As promised, we're continuing our talk on boss fights with a look at some of my favorite boss fights of all time. If you haven't guessed, we're going to be heading into spoiler territory with this one.
The End and The Boss -- Metal Gear Solid 3
When I did my tribute video to Hideo Kojima, I talked about how boss design has been one of his biggest strengths. For me, Metal Gear Solid 3 may be my favorite game of the series; in no small part due to the boss fights.
The boss fights of The Boss and The End combined all three points I talked about before: Environment, Weight and Mechanics. Starting with The End, we have the sniper fight taken to the extreme.
The End's fight requires players to either understand sniping or sneaking around to get the drop on him. The environment was three areas to explore and hunt him down. As an added treat, you could "cheat" the fight by forwarding your system clock so that he would die of old age.
The Boss is less of a mechanical-heavy fight, and more about the emotion of the game. If there was ever the perfect example of combining story and gameplay, The Boss would be it. The fight plays out as student vs. master in one last battle.
The Boss is one of my favorite female characters in video games thanks to being completely different from anyone else. Throughout the game, you are never shown as someone on the same level as her, as she routinely kicks your ass.
For the final fight, this is where it's time to show her how far you've come. This is a fight that's about using CQC and your stealth skills to prove that you deserve the title of Big Boss. Throw in the Snake Eater theme and the gut punch reveal at the end of the game, and this is one fight I still remember today.
Mr. Freeze -- Batman: Arkham City
Instead of story focus, the Mr. Freeze fight is the perfect marriage of gameplay and environment for a boss fight. Mr. Freeze is tracking Batman through the lab thanks to his augmented suit, and the player has to take him down. The catch, and what elevates this fight, is that Mr. Freeze adapts to the player's actions.
You can only hurt him via stealth attacks. However, each time you pull one off, he will adapt and prevent you from doing that same one again. Playing on the hardest difficulty, you need to hit him with almost every stealth take down to finish him. There are very games that have "stealth fights," to them, and this an example of how you can elevate the mechanics into a challenging situation.
Champion Gundyr and Soul of Cinder -- Dark Souls 3
The boss fights of all the Souls games are some of the best around. For my top picks, we have two examples of challenging the player. Champion Gundyr is one of a few optional fights in the game and takes place in a strange world.
The fight begins like the tutorial battle from the start... until he loses a quarter of life. After that, Gundyr goes full-on aggressor on the player with new moves and attack patterns. What I like about this fight is the fact that this is a straight up melee fight. You won't be able to fight him with range or spells and dodge his attacks. The melee combat in the Souls series is some of the best around, and I love it when bosses use that.
The Soul of Cinder is another fight along these lines. The first half of the fight features one of the largest number of attacks for a boss to have. Every few minutes, he will switch to another weapon and change his moveset. The remaining half of the fight is fighting him in a charged up mode. Unlike Gundyr, you are free to use all available tactics to take him down. There are no crazy abilities (unless you count his combo) or the environment getting in the way; just one final one-on-one fight.
Special mention goes to the Smough and Ornstein fight of Dark Souls for the crazy two-on-one and then one pain in the ass-on-one.
Cloudman -- Killer 7
Killer 7 is one of the strangest games out there, so it stands to reason that one of the boss fights would be the most memorable. In the Cloudman stage, you have to fight the postal worker turned cult leader turned heaven smile (it completely makes sense in the game).
You only need to shoot his floating head once to win the fight. However, you are stuck in a maze of ambulances and his body provides protection from a few feet ahead. The boss fight is a deadly game of hide and seek, as you try and get the right angle to get the one shot needed. Getting that one shot can take you a few seconds to minutes of navigating the maze.
This is a good example of a streamlined fight that makes good use of the environment for both the player and the enemy.
The Colossi -- Shadow of the Colossus
Of course for a list of great boss fights we have to include Shadow of the Colossus. Not many games are all about boss fights, but STC makes it work with some of the most memorable fights around.
The setting of the mysterious land plays into the boss fights, as you never really know their back-story or situation. This is one of the few games that you can describe the bosses as "majestic," as you literally climb all over them to take them out.
Despite the minimalist story, the situation and the fights just pull you from beginning to end.
Vergil -- Devil May Cry 3
Skill-based boss fights can be some of the most challenging involved; see the Dark Souls 3 example further up. The Vergil fight is one of the rare instances in the Devil May cry series that has you facing an enemy similar in power. For this list, my pick would be the final fight at the end of the game.
