30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Tracker_TD]

Day 9: Favourite Boss

 

Argh, all these favourite questions...

 

 

Bowser In The Sky - Super Mario 64

 

The absolute epitome of an awesome final battle - taking everything you learned from the previous battles, making it more of an endurance battle with all of Bowser's new tricks, changing up the arena after a few hits, an epic soundtrack, and hell, even the rainbow-like lighting sets this up as a unique, final confrontation between the King of the Koopas and Mario. By the final hit, you're just hoping to some deity that Bowser's fireballs won't send you running off the edge, and trying to fling him into that last bomb can be stressful indeed.

 

Overall, a great end to a fantastic game. 

[Chaos Warp]

Day 9: Favorite Boss 

 

I'm going to put this one in a spoiler tag because it's Bayonetta's final boss and a final boss you should not spoil. 

 

 

 

Jubileus from Bayonetta

 

Now, in a game where the first boss feels like a final boss, and all the other bosses are equally or more over the top and epic, how does one create a final boss? Well, basically make you fight god of course! This boss you basically fight in space in her own little created energy circle and you basically have to kill her by beating her up a bunch, and then creating a giant demon with both your hair and Jeanne's hair (Jeanne is another witch with the same powers as you BTW) and knocking her into the sun (did I mention that you control her on the way down dodging planets) and THEN beating up her remains as she falls! Truly epic, and an amazing way to end the game. 

 

[azoo]

Day 9 : Favorite Boss

 

His name's Giygas, and he's from EarthBound.

 

I'm not going to post any pictures past the one I already did, and I'm not going to tell you what happens (not even in spoilers). But I will tell you that there's nothing quite like this boss, You work towards him for the whole game, and it's part of what is probably the most emotional apex I've lived through in a game. 

 

Once again, due to almost annoyingly gushing about this game for almost a 3rd day already before we have even got to day 10 ( :v ), I'll leave it at that. As if I haven't given you enough reasons to experience this game for yourself, this boss and everything around him should take that and emphasize it tenfold.

[buba]

Today I don't have much time, so I'll give a short answer and make it prettier tomorrow.

 

Day 9 - Favorite Boss

 

Momohime and Kisuke from Muramasa.

 

 

In Muramasa you can play as two characters, Momohime and Kisuke.

While their story modes happen pretty much at the same time, the only times they interact with each other are during some hotspring scenes that don't have any impact in the story. But there's one exception. For both characters 3rd ending, you have to fight the opposed character while they use the best blades in the game.

What makes this fight my favorite boss battle is that the opponent fights like it is being controlled by someone, using some of the best unlockable blades, parrying your attacks and countering them, using healing items, etc. Basically everything you can do.

[Ducktor Naldush]

Day 9: favourite boss.

 

It's probably Baby Bowser, from Super Mario World 2 : Yoshi's Island. Everything about that battle was perfect; the music, the scenario, the gameplay...you're this tiny little dinosaur facing against a godzillian reptile, protecting a child from falling debris and giant fireballs. It's just priceless.

Just listen to this, and tell me you don't feel in a rush, wanting to smash the little prick's face with some giant eggs.

 

The so-called "sequels" tried to recreate the same atmosphere and failed tragically.

By the way, I also love me some Raphael the Raven, from to time.

[Celestia]

Day 9: Favourite Boss

 

Hm, there's one I can think of and it's a major spoiler for Mother 3. It's not the very final boss, but pretty close and at the end of the game. Plus it reveals the bad guy, even if people who played Earthbound would have probably guessed it long before the game makes it obvious.

 

Porky Minch

Mother 3

So he's that jerkass from Earthbound who started as an annoyance who became more of an asshole as the game went on, but after a certain point he apparently started working with the villain as a "right hand man". This is not established until the final boss of that game, making it a fairly well done twist that makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

 

This time, however, Porky is THE villain. He isn't, like I said, the actual final boss of Mother 3, which is actually something I'd love to talk about, but I'd rather save that for a question that will probably come later. He has a right hand man of his own this time around, of course, but there's no twist that Porky was being controlled or whatever, he's just managed to become more and more of an asshole!

