History Main / GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere

* ''VideoGame/SkylandersGiants'': The seventh level, Wilikin Village, is a town full of LivingToys created by [[BigBad Kaos]] when he was a child, and the Skylanders head there for information about him. The boss is the Chompy Mage, a mad wizard obsessed with [[TheGoomba Chompies]]. He has absolutely nothing to do with Kaos, is only mentioned immediately before the battle with him, and never comes up again until his reappearance [[VideoGame/SkylandersTrapTeam two full games later]].

* The second ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'' game, ''Gunfighters''. Set in the Wild West, you spend the entire game battling outlaws, masked marauders, the occasional hostile Indians, until you made your way to the outlaws' cave hideout and confront the FinalBoss - a Red Indian {{Necromancer}} who can spit fireballs at your direction and summon [[DemBones walking skeletons]] to attack. Wait, what?

* ''VideoGame/CastleCrashers'' also does this in the final level. As far as the bosses of TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon go, [[spoiler:although the Necromancer and re-animated Cyclops were seen in the game previously, the burly painter with a lunchbox for a head who attacks by painting monsters that were ripped straight from {{Website/Newgrounds}} was not.]]

** ''VideoGame/ContraOperationGaluga'': Just when you thought the game would be over after killing [[BigBad Varanis]], a giant alien (heavily implied to be the series' recurring alien boss Gava) suddenly appears out of nowhere and devours Varanis' ship with you still inside, [[WombLevel forcing you to fight your way through the alien's intestines]] before eventually reaching the heart and finally fighting the alien's head and brain as the FinalBoss.

* In ''VideoGame/HercsAdventures'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, you run into the Martians from VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors in an early stage. The game was written by the same people, so it's just an EasterEgg. But then you fight the final boss, [[EverybodyHatesHades Hades]] and in the end... Hades is a robot controlled by the Martians. Where's the real Hades? Was there a real Hades? Was he replaced? If Hades was always a robot, did Persephone or the other gods know? These questions will never be answered as the game ends there.

* A notable subversion in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'': The final bosses of ''Milky Way Wishes'' are this unless the player watched its introduction sequence. However, in the original UsefulNotes/SuperNintendo version, the introduction sequence was both optional and [[GuideDangIt not indicated to even exist]], meaning many players probably wondered what was going on at the end of the game. This was corrected in the [[VideoGameRemake DS remake]], where the introduction was automatically played.

* The ''Film/HomeAlone'' video game adaptation on the UsefulNotes/GameBoy has the final boss, the Furnace. It is not directly hinted in either the manual[[note]]it is alluded to as Kevin's greatest fears[[/note]] or the game itself. After the supposed final boss battles between Marv and Harry, the Furnace appears with little fanfare, where Kevin must fight it to complete the game.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'' had one of the earliest examples of the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere final boss. After defeating the BigBad of the game, Malroth (Sidoh in Japan and the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor version), who he turned out to serve and worship, appears out of nowhere to be the final boss. This was particularly nasty in the US version, as absolutely ''nothing'' hinted at his presence aside from a minor quest item named "Eye of Malroth" (and the [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil box art]]; look closely at the mural behind Hargon), and he is infinitely harder than the game's BigBad, Hargon, mostly because he randomly casts Healall to set his life back to full whenever he feels like it.

* ''VideoGame/XMen'':

* The final stage of the story mode of ''VideoGame/FZero GX''. Most of the story involves Captain Falcon taking on Black Shadow and Deathborn, both of whom are introduced in the first cutscene. Nothing vastly out of the ordinary until the final stage, where, just as the story is being wrapped up, [[spoiler:three ghosts representing the developers appear and announce that Deathborn was wrong about everything. They then challenge Captain Falcon to a race in a kind of digital dimension. He defeats them, they vanish, and the story just ends there.]]

* ''The Granstream Saga'' produces a boss from nowhere. ([[spoiler:But also manages to tie it into the plot while simultaneously nullifying the rest of the point of the game]].) You've happily completed the game's quest across four floating continents to save them from falling into the sea. ([[spoiler:Then you're sucked into a black hole where someone named Demaar tells you that the whole world was an illusion and that you have to fight him to break a hundreds-of-years-long cycle.]]) To call it out of nowhere would be something of an understatement.

* The Subspace Emissary in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' sees [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Rayquaza]] attacking [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry Diddy]] and [[VideoGame/StarFox Fox]] for no apparent reason. From a ''[[MisplacedWildlife lake]]''. It's supposed to live in the ''sky''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' has a couple:

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' has a couple of these:

* On the whole, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG: Legend of the Seven Stars'' is pretty good about making sure all its bosses are either connected to the plot in some way or at the very least foreshadowed. However, nothing whatsoever explains what happens when you [[SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace break up the Princess's wedding to a minor villain]]: The chefs who prepared the wedding cake get upset that their work will be unappreciated, so they attack you. Then, the wedding cake inexplicably comes to life and uses its inexplicably vast magical powers to try and kill you for some inexplicable reason, and Mario doesn't even (technically) defeat it; once the cake's HP is worn down low enough, the minor villain interrupts the fight and eats it. Similarly, the boss for the 3rd star piece has absolutely no connection with the plot and fights the party simply because they don't know who he is.

