “Conker’s Bad Fur Day” comes when you’re roped into helping the so-called “fish ladies” crack open an underwater vault, and they’re not nearly as sexy as they sound. What sounds like a quick objective turns into a marathon. First you’re climbing a towering structure, then you’re wading through long, sluggish swimming sections that seem designed to test your patience. The corridors around the vault are flooded and packed with enemies that glide through the water far more comfortably than you ever could. As if that wasn’t enough, you’re stuck managing a flashlight with limited energy, adding a constant layer of pressure while you fumble through dark passageways. It’s tense, drawn out, and not exactly forgiving. It’s the whole game in a nutshell, and it’s always worth it in the end.

Atlantica

“Kingdom Hearts” (2002)

On paper, putting Atlantica in “Kingdom Hearts” makes total sense. It’s Disney. It’s iconic. And visually, an underwater world sounds like a refreshing change of pace. In reality, it’s where the controls start fighting you harder than the Heartless do. Full 3D swimming feels floaty and awkward, turning basic combat into a clumsy juggling act. Lock-on behaves strangely, positioning gets messy, and swarms of enemies suddenly become way more annoying than they need to be. The level layout doesn’t help either, with maze-like routes and unclear triggers that make progression feel more confusing than adventurous. Then there’s Ursula. The first battle especially demands constant magic usage, and if you didn’t pack enough Ethers, you’re going to feel it. Atlantica isn’t impossible, but it’s draining. Honestly, this could have gone to either “Kingdom Hearts” or “Kingdom Hearts II”, because the second entry traded in the infamously difficult gameplay for another infamously uncalibrated rhythm game, forcing trained musicians to start a thread titled “how am I supposed to unlearn 45 years of beat timing?”

Labyrinth Zone

“Sonic The Hedgehog” (1991)

A “Sonic” game is basically synonymous with speed. So naturally, someone decided what that formula really needed was a slow, underwater maze… Enter: Labyrinth Zone. Of all the water stages across the franchise, this one stands out because it completely kneecaps what makes “Sonic the Hedgehog” fun. Instead of blasting through loops, you’re trudging through water with stiff, floaty movement that makes Sonic feel like he’s aged forty years overnight. It’d be like putting Mario on crutches. Jumps are awkward, timing is tighter, and the oxygen countdown is constantly stressing you out. The layout leans hard into its name, especially in Act 3, where navigation becomes a maze that feels more confusing than challenging. And the game still has the audacity to throw in a boss fight against Eggman in a submarine. Underwater controls versus torpedoes. What could possibly go wrong?

Great Bay Temple

“The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask” (2000)

Everyone loves to dunk on the Water Temple in “Ocarina of Time,” and sure, it earned that reputation back in the day. Iron Boots menu swapping, confusing vertical layouts, that one tiny key people swear they didn’t miss. It was rough. But in terms of actual mechanical difficulty, the Great Bay Temple in “Majora’s Mask” MIGHT be worse. Instead of just navigating water levels, you’re constantly redirecting currents through a maze of color-coded pipes, flipping the entire dungeon’s flow to access new paths. One wrong valve and you’re backtracking through half the temple. Add in Zora swimming controls that demand precision, rotating central chambers that disorient you, and enemies placed to knock you off narrow platforms mid-current, and it becomes a mental tax. The Water Temple frustrates. The Great Bay Temple exhausts. Both can f*** off.

Dam Level

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1989)

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” hit at the perfect cultural moment, and if you were there in the late ’80s or early ’90s, you know the hype was real. Toys, cartoons, lunchboxes, the whole thing. The NES game? Pretty standard side-scrolling beat ’em up stuff, it was actually lots of fun, albeit a bit difficult… until the water level shows up, and “a bit difficult” becomes “I’m gonna be on the news tonight”. Anyone even mildly seasoned in retro gaming history knows what’s coming. The controls immediately turn against you, the Turtles moving with all the grace of a soggy brick, and you’re forced to swim through tight passages lined with electric seaweed and razor-sharp coral. Precision is mandatory. Mistakes are punished instantly. And just to make sure your blood pressure spikes, you have to defuse eight bombs in under two and a half minutes. No room for error. No time to breathe. Lose a Turtle and you’re stuck without them until later. It’s infamous for a reason. Not impossible, just brutally, memorization-heavy cruel.