 

In a series with plenty of monsters, aliens, and all sorts of strange creatures, it turns out the creepiest and, perhaps, saddest villain was this one human boy. By the time of Mother 3, he's time traveled to the point where he's suffered plenty of side effects, leaving his skin blue and perhaps making his mental state worse than it already was after Giygas' influence. Even with as much of a jerk as he was at the beginning of the previous game, it's still rather amazing just how terrible he's fallen.

 

And then, after an entire game of trying to stop him, failing, and then trying to stop him once and for all, you finally get to take him on.

 

 

This boy is potentially 1,000 or more years old. Nobody knows what kind of shit he's seen or done off-screen in the time after Earthbound, he's easily old enough that you'd think at some point, maybe, just maybe, he'd start to feel bad about his actions. But to the very end, he's convinced that he's the victim. After all, all he ever wanted was friendship, according to Shigesato Itoi, but because of his actions, friendship was rightfully out of Porky's reach...

 

Still, it's sad to think that maybe Ness really did want to be Porky's friend, but Porky was just blind to it...

 

But yeah, after an entire game of Porky fucking everything up for EVERYONE in the Nowhere Islands, you FINALLY get to take him down in a genuinely tough battle.  Seriously, he has a ridiculous amount of HP and power, and it'll take all your experience, smart use of special attacks and items, and a bit of luck to finally take this jerk down...

 

And then he decides to be really unfair by entering the Absolutely Safe Capsule, which protects him from all your attacks! You literally can't hurt it at all! What now? There's surely no way you can beat him--

 

--but you don't have to, because the Absolutely Save Capsule not only protects the one inside from everybody and everything...but it protects everybody and everything from the one inside. Porky is stuck inside that thing, forever, and can't harm anyone ever again. All because he wanted to be truly invincible. He'll live eternally inside of that thing, and even if he does ever truly realize he was in the wrong...he won't be able to do anything about it.

 

Friendless.

 

For being a tough challenge, and incredibly well done story wise...Porky Minch in Mother 3 is my favourite boss.

 

 

Honourable Mentions:

 

Koloktos (Skyward Sword): I love all the bosses in Skyward Sword, but that robot thing in the Ancient Cistern was easily the best. It's kind of creepy, a nice challenge, and I really like it's design. All in all, my favourite boss in the game aside from Ghirahim.

 

Silver (Sonic Generations): Not only is it probably the best boss battle in Generations, but seeing Silver's powers used to their full potential was really cool.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Celestia

[Rusty Spy]

Day  9: Favorite Boss

 

 

Augus (Asura's Wrath)

 

Ok, this is cheating a little since I only played the demo, but honestly, this fight is a pure spectacle. The music, the energy, the ham. No other fight gets my blood pumping than punching the fuck out of this guy. It isn't difficult in the slightest, but damn is it cool. Unlike the other deities in the game where they just try to piss you off, Augus, being the fight hungry warrior he is, fights you for no other reason than to fight, and I find that respectable in enemies.

[SuperStingray]

Day 9: Quadraxis (Metroid Prime 2)

My definition of a good boss fight has three criteria: 1: It is appropriately climactic to a level, scene or episode in terms of scale, pacing, challenge and reward.  2: It adequately tests the player's mastery of skills that have been learned, acquired and/or practiced throughout the preceding episode.  And 3: It provides a rewarding sense of progress not just after the fight is over, but throughout the battle itself.  By this metric, Quadraxis is my all time favorite boss fights.

 

