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Classic Games (Games) PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Top Videogame Boss Fights Rated 113

Posted by simoniker from the ever-controversial-countdowns dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for their list of their 10 favorite videogame boss fights ever. The article claims: "The bosses here qualify as memorable by excelling in a number of categories; difficulty, personality, and innovative fight mechanics all come into play", and goes on to name bosses such as Dark Falz from Phantasy Star ("...so terrifying, they couldn't even spell his name right"), Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid ("more about figuring out the gimmicks behind his trickery than being skillful with your weaponry"), and Ganon from Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time ("the most dramatic and epic [boss battle] in Zelda history.")
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Top Videogame Boss Fights Rated More

Top Videogame Boss Fights Rated

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  • I've not played that many modern/recent videogames to fight that many bosses (I still remember the big thing at the end of Zaxxon!), but I have particular fondness for the third Bowser battle in "Mario 64".
  • The Spanish Inquisition Cardinal in a flying Comfy Chair.

    He was too easy though as he flew in the same pattern and fired soft cushions in the same pattern. You could hide behind a rock and jump up and fire a couple of times at the same point in the loop and not get hit.

  • Wait a second... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BTWR ( 540147 )
    Wait a second... a few days ago, Gamespot said [gamespy.com] that Mortal Kombat was one of the most overrated games of all time.

    Now it says that the Goro fight in MK is among the 10 best boss-fights in history? (#9)

    So, for a game that seemingly has better boss-fights that any other game in history minus the other 8, it would not be a stretch to say this game therefore DESVERED its high praise.

    So which is it? Most overrated or close-to best fight ever?
    • Why is this modded up? That wasn't GameSpot. That was GameSpy.

    • Re:Wait a second... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Snowspinner ( 627098 ) <{ude.lfu} {ta} {dnaslihp}> on Sunday September 21, 2003 @08:37PM (#7020945) Homepage
      No, no, you're getting them comfused. Gamespy is a bunch of assholes who hate the Gamecube, spout stupid opinions about things, and monopolize file downloads. Gamespot is a reasonably cool site that bothers to have insightful commentary and well-written news occasionally.

      Gamespy hates Mortal Kombat, Gamespot doesn't.

    • Re:Wait a second... (Score:5, Informative)

      by jensend ( 71114 ) on Sunday September 21, 2003 @10:14PM (#7021458)
      I'll ignore the fact that you've confused Gamespot and Gamespy. However, Gamespot is here praising just one boss- they in fact say many of the other enemies were pretty poor quality and easily defeatible by cheap stupid tactics- and one boss does not a game make. Furthermore, even if it were a good game, plenty of Gamespy's "most overrated" games were actually pretty good- it's just that the hype, the reviews, or the anticipation that they'd be even better than the great games they were successors to pointed towards a game light-years beyond the "OK, not great" games they turned out to be.
  • Where's the Great Mighty Poo?
  • Oh where, oh where is Kefka? He's one of the most evil RPG villains ever, and the final battle against him is one of the most memorable from any Final Fantasy game...
    • More like, where's Sephiroth? Sure by the time you got to him he was a push-over, but the theme music ALONE should be worth a mention.
    • >oh where is Kefka?

      I agree, the final confrontation with kefka was a perfect culmination to a perfect game. It left me with a huge sense of accomplishment and I replayed the battle several times just to try out different strategies to beat him. I think he should have made the list.
    • I disagree. As much as I liked FF6, the boss fight was entirely too easy; I didn't build up much and beat in on my first try. The hardest boss in the series is prolly FF5 or FF4. Though I think FF5 is more impressive as the designers had no idea what kind of party you'd have, and using different job/skill combinations each time you fought the boss gave you a sense of strategy. In FF4, they had a pretty good idea what kind of party you were up against (next to zero character customization does that), so
    • Yes, that battle was awesome... as was Zeromus in FF2. That was intense. But my real favorite was Link's Shadow from Adventures of Link. It was 1) COOL! 2) super hard 3) and a brilliant idea for a foe.

      Ditto
      • I liked that too, and I think that putting that baddie in OoT was also a nice touch (he was just about as hard as the shadow in Zelda II for me the first few times). But at this point I think that the boss fight in Wind Waker was the best of the series. Nintendo actually got me feeling sorry for the guy at the end, and that's not something I can remember any other game doing.
        • But at this point I think that the boss fight in Wind Waker was the best of the series.

          Wind Waker had more story than any other Zelda, but the Ganon-fight sucked; it was too scripted.

