Banjo-Kazooie: Ranking Every Level From Worst To Best

9. Rusty Bucket Bay

Spiking up the difficulty in the later stages of a game is one thing, but Rusty Bucket Bay borders on cruelty.

To begin, the level is called "Rusty Bucket Bay," yet there is only one ramp to get onto the "Rusty Bucket" ship, which means that you'll often have to go all the way around the circumference of the level to get back onto it. Also, the murky water depletes your air supply twice as quickly and, if that wasn't enough, makes you lose air when your head is above water (because that makes sense, right?).

Aside from this, the level has un-killable Grimlets that bite you if you go even sort of near them, random windows that you have to break to get Notes and other items, and the f***ing engine room.

Much like Ocarina of Time's Water Temple, the engine room of Rusty Bucket Bay is the bane of every Banjo-Kazooie player's existence. In this unforgiving hellscape of quickly-rotating platforms, pipes, and propellers, if Banjo and Kazooie fall off even once, they're dead. And just when you think your punishment has ended, the end of the section sees Banjo hit a switch, activating a quicktime event that sees the player rush through the unsteady section they just tiptoed through. You then have to climb up a long ladder, Talon Trot over to the stern of the ship and go beneath the muck to collect a Jiggy behind the boat's propellers, all in just over a minute.

If you can't do it, the propellers will - you guessed it - kill you instantly.

There's no mercy to this level, and it's easily the worst offering that this game has to offer.