** The boss of the Sandopolis Zone Act 1 from ''Sonic and Knuckles''. All of the other bosses in the game (and in fact most other Sonic games) are either Robotnik or his robotic henchmen. And then at the end of Sandopolis we get this big huge... golem thingy that you have to trick into the nearby quicksand pit. It was referenced in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' with the "Egg Golem" boss. Except that one was bigger, defeated in a different way, and was a robot.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': After leaving the [[LevelAte Luncheon]] [[CloudCuckooland Kingdom]], Bowser sics a previously unseen enemy, the [[spoiler:Ruined Dragon]], on Mario. Said enemy is [[spoiler:a massive [[NonstandardCharacterDesign photo-realistic]] dragon who looks like he flew in from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' and is fought in a grim, crumbling arena that would fit comfortably in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'']]. No explanation is offered for where he came from or what he is.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'':
*** Baron Brrr has no lead in from the level to the boss other than being there, and unlike nearly every other boss, never appears again.
*** The Undergrunt Gunner, the very common cannon Monty Mole, doesn't even get mentioned in the mission name, and appears in three levels completely out of the blue (and in one of them, he's just guarding the cannon, right at the start of the level, and you don't even need to use said cannon).
*** Kingfin is [[DemBones a giant skeletal fish]] living on his own water planet. It's the only boss located on a single-level galaxy, and the only reason you fight it, aside from the star it keeps, is because you've just entered its territory.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'': After leaving the [[LevelAte Luncheon]] [[CloudCuckooland Kingdom]], Bowser sics a previously unseen enemy, the [[spoiler:Ruined Dragon]], on Mario. Said enemy is [[spoiler:a massive [[NonstandardCharacterDesign photo-realistic]] dragon who looks like he flew in from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' and is fought in a grim, crumbling arena that would fit comfortably in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'']]. No explanation is offered for where he came from or what he is.

* As depicted above, ''VideoGame/{{Growl}}'' is all about beating hordes of poachers to death and freeing captive animals. When you take out their leader (a masked freak with enough strength to throw a tank), his corpse begins to slither around the arena, when suddenly [[BodyHorror a millipede bursts out of his back]] and states that ''it'' is the true leader of the poachers. Webvideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd lampshaded the twist as the game being "[[WidgetSeries Taito as fuck]]". (Players of the ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' games will recognize it as [[OutsideContextProblem one of the aliens from those games]], but there were barely any hints that ''Growl'' shared a universe with them.)

** Before Trunkle, there's a part of the game where you save the queen by having her drink a legendary soda. The main boss of that section... [[WidgetSeries is the soda. The guy who created it made it able to defend itself.]] [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment No one mentions this again.]]

** Hróðvitnir, the wolf that acts as the boss of Ophilia's 2nd chapter. While it ''is'' somewhat foreshadowed through optional dialogue from some [=NPCs=], and the aftermath of the battle does act as the source of CharacterDevelopment for a few characters, it's still an otherwise random enemy that doesn't do anything to service Ophilia's story.

** Esmerelda, the thief who acts as the boss of Tressa's 4th chapter. Unlike most of the rest of the main characters, who are given an antagonist with a personal connection to them to act as their FinalBoss, Esmerelda is just a random thief who stole Tressa's journal. On top of that, the actual fight against her comes right out of nowhere, as by that point, Tressa's already gotten the journal back and Esmerelda has admitted the thing is useless to her, with Esmerelda seemingly only attacking Tressa because she's an asshole.
** The Ogre Eagle, the [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent griffin]] that acts as the FinalBoss of Alfyn's story. While the player ''is'' told about the monster prior to actually encountering it, this is only slightly before the player is given the task of going after it. Similar to Esmerelda for Tressa, the Ogre Eagle doesn't act as a personal antagonist to Alfyn in spite of being the FinalBoss of his story, with it only really being fought because Alfyn needs something from it at the moment. Chapter 3's [[spoiler:[[TheSociopath Miguel]]]] acts as a more personal antagonist [[spoiler:by betraying Alfyn's trust [[UngratefulBastard after he treats his wounds]], causing a crisis of faith]].
** Ghisarma, the monster that acts as the boss of H'aanit's 1st chapter. While the existence of the beast is alluded to prior to the battle against it, it serves no actual role in H'aanit's story and only really exists to give her something to do before her plot actually gets underway, though it does provide further insight into H'aanit's personality, particularly her belief in the cycle of life and anger towards those who hunt for pleasure rather than for survival.
** The Lord of the Forest, the [[TheMarvelousDeer stag-shaped]] tree monster that acts as the boss of H'aanit's 2nd chapter. The boss comes completely out of nowhere, showing up just prior to H'aanit [[spoiler:finding Z'aanta [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]]]]. The only {{foreshadowing}} it has is by a single NPC in the nearby town who says it lives in a [[InUniverseFactoidFailure cave]], only existing to act as the boss for the chapter.
** The White [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]], the guardian of the herb-of-grace grove that acts as the boss of H'aanit's 3rd chapter. While it does have some indirect relevance to the story in that herb-of-grace protects people from being [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]]--one of [[EldritchAbomination Redeye]]'s most dangerous powers--the boss comes completely out of nowhere. Susanna later reveals that she knew the Dragon was there all along, and deliberately withheld the information from H'aanit with the rationalization that if she couldn't slay it, then she wouldn't stand a chance against Redeye.