          I hope Wind Waker's sequal is a bit more imaginative and challenging...
    • At the end of the article they let you submit one. I chose Kefka. he was just so awesome. By FAR my favorite villian. and the end battle, WOW.
    • I nominated Kefka... after all, what other boss cracks random one-liners throughout the game AND can drop your entire party to 1 HP each?

  • What about.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Look Sir, Droids! ( 643328 ) <wedge78@gmail.cTOKYOom minus city> on Sunday September 21, 2003 @08:02PM (#7020716)
    ...Mother Brain?! For its time, Metroid's end battle was pretty innovative, IMHO... i.e., "disconnecting" her life support, the time bomb (I bet every player, upon seeing that message the first time, gasped a collective, "Oh shit!"), etc. Not to mention the fact that, oddly enough, the Mother Brain didn't even attack you; which could've been a bad idea, but I believe it was properly & cleverly executed by Gunpei Yokoi and the rest of the M1 team. And Super Metroid totally upped the ante with their new implementation of Mother Brain, as well.
  • It seems they focused on console games? What about the dragon at the end of dragon's lair (the original)? Or the mother brain from metroid? There were several bosses in ghouls and ghosts that were incredible. Doom II had a great endgame. This is the third or fourth list that /. has posted from these guys and I'm not impressed with their expertise. Sometimes I think they are switching 'popular' with 'good'/'overrated'/etc.

    -Sean
    • Doom II did not have a great endgame. It was just weird. Kinda cool if you happend to know the no clipping code and knew who John Romero was. But if you were playing normally, it was just a really frustrating fight that had no significance to it.

      Besides, I think very few people actually made it to the end of Doom II without using the warp codes. Once you got around level 25 or so the game became near impossible. You had to have the maps memorized to make it through without falling off all the really small

  • A personal favorite (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 )
    D2 (a survival horror title for the ill-fated Dreamcast, and the sequel to D, naturally) has several memorable boss characters, but the scariest one is one that doesn't actually hurt you but just begs you to kill it. It takes quite a bit of time to finish it off, and the entire time it repeats its request.

    Its relation to your character only makes it more disturbing.

  • SMB3 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by acxr is wasted ( 653126 ) *
    How could they have left out Bowser from Super Mario Bros. 3?? He wasn't incredibly difficult, but it was certainly a departure from the norm for the series.

    Mario had no way he could actually harm Koopa, so you had to use his attack against him. After spitting a few fireballs at you, he'd jump up into the air and try to smash you. His impact would destroy the row of bricks beneath him. The "trick" was to get him to keep smashing at the same spot in order to make him fall to his death. Good stuff...
  • In Sonic Adventure 2 Battle you fought the BioLizard which had ATTACHED ITSELF TO THE MOON. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought that was one of the most amazing battles ever.
  • How about Cats from Zero Wing?

    There's nothing more cunning or devious than the simple phrase "All your base are belong to us"...

  • others that are worth to mention (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Metroid72 ( 654017 ) on Sunday September 21, 2003 @08:52PM (#7021029)
    Hitler - Bionic Commando (NES): It's Hitler!! and they showed blood! Hitler was sitting on the Albatross and you had to use the bionic arm to climb up and shoot the cockpit;
    Golem/DragonLord - Dragon Warrior (NES): You needed the flute to kill Golem. DragonLord was hard, especially because the dungeon was really tough.;
    Mother Brain - Metroid (NES): You had to place 30 missiles to beat it, while avoiding the donuts and re-generating columns.;
    Grim Reaper/Dracula - Castlevania (NES): The Grim Reaper was tough (and the level too), but Dracula required tons of patience. He would transform into a huge monster at the end.;
    Golbez - Final Fantasy II - SNES: The music, background and intensity of this battle makes it a classic;
    Too many to mention - Contra Series, GunStar Heroes - Various: These series have the coolest collection of bosses ever, especially when the original team (now Treasure) used to be with Konami;
    Bowser - SuperMarioWorld - SNES : I bought the SNES and got this game as a pack in, the Mode7 effects alone got me there. It was something to show to all your friends. Lava Boss - Axelay - SNES: This has to be one of the coolest bosses for a 16 bit system, however, the flicker/slowdown was unbearable.;
    Odin - Ghouls & Ghosts - GEN: A friend of mine showed me this boss, and I must say that I was impressed, it was HUGE and challenging.
    • > Golbez - Final Fantasy II - SNES: The music, background and intensity of this battle makes it a classic;

      Uhhh... do you mean Zeromus?

