Now, what is a video game boss? What makes a boss different than enemies is that the boss is more challenging than the enemies (Most of the time, anyway), and are made to test your skill and must be defeated before you can move on. Some are easy, some are hard, some are SUPER GODDAMN ANNOYING, but, best of all, they can be the highlight of any game. Now, I am going to tell you all my top ten favorite video game bosses. First, the rules. These are going to be from games that only I play, and these are going to be one game per franchise. Also, I am not including final bosses. That is a list for another time. Now, with all that said, lets start the list
#10: King Kaliente from Super Mario Galaxy - Now, even though Megaleg was real fun, he was… a bit too easy. King Kaliente, however, is a bit more challenging. When you fight him, he will spit out fireballs, and occasionally, balls that you need to launch back at him. However, after a few hits, he will begin knocking the balls back at you, so it turns into a tennis match of death. Kinda like Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time, or Phantom Ganon from Wind Waker. However, once you beat him, you then find out that King Kaliente comes back, and he is angrier than ever. This time, there are enemies on the battlefield, the platforms slowly sink into lava, and King Kaliente has more health. This boss fight is just so crazy, especially on the second fight, but, it’s lower because it’s a little too easy. Even the second boss fight isn’t that hard.
#9: Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - Now, this is easily better than the last Shadow fight. While the first Shadow fight was on the spectrum of tolerable, the second one is insanely awesome. In this fight, Sonic and Shadow are running at top speed across a never-ending and collapsing runway, and you need to use your newfound abilities to beat Shadow, while trying to avoid his Chaos Control attacks, as well as try to avoid the platforms, which are falling behind you. What makes this fight so much fun is the fact that you are using speed. And speed is MANDATORY in a Sonic game. Every platforming legend needs something. Mario needs his jump, Kirby needs his ability steal, Sackboy needs…. something, I’m sure. This fight is super fun, and super fast, and I am so glad that this fight helped get the awful taste out of my mouth after the boss fight with Eggman.
#8: Arachanox from Fable - So, after you fight your way through hoards of Wasps, Hobbes, Balverines, Bandits, Undead, and Trolls with your friend, Whisper, you are then faced against the large scorpion, Arachanox. Arachanox has quite a variety of attacks. He can charge at you, grab you with his claws, stab you with his stinger, try to bite you, and burrow underground and have a swarm of smaller scorpions attack you. What makes this fight so much fun is the scenery. The sky changes to a red color, and the entire arena darkens, making this seem so much cooler than you thought it would be. Also, Whisper does help…. But not that much, to be honest. Still, this is an amazing boss fight, and all I can say is HOW COULD THEY GO FROM GIANT SCORPIONS TO A BUNCH OF MINI BOSSES!
#7: Verdugo from Resident Evil 4 - Now, I could have chosen Des Lida for being an amazing first boss, I could have chosen El Gigante for being so huge, and I could have chosen Krauser for…. No, wait, scratch that, his boss fight sucked. So, I decided to chose the “right hand” of Salazar. After you avoid getting impaled, you then travel through the sewers, where you are being hunted down by some sort of unknown figure. As you travel across the area, you are attacked a few times by this monster, yet it doesn’t show itself yet. This gives off a sense of mystery as to what it is and I love it. But, once the monster is revealed, you better be prepared to fight, because he is REAL fast. Shooting Verdugo won’t work, so you need to use the nitrous tanks to freeze him. Once he is frozen, you can shoot him, and you need to do this until he shatters to pieces. This boss fight is really creative, and suspenseful at the beginning, and it works so well in a Resident Evil game… Shame we can’t have things like this happen anymore
#6: The Masters from Madworld - Their Jedi Knights… I’m just gonna throw it out their, their straight up Jedi Knights. They have lightsabers, they can move objects without having to touch them, and the game literally tells you to use the force before you fight them… Okay, now that that’s out of the way, The Masters are a set of two bosses. Now, when you think of having to fight two bosses at once, your mind would probably think of bosses like New Destroyman from No More Heroes 2, Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls, or pretty much any handicap match in any fighting game. Or, for short, you're thinking “Oh god, please kill me”. But, the Masters are actually really fair, and REALLY fun. With two bosses at once, you’ll need to be doing twice as much dodging, meaning that you will have to change your fighting style at some point. Also, the fact that they are Jedi Knights make their fight so much more fun. However, what puts them out of the Top 5 is that they both share a life bar, so killing them is pretty easy
