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Top Videogame Boss Fights Rated
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.")
...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.
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...
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
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.)
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Those guys always got me jumpin', but the dude that really meant brown-trousers time for me was the Cyberdemon (or "steam-demon" if you read the novelization), used as the boss in Episode 2. That mofo was damn near impossible to beat without a BFG 9000 and a lot of quick dodging. (At least the hell-princes would go down after about five rocket hits each...ol' Cyberdude required a few dozen rocket hits to meet his maker, but only required one of its rockets to take you down.) And the ominous "thump...thump...thump..." of its walk...the novel's line was "It sounded like the World Trade Center was taking a stroll just outside," and that was about right.
Be who you are...and be it in style!
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.
I know it was corny, but damnit, that's the only boss fight to have an emotional impact on me.
But then again, I could be wrong.