Water is NOT your friend…no matter how pretty it looks!
To get our minds off the floods we turned to video games to help but quickly we realised that pixelated water was everywhere but there was not a drop to drink! (Mainly because we’re too lazy to leave the office to get some!)
Inspired by the torrents of rain fall and overflowing riverbanks we’re diving (seriously we can keep these water related puns and similes up all day…we’re bursting with them! ((that one wasn’t every good))). Water in video games used to be the stuff of nightmares, you fall in and it meant instant death because while your character might be able to beat off hordes of raging demons or hotwire a car, kill two police officers and manage to evade the Army…he forgot to stop and learn to swim! So we’re looking at some of the toughest most annoying water based levels in video games!
5. World 7 – Level 2
Super Mario Bros 1983
First released for the Famicom in Japan and then bundled with the NES release in the US, Super Mario Bros. is the sequel to Mario Bros. and is cited as one of the key games in the revolutionising of the entire industry and for opening up the doors for a new generation of gamers to play. World 7 Level 2 is the second water based level in the game and while it’s not the toughest on our list it is worthy of a mention. If you don’t start this world without the Fire Flower power up then you better be prepared to swim for your life!
Difficulty Rating: 4/10
4. The Mediterranean Sea
That’s right the entire Mediterranean Sea! No we don’t mean that we just mean the pixel version in Tomb Raider: Underworld. While not exactly Lara’s first or last trip underwater we found this to be the most taxing of all! Not because of air distribution, not because of our hydrophobia…no we hate this level purely because of the camera and controls. Swimming should be a relaxing and carefree way to search for treasure but when your camera angle is constantly pinned under your right armpit while you’re frantically trying to circle about and level it, the controls are going haywire and you’re suddenly doing the funky Charleston underwater! Well at least Lara looks good doing it!
Difficulty Rating: 5/10
3. Every water level in Sonic the Hedgehog…EVER!
Who the heck doesn’t love Sonic the Hedgehog? We’re talking old school Sonic here by the way none of the completely Americanised drivel that the kids are playing today (Sonic would never be allowed be compete at the Olympics…ever!). The whole idea of Sonic games was to run and run fast so what happens when you grab Sonic and force his head under a water level? Well he slows down, he sinks slowly and oh yeah…he can’t breathe! The worst part of the Sonic water levels was not in their difficulty (and boy were they bloody hard), no the real trauma came with that horrifying music counting down the seconds of air you’d left before our spiky blue friend gulped mouthfuls of water and slowly succumbed to watery demise. THE HORROR!
This is kinda creepy…but not as creepy as the music…
Difficulty Rating: 6/10
2. Water Temple
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will forever remain watermarked on our tiny little gamer brains! Why? Well it’s not because of the unwanted and highly inappropriate advances of the Zora Princess no but it is in part due to her people and the construction of a temple 20,000 leagues under the sea! The Water Temple from Ocarina of Time is cited as the toughest challenge in the history of Zelda from the confusing layout to the guardian boss and all of this is only increased by the fact that your movement and attack speed is sorely reduced to that of a sea slug!
Desperate much?
Difficulty Rating: 8/10
1. Down the Tubes
Frustration knows no limits in Earthworm Jim’s underwater level! The game is hysterical, fun and engaging but when it came to guiding a really fragile submarine made of cheap glass around some underwater caverns we realised just how cruel and horrible life can be! Carefully guiding the sub slowly and methodically between jagged rocks hoping and praying for a docking port quickly turned into frantic and chaotic dashes as the cracks appeared on our glass coffin!
Pretty sure at the tender age of ten years old this game forced us to utter our first curse word!
Anyone who tells you they found this level easy is clearly a LIAR and should not be trusted!
Difficulty Rating: 10/10
