Top 10 Boss Fights

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Top 10 Boss Fights

Written by Zeromage 59 Comments
Last Updated:: March 20, 2009

What makes a good boss fight? Is it the difficulty? The creative way that you have to oust the villain? Or perhaps you enjoy an easy boss because it makes you feel good and accomplished. If that’s the case you should re-consider your life, maybe you need to set more important goals and maybe you should get out of your parent’s basement. We here at O-W are well aware that the economy isn’t going so well but there are still jobs available, and you should find them. Once you get some money you can buy more difficult games and beat them in your free time, essentially doubling that feeling of accomplishment. Now that’s a plan. In any case, here’s what O-W thinks are the top ten boss fights. We purposely didn’t qualify it in any other way, which will most likely piss off many people, but hey, that’s what gets us up in the morning. These are the best boss fights.

10. “Super Drunk”

What makes the final boss in level 100 awesome? For one, he is a giant named “Super Drunk.” In order to properly pass Super Drunk, you need to drink the potions at the top of the screen before you wake up the Super Drunk. The potion makes you spit lightning bubbles (60 will take out Super Drunk). If you have no friends, Passing Super Drunk will not give you the happy ending (This is evident after several hours of eye-glazing solo-play. You beat that sh*t and get a screen saying “This Is Not The Happy Ending). Let’s recap: If you’re going to get to the final stage of Super Drunk, you had best be drinking the sh*t that makes you spit hot lightning straight from the bottle. If you drink alone, you might pass Super Drunk, but it will not be a happy ending. There are some important life lessons for you here, kids, I suggest you heed them wisely.

9. Link’s Shadow (Zelda 2)

One of the coolest moments in the Zelda series was in Zelda 2 when Link is forced to fight his own shadow after he beats the Thunderbird in order to win the Triforce of Courage. Dark Link appears when Link approaches the Triforce of Courage. The lights go out, and Link’s shadow jumps away from his body and then proceeds to attack with his sword. How spooky is that? “Dark Link” is never described as one of Ganon’s servants; the more likely scenario is that he was a final test left for Link by the King who hid the Triforce of Courage. Remember Dagobah? The most intense part of Empire was Luke fighting Vader in the swamp…but it wasn’t the paternal Sith Lord at all, it was Luke’s own fear. Yeah, Dark Link was Empire epic.

8. M. Bison (Street Fighter 2)

M.Bison was a beast of a character and was usually the final character of the Street Fighter Series. He had one of the most powerful moves in fighting game history with his Psycho Crusher. This move would turn Bison into an electric bolt that would whip across the screen and run through anybody. All you could do was evade this electrical power unless you were E. Honda, who’s hyper sumo-chop could stop Bison dead in his tracks. Along with this, M.Bison showed off an agility only matched by Vega, by head bouncing on opponents’ heads with his arms folded like he wasn’t even trying to be as agile as he really was. M.Bison was very difficult to beat. You needed to have your character mastered to be able to defeat Bison in the final fight of the game. If you didn’t, you would be left trying to replay him over and over again until all your continues ran out, making you start the whole game over.

7. Sigma (Mega Man X)

We first meet the dreaded Sigma in Mega Man X. His massive face appears in the middle of the screen once all 8 bosses are defeated. The marching beat strikes at your heart as you know your about to face a warrior, and you are. When you traverse his daunting castle, you get to the Sigma where you first have to fight his dog, and then Sigma himself who is incredibly difficult, and then his third form which is a massive machine that requires precision turbo shots to defeat him. Sigma takes on greater and lesser difficulty levels throughout the Mega Man X series. One thing is for sure though. When he talks, and when he brings out his light saber, you are in for the fight of your life.

6. Dracula (Castlevania)

Dracula may have first found his fame in Bram Stoker’s famous novel, but it was his role in Castlevania that gave haunted nightmares to the video gamer. He was bigger and stronger than all the Belmonts and could disappear at will. The only shot you had at beating this big bastard was whipping his head or hopefully having the boomerang cross which could possibly hit him twice. Dracula would take on more demonic forms in Castlevania Symphony of the Night, making him more than just a blood sucking man. Either way, Dracula was always a dreaded final boss in the video game medium.