Seeing this titan sitting in wait as you entire the room before the fight even begins is intimidating enough, but this is also the first boss fight in Dark Aether where there are no energy crystals throughout the level, so you are continually bleeding health throughout the entire fight.  That creates plenty of tension from the get go.  Despite his size, Quadraxis is surprisingly agile and adaptive; most large-scale bossfights ironically turn out the easiest because they're generally clumsy, slow and/or scripted to the point of being extremely predictable.  He jumps around creating shockwaves that cover most of the arena, he spins his legs creating a vortex that sucks you in to name a few of his attacks.  His weakpoints stand out pretty clearly, but the fact that his vulnerable point is always changing makes him look very alert and well-equipped for the player's tactics.  He's also similar in appearance and behavior to the level's flagship enemy the Quad robots, so he's symbolically climactic as well.  This also means the player is somewhat prepared for his strategy and attacks, this just happens to take it to a larger scale.  Once you disable the chassis, his head detaches and floats around, spawning Quads and shooting at you.  In order to disable the head's force field, you have to use the echo visor to target the receivers sending signals between his head and body.  After that, you use the spider ball to climb up his legs, boost onto his head and finish him off with two power bombs.  The battle would merely be good if it ended after you destroyed the body, but this second part is goddamn BEAUTIFUL.  Not only does it make the boss feel more imposing by showing he can adapt to compensate for even losing use of his body, but it also creates a sense of tangible progress (i.e., you're not just chipping away at his health bar until he collapses), AND it creates the opportunity for the player to prove their own adaptability by taking it down in a way that utilizes the mastery of the level's main learned skills (spider ball and echo visor) and the boss's own immense scale as leverage against it like a Shadow of the Colossus fight.  And to top it all off, your reward for beating him is the weapon he was using to shoot you, serving both as a useful new weapon and a trophy for your metaphorical mantle piece.  It also helps that it's called the ANNIHILATOR BEAM, a weapon with a name so awesome that I'm physically unable to not type it in all caps.

[Speederino]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

 

 

Yeah, gonna go with Lavos from Chrono Trigger on this. He isn't the most flashy or action-packed boss. Hell, he isn't even that difficult a boss. But he is most definitely epic and intimidating. The whole game is spent building up to this bad boy, and for a while it feels like you will never stand a chance against him. I mean why would you? He can destroy the planet within seconds and is fucking huge to boot, what good can a few bite-sized adventurers be against THAT?

 

Though like I said, Lavos ends up not being that hard. But what he lacks in difficulty he makes up for in variety and length. His fight is separated into three phases. The first (his outer shell, as pictured) is just a boss rush as he copies the abilities of previous foes and summons these little orbs to fill in for missing minions or body parts. But he also copies their stats and health bars, so by this point of the game your party can likely take out half of them in just one or two hits. So while it may be easy, it serves its purpose and makes you believe you actually stand a chance against him. The second phase is inside his creepy-ass shell, where you find this thing:

 

 

Turns out this is the real Lavos, and he's a bit more difficult. So long as your party is leveled up and you stay on your toes, he's not TOO challenging. Kick his ass and then you'll meet...

 

 

The real REAL Lavos, who is....actually he's that little orb thing on the right. That's what's so clever about this fight, you're bound to assume the alien thing in the middle is your target, but to win the fight you need to focus most of your attacks on the orb. It's a very unique fight that tricks you and makes you think outside the boss. It's epic, fun, and most importantly: memorable.

[KHCast]

Oh now people are doing Kingdom Hearts! haha

 

Well for me I'm gonna have to say....Final Boss aside(cause I would totally say Xemnas), Shan-Yu.

 

 

The fight is so epic! Especially for one of the first real bosses of the game. It really felt climatic, and grand. Again, it did a good job at setting up later bosses, but it still remains one of my favorite Disney bosses in the entire KH series just for the sheer amount of epicness the battle held.

 

Outside of KH, I'm gonna say Odalwa from Majora's Mask.

 

The guy is crazy, and super fun. He has a unique style, and design wise, he just looks so cool!

 

Edit: I know I missed the deadline for yesterday, but I do want to say Flowmotion was definitely, and still is, my favorite ability. It feels so good man. Bouncin off walls, sick tricks and attacks, it just feels so...right for KH. Just wished it wasn't as OP as it was.

[Debug Ring]

Favourite Boss:

I'm going to say Ripper Roo from Crash Bandicoot.

Roo has a manic laugh, a straight jacket, crazy, swirly eyes, long tongue. Definition of crazy. He goes around dropping TNT crates and laughing at you while he's doing it. He even laughs at the pain he receives when you hit him in some games. He's not generally a hard boss, but I really enjoy the battles against him. There are better bosses in the series, but this is my favourite due to nostalgia, and just having a liking towards the character. I like his Crash 2 appearance where he seems to think he a bit of a teacher/professor. I think that's my favourite version of his battle, just because he looks very smart. But is plain crazy. Yup, Ripper Roo is my favourite.

