The Ten Best Video Game Bosses of All Time

Ganon. Bowser. Mike Tyson.

If you’ve ever played a video game before, odds are you’ve encountered a boss battle. Be it a mini-boss, level boss, or final boss, they’ve all become an integral part of video game language, and with good reason. At their best, they represent the culmination of all that a player has learned – all the skills that they’ve gained – on their journey. In a way, they are the ultimate test of a player’s abilities, and because of that, they’re here to stay, flashing weak points and all.

Of course, not all boss battles are created equal. Some may be truly memorable experiences, while others are frustrating affairs that have players throwing their controllers against the screen in frustration.

Below are my picks for the ten greatest boss battles of all time. Note that for the sake of variety I’ve chosen to limit no more than one boss per video game series.

10. Brachyura (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)

Castlevania bosses are a lesson in perseverance. I don’t think there’s been a single boss from the series that I’ve managed to defeat on my first, second, or even tenth try. However, the more you play, the better you get – learning the intricate attack patterns and developing new strategies of your own – until you emerge from the other end of the fight a seasoned pro.

Of course, this kind of punishing gauntlet isn’t for everyone, and many bosses may see you destroying your television in rage. Brachyura, the giant enemy crab from Order of Ecclesia, made the list because he also has the distinction of being a lot of fun.

The whole battle involves being chased up a giant lighthouse, grappling from magnet to magnet, trying to stay ahead of, and damage, the giant crab. The whole process is incredibly fast-paced and, in true Castlevania style, leaves no room for error. Yet when you finally do make it to the top, there’s nothing more satisfying than crushing Brachyura with that elevator.

9. Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time)

If you can only play one Ninja Turtles game in your life (though I’m not sure why that would be), then Turtles in Time is the obvious choice. A truly epic beat-em-up that spanned across the reaches of time and space, from the Stone Age all the way to the distant future and galaxies far, far away. You fight against a wide variety of the Turtles’ enemies as well, from Tokka and Rahzar to more obscure villains such as Slash and Metalhead. But it’s the Shredder battle that stands out.

Most Turtles in Time bosses, indeed most beat-em-up bosses, followed a pretty predictable pattern – when the bad guy shows up, hit them as much as possible and dodge their attacks. Shredder, however, had other plans. Instead of taking you on directly, he’s content to just shoot at you from the foreground as he watches you fight against wave after wave of Foot Soldiers. From his vantage point (just in front of the player’s POV), Shredder appears to be untouchable. Until you figure out the trick to the battle, all you can do is fight against the endless wave until you inevitably find yourself overwhelmed.

Of course, no villain is too much of a match for the Turtles. By throwing the Foot Soldiers into the camera, a move that until this fight had been purely aesthetic, you actually manage to damage Shredder. Do that enough times and you’ll find yourself victorious. Cowabunga!

8. “It” (Resident Evil 4)

Resident Evil 4 is one of the best action/horror games of all time, and part of that has to do with the dozens of incredible set pieces that can be found within the meaty campaign, from your first encounter with a chainsaw-wielding villager to a mine-cart racing scene that would make Donkey Kong quake in terror. However, in my books, there’s one boss that stands above the rest.

Though technically its name is U-3, most fans probably know it as… “It.”

When you fight against this creature, you’re trapped in a storage crate that’s seconds away from plummeting down a chasm. Not only do you have to constantly stay on the lookout for It, but you have to constantly work your way through a maze of obstacles, lest you fall to your death. The whole experience is frantic, fun, and is pretty much guaranteed to have you repeating the mantra “oh shit oh shit oh shit.”

7. Red (Pokémon Gold and Silver)

The Pokémon franchise has seen several sequels over the years, all to varying degrees of success. However, in my opinion the series’ second generation was its finest hour. One reason for this was the amazing final confrontation.

Most Pokémon games culminate in your battle with the Elite Four (with your rival usually thrown in the mix). Not so with Gold and Silver. In these games, the Elite Four merely marked the halfway point of the experience. The real challenge would be much later, amidst the snow-capped peaks of Mt. Silver.

Your opponent? Trainer Red, the hero from the original series. His Pokémon, particularly his amped-up Pikachu, are forces to be reckoned with, making this by far the hardest battle in the game.

Throughout the entire battle, and even after you beat him, Red never says a word, making the whole thing seems somehow more epic. The sense of accomplishment you feel after his defeat is palpable. When he quietly disappears, you are left equally speechless, for you are now the true Pokémon master.

6. Cronos (God of War III)

Kratos has a history of taking down some pretty big monsters, but in terms of sheer size you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger boss than Cronos. Considering the majority of the first game took place on his back, the idea of facing off against the titan in a one-on-one brawl would seem impossible.

However, nobody told that to Kratos, and the result is one of the most spectacular boss battles in recent history. Keep in mind, this is a guy who’s very breath can be lethal. Much of the battle is spent fighting the legion of undead who live on his body, but as the fight progresses, you slowly chip away at his vitality. A ripped fingernail here, a sliced stomach there. Eventually, after you finally – finally – deliver the lethal blow, you’ll likely sit stunned in front of your television and want to play it all over again.