#5: Cliff from Dead Rising - Yes, I like a boss from the first Dead Rising better than Dead Rising 2. While Dead Rising 2 did improve the problems of the first one, they could never compare any boss to Cliff. Before the fight, you are already freaked out, as you walk in to see a bunch of decapitated bodies hanging from the ceiling. After that, you see Cliff, who is acting like a soldier in the Vietnam War. After that, the fight begins. And it is awesome. You need to be aware of all your surroundings, as Cliff can come from anywhere, as if you really are in the Vietnam War. He can throw smoke grenades to stun you, frag grenades to blow you up, and he can come up from behind you and stab you with his machete. Also, Cliff probably has the best backstory out of any psychopath in the game. I’d tell you all here, but, I already made a whole list about it, so…. yeah
#4: Twinrova from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Now, I already talked about this boss in my Top Ten Favorite Zelda Bosses, so I’ll be quick. Twinrova starts out as the two Witch Sisters. One shoots fire, and the other shoots ice. You need to use the Mirror Shield to reflect the fire at the sister that shoots ice, and vise versa. After enough hits, the sisters will fuse together and turn into Twinrova, and now, you need to absorb the magic into your shield. After you’ve done it three times, you’ll fire it at Twinrova, where you need to then strike at her with your sword. It’s fun, and was a brilliant idea at the time. That is what makes this boss fight so fun
#3: Alice Twilight from No More Heroes 2 - Now, this is where the bosses get REALLY good. Alice is the 2nd ranked assassin, yet she is actually questioning why she is an assassin. She has to be the deepest and most sympathetic assassin, right next to Margaret Moonlight and Captain Vladimir. After that, she will then use four robotic arms, allowing her to hold six beam katana’s. The fight has you fighting on top of a building roof, as the sun sets, while possibly one of my favorite songs in the No More Heroes 2 soundtrack plays. This is such a moving boss fight, which makes it that much better. Shame you forget about ALL that once you fight Jasper Batt Jr.
#2: Mr. Freeze from Batman: Arkham City - Now, how could anyone forget this brilliant boss fight. Once you meet Mr. Freeze, he will begin looking for you, and, like Batman says, he is too dangerous for you to just walk up to him and beat him up. So, now you need to try and take him down with multiple ways. This is easily one of the most brilliant boss fights I have seen in this generation. You need to hit Mr. Freeze with every ability you learned. However, you can not do the same thing twice, as Mr. Freeze will adapt to it, forcing you to think of a new way to attack. This boss fight is brilliant in more than one way, and it is hard to not love it.
#1: The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who has played MGS3 know this boss fight, and everyone LOVES this boss fight. The End is the oldest member of the group you are trying to stop. He is a well respected warrior, so much in fact that even Big Boss herself respects him. When you first meet him, he’s sleeping in order to gain enough energy for the fight with you. However, here, you can kill The End right there. Only one question… WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT! If you killed him there, you’d be missing out on an amazing boss fight. How amazing? Well, when you meet him, he will be looking for you through the scope of a sniper rifle, trying to shoot you, while you travel around the jungle, trying to find him. You can find him by hearing his breathing, following his footprints, or seeing sunlight reflect off his scope. Once you fight him, you will only have a few hits before he blinds you with a flash grenade and runs off. The best part of this fight is that you have no music. Just the sounds of the jungle, as you fight this one man. Also, other than killing him before the fight begins, you can actually kill him by saving the game during the boss fight, and stop playing the game for two weeks. Once you do start the game again, you will see that The End has died of old age. But, again, why would you want to kill him that way. The End is a great boss, if not the greatest video game boss in history, and he easily makes number one on my list.