[gato]

 

 

Mistral, Bladewolf, Monsoon, Sundowner, Jetstream Sam and Senator Armstrong, from Metal GearRising: Revengeance

Poor Khamsin, nobody loves him. ;_;

EDIT:

It's a very unique fight that tricks you and makes you think outside the boss. It's epic, fun, and most importantly: memorable.

[super saiyan weegee]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

 

...

 

man okay last time i talk about this game i swear it

 

maybe

 

hopefully

 

but yeah

 

SpongeBot SteelPants - Battle for Bikini Bottom

 

 

So you've finally surmounted the 75 Golden Spatulas needed to get back into the Chum Bucket, and Plankton has come clean about the infestation of robots being his fault, and that now he's back home, he's going to fix the Duplicatotron 3000 so that the robots will obey him as he originally planned, but then you're greeted with the sight of SpongeBot, and Robot Plankton. You find out that Robot Plankton has rigged the machine, so now he's in total control of it. Spongebob is then pitted up against his automaton duplicate all by himself, and man it's a fun fight.

 

You start out on a set of floating platforms encircling the robot, and your goal is to bust the green glowing lights scattered across his body, all the while having SpongeBot have at you with various chops, and a move where he screams "KAH-RAH-TAE" and it takes a literal physical form and shoots at you. Robot Plankton will fly in after you've landed a few hits on SpongeBot and have stunned it, and he fires a stream of lasers that you have to move around and avoid. If you fall off the platforms, you have a chance to get back up; but Robot Plankton will immediately swoop in and unleash projectiles upon you until you make it back up.

 

After taking out all the green lights, SpongeBot spazzes out and collapses, breaking off its arms and helmet. Robot Plankton then laments, "No! You dolts have destroyed my beautiful bride! We were supposed to get married next week!", and then "I'll repair you baby!", as a set of Anchor Arms erupt out of SpongeBot's sides. SpongeBot then somehow grows, and Robot Plankton flees inside of it. Spongebob follows suit, and what ensues is a gauntlet of pretty much all the robot types you've encountered throughout the game, using all the moves you've acquired thus far, all the while Robot Plankton is trying to stop you from destroying the power cores that are essential to keep SpongeBot going. You make your way to the mechanical brain, and then proceed to destroy the few final cores, causing SpongeBot to promptly short-out and crash, ending the fight.

 

Man, and not to mention, the music that plays during this battle, it's so grand and epic that it almost makes you forget you're playing a Spongebob game.

 

 

I just really enjoy this fight, it's the perfect end to this game, and I love it for that, so yeah man.

[Nepenthe]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

 

The more I rack my brain, the more I realize how difficult it is for me to pin down a boss that is miles ahead of the ones I've played, probably because I don't play genres known for ridiculous bosses (and I don't want to make a third Zelda post in a row, so here's a quick nod to Demise for scaring the ever-loving shit out of me). So, let me throw out a weird one from back in the day when secrets in puzzle games weren't something I thought to look up:

 

 

Mewtwo from Pokemon Puzzle League

 

Pokemon Puzzle League was my crack. It was my brother's crack. And we played this thing until we achieved a skill level wherein we could break the game's ability to recognize win states and permanently loosened up the sticks. It is the only game in which I consider myself remotely "competitive." So at this level, the only thing to do without a friend is to blast through the game on Super Hard. On lesser difficulties, Gary is the final boss and he's a mean little sucker to boot, dropping huge garbage blocks on you at every opportunity. The first time I beat him on Super Hard, he suddenly mentioned something about facing the "real Pokemon Master." Wait what? Pokemon Master? What is this marvelous opportunity?! With all character options exhausted, I was left wondering who...

 

Mewtwo?...,.... Oh my God guys, It's freaking Mewtwo, in a burning lab, with the clones of your Pokemon! It's time to rock!!!

