History Main / HardLevelsEasyBosses

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'':
*** In the Game Gear/ Master System version the Aqua Lake Zone is fairly hard, especially act 2 which takes place entirely [[SuperDrowningSkills underwater]]. The boss, however, is practically a ZeroEffortBoss, as his only attack requires several seconds to "charge up", during which you can interrupt it by jumping on him and damaging him in the process.
*** The Scrambled Egg Zone is by far the hardest zone in the game. The boss (Silver Sonic) however is probably the easiest boss in the game aside from the Aqua Lake boss, and doubles as an AntiClimaxBoss as he is either the penultimate boss or the final boss if you failed to collect all the chaos emeralds.

** The [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1 first game]]. The levels get increasingly harder, but all the bosses (except for K. Rool, and possibly the second battle with Necky) are a cakewalk.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and the other games on its engine have fairly unimpressive boss battles, with the Barons of Hell, Cyberdemon, Spider Mastermind, and Icon of Sin all being relatively easy fights. This is especially pronounced on higher difficulties, which up the number of enemies substantially, meaning chewing your way through an entire army is now a much bigger feat. Like ''Wolfenstein'', a lot of this is down to the fact that common enemies make much more judicious use of {{Hitscan}}--particularly ''VideoGame/DoomII'', which introduces the hilariously deadly Chaingunner enemy. The Spider Mastermind is the only one of the above to use hitscan, but it also has lower health than you'd think and is easy to stunlock.

* ''Super [[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls & Ghosts]]'', which lives on almost every [[NintendoHard top-10 hardest games of all times lists]], has some of the easiest bosses ever. Not just easy for SG&G, or easier than the levels around them. Drop dead simple. The Hydra is perhaps the easiest boss in any videogame (and his level is one of the hardest. There's dissonance right there); you stand there and shoot him with your weapon, while dodging rock attacks that he telegraphs a mile away and only throws out every 3-5 seconds anyway. The final boss is pathetically wimpy.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' bosses also have plenty of this going. Some boss levels are much more difficult than the robot masters at the end of them, especially when utility items or Rush aren't available. Part of this can be pinned on the predictable patterns some bosses had. Guts Man's stage has the notorious platforms, Heat Man has the thrice-damned disappearing block segments over instant-death lava or bottomless pits, Toad Man has wind and water pushing Mega Man around into more bottomless pits, and so on. Don't be surprised to spend more lives on the levels than the bosses in more than a few instances.

** The Mega Man fangame ''[[Videogame/MegaManUnlimited Unlimited]]'' is ''infamous'' for this trope, a lot of the levels being boarder line {{Marathon Level}}s with some rather [[PlatformHell sadistic platforming]] at times, but a lot of the bosses (with the exception of [[ThatOneBoss Glue Man]]) being a cinch to beat buster only.

* ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'', was like this, mostly because the only characters that could be considered to be bosses (stronger body armor, powerful weapons, pinpoint aim), also had the same weaknesses as the rest of the enemies (basically, headshot kills no matter what and the ability to waltz right up to them and choke them to death), and also took you on basically one on one, or with less minions, which meant a boss fight was much more favorable than the normal swarm of enemies coming to take you out. In fact, in the climax and FinalBoss of the game ([[spoiler:the assassination montage from the movie]]), the main challenge is driving to the multiple locations it takes place in within the time limit.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'', Stage 8 is frustratingly difficult, but the boss (Frankenstein) is one of the easiest in the game.

* Much of ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'''s difficulty comes from [[ResourcesManagementGameplay scarcity of ammunition and]] BreakableWeapons, and your EmergencyWeapon being very ineffective except for sneak attacks. Boss fights either leave lots of ammo laying around or have it respawn continuously, making them much more straightforward. This means ''the'' hardest enemies to take down are the [[BossInMookdClothing boss-like enemies encountered in the field]], as the game does ''not'' have to accommodate players having too little ammo to take them down.

