Top Five Best and Worst Water Levels

Water levels aren't usually good, but I feel there are some good ones out there. Of course there are plenty of terrible ones too. So feel free to make a list for both sides. Also you can just pick a game/series with good water levels/sections or pick more specific levels. Whichever way is fine.

That's hard but at least the top and bottom are easy for me:

Top:
1. Rayman's Water Levels are actually fun
2. God of War - At least you had that power dash...thing. Made navigating a lot more bearable. And no air meter.
3. I honestly don't know if I have 5 of these in me. I tend to dislike the controls of water levels.

Bottom:

1. MGS2 the flooded bit of the Big Shell...just...no. NOOOO! I played it through enough times that I'd memorized it but even with that done it was annoying. Air bars, a labyrinth AND an escort mission. GARBAGE. You Kojima fanboys can tell me all you want how it was supposed to be "meta" or some crap but it was torture.
2. Kingdom Hearts - Water levels because of the...moment in KH2 but also the targeting in their battle system goes screwy when a Z axis gets involved.
3. Mario Games - this might be blasphemy but i hate water levels where the character sinks. So the A-button tapping to make Mario swim drives me NUTS. I find most all water levels in Mario games annoying.

Here are some I like:

Rayman Legends - 20,000 Lums Under the Sea: The best water levels I think, but the ones in Origins are good too. These games underwater controls make ones where you have to mash a button to swim up or whatever feel terrible in comparison.

Shadow of the Colossus: Both water colossi are pretty sweet.

Tomb Raider: Underworld: The parts where you explore are fun. Good underwater controls and no breath meter. I like the bits in Anniversary too, but there isn't really an underwater level, just some sections/puzzles that use them.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze: Basically controls like Rayman. These aren't as good as the normal levels, but for water levels are pretty good.

Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow: I remember thinking these were good at the time, but it has been a while, so I could be wrong!

I also think the Ratchet & Clank and God of War games have good underwater controls, but I don't recall any particular levels that stood out. Usually just little sections here and there.

Also if I were to cheat a bit I'd say Jak and Daxter's Lost Precursor City which is underwater and totally rocks. Not really with the spirit of this topic as I was shooting for games that don't have shit swimming controls. But if you guys have other water-themed levels like this, feel free to throw them out there.

I will see if I think of any more and do some bad ones (which should be much easier) soon.

Good, if only in relative terms:

The Swamp Palace in A Link to the Past (this was actually quite a good dungeon)
The Lakebed Temple in Twilight Princess
Maridia in Super Metroid. In this one, you still had to deal with wonky water controls until you got the Gravity Suit, but the area itself was as well-crafted as everything else in Super Metroid.
Super Mario 64. I actually enjoyed swimming around in this game. The water areas were designed to show off all of the N64's little graphical tricks, so they actually made it kind of fun
The Great Sea in Wind Waker. I rather enjoyed the sailing.

Bad:

The Water Temple in Ocarina of Time. Great game overall, but the worst dungeon I have ever played in a Zelda game. The water mechanics in Ocarina of Time in general sucked ass, and thankfully Nintendo remedied that in subsequent releases. I don't know if the Water Temple is the worst offender per se, but it was the one that pissed me off the most and the one that stands out as the best example of why I hate water levels in most games.

@Trip: The water levels in the SNES Donkey Kong Country games were somewhat bearable but still had the same problems with controls and not being able to strike back at enemies unless you were riding the swordfish.

Best:

Rayman Legends
Shadow of the Colossus
Super Mario 64
Ocarina of Time Water temple
The Great Bay in Majora's Mask. (you can swim like a dolphin! Without crashing into everything)

Worst:

MGS2
2D Mario games

I don't hate water levels nearly as much as most people. I really like the environments.

SanAndreasX wrote:@Trip: The water levels in the SNES Donkey Kong Country games were somewhat bearable but still had the same problems with controls and not being able to strike back at enemies unless you were riding the swordfish.

I'm playing DKC2 now and they are certainly bearable and better when you have the swordfish, but I still think Tropical Freeze's are much better.

At least we can all agree on MGS2 and Rayman Legends...