Is there some rule that when you’re playing any video game, water levels just always suck? Maybe it’s that for the first while in the game, you get used to the regular dry land controls of the character, only to fall into the lake or ocean to have everything change on you. Not to mention you often lose some abilities that aren’t made up for in any way.
In the early Mario games, you obviously lose the jumping attack and can’t attack anything underwater unless you’ve got the Fire Flower. In SMB 3, you can’t even use your raccoon tail, but at least in SMB World they corrected that with the cape. SMB 3 has the Frog Suit, which enables you to swim against the current and more easily in general, except it has absolutely no offensive qualities whatsoever.
In some games, the controls for underwater maneuvering are just so odd that you can barely move your character around, and in cases where you need to move quickly, you’re in for near-homicidal levels of frustration. The Crash Bandicoot games are particularly bad with this.
Then there are water levels where you aren’t really underwater, but rather the water keeps rising and falling as you progress through it, and you need to stay the hell out of the water at all costs, whether because there’s something that thinks you’re delicious (SMB 3) or because you’ll drown (Bubsy). Those levels can go to hell.
So can all water levels.
So can you, for that matter.