* Much of ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'''s difficulty comes from [[ResourcesManagementGameplay scarcity of ammunition and]] BreakableWeapons, and your EmergencyWeapon being very ineffective except for sneak attacks. Boss fights either leave lots of ammo laying around or have it respawn continuously, making them much more straightforward. This means ''the'' hardest enemies to take down are the [[BossInMooksClothing boss-like enemies encountered in the field]], as the game does ''not'' have to accommodate players having too little ammo to take them down.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' game. With every death sending you to the start of an area with only three hearts, surprisingly beefy {{Mook}}s, a normal attack with very short reach, a rather small range of vision due to the UsefulNotes/GameboyColor screen, and lots and lots of SpikesOfDoom and {{Bottomless Pit}}s, traversing the overworld and dungeons of this game is going to kill you a lot. On the other hand, most of the bosses are relatively simple affairs where the main challenge is [[PuzzleBoss figuring out how to use the latest transformation dance to beat them]]. The only exception is the FinalBoss, who is absolutely brutal.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' tends to have extremely brutal stages ([[ThatOneLevel Blaze Heatnix and Metal Shark Player come to mind]]) followed by insultingly easy bosses in comparison. The only exception is Gate's second stage, which has both a difficult level, and two difficult boss fights (High Max and Gate himself). Played straight once again with Sigma, who's an absolute joke.

* Perhaps owing to it's classic origins mentioned above, ''VideoGame/MegamanBattleNetwork'' features difficult random encounters and much more relaxed bosses against other [=NetNavis=]. While there are numerous [[ThatOneBoss difficult Navi battles]], the real danger in most games is presented through the [[DemonicSpiders/MegaManBattleNetwork random virus encounters]], especially deep into the Internet as the games throw some absolutely heinous combinations at you where the strategy is simply "Delete the viruses within seconds or be deleted". The Navis on the other hand, give you far less to worry about and can strategically be picked apart.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon''. The dungeons themselves will see you using up the majority of your wiles and resources, while most bosses can be made utterly harmless with a single [[StandardStatusEffects status seed]]. Bosses with minions are exceptions, though, depending on your items and moves. This also happens with the third installment, to the extent where the final level doesn't even ''have'' a boss; the challenge is negotiating a dungeon without any allies.

** Taken to a ridiculous height at the final boss of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crZivWqCJTQ&ab_channel=WumpaLewis The boss fight itself]] is quite challenging on its own, but the level leading up to said boss is absurdly hard it makes the boss fight looks easy in comparison, especially at the last 2 chackpoint where you're required to use all 4 masks in quick succession while still requiring precise timing AND landing since even a minor slip-up WILL kill you. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYUEvR2uju8&ab_channel=Rogie See for yourself]].

* ''Super [[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls & Ghosts]]'', which lives on almost every [[NintendoHard top-10 hardest games of all times lists]], has some of the easiest bosses ever. Not just easy for SG&G, or easier than the levels around them. Drop dead simple. The Hydra is perhaps the easiest boss in any videogame (and his level is one of the hardest. There's dissonance right there); you stand there and shoot him with his weapon, while dodging rock attacks that he telegraphs a mile away and only throws out every 3-5 seconds anyway. The final boss is pathetically wimpy.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' has some rather fiendishly tricky dungeons and bosses that go down in under a minute. Standing out in particular is the Angler's Tunnel, a fairly difficult water dungeon that can be made UnwinnableByMistake, and the Angler Fish itself, which is beaten by the difficult tactic of "swim in its face and mash the attack button for about ten seconds."

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' has some incredible AI for almost all of the simple mooks throughout the entire games, where almost everything can be considered GoddamnedBats or DemonicSpiders, even basic slimes, and yet almost all of the bosses are fairly pattern-based that require little more strategy than "Wait until they get in range, jump up, and hit them in the head". Only the Thunderbird and Shadow Link at the very end of the game provide any real tactical challenge, and even the latter has a well-known exploit.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle Of Ages]]'' has the ''very'' long Jabu-Jabu's Belly, with the incredibly easy ElectricJellyfish boss.

[[folder:Beat Em Up]]

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

* The ''Videogame/DawnOfWar'' expansions Dark Crusade and Soulstorm suffer from this on later levels. A regular map is played as a standard skirmish against the AI albeit with a few weak units and lowered ressources. On later levels, you play a two-on-one, and if the computer's PlayerCharacter is on he the map, starts with extra regular units which immediately attack your base. Strongholds, on the other hand, send in one big attack at the beginning, subsequent attack waves are much weaker than usual (and this is before the special features like stealing the enemy's artillery or disabling their special attacks). It is even possible to defeat the Dark Eldar without even building a base, as they do not send attacks before you do so.

