Honorable Mentions
I considered the following boss fights to be very good, but for whatever reason,
I didn't think them epic enough to make the top 10 list.
 39th Slayer: Deadly Rooms of
Death 2: Journey to Rooted Hold
DRoD is a very difficult but fascinating series of puzzle games. Because it came
out much later in gaming history, plus the fact that no console ports exist, it
is not as well known as other games. So no top 10.
Which is too bad, because 39th Slayer is a very well-developed nemesis. Matching
your fencing talents exactly, you have no choice but to let him chase you
further and further into the dungeons. His mad skills with a sharpened cane,
his trademark evil voice, and his incessant taunting make him the best villain
of the series.
He's not all bad, though: his vile nature borders on absurdity, and his
persistence causes him to make comical mistakes in your favor. Like most good
villains, you don't want to see him beaten until you absolutely have to beat
him.
 Apocalypse: X-Men vs. Street
Fighter and related games
The "Street Fighter vs." titles and spin-offs have gotten quite numerous. Many
of these games feature a giant boss that fights your SF-style character. With
each new game, Capcom has made a boss character that is that much harder and
deadlier.
Apocalypse is menacing, but not deadly unless you have no idea what he's capable
of doing. Onslaught, a related boss, is decidedly deadlier, with two forms and
heavier attacks. Abyss tops out with three forms and a plethora of attack
modes.
The fights against enormous foes are epic, comic-book-like, and they are
surefire crowd-gatherers in arcades, but they seem to jumble together after a
while, with many similarities in the attacks across each boss. Perhaps if such
patterns hadn't been subject to syndication, a single "big boss" might have
been more deserving of a top 10 title.
 Bald Bull: Punchout series of
games
Even though Bald Bull is not the hardest character in any of the numerous
versions of the Punchout series of games, he's the most memorable. "Bald Bull"
has great consonance, making his name catchy. Sure enough, he's bald, and
that's supposedly one of the reasons he's so mean (his barber "didn't know when
to quit"). This backstory and other nuances about his boxing style (bull
charge, etc.) make for a great villain. Not surprisingly, he's in virtually all
of the Punchout games.
 Dr. Breen: Half-Life 2
The final sequence where Gordon Freeman tries to ascend the Citadel portal
reactor, dodging gunfire and hoping to dismantle the reactor altogether, is
quite suspenseful. No classic "big boss" characters you need to shoot at per
se, although your complex and charismatic nemesis, Dr. Breen, is in a
protective bubble ready to teleport away, killing you in the process. He's been
such a jerk up to this point that you'll want him dead even though he only
actually "shot" at you once.
The intense nature of the interactive story up to this point is what makes this
climax epic. You have to use every skill you've learned throughout the game, as
well as improvise a few new ones, all within a short period of time. But...as
bosses go, fewer people are likely to play this part. So no top 10.
 Bob Page: Deus Ex
Like Dr. Breen, Bob Page is not one to directly engage you, and you'll need to
find a creative way to deal with him (there are three different endings,
depending on which way you choose). Bob Page commands turrets to fire at you
and directs special actor-spawning devices to manufacture monsters and robots
to attack you.
It's really Bob Page's character that makes him memorable. His evil nature is
apparent midway through the game, and it only gets more corrupt over time,
turning him into one of the most loathsome villains in any video game, ever! He
tops his endeavors off with an over-the-top megalomaniac personality, one that
pre-dates Syndrome from The Incredibles. You will want him dealt
with--believe me.
 Bowser: Mario 64
Yes, Bowser did make the top 10, but not for this game. The wonder of small
Mario twirling Bowser around by his tail is memorable, but most people agree
that the battle is far from difficult.
If I'd remember anything about this boss fight, it's that the unexpected often
happens to the terrain, which directly impacts gameplay. Admit it--did you
expect, in the Fire Sea level, for Bowser's jump to tilt the entire platform at
a 45-degree angle, causing you to slip? That's creativity.
 Claw Arm Boss: Heavy Barrel
Not the final boss. Not even close. But one most people remember. The claw is
pretty simple: it moves back and forth on a track, and periodically tries to
grab something in front (which kills you).