So, there you have it. Did you enjoy the list? Tell me what you thought of it below. With that, I will see you all next time.
#10: King Kaliente from Super Mario Galaxy - Now, even though Megaleg was real fun, he was… a bit too easy. King Kaliente, however, is a bit more challenging. When you fight him, he will spit out fireballs, and occasionally, balls that you need to launch back at him. However, after a few hits, he will begin knocking the balls back at you, so it turns into a tennis match of death. Kinda like Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time, or Phantom Ganon from Wind Waker. However, once you beat him, you then find out that King Kaliente comes back, and he is angrier than ever. This time, there are enemies on the battlefield, the platforms slowly sink into lava, and King Kaliente has more health. This boss fight is just so crazy, especially on the second fight, but, it’s lower because it’s a little too easy. Even the second boss fight isn’t that hard.
#9: Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - Now, this is easily better than the last Shadow fight. While the first Shadow fight was on the spectrum of tolerable, the second one is insanely awesome. In this fight, Sonic and Shadow are running at top speed across a never-ending and collapsing runway, and you need to use your newfound abilities to beat Shadow, while trying to avoid his Chaos Control attacks, as well as try to avoid the platforms, which are falling behind you. What makes this fight so much fun is the fact that you are using speed. And speed is MANDATORY in a Sonic game. Every platforming legend needs something. Mario needs his jump, Kirby needs his ability steal, Sackboy needs…. something, I’m sure. This fight is super fun, and super fast, and I am so glad that this fight helped get the awful taste out of my mouth after the boss fight with Eggman.
#8: Arachanox from Fable - So, after you fight your way through hoards of Wasps, Hobbes, Balverines, Bandits, Undead, and Trolls with your friend, Whisper, you are then faced against the large scorpion, Arachanox. Arachanox has quite a variety of attacks. He can charge at you, grab you with his claws, stab you with his stinger, try to bite you, and burrow underground and have a swarm of smaller scorpions attack you. What makes this fight so much fun is the scenery. The sky changes to a red color, and the entire arena darkens, making this seem so much cooler than you thought it would be. Also, Whisper does help…. But not that much, to be honest. Still, this is an amazing boss fight, and all I can say is HOW COULD THEY GO FROM GIANT SCORPIONS TO A BUNCH OF MINI BOSSES!
#7: Verdugo from Resident Evil 4 - Now, I could have chosen Des Lida for being an amazing first boss, I could have chosen El Gigante for being so huge, and I could have chosen Krauser for…. No, wait, scratch that, his boss fight sucked. So, I decided to chose the “right hand” of Salazar. After you avoid getting impaled, you then travel through the sewers, where you are being hunted down by some sort of unknown figure. As you travel across the area, you are attacked a few times by this monster, yet it doesn’t show itself yet. This gives off a sense of mystery as to what it is and I love it. But, once the monster is revealed, you better be prepared to fight, because he is REAL fast. Shooting Verdugo won’t work, so you need to use the nitrous tanks to freeze him. Once he is frozen, you can shoot him, and you need to do this until he shatters to pieces. This boss fight is really creative, and suspenseful at the beginning, and it works so well in a Resident Evil game… Shame we can’t have things like this happen anymore
#6: The Masters from Madworld - Their Jedi Knights… I’m just gonna throw it out their, their straight up Jedi Knights. They have lightsabers, they can move objects without having to touch them, and the game literally tells you to use the force before you fight them… Okay, now that that’s out of the way, The Masters are a set of two bosses. Now, when you think of having to fight two bosses at once, your mind would probably think of bosses like New Destroyman from No More Heroes 2, Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls, or pretty much any handicap match in any fighting game. Or, for short, you're thinking “Oh god, please kill me”. But, the Masters are actually really fair, and REALLY fun. With two bosses at once, you’ll need to be doing twice as much dodging, meaning that you will have to change your fighting style at some point. Also, the fact that they are Jedi Knights make their fight so much more fun. However, what puts them out of the Top 5 is that they both share a life bar, so killing them is pretty easy