      > Odin - Ghouls & Ghosts - GEN: A friend of mine showed me this boss, and I must say that I was impressed, it was HUGE and challenging.

      I thought that was Loki...

    • Not only that, but I seem to recall that being the only NES game with actual curse words in it.
      When you first meet hitler at the end of the game, he says something along the lines of: "You're a damn fool to think you can stop me!"

      Major bonus points for 10 year olds at the time.

  • I remember Dark Falz very well. I spent two weeks straight playing Phantasy Star when it first came out, to get to him. I had to play another two weeks just to level up enough to beat him. The best part about him was that you didn't even know about him until the very end, when there was a twist in the plot. It really hieghtened your interest into what this thing was.

    I think it also helped that they basically used the full graphic power of the Master System to draw him. Unlike the other enemies, Dark F
    • Actually, as far as making the screen background "black", what I recall is they (SMS and NES) used the background as the main "body" of end characters. Then they'd use sprites for "movable" parts of that boss, as well as sprites for fireballs etc...

      2 notable games that used this was Lifeforce (NES) and Altered Beast (SMS). I remember the NES better -- when you'd reach a boss in Lifeforce, your status bar and score at the bottom would disappear.
  • I may be biased since I just finished REZ a few weeks ago, but the yellow blocky guy on level 3 or 4 was one of the most intense boss fights I'd ever played in a video game. It was among the hardest, but in terms of creativity, I think it was incredibly brilliant.

    On the PC side, which really isn't know for decent boss battles, who can forget nearly every single boss in the NOLF series? Fighting the ninja girl in a house tossed about by a tornado? And mancubes! Mancubes!

    Oh yes, lest we forget the proli
    • If you're talking about the boss that forms a giant running man out of cubes, yep, he was pretty cool. However, IMHO, it's mainly because of the area you fight him in (running through 'corridors') -- he makes another appearance in level 5, but since it's an enclosed space, it's not as cool (again, IMHO).

      In DOOM II, you have to use the noclip cheat to actually know that it's Romero's head you're shooting, as I recall. Otherwise, it's just some hole in the wall/giant demon face.
  • Okay, I admit I have not played any of the games mentioned above. In fact, I don't even play that many games. However, it seems that they left out a *lot* of good bosses, many of them from far superior games than the ones mentioned. I mean, seriously, Earth Worm Jim? Serious Sam? I've heard those are pretty good games, and I realize this isn't a 'best games' list, but come on - what about the best bosses from the best games in history?

    I recall in particular the end bosses in the shareware episode of Doom

    • Re:What the-? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Erbo ( 384 )

      I recall in particular the end bosses in the shareware episode of Doom had me literally sceaming in front of the computer. Seeing those doors slide up, and revealing *two* imposing Barons of Hell standing there... It was one of the most frightening things I have ever experienced from a computer, beating even the goatse.cx guy. The fight that followed was one of the most intense I've ever had from an FPS.

      Those guys always got me jumpin', but the dude that really meant brown-trousers time for me was the Cy

    • The end of X-Wing? A great idea, but rather flawed in the execution. Keep bumping into things in the Death Star trench? No problem! Just crank the detail level down, and all those nasty laser cannon will disappear!
  • I guess I am just a sucker for new-and-improved sequels, but I thought the protracted battle with Ganon in Zelda:The Wind Waker was really cool. And the battle with Metroid Prime in the similarly-named-game probably had the coolest music of any boss battle I can remember. Also, Metal Gear Solid 2 had some nice boss battles- the fight between Raiden and 25 Rays was my favorite.
    • I loved that boss fight too. Gannon seemed so cool with two swords, plus the reflection mechanic was something new.

      But I have to go with GameSpot that Ocarina of Time is much better. I don't think I'll ever forget running up those stairs right at the end before finally confronting Gannon, or escaping before the castle fell apart, or the final transformation... Plus, one thing I missed in WW was the boss titles before you fought them.

      GANON
      • Yeah, I really respected that Ganon in WIndWaker wasn't yet another giant floating boss--just an amazingly talented swordsman.

        Kind of like that Karateka boss the article talks about.

  • Boss fights suck (Score:3, Insightful)

    by metamatic ( 202216 ) on Sunday September 21, 2003 @10:26PM (#7021525) Homepage Journal

    Is it just me, or is the "boss fight" the biggest, stalest, lamest c l i c h e-acute-accent in the video game world?