If there’s one criticism against this boss, it’s that perhaps too much of it relies on quicktime events and linear progression. You never really get a sense of scale beyond the visuals. That’s all true, but doesn’t take away from the fact that the fight with Cronos is a wonderful spectacle, something that I found myself showing to all my friends for days after.

5. Stallord (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

The boss of the Arbiter’s Grounds dungeons, Stallord is a giant dragon skeleton that summons legions of undead warriors to fight on his behalf.

Your weapon? A spinning top.

The result is one of the most unique and pulse-pounding Zelda battles in the franchise’s history. Riding the top, your goal is to shoot yourself into the giant dragon’s spine, bouncing from enemy to enemy like a pinball, while dodging the whirring blades that circle the arena. And that’s just the first half of the battle. The second half involves a high speed chase after Stallord’s severed head while dodging the aforementioned blades, as well as his fireballs. It’s fast-paced and a heck of a lot of fun.

4. Mr. Freeze (Arkham City)

The Arkham series deserves a lot of praise for its ability to capture the feeling of being Batman, whether you’re beating up waves of bad guys or picking them off one by one in the predator maps. However, if there’s one moment that captures the Dark Detective’s resourcefulness, it’s during the standoff against Mr. Freeze.

The concept is simple, yet ingenious. You’re locked in a room against a fully-powered Mr. Freeze, and need to keep moving to stay ahead of him. He’s too powerful to attack directly, so you need to constantly get the drop on him in order to chip away at his health. However – and here’s the genius part – whenever you use a tactic to stun the villain, he’ll never fall for it again. This means you have to constantly think about new ways to use your environment to your advantage. Lure him next to a breakable wall? Okay, what else? Jump out from the floorboards directly beneath him? Okay, what else? Activate a magnet that’ll temporarily disarm him? Okay, what… well, you get the idea.

3. The End (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)

There are so many delightfully inventive bosses in the Metal Gear Solid series that it’s almost hard to narrow it down to just one entry. The key word, of course, being almost – the End is still hands down one of the most memorable encounters that you’ll ever have in a video game.

The End is the world’s oldest sniper – over a century, in fact. But don’t let his decrepit body and wheelchair fool you. He’s still a force to be reckoned with. Finding yourself in a dense jungle, your task is to snipe him before he snipes you.

Ask anyone who’s played this boss before, and they’ll tell you about the many different ways you could approach this battle. You could use your microphone to locate the direction of The End’s laboured breathing. You could take out his trusty parrot, disabling his ability to easily track you down. Hell, you could even kill him at an earlier part of the game, if you were diligent enough. And perhaps most amusingly, you could simply change the clocks on your PS2 a week forward, and have him die of old age.

But as amazing as all those options are, they pale in comparison to the fight itself. Searching for the camouflaged centenarian will be one of the most tense experiences you’ll likely find in video games.

2. Malus (Shadow of the Colossus)

Like with Metal Gear Solid, it’s important that I limit this list to just one Shadow of the Colossus entry, because otherwise this would be a very monotonous list indeed.

Shadow of the Colossus is a game that’s about 75% boss battles, all of them unique in their own way. Narrowing the 16 Colossi down to just one for this list isn’t a very envious task: should I go with the flying Avion? The sword-wielding Gaius? Or perhaps the wall-crawling Kuromori?

No, for my money, I’m going to have to go with Malus, the final Colossus.

In a game devoted to boss fights, Team Ico had to make sure that the final encounter delivered, and I’d say they did a Wander-ful job (sorry, couldn’t help myself). Malus is essentially a living, breathing mountain, much like the demon at the end of Fantasia. And it’s your job to bring him down.

I mentioned that the Cronos fight from God of War III was a great spectacle, but didn’t exactly capture just how big the guy was in the gameplay. Not so with Malus. One of the great things about this game is that you truly feel like you’re destroying huge monsters – their scope is never lost on you. Most of Malus’ fight, in fact, is just trying to climb up to the top of the guy. Sure, it can be frustrating (and fatal) to get thrown off his body when you’re near the top, but that only makes it all the more satisfying when you finally cling to the top of his head, driving your sword down like you would a flag into the top of Mt. Everest.

You came. You saw. You conquered. Though not necessarily in that order.

1. Yourself (Braid)

Braid is a time-manipulating platformer that plays off of many of the tropes of Super Mario Bros (as well as some Oppenheimer references I guess?). The final level of the game sees you reaching the final part of your quest to rescue the princess.

The princess starts trapped in the arms of the villain, though she manages to escape and the two of you run off together. As you sidestep enemies, the princess pulls levers to open passageways for you, until the two of you are finally reunited on her balcony.

That is, until you use your time manipulation powers to see that the whole level was playing backwards.

When played forwards, a whole new story emerges. The princess is actually fleeing from you (can you blame her? You were creeping on her balcony, after all). All those levers are actually her trying to impede your progress. The villain at the end is actually the true hero, who rescues her… from you.

Eat your heart out, Shyamalan.

 

So what do you think? Agree disagree? Anyone we’ve left out on this list? Feel free to let us know in the comments below!