Swimming Levels: The Worst Idea in Video Game History

A lot of video games borrow ideas from other video games. This isn't a bad thing as long as it isn't blatantly ripping somebody off. Movies borrow from each other. So do musicians. One way that video games borrow from each other are the types of levels that games have. There are levels that take place in the snow, there are levels that take place in the desert or there is the evil elevator level that I talked about in a previous article. But there is one level that is worse than all the others, even the elevator level. The worst video game level out of them all is the swimming level.

I believe the first time I encountered a swimming level was in the first Super Mario Bros. game on the NES. That's not surprising since Super Mario Bros. paved the way for a lot of other games. The Super Mario Bros. swimming level was better than normal swimming levels because at least you could throw fireballs. It doesn't make sense to be able to throw fireballs underwater, but oh well. The swimming level on Super Mario Bros. was still annoying though because you had to constantly mash a button to swim and it was harder to control your movements. Plus those squids moved diagonally! Nobody moved diagonally at the time.

My next encounter with swimming was in Jaws. All I have to say is there is a reason Jaws is one of the worst NES games of all-time. It's because the whole game is swimming. There is a reason that Aquaman is one of the worst superhero video games of all-time (and there have been a lot). It's because there is a lot of swimming involved (that and Aquaman talks to fish!)

There was an underwater level in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. For turtles those heroes in a half shell sure don't swim that well. It doesn't help that there are also the lasers that electrocute the turtles and radioactive seaweed. The turtles are not able to use their weapons underwater though and the turtles are no fun without their weapons.