 

Yeahno-- The first time you meet him, you will lose. Easily. And the bad thing is when you lose, he smirks at you with all the smugness of a Reddit atheist, says "I have no time for games," and boots your unworthy ass back to the sandbox so you can play with Gary. Mewtwo is such a cool guy that he can't even bear to face you twice in a row. Like, come back to me when you can do a 25x combo, silly noob.

 

I like Mewtwo not only as a proper test of your abilities (even if retrying him is tedious due to the set-up), but also mainly for the surprise factor. It was like a little gameplay prize for basically wiping the floor with every other challenge within the main storyline, a unlock you had to truly earn. So yeah, go Mewtwo. ^^

[Jolt_TH]

Day 9: favorite boss

 

Hmm, im afraid i am going to have to repeat one of the games I mentioned earlier Okami.

 

I really really love the final boss from Okami, now because this is the final boss I feel like I should spoiler it so i'm going to

 

Yami the dark lord really does feel like a final boss. You need to use ALL the moves and techniques you have learned throughout the entire game. He starts by taking all of your brush moves that you need to fight him to get them all back one by one. you then have to use each power to get the next one.

 

However this is my favorite boss because after all of this Yami suddenly defeats you, everything seems lost, the sun has gone and the sky is black. Then there is one of the most amazing cutscenes with one of the best pieces of music I have ever heard,

 

 

 

After this you become awakened into your true form and you must beat Yami once and for all. You have to light up the sky and when you do he is stunned and you can wail on him.

 

I really just love this fight due to the general feel of epicness, both fights are great fun to play and the cutscenes that lead up to, are in the middle of and just after really make the climax and the ending of such a great story. Finishing this boss really does feel satisfying and fantastic.

[Chaos Incarnate]

To be honest, Zelda: Ocarina of Time's bosses truly don't offer much of a challenge, and most of them can be taken down on your first try. However, there is one boss in particular that sticks out to me.

 

 

Two of these minuscule witches going against me, The Hero of Time? Ha, no contest, get ready for a whole new can of whoop ass from your's truly! 

 

Well, much to my shock, I didn't realize I had to equip the mirror shield and fell to both of them, losing two of my Fairies in the process. My dense mind finally figured out how to take them down by using the Mirror Shield to reflect both of their attacks back at them. Alright, simple enough, and after a measly 4 hits, I'm faced with... this transformation.

 

 

Hol-ee shit. Well, wouldn't you know, this grotesque-yet-strangely-attractive-at-the-same time beauty goes down EASIER than her separated twin sister form. Again, just take the Mirror Shield, reflect her magic attacks back, and after a while, Voila, Ganondorf's surrogate mothers go down.

 

So, while it's a relatively simple boss, I can't help but enjoy the concept. You know, two people combining into one form to unleash a much more massively powerful enemy, it's real flashy and visual pleasing for some reason. Yeah, I don't deny it's an overused concept, but I wouldn't mind seeing more video games try to do this boss concept justice and add more complexity to it. 

[Your Vest Friend]

There's so many I could choose for simple favourite character bias! But no, I'm going to use one to discuss a franchise trend.

Toasty (Spyro 1)

 

Spyro 1 had very strange and unique bosses in general. Part boss arenas, part standard platformer stage complete with collectible currency and macguffins, it certainly wasn't a thing seen again in later Spyro games. And the most charming of them all has to be Toasty. At first glance a menacing scarecrow figure, he sics evil dogs onto while waving the deadly scythe around. After two hits, his facade burns to ashes for one last round and... 

 

 

He's a sheep! A goddamn adorable sheep!

 

Aside from the irony of a menacing boss turning out to be fluffy and goofy, Toasty was a real showcase for the sheep abuse that Spyro 1 loved so much. If you don't recall this, go rewatch the cutscenes where the dragons abuse the everloving shit out of them. Spyro 2 touched upon this a little with the epilogue, but after that it wasn't seen in the series for a long time. You know what it took to bring back this little humour quirk from the very first game?

 

 

Skylanders. The Skylander series actually loves to play with the Insomniac era concepts, and each game incorporates more and more nostalgic little details that older fans like me will catch. That's part of what keeps me with the series. Sheep abuse has been taken up to eleven and gets ridiculous (in a good way) by the third installment. 