This Data East creation was quite popular. Heavy Barrel is well-known, but most
of its bosses are not. Could it be because everyone expects a tank to shoot
bullets and rockets, but almost no one expects it to grab you? Seems like it
might be an oversimplification, but it does make a difference. To put things in
perspective, Tiger ended up including claw arm bosses in its handheld version
of Heavy Barrel.
 The Commander: Thunder Fox
One of the many bosses that just never seems to die. With characteristic
megalomania, he casually waits from his elevated chair while an attached turret
menaces you. Then, he fires bazooka rounds at you. Then, he attacks using all
manner of martial arts and spikes attached to his arms.
Difficult, intimidating arcade boss with lots of potential...but not as well
known as others, and a poorly developed character. I would have loved to see
him have more personality.
 Damnd: Final Fight
AKA Thrasher in the game's home version. Yet another boss whose actual fighting
characteristics are outweighed by his personal ones. In the arcade attract
mode, he establishes himself as a supervillain right to Haggar's face, and then
acts evil, arrogant and cocky throughout the rest of the time you see him.
Yeah, he's the first boss, and far from the hardest, but he's got a
well-developed character. He's a good villain because you want to kick his ass.
Bad.
 The Gatekeeper: DOOM II
Even if you don't know about "The Man Behind the Mask" in this case, who is John
Romero, the boss is still very awesome. You must fire three rockets into the
deformed goat-head's exposed brain, all the while dodging a large number of
demons that the Gatekeeper constantly spawns and sends in your direction.
This is a far more challenging fight than the one with the Cyberdemon. Yet it
didn't make the top 10, because fewer people have played it. The non-intuitive
means of destroying the gatekeeper, though, make it worthy of an honorable
mention.
 Giant: Kung-Fu Master
What makes this guy fun is that he's based on a real person--Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar--from Bruce Lee's Game of Death. Although the giant on
Floor 3 of the Devil's Temple appears without the shades and Jabbar's cool
attitude, his size, grin, and powerful attacks are intimidating enough. Like
all the bosses in Kung-Fu Master, though, the fight lasts only a few seconds.
Not that epic.
 Golem: Life Force
The first boss of Life Force, AKA Salamander, is a brain with a staring eye and
two twisted, menacing arms, which try to grab at your spaceship. It looks
disgusting and evil, and you'll want it killed. Even thought the boss is not
that difficult, the boss battle feels like it should be epic. And sure enough,
Golem did reappear in Life Force's arcade sequel.
I should note that the boss music, along with the slow disintegration of the
background during the brain's appearance, inspires a sense of dread. This is
very important in a boss fight--if the boss means trouble, make the gamer feel
like he or she is in a lot of it!
 Heinrich I: Return to Castle
Wolfenstein
Great, great boss battle, but not as many people have played this to completion,
so I can't rank it up in the top 10. Heinrich has many attack modes, including
the ability to resurrect dead knights and summon powerful spirits against you.
His armor is shockingly thick, making it almost impossible to kill him with any
one weapon (you'll have to burn through multiple weapons).
The great thing about this battle is that you don't know, at first, if winning
is even possible, thanks to the storyline that plants the seeds of doubt right
at the beginning.
You end up getting so focused in this battle that you often fail to monitor your
peripheral vision--and peripheral vision is very important, given the horrors
around you. This battle will send your heart racing.
 Mech Skull: Captain America
and the Avengers (Arcade)
Data East has made many sensational arcade games, and this one stands apart from
many of the other beat-em-ups. The final boss (Red Skull) is one of those many
bosses who tricks you into thinking he's really easy. Mech Skull defies the Law
of Conservation of Matter when he grows to more than twice his original size,
into a "robot" version of a skinless muscle-bound bimbo.
Mech Skull has...how many attack modes? At least seven. Keeping with the
comic-book nature of the game, most of these attacks are over-the-top, like the
spinning machine gun attack.
The boss is hard to beat, having a lot of power. The sensationalism and humor
are important, too. But the fight has one subtle problem--all the boss fights
in this game have the same problem. Data East put in a strange algorithm that
prevents a final attack from finishing the boss if the attack would ordinarily
take away the rest of the power meter. Instead, each attack at low power causes
the power to be reduced by HALF, meaning you can't kill the boss until the
power meter has "halved" itself repeatedly to a size of 1 pixel!
Some people might find the above power meter quirk cute, but I find it really
annoying. Just spell out how much power he has, already!