5. Magus (Chrono Trigger)

Magus was the first time I can remember where I fought a boss that would later become a member of my party. I didn’t see it coming either because he had that “I am the embodiment of evil” look about him. When you fight Magus he’s also by far the most powerful enemy up that point, and possess very strong attacks, and far more HP then any previous boss (his HP is 6666). He had a magical barrier that protected him from magic unless a specific element that he’s vulnerable to was used. He would indicate which element when he would cast a spell, and would be vulnerable to the opposite, after which he would switch the element he’s vulnerable to. Because you could only use 3 characters in a battle (for plot reasons one of them has to be Frog), it’s impossible to have a counter to every element, but fortunately, even if he isn’t hit with the element opposite to what he uses, he will eventually change the barrier’s weakness anyways. Eventually, Magus would switch to just using his Shadow attacks, including his most powerful spell, Dark Matter, an utterly devastating attack at this point in the game. This guy was bad ass and definitely deserves a spot on this list.

4. Diablo (Diablo 1)

This is every born again Christian’s wet dream. To actually fight the devil and then take the pulsing crystal, which most likely contains his soul or essence, and shove into your forehead. That way you can become even more self righteous and annoying. I mean everyone knows the world is filled with evil, and everyone knows only the born agains can save us from it by making everyone exactly as fanatical as they are. But imagine if you claim you are bearing all the world’s evil… in your forehead. You would be one hell of a good born again, excuse my pun. This fight was pretty difficult the first time, but once you figure out a few tricks it took no more than a few minutes. The fun of it was that you were killing the devil and everybody wants to do that, if only in hopes of replacing him and becoming the lord of evil yourself. Which, if I understand the sequels correctly, you do.

3. Shredder (TMNT 4: Turtles in Time)

Fighting the Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time, was one of the most fun boss fights ever. Instead of the usual boss fight in a Ninja Turtles game where you bascially have to jump kick him to death, to beat the Shredder in Turtles in Time you had to toss ninjas at the him while he would shot you with, some kind of laser gun. You do this because of the game’s revolutionary game play where you can do a finishing move to enemies by throwing them into your tv screen. I’ve always thought this fight was cool because it looked like the Shredder was sitting where you are, thus you were sort of attacking yourself. This was simply a great boss fight.

2. Mike Tyson (Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!)

We put Mike Tyson at #5 greatest Punchout characters, but he was undoubtedly the hardest fighter you had to face in either Punchout and Super Punchout. One uppercut and you were done. What other boss was there where one shot or one hit would knock you down? Mike Tyson’s power is unprecedented. When he was switched to “Mr. Dream” for copyright reasons, it was a big letdown because the prospect of fighting Mike Tyson in the flesh made the gamer motivated to beat everything in the way. Beating Mike Tyson was near impossible. The sheer difficulty level of Tyson makes him one of the best video game bosses of all time. There has never been an uppercut like his.

1. Ridley (Super Metroid)

Ridley is the ultimate boss in the whole Metroid series. He is the Space Pirate who commands everything, including the restructuring of Zebes after it’s first downfall to Samus and the new form of Mother Brain. You find Ridley in the depths of Norfair in Metroid 1 where it would take an innumerable amount of missiles to destroy. In Super Metroid though, he would take on a more beastly form being able to pick you up with his hind legs and smash you down to the ground. It would take even more missiles to destroy him this time around and it wasn’t just Norfair that you were traveling through to get to this impenetrable space pirate, it was Ridley’s own kingly lair of ancient ruins. You weren’t just fighting Ridley but the whole idea of a beast as ancient as time when traveling through the ruins that were deeper than Norfair. Ridley would never seem to be destroyed throughout the Metroid series, he would only turn into more interminable forms utilizing modern mechanics and technology to give himself the most stout armor in the series. Fighting Ridely again in Metroid Prime, you knew that Ridley was an eternal beast that would never stop causing havoc on the remote space system.

Related Posts: Top 10 Mega Man Bosses

59 Comments

#1 Tchang Sung says:
March 13th, 2010 at 2:54 pm

Metal Gear Solid 4 has the best last boss fight ever

#2 Rob says:
March 13th, 2010 at 3:03 pm

M. Bison was probably one of the hardest bosses I’ve ever faced. If you didn’t know what you were doing he would mop the floor up with you in short order. Good list as usual!

#3 Rob says:
March 13th, 2010 at 3:22 pm

Ares from God of War?

