Best Bosses Of All Time: Part 1

Let’s face it; just about any game you play these days will include a boss, in some shape or form. They have been around since the dawn of time, from the early 16-bit consoles, to our powerful present generation machines; it seems that bosses are just a staple ingredient for video games. With that being said, PALGN has decided to look at some of the best bosses in gaming history, so without further ado here they are, the favourite bosses of staff writer Matt Bassos (in no particular order).

WARNING!
THIS ARTICLE WILL EXPLAIN - IN DEPTH - BOSSES FROM CERTAIN GAMES, AND MAY THUS CONTAIN SPOILERS.
READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Who could forget the final boss battle in Super Metroid against the Mother Brain. It had everything you could want in a boss battle – suspense, anticipation, drama and of course revenge. While you may think the near defenceless Mother Brain is a bit of a pushover when you first encounter it as it eats your missiles while hiding behind a glass case, it doesn’t take long before you see it transform into a hideous beast, something more akin to Brain Godzilla.

The hunter becomes the hunted, as you soon realise that you don’t stand a chance against the awesome power of the Mother Brain beast – its powerful brain beam draining your energy tanks in rapid fashion. Just when all seems lost and you’re about to receive the blunt of the final brain beam, the Metroid Matrix that you first encountered in Metroid II: Return of Samus attacks the Mother Brain buying you some time. However it cannot compete with the power of the Brain, and perishes in battle while protecting you as if you were its real mother – truly an emotional moment. Revenge sets in and with the spirit of the Metroid Matrix filling her body; Samus receives the strongest weapon in the game, the Hyper Beam, a weapon so power it blows the Mother Brain away with no problem. After the final hit, the Brain fades to dust, and a self-destruct sequence is initiated – a truly breath-taking final boss battle.



If there is one thing the bosses from Devil May Cry had going for them, is that they never bloody died. Griffon is one example of this “Never Say Die" attitude and defiantly one of the more memorable adversaries you had to triumph over. You encountered this big, bad bird several times throughout your adventure and he was a total pain in the neck to fight. With the power of lightning and electricity, Griffon would like to bombard the living hell out of your fighting environment while staying nice and safe in the sky. What was even worse however, was his wicked “carpet bomb” attack where he would fly over and literally nuke the screen at your expense. Indeed it was a pleasant moment when this bird finally died for good, and the brutal, gory way in which he carks it, made it all that much sweeter.



Right of the bat, Rocket Knight Adventures had some of the best boss battle music ever, and even today I’m stressed to find something that places me in the mood for a fight as well as this classic platformer did. Rocket Knight Adventures included a plethora amount of sub-bosses and bosses – each well developed and challenging, but the final Pig Star Core, is the most memorable. A giant sphere with a picture of a pig in the centre, this ball flew around and unleashed a magnitude of high-tech weaponry and gizmos in an attempt to blow you to smithereens.

What made him even more memorable is that after you finally defeated this monstrosity, (and as long as you were playing the right difficulty setting) he would come back and attack while you were fleeing in a space pod – now that’s what I call persistence. You were completely defenseless as this chunk of the Pig Star Core, assaulted relentlessly. Your only chance of survival was to evade and endure until he burnt up in the atmosphere – one of the most suspenseful, survival moments of any boss.



Weaved throughout the complex storyline of Metal Gear Solid 2, were many memorable characters and further still many memorable bosses. No more so than the final boss Solidus Snake, a genetically enhanced, super-soldier. This was no flashy fight; it was pure mono e mono; a fight to the death, while swords replaced what would be a typical fistfight. The emotional in this final confrontation was immense as Raiden faced demons from the past as he finally fights the person who killed his parents and tormented him in his youth. Being cloned from Big Boss himself, fighting Solidus was no easy battle, so seeing him fall to his doom was a satisfying experience, as Raiden finally achieves revenge.



