Top 10 Final Bosses

Top 10 Final Bosses

Written by Zeromage 32 Comments
Last Updated:: October 1, 2008

The final boss of the video game medium defined all of our hopes and fears. They defined the last obstacle before we attained our ultimate goals. They defined what would be in store for us at the end of our long adventure. They sometimes even haunted us in our dreams (like when I was dreaming of running away from Bowser as he was spitting fireballs at me. It actually turned out to be my dog breathing in my face). In this list, we will go through the most memorable final bosses of the video game medium in hopes of rekindling some of these haunting phenomena. We just hope they don’t haunt us now like they did when we were 12 years old, but we’re honest enough to know they probably will, since we haven’t grown up.

10. Medusa (Kid Icarus)

Was there ever a more scary eye in video game history than Medusa’s from Kid Icarus(besides maybe Sauron from the Lord of the Rings games)? How could one eye sustain so much damage? How could an eye with no mobility be considered one of the greatest bosses of all time? Easy, she had wave beams and flying dragons flying from her eyes that would drain Kid Icarus’s energy as quick as much as being with a long-term girlfriend. Aesthetically enormous, and endowed with superlative projectiles, Medusa was a sight to behold. She defies the fact that a great final boss has to have biped motility.

9. The Icon of Sin (Doom 2)

The doom series saw its greatest final boss in the Icon of Sin. The Icon of Sin was the final boss of Doom 2 and he took up multiple screen. The mutherfucker was basically an entire wall where his only vulnerability was the small brain in his head that was as small as Luke’s target in destroying the deathstar. The only way you could reach the brain was by riding an ascending elevator where you had about 2 seconds before it descended down into a poisonous pit. The whole time, the icon of sin was throwing out just about every enemy in Doom 2. How in the hell were you supposed to beat this thing? All in all though, this was one of the most nefarious looking final bosses in video game history. The sheer sight of this wall beast would in enthrall the player into fear and awe ubiquitously.

8. 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.

7. Mother Brain

Mother Brain for the NES was certainly freaky, even though she didn’t move. She was enclosed in a glass case while spacey fireballs would attack you from all angles. It was the Mother Brain of the SNES Metroid though that defined what a great boss was. At first she was simple brain form but when destroyed, she would turn into a massive dinosaur looking beast who dominated even the grown up baby Metroid. This beast yelled, stomped and popped out of every video gamers TV screen. It’s too bad she couldn’t have put up more of a fight against Samus when she had The Metroid ray. This was a final boss to remember.

6. Sigma

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.

5. Dr. Robotnic

Just kidding. No seriously, here’s the fifth best final boss of all time…

5. Mike Tyson

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 Tysons 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.

4. Lavos

Lavos was the final boss of Chrono Trigger. The earth trembled when you fought him. Time itself was on the line when you fought him. He was a massive looking porcupine that embodied the powers of all the bosses in Chrono Trigger X 10. All the damage from previous bosses would take on a whole new load of hitpoint damage. It would be helpful to know which characters worked best against each boss in the game when facing Lavos since he could shift into these bosses at the drop of a hat. He could even take on the form of Magus while you were fighting with Magus in your team? He truly embodied all of time, and would prove to be one of the more lengthy and difficult final bosses of all time.

3. Ganon

As everyone knows (at least everyone interested in this article), Ganon is the final boss of most of the Zelda games. It was a long battle getting to him in the final castle of Zelda 1, and when you did, you were in for the fight of your life. His disappearing tricks were even more sophisticated than Dracula. Ganon in Zelda 2 was still menacing even though he was dead. In that game Ganon’s minions attempt to kill Link in order to revive their master by sprinkling Link’s blood on Ganon’s remains. And the final boss in that game was your shadow! How spooky. Link was really a reflection of Ganon? Ganon came back to his old piggish ways in Zelda “Link to the Past” (Which we rated as the greatest game of all time in our top 100 video games of all time) where he was stealing the Triforce and throwing his pitchfork with the strength of a gladiator. But was there anything in video games more haunting then the sound of his laugh at the game over screen in Zelda 2? This laugh alone makes him one of the greatest video game bosses of all time.

2. Kefka

Kefka in FF3 was one of the most dominating final bosses of all time. Did anyone have a clue to the enormity of this figure? At first he was a small figure who you knew yielded an incredible strength from his nefarious parlance, but could anyone imagine that he would become a mythical monster that would take up three screen rising to the heavens? Kefka was the most aggrandized mythical final boss in video game history. He had an exorbitant amount of hit points and was astonishing in aesthetic appearance. This mythical entities magical apparatus made for one of the most difficult battles in RPG history. The 16 bit genre saw its apex with this final boss. Nothing could prepare you for this final boss. Nothing could prepare you for FF3 in general though, which was one of the greatest games of all time.

1. Bowser

With his never say die attitude, Bowser is certainly one of the greatest final bosses of all time. He keeps coming back in almost every installment of the Mario Brothers series with the same resentment for the protagonist as the game before. It was certainly an ironic moment for the Mario series when Bowser joined Mario in their fight against Smithy. Beyond this oddity though, Bowser is Mario’s arch nemesis. He’s a dinosaur with an infinite amount of hammers and fireballs to spew at Mario and his friends. He takes on some interesting forms in Super Mario World and Mario 64 where he is larger than life and riding on clown copters. This list couldn’t be made without Bowser. He is the most noticeable final boss in video history.