#4 kapy says:
March 13th, 2010 at 4:12 pm

Wow! Guess I used to be better at games than I am now… Maybe youth gives you better reflexes because, as hard as Mike Tyson is, I used to beat him almost every time I tried (after days of practice mind you) and Link’s shadow never left such an impression on me to make it a top 10 boss. But I agree with Rob, I’d have a hard time beating part 2 of the Ares fight in God of War on a regular basis… But then again, I’m 20 years older and it might be a factor… It’s also not the same kind of “hard”… Ares fight is frantic (part 2 at least) while Tyson’s fight is more “take your time, learn the pattern and watch his eyes so you can see that uppercut coming”.

#5 Caseh says:
March 13th, 2010 at 4:13 pm

Im with Tchang, MGS4 had an awesome last boss fight.

The big fat guy on the rooftop in Shenmue 2 was a belter as well, especially the slo-mo effect that kicks in when you use your finishing move. You get a genuine ‘punch the air’ moment where you shout something like “Get DOWN you fat pr*ck!!”

#6 Samurai says:
March 13th, 2010 at 5:37 pm

Are you serious, No Psycho Mantis from MGS.

#7 Nate says:
March 13th, 2010 at 5:45 pm

As far as difficulty and extra bosses are concerned, the weapons battles in ff7… Especially emerald. Alma in Ninja Gaiden. And Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts. Great list guys. Don’t take so long to update next time though.

#8 phil says:
March 13th, 2010 at 5:49 pm

damn, i thought old-wizard was dead. good to see another post. great work!

#9 George says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:10 pm

Ares from God of War?

They hate God of War, because despite their excellent taste in classic games, they hate almost every single game that came out after the SNES. By a certain time in your life, your 30’s, all of the entertainment you face starts to look the same, and very rarely does anything enter past that.

If you want best bosses from “new games”, here they are, I’ll try to avoid final bosses though, one boss per game:

10. The End, Metal Gear Solid 3

9. Yunalesca, Final Fantasy X

8. Sonny Forelli, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

7. The Yeti, Twilight Princess

6. Ares, God of War

5. Deathborn, F-Zero GX

4. Jet Black, Viewtiful Joe 2

3. Bowser, Super Mario Galaxy

2. Psycho Mantis, Metal Gear Solid

1. Every Single Colossi, Shadow of the Colossus

#10 MW says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:43 pm

The End was awesome. Good call.

#11 Nick says:
March 13th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

This list fucking sucks.

#12 CloudStrifeZack says:
March 13th, 2010 at 8:56 pm

Where the fuck is Sephiroth?

#13 David Macphail says:
March 13th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

One of the hardest end boss fights i’ve ever had was Crush and the 4 elemental masks from Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex. It wasn’t necessarily the “Best” boss fight out there but i guarantee even the most hardcore gamer would struggle with that one.

I think Emrae from Final Fantasy X should be on this list along with Laughing Octopus from MGS4. Also – Navarro from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a pretty memorable boss fight. I also think the Elite 4 from the Pokemon games need to be on here. In short – this list sucks, i haven’t played any of theese games.

#14 J-rad says:
March 13th, 2010 at 9:46 pm

Salazar in resident evil 4 had to have some spot

#15 George says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Once again, you fail at life Macphail. The Elite Four were hard, when I was 6; now, I could beat the whole game in a few days starting from scratch. Yes, Old Wizard is too hard on a kids game, but you’ve missed the fact that IT’S A FUCKING KIDS GAME! You have no taste for anything at life, you liked the Will “I ruin movies for everyone” Smith shit festival Hancock better than The Dark Knight, and I would be very surprised if you are over the age of 12. Eat shit.

#16 George says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:05 pm

Oddly enough, even though you guys like the Metal Gear Solid games, you never seem to pay much attention to them. Why is that, were they too new? You were, probably, in college when MGS2 and MGS3 came out.

#17 Vintage Junkie says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:07 pm

“In short – this list sucks, i haven’t played any of theese games.”

MacPhail claims to be a hardcore gamer, and yet he has never played ANY OF THESE GAMES!!!!

You’ve never played Punch Out! and you dare comment about video games!? LOL. You suck at life.

Also, you’ve never played Turtles in Time, Super Metroid, SF2, Diablo, or Chrono Trigger???