Vergil has a similar moveset as the player, but more importantly, he can use devil trigger. Devil trigger is the ability to regenerate health and do more damage. Just like the player, Vergil's DT will recover multiple times during the fight; changing the pace of the fight multiple times. The fact that he's so similar to the player's abilities is what makes this stand out.
This is not a fight about learning exploits, but mastering the game's combat. For players who are good enough to play on the highest difficulties, this is a massive challenge and a nail-biting fight.
Giygas -- Earthbound
Finally, we have one of the most memorable/disturbing fights in game history. Earthbound is an amazing game and something that we could spend an entire post on. The game's cheery atmosphere and JRPG combat hides a very dark core. And at that core we have Giygas: The manifestation of evil.
The battle against him occurs in one of the freakiest settings in a video game, with the game's designer supposedly being inspired from a horror movie rape scene. The battle scene features and incomprehensible image that is constantly pulsating and changing.
Giygas attacks with moves that cannot be described by the game while saying weird things to you. The only way to finish him off is to end the fight by praying for help from all your friends you met.
Earthbound was a great example of a game that did a lot with its basic gameplay and graphics, and the Giygas fight is proof of that. While we see many games that subvert genres today -- such as Undertale -- Earthbound was one of the first to get freaky.
That's a Wrap:
I hope you enjoyed this list of some of my favorite boss fights of all time. If you want to get in on the fun of remembering these crazy fights, be sure to leave a comment below.
TNS: "Palworld developer's readiness to take on Nintendo's lawsuit is met with a mixed response -- mostly from the Japanese side of the player base."
Well, the good news is that this shows Japanese Twitter users are just as dumb as Western ones. It’s not a copyright-based lawsuit; if it were, things wouldn’t be as dire and concerning as they are. Nintendo is suing them for patent infringement, which should be a huge red flag for anyone who enjoys gaming, as Nintendo holds numerous patents over game mechanics that could significantly impact the market if they start enforcing them.
Seriously, they hold patents for features like fast travel and summoning companions or creatures to help you battle enemies. That’s the level of nonsense we’re dealing with here. So even if you’re a huge Nintendo b*tch, if you care about gaming at all, you shouldn’t be happy - let alone support them in this situation.
I honestly hope this lawsuit just gets thrown out of court, having a patent on game mechanics just shouldn't be a thing, especially when those mechanics are present in many games. If this goes through, imagine the hell on earth we'd go through as everyone starts tossing lawsuits around like missiles.
Sure, they are suing for patent, but it all started because pocketpair copy pokemon designs, otherwise Nintendo couldn't care less.
I do think Nintendo needs to chill on some smaller projects, but in this case, it is a company purposely copying pokemon designs and promoting it as Pokemon with guns, then sell it for money and even try to sell merchandises (according to the articles), I don't think that is acceptable.
And sure, disagree with me, so you can act like you fight for the small guys and feel awesome or whatever.
Oh look another one who just THINKS they know what the issue is without actually reading into what is actually happening. Maybe read and come back so you can actually be up to speed on what the lawsuit is even about.
We're not going to beat around the bush here: This game rips. Shogun Showdown brings strategic planning to 2D roguelike action.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom developers share early ideas for the Depths they had during development.
Great list of fights. I am in agreement with the boss and the end. Very cool ideas behind boss fights implemented. I would also add Psycho Mantis from MGS. That was great with the reading your memory card and switchingredients between controller ports. Funny.
Ino DMC 3, I also remember fighting Virgil numerous times before I finally bested his ass with a shot in the dark, one last bullet when we were both down to nothing and I was just plain frustrated. I almost feel like the game let me have it bc each fight was down to the minimum in the life gauge.
That's what makes gaming great! That final sense of accomplishment. Keep on gaming...
Easy answer for me was MIKE TYSON in PUNCHOUT on the NES . Took me about 7 tries but when i finally beat TYSON i jumped off my couch and ran around my apartment with my hands up air , what a rush it was !! I guess the thrill was so good because if TYSON knocked me out, i had to start the game over and beat all the boxers again.
Dark Souls 2: Fume Knight and Sir Alonne.They both destroyed me many many times. Two best souls boss fights imo.
"the end" is easily #1 for me. but, maneater from demon souls is up there too - i'll never forget finally getting a shot at him and I thought i was doing pretty good.....then the second one flies in - talk about a WTF moment.