** [[MiniBoss The first Garrador (Blind Slasher)]] in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' is a little out-of-nowhere as well. While the other three are there as part of ambushes, the first is randomly imprisoned in a basement just to give a short boss fight before you can pull the lever to get through the hallway upstairs. [[FridgeLogic Which also raises a number of questions about what the Ganados expect to do to get through that hallway]] [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence besides squeezing or climbing over the statues spewing the fire]]. The ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' ends up giving some backstory on this specific Garrador right before the fight by revealing that he was a member of a family of executioners that served the Salazar family who took pleasure in his work. Because of this, Ramon took an interest in him and had him transformed into a Garrador locked in the basement to kill intruders that he would have a servant tend to before she planned to leave.
*** Similarly, the U-3 has no foreshadowing towards it's existence before you fight it in files or dialogue except for the call between Leon and Saddler where he told Leon that he would introduce him to "It". In the Remake, U-3 is notably the only boss from Leon's campaign that was cut out along with the underground area where it was fought. [[spoiler:Fully averted in the ''Separate Ways'' [=DLC=] of the remake, where it is instead [[CompositeCharacter the other Verdugo]] named Pesanta that Leon didn't kill and didn't fuse with Salazar like in the original since it hounds Ada throughout two thirds of the [=DLC=].]]

*** Similarly, the U-3 has no foreshadowing towards it's existence before you fight it in files or dialogue except for the call between Leon and Saddler where he told Leon that he would introduce him to "It". In the Remake, U-3 is notably the only boss from Leon's campaign that was cut out along with the underground area where it was fought.

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'' fixes the aforementioned problems by giving no chapter bosses at all to some chapters, but because each character's first chapter should still have a boss to demonstrate the character's [[LimitBreak Latent Power]], there are still some examples, although they are also mostly milder compared to the previous game:
** Doron and Veron, the first DualBoss of Castti's story, are not revealed until the end of the chapter, they are just some random infected animals that infected Canalbrine's water source, and ultimately have no connection to Castti's story of recovering her memories.
** Downplayed with Duorduor, Agnea's first boss. It is mentioned when Agnea notices that her sister Pala is missing, and Dourdour's footsteps are being found, implying that it's around and Pala may be in danger from it. Still, it is the only boss completely unrelated to the rest of Agnea's story.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Felvarg, Temenos' first boss. At first, it seems like a arcane beast that suddenly appears in the church, but after Temenos examines the place, he finds some evidences suggesting that someone has lured the beast into the place to kill the Pontiff and pretend it's an accident.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': Near the beginning of the game, the Player is tasked to help the Minutemen faction who have been held up in a building by a gang of Raiders. After grabbing a PoweredArmor and a [[GatlingGood Minigun]], the player faces against the gang of Raiders and their leader Gristle (who isn't much tougher). Partway through the fight after Gristle and most of the raiders are killed, a Deathclaw that's [[LightningBruiser much faster, stronger and tougher]] than [[TrickBoss Gristle]] pops out of the ground, serving as the ''actual'' boss of the area. The only vague foreshadowing about it is by an old woman with "psychic" visions ("Careful, kid. There's something coming. And it is... angry").

* ''Super VideoGame/AdventureIsland II'' does this ''twice''. The first one appears when you beat the giant bird hyped up as the final boss. Suddenly an evil wizard appears and steals Tina, and you have to play through the level ''again''. When you kill the wizard, a ''giant scorpion'' appears, which is the ''real'' final boss. And you fight him in ''outer space'' for some inexplicable reason. There's some eerie music and mist filling the room when you kill the wizard, indicating the abrupt change in mood, which is nice, but you'd think the player deserves an explanation for this nonsense.