 

So yes, Toasty was not only fun in his own right, but the classic forerunner to a fun series quirk that many kids are appreciating all over again.

[Solly]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

There are a lot of things I liked about this boss. For one, it was either the last or second-to-last temple people did before the final boss. I always play it last because doing the Shadow Temple when it becomes available makes more sense. Because it's so late in the game, it's fitting that these two (one) are Ganondorf's surrogate mothers. It works with the narrative in that as you get closer to victory, you start taking out enemies more closely related to Ganondorf, within his own homeland.

 

I also just like the fight itself. The first phase starts out based on a really simple concept; reflect the magic at the opposite sister. One is weak to fire, one is weak to ice. In the second phase your Mirror Shield gets an ability it doesn't otherwise have, which is to temporarily store the magic shots, and hold three charges of one spell until you unleash them all at once. Despite being something you couldn't do before, figuring out how to use it is pretty intuitive, because naturally you're going to block the magic you've already been trying to reflect, and it comes complete with a visual effect that gets stronger the more shots you're holding. 

[LATER BUDDY]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

 

Blight from Okami

 

 

To put things in perspective, I for some reason reeaaally love moments in games/media when having to explore the inside of a living person/thing happens. Blight is a disease inside the Emperor's stomach that's been poisoning the entire city believe it or not. The Emperor is unconscious in his quarters as a misty green haze comes from his mouth/nose due to Blight. You kinda first get a whiff of it so-to-say when you first enter the giant city (also the only giant "city" in the game so it's kinda a big deal), so it has quite the build up before you actually meet the dude.

 

Anyway cutting to the good stuffs, you're finally shrunk and go down the emperor's throat to find this hollowed samurai armor with so many swords impaled in his chest that he has a spiked back of sword blades. IDK about you guys, but HGNNNN it's so badass. The actual "being" of Blight is one of those swords called Goldnail, but it's still the overall package I love of him.

 

His fight isn't nessesarily hard, but it's pretty awesome. You gain an ability by this point to control fog, which basically is equal to slowing down time. Blight is extremely fast with his attacks, so you have to slow time as he charges at you to get the first sword swipe at him to knock Goldnail out of the possessed armor.

 

I just think he was a cool boss in a cool location is all. I was trying hard to think of bosses that tested my wits or anything of the matter, but I find that I mostly like bosses for who or what they are I guess. I do have an affinity to rival bosses so you feel like equals in the match (almost choose Ninetails from Okami actually (aaand Dark Link but eeeh)), but ultimately ended up with this guy *shrugs*.

[Captain Fun]

Day 9: Favorite Boss: 

 

Demon Lord Ghirahim

 

Ghirahim is easily my favorite boss from Skyward Sword, and one of the best from the Zelda series (it's hard to pick a favorite). You're going along through the game and make it to that familiar boss door where this clown shows up. You have a brief cutscene where this happens

...uh and after that the battle starts. Now what I like about this fight is that you have to actively try to fool Ghirahim. His hand will follow the position of your sword, and if you try to attack him when he's tracking your sword, he will actually take your sword from you and beat you down with it.  It demonstrates something that's a bit different about Skyward Sword compared to most other Zelda games, and in my opinion, makes great use of Wii Motion Plus. It's one of those things that lets you know how Skyward Sword is going to go. 

 

Also, as with a lot of my favorite things in videogames it is accompanied by awesome music. 

If there was music that captures this guy's...eccentricity...then this would be it. 

I also really like the second and third versions of this fight. He doesn't grab your sword anymore but in a very 'Nintendo' fashion he basically tells you how to beat him in the final match.

Honorable mentions go to Twinrova (Ocarina of Time) and Bowser (Super Mario Galaxy).

[Gabz Girl]

Day 9! Favourite boss!

I'll make this short since my internet connection is down and I have to post this on my 3G phone. >_> I think my favourite boss hands down is Molgera from Wind Waker.

Look at this badass! Probably the most memorable boss battle in any Zelda game, Molgera has awesome and surprisingly catchy music, a really cool looking arena and whilst the boss itself is pretty easy to beat there's something about hookshotting its tongue and then slashing it to pieces that makes it such a cool boss battle.