Yoshi’s Island was yet another classic platformer with well developed bosses. The final battle against Baby Bowser however stands out from the pack. This battle involved a standoff against a rampaging Bowser – quite an easy final confrontation or it seems until that nasty Kemek sprays his magic dust and turns Bowser into anything but a baby. In fact, Bowser becomes so big he blows through the roof of the castle, and you’re stuck fighting a galactic monster. Not only did you have to aim and bombard Bowser with over-the-sized novelty eggs in the distance, but also avoid the falling rocks, which could obliterate you instantly. Furthermore if Bowser managed to reach you before defeat, he would squish Yoshi like a dinosaur pancake – got to love fighting a boss with a time limit…



The Nemesis was one of the most frightening, persistent bosses ever. He wasn’t confined to the traditional “end-of-level-boss-fight” position; in fact he could literally appear out of nowhere, anytime and lay a good old fashion smack down on your ass. Moreover he was the first Resident Evil creature to display some intelligence as he would stalk you from room to room, while you frantically ran like a school girl to get away.

The final confrontation with the Nemesis however is one fight to remember. In his mutated state (and being barely able to recognize him, from his once charming looks) the Nemesis is a walking biological tank, capable of spitting the deadliest of acids. No weapon could bring him down, not even the mighty rocket launcher; instead a powerful experimental, rail-cannon was the only thing that could finally finish this “S.T.A.R. Stalker.” Nothing like a ten-foot cannon, ripping through a giant biological fiend!



The final boss, Ugh-Zan III, from Serious Sam is probably one of the biggest on-screen bosses in video game history. This guy was humongous, and could easily flatten you in an instance, so battling was quite the difficult task. Thankfully Serious Sam, being a well-made Doom clone, gave access to a large array of powerful weaponry, so that our hero Sam would actually have a chance against this one hundred foot behemoth. After dealing this giant a hefty amount of damage the final confrontation would take place inside a pyramid where chaos ensured until you finally toppled him.



Shao Kahn has appeared in many Mortal Kombat games, and was unbelievable cheap in just about all of them. He was capable of the fifteen-second flawless victory in which your character would be bombarded with combos that put a veteran player to shame. This was especially true in Mortal Kombat 3, where Kahn would absolute go bananas as “Finish Him” would flash on screen much to the frustration of the player. Shao Kahn also had memorable catch phrases and there’s nothing quite like having a cheap boss spout “You Suck” to calm a frustrated player down. He was the boss you loved to hate, and his artwork was pretty cool…



Ok, so I’m bending the rules a little bit, as the Cyberdemon really wasn’t a boss, but he was just so menacing not to mention. Part demon, part cyborg, the Cyberdemon was a muscular hunk of flesh and machine, the ultimate weapon to bring doom to our poor space marine. The Cyberdemon could take a tremendous beating; being able to absorb what seemed like endless rockets, and even if your were lucky enough to be carrying the BFG, fighting him wouldn’t be a walk in the park, as it took multiple blasts to kill him.

What made him so difficult to fight apart from his inhuman stamina, was his attached rocket launcher arm. This thing would go crazy firing off an unlimited amount of rockets, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the impact would send you flying all over the place making it impossible to aim. The Cyberdemon was definitely one tough mother and it could easily kick the ass of a Spider Mastermind; just go play Doom 2, level 20, (Gotcha!) for the proof.



The Zelda games have had so many well-developed, memorable bosses it’s nearly impossible just to choose one. However the final battle against Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, is unquestionably an unforgettable battle. Fighting Ganon, had many different phases; each one progressively getting harder. First would he would use simple combat to engage you, then followed by powerful fire magic, which would fly towards you. Towards the end the arena tiles started to collapse, and one wrong step could force you to restart the final confrontation all over again…definitely aggravating.

In his final phase, Ganon would fade into the darkness, and the only way to reveal him was to light the arena torches in a bid to flush him out. You then had a small window of opportunity, to attack and freeze him in place, before striking him with a shimmering silver arrow. Rinse and repeat this process a few times and Ganon would perish leaving you the endings for one of the best games ever made.


Until Next Time...

Well there you have it, they are the best ten bosses for part one. Don’t fret if your favorite boss wasn’t included because there’s a good chance he will appear in future installments. Until then, good luck in defeating that boss...

Opinions in Best Bosses Of All Time: Part 1, are solely those of PALGN staff writer, Matt Bassos.