Top 10 Video Game Boat & Ship Levels

Swashbuckling adventures on the high seas without leaving your coach doesn’t sound so bad. Welcome to WatchMojo.com where today we’ll be casting off with our pick for the Top 10 Video Game Boat Levels.

For this list we looked at individual nautical sections of games, based on a boat or a ship. We’re sticking to one game per franchise, and just to be clear: Submarine’s and Spaceships don’t count for this list.

This classic level in this most classic of games features all the favorites: bomb disarming, hostage freeing, and the planting of tracking bugs on the pirate stealth helicopter housed in the ship. Dispose of the Janus Terrorists in style aboard this French ship, ‘La Fayette,’ while you rescue hostages and save the day. Very Bond.

This ship holds a special place in the heart of anyone who owned a GameCube. Probably the best and most exciting map in the game, nothing was more fun than careening around the ship’s dangerous corners and avoiding sliding tables in the dining room, which in real life would be bolted to the ship's floor to prevent sliding from happening. The 3DS version also has parts of the lower deck now flooded and filled with clams, perhaps to reflecting the current state of the cruise ship industry?

In a game full of ship levels, Rattle Battle stands out. On the deck of a sunken galleon in a swamp, you take control of Rattly the Rattlesnake throughout the level. Here you have to make massive jumps across large pits, reach difficult items, and go toe to toe against Kannons, Zingers, Flitters, and Kaboings on this intricate and fun ship level. Depending on if you’ve mastered Rattly’s super spring ability, and platform timing, this stage should be smooth sailing, or a wild ride.

As Agent 47 you must disguise yourself on a private yacht sailing down the Mississippi River, in order to eliminate six Gator Gang members and their boss, Skip Muldoon. 47 is tasked with wiping the floor with this drug cartel and he does not disappoint. You can push guards and gang members into the water, prepare the captain a poisonous cake, and use kitchen knives, fire extinguishers, a shovel, as well as the usual firearms to dispatch your enemies in stealth and style!

The Airboat is definitely a brilliant feature of this amazing game. This Resistance vessel built from scraps skins through the City 17 canals effortlessly. Thought it’s unarmed in the beginning, it later gets an upgrade in the form of a pulse cannon stripped from a Hunter-Chopper. With the cannon the Airboat is a formidable foe to Combine APCs and Hunter-Choppers. Though you often have to solve bridge puzzles to continue with your Airboat, the wildly fun speeding and jumping in the boat you can do make this one vehicle section that’s far from just filler.

It’s ironic that one of our favorite bits from the Creed series features no assassinating or parcour whatsoever, but free roaming in the Jackdaw is amazing fun and a great way to level up weapons and your ship. You’ll be able to control the navigation, weapons, board other ships, and lots more. You can get involved with all kinds of side missions, dive under water to find treasure, and of course the highlight of the game: Naval combat. Just make sure you find plenty of sea shanties on shore, otherwise the crew singing the same songs over and over again, will get on your nerves.

The first of the many memorable stages in one of the greatest platformers of all time, The auto scrolling Koopaling airship also houses the end world boss. But before you face him, you’ll have to face a barrage of cannon balls and Bullet Bills on your way to the Koopa’s cabin. Later airship stages get some more crazy hazards so you’d better get prepared for those stages here.

In John “Soap” MacTavish’s first mission with the SAS, his team has to obtain a package from an Estonian Freighter in the Bering Strait. Fight through armed guards on a rainy ship with your MP5 to retrieve the plutonium hidden within. But only when they find that what they’ve come for is missing, the ship suddenly comes under attack. This results in the cinematic mad dash to the top deck with the ship quickly taking on water, as you hurry to get to the Choppah!

The introductory level in this long awaited sequel offers intense combat on the high seas. On the USS Discovery you must infiltrate a tanker carrying a bipedal all-weather mech called Metal Gear Ray. Use stealth and strength to combat Russian Special Forces, typhoon-like conditions, and helicopters. While the stage serves as a great return for Solid Snake, is also serves as one of the biggest gaming bait and switches, as this is the only time in the game you play as Snake for pretty much the whole game.


Before we get to our top spot, here are a few honorable mentions.

The Long Night of Solace
“Halo Reach” (2010)



The Katariah
“Skyrim” (2011)



Pirate Ships
“The Curse of Monkey Island” (1997)



Banjo Kazooie
“Rusty Bucket Bay” (1998)


Dreadnought
“Gears of War 2” (2008)

Taking our top spot is this awe-inspiring combat and evacuation mission. Drake is aboard the pirate ship of Rameses, The Seaward, when he gets himself into hot…or cold, water by exploding a cargo full of propane tanks with a grenade. Drake finishes off the guards as the ship floods, until it finally sinks! What follows is thrilling escape play as Drake climbs through the wreckage to the ship’s main hall where a final calamitous rush of water sends the ship spiraling to the ocean floor. As both a fantastic Ship and Water level, this stage is one for the history books.


Did you the catch boat you were looking for? Which other nautical levels should’ve made the list, and which ones should’ve walked the plank? For more treasures like this Top 10 list, published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.