Water Levels

Quote from The Inhaling One

Going to get off topic for a second. What the hell is a CRPG?

Gonna take a stab...

Card Role Playing Game?

Oh god, water levels. Even ignoring the obvious (Water Temple from Ocarina of Time, Great Bay Temple from Majora's Mask), pretty much every water level I've played has been obnoxious as hell.

That said, I did like Mystic Lake from Wario Land 4, and I like the underwater tracks in Mario Kart 7 and 8.

I disliked Majora Mask's Great Bay Temple, and OoT's Water Temple, Wario Land: Shake It's The Water Stage. Kingdom Heart 2's Atlantica and I hate many of the water levels as it looks very difficult than it seems so.

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Even as a Wario fan I didn't particularly like Wario Land Shake It's water stages. The submarine gameplay seemed kind of weird to have in a platformer, especially one which worked fine without it.

I think out of any game I've played, Rayman Legends probably has done water levels the best. Not only in controls, but also in tone. Origins did them well too, but Legends had more flare... with frogs in Tom Clancy parodying suits and oh... The music... So good. I could talk about those games for hours.
Mega man does water levels pretty good too.
Mario... Has never faired as well.
A lot of more realistic games do "swimming" segments fine. I think the main issue is just lies in where exactly the design is focused when the level is being developed.
The reason the water temple is terrible, mainly, is the iron boots and the fact that you constantly have to rise and fall after equiping them and taking them off. (You had to equip/unequip them from the menu back on the N64, which is where it gets the bad reputation) That's just clunky design. And that's the thing about water levels. If you cant find a way to design them in a player-friendly way... Just don't.