Honourable mentions go to Super Mario 3D Land's final boss and Big Arms from Sonic 3.

[Wraith]

THE WINDS OF DESTRUCTION -  Metal Gear Rising: Revengence

 

 

 

 

good evening my fellow americans

 

today we are gathered here today to celebrate the lives of senator armstrong's finest soldiers.

 

THE WINDS OF DESTRUCTION(yes they're seriously called that shut up)

 

These 4 paragons of cybernetic soldiers (5 if you count khansin but who the hell actually does) fought long and hard, but they all perished in combat. To the same guy. All within a few days of eachother. Heh. 

 

Let us raise our guitars and shout our ridiculous lyrics and honor them one last time

 

"Don't fuck with me, boy!" 

 

CODENAME: MISTRAL

SPECIAL ABILITY: HAVING MORE ARMS THAN YOU

CAUSE OF DEATH: EXTREME COLD/MUTILATION/EXPLOSION ALL AT THE SAME TIME IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY COOL

 

Mistral was the first to fall. Her most impressive attribute right off the bat is her AMAZINGLY absurd amount of limbs that she never really used for anything besides posing and blocking you sometimes. Complete WTF factor aside the coolest thing about this boss was how mobile it was. The rest of the bosses stayed in the same area for the whole fight while Mistral's fight takes you through 3 different areas of an exploding factory. By far the most impressive fight aesthetically. It set a pretty high bar for the rest of the game to meet.

 

Also, the way you kill her was so cool. I was so dissapointed with how lame the other executions are in comparison.

 

"Rain falls...wind blows....and the strong prey upon the weak!" 

CODENAME: MONSOON

SPECIAL ABILITY:MEMES BODY SPLITTING

CAUSE OF DEATH: JACK THE RIPPER/DEVIL TRIGGER/HORRIFIC CHARACTER REGRESSION

 

Monsoon ups the "WTF" factor up from Mistral considerably with his ability to split himself into pieces. It looks like he's just doing your job for you at first but then he starts attacking you and now that he's cut up already you can't really attack him. It's pretty clever turning what you've been doing for pretty much the whole game against you like that. I mean, the main strategy still basically amounts to "keep hitting him until he stops moving" but still. His attacks were also rapid and he could combo you easily, so rapid, well timed blocking was a necessity. Made the boss tense as hell.

 

 

"I'll split you in TWO!"

CODENAME: SUNDOWNER

SPECIAL ABILITY: ANNOYING SHIELDS 

CAUSE OF DEATH:BEING EASY AS HELL

I'll admit that I'm not as fond of Sundowner as I am of the other bosses in the game. His gimmick basically comes down to timing Blade Mode properly in the first half and just dodging his few unblockable attacks in the second half. It's still fun, mostly because of the awesome song, the fact that Sundowner's kind of been fucking with you for a while now so a good old fashioned ass kicking just feels good, and the awesome music. It's not as skill reliant as MGR's other bosses, but it's still more fun than most bosses I've played.

 

"Let's DANCE!"

SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ 

CODENAME: JETSTREAM

SPECIAL ABILITY: SURPRISINGLY GOOD WITH PETS

CAUSE OF DEATH: THE METAL GEAR RISING EQUIVALENT OF A PAPERCUT

 

Sam is one of the absolute standout bosses to me for several reasons. For one, the scene right before it was actually one of the best written ones in the game. Two, the fight itself, unlike most of the other fights in the game at that point, is just a straight up no bullshit duel, which is pretty much my favorite type of bossfight in any game, and three, the song is just awesome. The game demands a lot from you here. Sam blocks and counters just as you do, plus he has his own assortment of charge attacks to keep you on the edge. It's pure fast paced fun.

 

Sooo....yeah. Metal Gear Rising has some fantastic bosses. If the game had a boss rush mode I'd probably still be playing it just for that. 

 

Another stand out from the game is Armstrong himself, but I think I'll save him for "Best Final Boss" or whatever.

