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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.")
Wait a second... a few days ago, Gamespot said 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?
...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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Run, coward! ARAHAHHH!
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
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.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
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.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
I'm still freaked out about that blind three-headed monster that you had to distract with grenades.
Who could forget trying to make their way silently around that thing?
Talk about tense moments...although I guess it really isn't a boss, it felt like one, and it was definitely more imaginative than the usual thing you just have to find a weak spot on to kill.