4. Water Temple (Ocarina of Time)
Ocarina of Time is one of Nintendos finest entries into one of their finest franchises. Riding Epona across the plains of Hyrule and watching the sun rise is one of the strongest memories of my early gaming career; a memory fondly shared by an entire generation of gamers. But my fellow gamers and I also share another less pleasant memory: the time that unbridled joy was ruined upon entering the Water Temple.
So, why is it infuriating? Unlike most entries on this list, the WaterTemple doesnt feature terrible controls, or even an unforgiving difficulty spike. No, it features on this list purely for its confusing layout, and rage inducing water level adjustment mechanic. Essentially, you can lower or raise the water level, which will change which rooms you can enter. Unless youre very familiar with the layout of the level (or using a well written guide), its almost guaranteed that at some point youll end up lost. And the absolute worst part? If you screw it up and adjust the water to the wrong level, you have to start over. Nintendo went some way in making up for this atrocity with the 3DS port: the different rooms where you change the water levels are now colour coded for convenience. Whilst it makes the puzzle aspect somewhat easier, the actual navigation of the dungeon remains somewhat akin to the Freleng Door Gag. Constantly having to equip and unequip the iron boots quickly also becomes a real chore, as does getting caught up in those damn dirty whirlpools.