    (Spelt out 'cause Slashdot blows and can't deal with accented characters.)

    • I agree, I'm really starting to like games that don't have boss fights.

      A boss fight is like killing off the entire US Marine Corp and then having trouble finishing off George W Bush.
  • Undying - PC

    Im not sure what the hell that thing was, but, damn it was ugly.

    Chrystalis - NES

    A big ass maze, then the good ole multi form boss with a weak point, that you can only hit when he's attacking.

    Jainith

  • Earthbound (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Captain Nitpick ( 16515 ) on Sunday September 21, 2003 @11:25PM (#7021826)

    Earthbound had some of my favorite bosses. Whether it was the five Guardian Diggers, all of whom claimed to be the third most powerful, or the Clumsy Robot that kept eating eating bologna sandwiches, or even Master Belch, the Earthbound bosses still hold a place in my memories (next to the fuzzy pickles).

    The best Earthbound boss was the final one.

    Giygas. The incarnation of evil. So infused with raw power that he lost his mind and body. And he's got that bastard Pokey as his sidekick.

    You get him to his final form, and nothing works. Attacks are useless. PSI is even less useful. Items have no effect.

    You've tried bashing, shooting, the heavy bazooka, multi bottle rockets, dragonite, psi starstorm omega, and even Poo's mimic ability. Nothing.

    Your HP and PP are dropping, and your stockpile of healing items is running out.

    Then you try the one command you've been avoiding since you picked up Paula. Its effects were random, and sometimes suicidal, but you had nothing to lose. It was the last boss, and nothing else was working.

    Paula prayed from the bottom of her heart! "...Please give us strength, if it is possible... Please... Somebody help us..."

    All of the Mr. Saturns felt a new, startling feeling they had never experienced before, and they all started praying for the safety of Ness and his friends.

    I know it was corny, but damnit, that's the only boss fight to have an emotional impact on me.

    • Agreed. That was a fantastic battle.

      And it explains why your classmate called you for your real name
    • I've seen the fight with Giygas written up in a couple of places lately, and everyone mentions the Pray command, but no one mentions my own favorite part of the fight.

      The background music, as the last fight starts on this SNES game, starts out composed entirely of suitable 8-bit NES music! After about a minute of that it suddenly stops and makes way for a driving electric guitar, but at that time I kind of wished it went on.

  • I...Hunger! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Sunday September 21, 2003 @11:42PM (#7021896) Homepage
    Run, coward! [sinistar.com] ARAHAHHH! [sinistar.com]
  • Death Viper is one of my all-time favorites. I loved the way he formed himself out of a mass of writhing snakes, and he was just as scary to fight as he was to look at. Not sure if he counts as a boss, since he's the only enemy in the game, but Sinistar used to give me nightmares too. "RUN COWARD, RUN!"
  • Kefka. Most... dissapointing... fight... EVAR!

    I was really looking forward to it. I fought my way to the end, the awesome music started, and I was ready to go!

    The fight went something like this:

    Ultima
    Ultima
    UltimaUltima (Celes had the Gem Box)
    Ultima
    Ultima ....

    You get the idea. I held A down until I won. Didn't lose a single person.

    Sigh... And I remember when "Nintendo Hard" meant something. Impossible jumps and exploding Hitlers: that was where it was at!
    • even better (or worse):

      fully leveled locke
      atma weapon and theif dagger equiped
      Genji Glove and offering relics equiped

      8 hits per round, 9999 per hit

      kefka dead in one attack from one person.

      I was so dissapointed.
      yes. I'm a dork.

  • SHODAN (Score:3, Interesting)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @01:43AM (#7022326) Homepage Journal
    From what I heard and read, SHODAN (the boss in System Shock 1) had an awesome boss fight game. I won't spoil it, but you can see it if you play it. System Shock 2's SHODAN wasn't special to remember.
    • From what I heard and read, SHODAN (the boss in System Shock 1) had an awesome boss fight game. I won't spoil it, but you can see it if you play it. System Shock 2's SHODAN wasn't special to remember.

      Incorrect, SHODAN from SS1 was a lousy boss fight. Her incarnation in SS2 was significantly better.
  • Luca Blight from Suikoden II. Badass the entire game, and twice as badass during the extended last fight(s). If you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy if you ever see it on eBay for under $3,500 or whatever it's going for these days.
  • Cyberdemon [geocities.com] was the freakiest boss I ever ran into my gaming history.