32 Comments

#1 SlapStic.com says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:21 pm

This list is surprisingly original and awesome. I give 2 thumbs and a couple index fingers up. If you like this article, check out this list of the top 5 Rareware games!

http://slapstic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51:user-submitted-the-top-5-rareware-games

Also note that anyone can write a gaming article for SlapStic if you want. Go check it out!

#2 The Mountain says:
March 15th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Good list, but no Big Boss from Metal Gear?

#3 wohdin says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:11 am

Not to sound elitist or anything, but I feel overwhelmingly compelled to say….

It’s FF6 dammit

Also, what’s wrong with Robotnik? Sure, he might be a pathetically easy boss at times, but I swear to god that incarnation of him, right there, the Sonic 2 final boss, was like woah. That was probably the hardest boss battle I’ve fought on that console, and in the series as a whole…. mostly because hey, sudden death mode!

#4 Luxo says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:08 am

No Giygas from Earthbound? I’d say, a boss that consists of evil incarnate that can’t be directly hurt sounds pretty tough to me.

#5 Nate says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:18 am

I’m sorry but beating Lou on expert in GH3 is nearly impossible. Not too mention that he also looks pretty damn kool.

#6 George says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:20 am

I’ve never seen Kefka on any list like this, everyone puts Sephiroth as number 1. (He’s cool, but you guys are old school, and I’m fine with that.) I missed out on FF3 (or FF6) due to my age, but from what I’ve heard, its greatness put on silicon. I’m not sure on what I’d put for best final boss, but I know what my favorite of all bosses I’ve faced are. Here they are in no particular order.

Through the Fire and Flames (Guitar Hero III)
The Creator (F-Zero GX, wasting that fuck was awesome)
Mithos (Tales of Symphonia)
The Colossi (Shadow of the Colossus)
Bowser (Any Game with the words Mario in the title)
Sonny Forelli (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City)
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)
Ganon (Zelda, I first faced him in Ocarina, what a day)
Just about any boss in a Metroid game.

Just opinions, I need to play more games, also, why do you guy’s like the Metal Gear games better than the Metal Gear Solid games?

#7 old-wizard.com says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:20 pm

the icon of sin summons lesser demons. the shit people argue about makes me laugh.

#8 Osama says:
March 15th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

One of your better lists

#9 The Mountain says:
March 15th, 2010 at 7:56 pm

The Icon of Sin most certainly did spawn out cyberdemons.

#10 Old School Bro says:
March 15th, 2010 at 4:52 pm

Great list! I would have threw in Link’s shadow of Zelda 2 on the NES

#11 old-wizard.com says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:19 am

congrats on not having a life.

#12 NecroVMX says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:09 pm

Yes, knowing something about an old video game is clearly a sign of having no life, says the webmaster of a site called old wizard.

#13 TheMountain says:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:25 pm

Damn NecroVMX. You know your shit about Doom. Did you ever beat the Icon of Sin without any cheates?

#14 NecroVMX says:
March 15th, 2010 at 1:37 am

The icon of sin isn’t exactly hard…

#15 Mind of an Idiot says:
March 15th, 2010 at 2:02 pm

sorry pplz, we are actually a big fucking group of idiots

were sorry for not knowing what bosses do what and when

Also, no Nightmare Geese?

#16 Aruneru says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:30 am

Nice bosses… againd ni nintendo only!! wahahahaha….

Can u also have top 10.20.100 easiest boss in all time??

I think the easies is the last boss in final fantasy X in ps2… just give himn a phoenix down and its over…

but… i guess u’ll not include psp2 bosses anyway… bcoz, this is for nintendo lovers only…

#17 shay says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:16 am

“Not to sound elitist or anything, but I feel overwhelmingly compelled to say….

It’s FF6 dammit”

It was released as FF3 in the US even though it’s really 6

#18 chris says:
March 15th, 2010 at 6:32 pm

You really don’t like sega on this s(h)ite eh… Also, learn to speak English you retards who write these!

#19 Weldar says:
March 15th, 2010 at 9:08 am

Nice list but I also think Giygas should be here, he’s not exactly hard, I never felt like I was screwed and had no hope left at any point in his battle, but it had my heart pounding more than any of the most difficult bosses I’ve ever faced. The atmosphere, the weird attacks, the trippy background (that is actually him) is just amazing and he is definitely a boss to remember. But words don’t do him justice, hell videos don’t do him justice, you have to fight him to really appreciate him.

#20 Drake says:
March 15th, 2010 at 7:27 pm

These are not the “Top 10 Final Boss Fights of All Time”. Where’s Red Falcon????

#21 samani says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:06 am

dr. robotnic at no. 5 i can agree with you there, it took me ages on trying to defeat him.

#22 Azelfknight says:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

You put Bowser twice?

#23 Delta says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:13 am

No, he didn’t put Bowser twice. He just had his picture to go with the intro before the list actually begins, then had him as the #1 final boss fight.

#24 miketheratguy says:
March 15th, 2010 at 5:04 am

The best thing about the Icon of Sin was that if you turned clipping off you could go through the wall and check out what’s there behind him. Neat surprise.

And thank you SO much for putting Kefka on the list and not fucking Sephiroth.

“But Sephiroth is SOOOOOO KEEEEEEWWWLLL!!! He’s so EEEEMMMMOOOOOO!!!!”.

Yes little Tard. But you see, Sephiroth aspired to become a god. Kefka became one.

32 Comments

Leave a Comment