#5: Cliff from Dead Rising - Yes, I like a boss from the first Dead Rising better than Dead Rising 2. While Dead Rising 2 did improve the problems of the first one, they could never compare any boss to Cliff. Before the fight, you are already freaked out, as you walk in to see a bunch of decapitated bodies hanging from the ceiling. After that, you see Cliff, who is acting like a soldier in the Vietnam War. After that, the fight begins. And it is awesome. You need to be aware of all your surroundings, as Cliff can come from anywhere, as if you really are in the Vietnam War. He can throw smoke grenades to stun you, frag grenades to blow you up, and he can come up from behind you and stab you with his machete. Also, Cliff probably has the best backstory out of any psychopath in the game. I’d tell you all here, but, I already made a whole list about it, so…. yeah
#4: Twinrova from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Now, I already talked about this boss in my Top Ten Favorite Zelda Bosses, so I’ll be quick. Twinrova starts out as the two Witch Sisters. One shoots fire, and the other shoots ice. You need to use the Mirror Shield to reflect the fire at the sister that shoots ice, and vise versa. After enough hits, the sisters will fuse together and turn into Twinrova, and now, you need to absorb the magic into your shield. After you’ve done it three times, you’ll fire it at Twinrova, where you need to then strike at her with your sword. It’s fun, and was a brilliant idea at the time. That is what makes this boss fight so fun
#3: Alice Twilight from No More Heroes 2 - Now, this is where the bosses get REALLY good. Alice is the 2nd ranked assassin, yet she is actually questioning why she is an assassin. She has to be the deepest and most sympathetic assassin, right next to Margaret Moonlight and Captain Vladimir. After that, she will then use four robotic arms, allowing her to hold six beam katana’s. The fight has you fighting on top of a building roof, as the sun sets, while possibly one of my favorite songs in the No More Heroes 2 soundtrack plays. This is such a moving boss fight, which makes it that much better. Shame you forget about ALL that once you fight Jasper Batt Jr.
#2: Mr. Freeze from Batman: Arkham City - Now, how could anyone forget this brilliant boss fight. Once you meet Mr. Freeze, he will begin looking for you, and, like Batman says, he is too dangerous for you to just walk up to him and beat him up. So, now you need to try and take him down with multiple ways. This is easily one of the most brilliant boss fights I have seen in this generation. You need to hit Mr. Freeze with every ability you learned. However, you can not do the same thing twice, as Mr. Freeze will adapt to it, forcing you to think of a new way to attack. This boss fight is brilliant in more than one way, and it is hard to not love it.
#1: The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who has played MGS3 know this boss fight, and everyone LOVES this boss fight. The End is the oldest member of the group you are trying to stop. He is a well respected warrior, so much in fact that even Big Boss herself respects him. When you first meet him, he’s sleeping in order to gain enough energy for the fight with you. However, here, you can kill The End right there. Only one question… WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT! If you killed him there, you’d be missing out on an amazing boss fight. How amazing? Well, when you meet him, he will be looking for you through the scope of a sniper rifle, trying to shoot you, while you travel around the jungle, trying to find him. You can find him by hearing his breathing, following his footprints, or seeing sunlight reflect off his scope. Once you fight him, you will only have a few hits before he blinds you with a flash grenade and runs off. The best part of this fight is that you have no music. Just the sounds of the jungle, as you fight this one man. Also, other than killing him before the fight begins, you can actually kill him by saving the game during the boss fight, and stop playing the game for two weeks. Once you do start the game again, you will see that The End has died of old age. But, again, why would you want to kill him that way. The End is a great boss, if not the greatest video game boss in history, and he easily makes number one on my list.
So, there you have it. Did you enjoy the list? Tell me what you thought of it below. With that, I will see you all next time.