Let me get this straight, you’ve NEVER played Chrono Trigger and claim that you know anything about RPGs????? Now I know why you like Pokemon. You don’t know any better. You are George Bush dumb.

Also, if you’ve never played any of these games, why the fuck do you even bother to come to this site, of all websites? What a moron.

#18 Jared says:
March 13th, 2010 at 12:18 am

It would be really cool if you guys if you didn’t love the NES so much.

#19 Davud Mcleod says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:23 am

Damn someone beat me to it!!!! damn rights every single Colossi in Shadow of Colossus! one of the most beautiful games ever created, you guys are seriously way to stuck on Nintendo, I agree with a few on your list such as Magus, and Ridley, but man there have been some way more amazing boss fights in recent memory.

#20 David Mcleod(newly married:P) says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:23 am

Sorry have to repeat myself as i misspelled my name by accident:P

Damn someone beat me to it!!!! damn rights every single Colossi in Shadow of Colossus! one of the most beautiful games ever created, you guys are seriously way to stuck on Nintendo, I agree with a few on your list such as Magus, and Ridley, but man there have been some way more amazing boss fights in recent memory.

#21 NomNomNom says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:43 am

This list could’ve more accurately been described as “The Top 9 Boss Fight from Nintendo Consoles – and Diablo”.

There’s a distinct lack of variety here in terms of gaming platforms.

#22 Sweden Dominates Scotland says:
March 13th, 2010 at 12:51 pm

Vintage Junkie:

Nice work pointing out MacPhail’s stupidity.

MacPhail:

You never played Chrono Trigger…Get off this site!

Sweden dominates you.

#23 Dix says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Funny list.

#24 POLISH POUNDER says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

HAHAHA….Great description of Diablo…even though I don’t think it was a very memorable boss fight.

#25 I hate the Yankees says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

WTF? Who made this list? What are you 80?

#26 David Macphail says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

George and Vintage Junkie – this isn’t a list of the hardest boss fights you freaking retards – it’s the BEST boss fights. Thank you both for proving that you don’t know a single THING about the videogame industry and that you lack basic reading skills – get the fuck off this site. Nowhere in my post did i state the Elite 4 as a “Hard” boss fight. You two have no right to comment about videogames if you can’t tell the difference between a hard game and a good game – hardcore gamers??? LOL…….do your fathers have boundary issues? By the way – why do you two come to a website about videogames when the two of you clearly don’t know anything about them? what a bunch of morons…..get your head out of your fathers ass and realise that not everyone who owns a DS is 12 – spaz!

Sweedish moron – still ashamed of your family’s heritage, i see? LOL……i’m surprised you had the nerve to show your face on this site again after the discrediting you suffered on a different thread for hiding behind a fake username like some kind of troll – thank you for provising everyone with another reason to ignore you.

#27 David Macphail says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:26 pm

That should be “Providing”, not “Provising”.

#28 MacPhail is a moron says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:34 pm

MacPhail: Where did Vintage Junkie claim this was a list of hardest bosses?

George: Great points

#29 Jonez says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:36 pm

excellent list.

#30 Make Make says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:39 pm

LMFAO at the Diablo bit. Great list!

#31 David Macphail says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:43 pm

For the troll hiding behind a pethetic username in an attempt to insult me – get a life. Maybe once you stop getting molested by your parents you’ll be able to make a proper username that people will actually pay attention to – until then i’m afraid you’ve just lost all credibility and proved you’re a complete moron.

#32 This list sucks says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:45 pm

No Bowser? This list is FAIL.

#33 David McFail says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:52 pm

I hate everything on this site. Yet I come here all the time and misspell words and then make fun of other people who misspell words. Also, I’ve never played any video game that wasn’t made 2 years ago when I started gaming and its gotta be rated E for everyone, otherwise my mom won’t let me play it. I’ve never even heard of Punch Out!.

Oh yeah, Dark Knight sucks and my favorite movies all have Will Smith in them.

And anyone who attacks my comments with well thought out arguments, or points out how wrong I am about something, I will simply make fun of their username.

I can’t wait till Old-Wizard posts another list that I will hate, about games I’ve never played.

#34 Hugo says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Dumb list.

#35 Fraught says:
March 13th, 2010 at 3:18 pm

The lack of anything beyond 16-bit is disturbing.