    1) He was HUGE for first perspective shooters.
    2) He was ugly!
    3) Crazy rockets!
    4) Noisy!

  • Psycho Mantis... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The fight with Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid was utterly retarded and made me stop playing that game.

    If you don't know, the whole deal was that character was supposed to be psychic. You had to plug the controller into the other port to get past him because then he supposedly couldn't read your mind (ie: predict your moves and counter them perfectly). Without playing from the 2nd port - it was literally impossible to defeat him.

    Not only did they have this retarded gimmick, they then proceeded to tell y
    • I beat the game w/out using the other controller port. He makes your guns useless, but you can still kick his ass in hand to hand combat.
      • I did the same thing... I played for a while, getting more and more frustrated, but slowly getting better and better at taking him out.

        Finally, after an entire evening, I defeated him, and moved on.

        It was only when bitching about him to a friend, about how tough he was, did my friend clue me in to the "trick" to beat him. I still had my save, so went back and tried it out - and found how easy it was done that way.

        I still felt better about doing it the hard way.
    • The AC is right. I decided I would not finish that battle, or buy another Konami game, after that little gimmick. Put your controller on the floor snake? Buh-bye immersion. And how was one supposed to guess to do that? There wasn't even the smallest clue. Those developers were sure full of themselves.

    • I believe that if you called the Colonel on the CODEC, he'd tell you right away.

    • Don't know about you but I beat him with out switching ports either. I beat him hand to hand and moved on to continue playing an excellent game. Honestly guy, if you cry and complain about this then do you really have bussiness playing games at all. Looking at gamefaqs did not help? Could not find any walkthroughs? online help? Anything?
      sad ...

  • Ninja Gaiden (Score:2, Interesting)

    by slothman32 ( 629113 )
    I couldn't even think of beating Jaquio on the console. I had to wait 'til the magic of emulators and save states to beat him. I had to slow it down to like 1/4 the speed and repeatedly save when I hit and restore when I got hit to even think of winning. It still required alot of work even then. I also agree with Mother Brain in Metroid was pretty hard. Just staying on the ledge to launch missles without being in the lava too long isn't easy.
    • I think the entire ending of Ninja gaiden was damn hard (I did beat it on the console). First you need to kill the devil with the axe. Then you need to kill the flying dude. Then you need to defeat a demon. ANy one of the 3 was a good boss, the combo was a killer.
  • While not technically an endboss WarMech from Final Fantasy was denfinately the start of something good.

    Pace back and forth on the bridge leading Tiamat in the sky castle until he comes.... and nukes your entire party :P

    • I remember my battle with Warmech. I was playing FFI with the Nintendo Power Guide and the paragraph read that there was a very slight chance to meet warmech in that dungeon. As soon as I stepped into that floor, first enemy - Warmech - only ONE turn and my whole party was dead. I believe that it was harder than the final boss, especially because you couldn't find it again.
  • For me it would have to be either Safer Sephiroth from FF7 (I remember literally laughing when one winged angle started, It sounded like a funny song... But then the clouds.... then the wings and all.... Majorly terrified!!!) Ganondorf from OCT, He was way scary, and an amazing boss battle, Or Doctor Willey!!! Man he scared me! After I played the mega man games I kept having nightmares of a little mad scientist coming up in a UFO and it opening up.... then the eye brows.... OH THE HOROR!!!
  • Actually, I thought Wind Waker's last fight was very cool. Nevermind that the story before and after the last fight (which is not technically part of it) is the best of all the Zeldas, it was a fight where you *had* to use the counterattack ability that you had the whole game to learn how to use. Also, at the end you had to fight Ganon with Zelda supporting you with the Light Arrows. So much more satisfying than having her stand off-stage, gasping whenever you get hit.

    Also, while the difficulty against
  • Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge for the NES.

    The final boss was IMPOSSIBLE to defeat. The fight consisted of you having to lay mines for the boss to step on, and he never did. The only weakness he had were the bottom of his feet. He managed to scurry around every mine I layed, and the fight dragged on and on. Never did beat the game because of it.

    - IP
  • And oh, "Ligar" at the end of Rygar for the NES. Bloody frickin' difficult as hell. Beat him, but ended up bald because of it.

    - IP
    • Good call...

      I forgot all about that one.

      I also want to mention Mr. Big from the arcade game NARC (which you could "vote" for at the end of the article) He was just sickly hard to defeat.

      *Shrug*

      e.

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