[NGw00d]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

Mr. Freeze (Batman: Arkham City)

 

I seem to be mentioning the Arkham games a lot in this so far, but hey, they're some of my favorite games so that's to be expected. Mr. Freeze's boss fight in City is pretty much the best boss fight in the Arkham series so far. The fact that the fight is played entirely from a stealth stance is a nice change of pace from the Titan fights and it adds an extra bit of strategy, especially because you can't pull off the same type of attack twice. Attack him from down below in the vents? Yeah that works, let's try it again. Nope. Freeze isn't gonna fall for that again. Hearing him talk throughout the fight about how he knows every move you make and there's no way you are able to stop him sorta makes you feel like an underdog. You can't just run at him and face him head on like you do with most enemies, you have to use your mind for this one. The fight really makes you think about the various take downs in your arsenal, and it definitely makes you feel like you are Batman.

 

The Last of Us spoilers so...

David (The Last of Us)

 

You meet David the first time you get to control Ellie. I was actually super excited to play as her, so that adds more to my enjoyment of this fight, but it mostly relies on the story surrounding it. She goes off on her own in order to hunt for food, when she encounters him along with his friend James. Obviously, Ellie's skeptical of the two of them, but she reluctantly agrees to a deal to get antibiotics for Joel. The two end up working together to fight off a horde of infected, but things quickly turn sour as David reveals it was his men that attacked her and Joel back at the university. Ellie tries to escape but is caught a little while later by David where at this point, she finds out David and his crew are cannibals.

 

This is where David starts to get really creepy. He offers Ellie a place in their group and affectionately caresses her hand, to which she uses to her advantage and breaks his finger and reaches for the keys only to be stopped and threatened to be killed. Later, David and James plan to slaughter Ellie for food, only for them to find out she had been bitten, giving her the opening to kill James and make a run for it. David eventually catches up to her in an old restaurant and this is where the boss fight begins. The building catches fire and you need to sneak around and avoid making any type of noise in order to take out David from behind. This was one of the most tense moments in the entire game as I lost track of him pretty often only for him to pop up behind me and scare the shit outta me. After stabbing him from behind a few times, it ends up in a struggle where both black out.

 

David's the first to get up and taunts Ellie as she struggles to grab his machete lying on the floor. He pins her down on the floor, strangles her, and it is heavily implied that he was planning to rape her, but Ellie reaches the machete, gets him off of her, and hacks away at his face with it. Seeing her take David down all alone was a really satisfying moment, but its also extremely depressing considering what almost had happened to her and seeing her breakdown afterwards.

[Conando]

Day 9: Favorite Boss

 

 

Lord Ghirahim-The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

 

This creepy bastard, right here. He might be another fake out main villain that Nintendo seems overly fond of with Zelda games, but he's the best of them. Unlike Zant, who turns into a gibbering chimp as soon as the real big bad returns, Ghirahim remains a constant threatening presence within the story right until the very last boss fight (which he actually kinda sort of participates in, hm?). But anyway, the boss fights. They're all about pure swordplay and using motion plus to fake the freaky goon out, it's very satisfying when you figure out how to get him to stop grabbing the Goddess Sword out of your hand, that thing in itself being mentioned is also a pretty "oh shit" moment. He changes it up every time you fight him too, making his own body the weapon. I might not remember everything about Skyward Sword years from now, but I will remember how they got the Wii Motion Plus fighting so right in these battles.

[Krockhead]

Favorite Boss

 

DKC2- Kaptain K. Rool (In the Flying Krock, not the Lost World)

I love this fight. Everything is so intense and high energy, and Crocodile Cacophony really sells that intensity. It's not that hard for me today, but it still gets my heart pumping. Easily the best K. Rool fight ever. The Kaptain is also my favorite K. Rool gimmick.The fight in the Lost World isn't that memorable though, but it's still fun.

 

 

Jet Force Gemini- Mizar

 

Yeah, I like Rare. Sue me. Admittedly, this fight isn't that deep, as it mostly consists of rapid fire and nothing else, but I still love it. I really love the background with the moonlight, and the ambient music really makes it atmospheric working with the background. Like K. Rool, I can beat it easily now, but it sure gave me hell back in the day.