This list definitely needs some Metal Gear Solid boss fights.

#36 Freddouglidou says:
March 13th, 2010 at 4:49 pm

Great list I remember tko Tyson in the first round I was very pride back in the days. Don’t worry for the kiddies they love the today boss fight because they are easy and you have infinite lifes… lol

#37 Kevin says:
March 13th, 2010 at 6:24 pm

@ Nate
Yeah dude, I agree with Ninja Gaiden for the Alma boss, especially first form. I’m a huge Gaiden fan and I will give Old-Wizard a pat in the back for recognizing the old franchise but a kick to the nuts for barely recognizing today’s challenges. This list should be Top 10 Boss fight in the 90’s or something like that, make another where some players really had to struggle with in a 3D environment. MGS boss battle *Mantis*, come on, just awesome!!! Gaiden’s Alma boss fight, God of War, Ares and Zeus in the 2nd one as well was awesome. You cannot compare a game in the 90’s to today’s based on difficulty, maybe a certain twist happens during the fight with an awesome storyline can qualify because some next-gen games focus too much on graphics and less on gameplay, story etc…

#38 Kevin says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:17 pm

hehe lol… You know looking at this list for some reason reminded me of first all Final fantasy 7 and the fights against the weapons, this was posted previously by Nate. Also reminded me of Final Fantasy 8, not the last boss, but it was considered a weapon but was only called Omega, he was wicked, because I was overwhelmed that this character had 1,000,000 HP, lol… but lots of Hero drinks and that hopeful stash of limit breaks eventually killed him lol… those were the days……………………..

#39 MailToad says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:41 pm

I think it would be fair to have one of the Colossi in here.

Also I understand that scale doesn’t necessarily make a good boss but a more moder one should still be in here somewhere (TP maybe?)

#40 George says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:45 pm

Yep, Macphail’s a nine year old, I was wrong. Twelve year old’s are way more mature.

When you guys do another list, can you do a list of “Modern Games That Help Renew Our Faith In The Future”? If you do, you should put the Metal Gear Solid games very high up.

#41 Zeromage says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:57 pm

That’s a great idea for a list, George. We’ll definitely put it on the agenda. As far as our next lists:

Top 20 Movies of All Time

Top 10 SNES Games

#42 Greg says:
March 13th, 2010 at 6:30 am

Resident Evil 5’s final boss fight was really good as well. Better than any other Resident Evil (way harder) and could possibly fit into this list at the bottom.

#43 George says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:06 am

Thank you, Zeromage. The one game that I absolutely insist you include though, is Shadow of the Colossus. I know this must be the 50th time I’ve mentioned it on this site, but you really should play it on the PS2. It’ll be worth every penny. And it’s unlike any other game ever, in a good way.

#44 David Mcleod says:
March 13th, 2010 at 10:01 am

George Definitely a good idea for a list, and glad to see I’m not the only one here who thinks Shadow of the Colossus is one of the all time greats!

Also Zeromage I’m very afraid to see your top 20 movies of all time list:P although i have a feeling there will be a few i will agree with, all i know is they better not all be AMERICAN!:P give some foreign film love:P

#45 Vintage Junkie says:
March 13th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

macphail got owned.

#46 Berserkr says:
March 13th, 2010 at 7:16 pm

P.s. I also better not see Scarface on your top 20 movies list, seriously one of the most overrated movies of all time!

p.p.s. This is David McLeod I’m going to go by my nickname from now on so i don’t get confused with Macphail which i have in the past:P

#47 Zeromage says:
March 13th, 2010 at 11:36 pm

I will say that I wrote half of that list already (although it won’t be done for a while). I’ll say that a Metal Gear game is on it, as well as a few games for the Wii (of course) and a couple of games that will surprise quite a few folks who’ve visited this site. As always it will probably piss a lot of people off.

#48 Jesse says:
March 13th, 2010 at 12:12 am

Good list. I agree with ridley at #1. i thought itd be funny to see a top 5/10 old wizards (i.e. gandalf) haha

#49 brad says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

This is actually a good list, guys. But would it kill you to proof read once in a while? The horrible syntax kills me.

#50 Gyb says:
March 13th, 2010 at 1:57 pm

Zeromage: If you happen to make a top list which George suggested, be sure to include World of Goo, since you really love the Wii I assume you have played it, haven’t you?

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