 Nihilanth: Half-Life
The final boss of Half-Life is seemingly impervious to your shots, and has the
ability to heal himself. You have to plan carefully how to beat such a large
and dangerous entity. Hiding, aiming, and strategizing are critical to winning.
And once you've knocked out the crystals, then what? It is not intuitive what
you must do, but once you figure it out, you'll feel like you've just done the
impossible. Especially when Nihilanth goes through one of the most awesome
lightshows of self-destruction in video game history!
 The Skaarj Queen: Unreal
This giant, suspenseful boss teleports around you, fires huge numbers of
projectiles at you, rushes at you and leaps long distances to crush you, can
shield herself, and can shake the ground. Oh, and she takes a million hits to
kill.
Sounds like a good formula for a final boss. But why didn't she make the top 10?
I'd say it's because Unreal is a VERY long game to complete, making it unlikely
most gamers have gotten to her. But this battle is made more epic by one very
important, small detail: the musical track played during the battle is one of
the most suspenseful you'll hear from Alexander Brandon's repertory, on par
with one you'd encounter in a thriller movie.
I should note that Brandon's intense, percussion-backed musical tracks would
become a staple of all future games that used the Unreal engine (and employed
Brandon). Sure enough, Unreal set the stage for boss fights having superb
musical tracks.
 Super Soldier (Sgt. Allen
O'Neil): Metal Slug series
Ah, Metal Slug...SNK now injects humor full-time, instead of part-time with
previous titles. The Super Soldier is a tough boss in the classic
"Contra-style" sense. He doesn't have a lot of attack modes, but he never stops
attacking you, which is the point. He also tosses out tons of one-liners, even
when he's killed. Doesn't matter if the villain is corny or campy--that works
in video games.
 The Tractor: Contra
Not the hardest boss, and not even a proper boss to some. But the tractor is a
nice big hulk of trouble that you absolutely must get rid of--kill or be
killed. It shoots at you, it's big, it's ugly, it runs you over, it makes you
panic, and it inspires extreme hatred. Good attributes for a boss.
 The Wizard of Yendor: Nethack
I swear I'm not kidding around when I mention this one. Nethack is an
ever-expanding game that seemingly grows harder every year because the
development team can't stand for any part of it to be easy. For this reason,
the appeal is limited among more mainstream gamers, so I won't put this on the
top 10 despite the fact that Nethack is a well-known classic.
The Wizard of Yendor is normally represented as a text character "@" along with
other humans, per the standard mechanism for displaying characters in Nethack,
which has a text-mode legacy display system. So, he's not going to be menacing
in a visual sense. But he IS menacing...every other way.
Text messages are very important to Nethack, since the iconic representation of
all the backgrounds, items, and characters is not sufficient to characterize
more detailed, low-level events. Much of the "world" of Nethack is generated by
one's imagination. This is how the Wizard of Yendor comes into being as a
classic boss enemy. Numerous warnings throughout the game and documentation
tell you he's someone you don't want to mess with, and when you finally do, he
pulls out all the stops.
If you use your imagination, you'll get this impression: The Wizard of Yendor is
an egotistical, snarky individual with seemingly endless power, tricks, and
one-liners. He teleports around you, makes himself invisible, clones himself,
spawns massive numbers of monsters around you, and uses "the touch of death."
All while cackling, mocking you and your mom, and even pilfering your
possessions.
And he never dies! Each time you kill him, he waits a while and then reappears,
a little stronger each time! Given that he often reappears at some of the most
inconvenient times during your dungeoneering, this makes the game seem almost
like a carnival of misplaced and nonsensical vendettas, giving a dark but very
silly atmosphere to the whole experience, especially the endgame portion.
Back to Chris' website
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I decided to make this page because of the timeless underdog storyline that
never seems to get old in all forms of media. The classic formula is to have a
buildup, a climax, and a resolution. In the best of video games, it's no
different.
#10: Nightmare: Kirby's
Adventure
#9: Tentacle Boss: Half-Life
#8: Chaingun Soldier:
Operation Wolf
#7: Chthon: Quake
#6: Dracula: Castlevania
#5: Catalina: Grand Theft Auto
III
#4: Mr. Big: NARC
#3: The Cyberdemon: DOOM
#2: Bowser: Super Mario Bros.
Phoenix Mothership: Phoenix