[[folder:Role Playing Games]]

[[folder:Shoot Em Up]]

[[folder:Stealth]]

[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]

[[folder:Turn Based Strategy]]

** Heide's Tower of Flame can be even more brutal- the area is short, linear and impossible to get lost in, but it's packed with towering, heavily-armoured Old Knights wielding gigantic weapons that are dangerous when fought alone, ''lethal'' when fought in groups, particularly the [[DropTheHammer mace-wielding]] ones. Things are even worse in ''Scholar of the First Sin edition'' if you aggro the [[DemonicSpiders Heide Knights]], most of whom are initially passive but can and will cut you to ribbons if provoked (or if you approach the few that ''aren't'' naturally passive). If you can get past this brutal gauntlet, the area's main boss (the Dragonrider) is an ordinary halberd-wielding enemy barely tougher than the Old Knights you fought to reach him; you can even [[EasyLevelTrick trick him into killing himself with a bit of cunning]]. Of course, once again there's the alternate route, leading to the Hellkite Dragon miniboss[[note]]''Scholar'' version only[[/note]] and the Old Dragonslayer in the Cathedral of Blue (which, while not quite ThatOneBoss, will certainly give you more of a workout).

* Old-school shooters liked to casually toss around enemies with hitscan weapons that'd ruin your day, while having bosses with {{Painfully Slow Projectile}}s that can be undone with a bit of circle-strafing. ''VideoGame/DoomII'' is a textbook case, where a squad of chaingunners will end far more runs than [[AntiClimaxBoss the Icon of Sin.]]

* ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'':

** In ''Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth'', the amount of damage you sustain by the normal stage enemies is determined by the stage number, in the vein of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaI'' and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse III]]''. However, every boss in the game always inflicts the minimum amount of damage for the particular difficulty mode you are playing through.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' you will be killed by random groups of street thugs more often than Mr. Freeze, Solomon Grundy, [[spoiler:Clayface]], [[spoiler: Ras Al Ghul]] and Deadshot combined especially if you're playing on Hard.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' has all of the bosses being mostly [=QTEs=] and cutscenes. The difficulty of this game comes from the Batmobile sections where he has to fight the drones, which are significantly more difficult than defeating the bosses.

** A straight forward example is [[ThatOneLevel 5-2]], Most players have a load of trouble with the level it's self, however, the Boss is pretty easy and is weak to both Fire and Magic.

* ''VideoGame/Syndicate'' and the sequel, ''Syndicate Wars'', enemy leaders are usually no stronger than an average mook (they may have an enhancement or two more, but it hardly makes a difference). A few of them are even weaker, being simple civilians with little to no combat ability. The main challenge is getting to them rather than than killing or "persuading" them.

* VideoGame/DoubleDragonII: Stage 8 on the NES version throws every [[DemonicSpiders Demonic Spider]] in the game one after another, but the boss of the level (which is actually the final boss of the arcade version) is not very hard at all; at worst, he's a GoddamnedBoss.

* The ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' series [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags with this trope]]. In the first game, the challenge comes from fending off several waves of mooks that gang up on you while you try not to lose too many lives just reaching the boss of the level. The bosses themselves follow a fairly predictable pattern and are easy to beat once you know how to avoid their attacks. The final boss will always have mooks with him. The second game has mooks appear for several bosses, averting the trope. The third game follows what the first game did; waves of mooks in the levels and bosses appearing by themselves. The only exception to the rule is the boss of Stage 6 where he always has mooks with him.

* ''VideoGame/Skullmonkeys'' is a game that has a fast difficulty curve, filled with tons of tricky jumps, swarms of enemies that are invulnerable to said jumps, and long worlds that will take you all the way back to the first stage when you lose all your lives. The bosses, meanwhile, are a joke. The first boss, Shriney Guard, goes down in under 10 seconds. Joe Head Joe requires some simple ducking and dodging. Glen Yntis tells you where he's going to attack. Monkey Mage requires a little more timing and platforming, but is still easy. The final boss, Klogg, involves you shooting his projectiles back in one hell of an anticlimax. Luckily, there is another level after Klogg that's pure hell. It's almost like the bosses were an afterthought.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' has an odd case of this on Hard Mode. One of the changes made on that version is that every enemy has boosted stats, which this game expresses by essentially giving enemies a bunch of invisible level-ups in their respective classes. Two of the game's bosses, the FinalBoss and TrueFinalBoss, have their own special classes (King and Demon Dragon). Because those classes occur nowhere else in the game, they lack growths outside of a default 10% HP growth, meaning the only difference for them on Hard is... one extra hit point.

** Taken to a ridiculous height at the final boss of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime''. The boss fight itself is quite challenging on its own, but the level leading up to said boss is absurdly hard it makes the boss fight looks easy in comparison, especially at the last 2 chackpoint where you're required to use all 4 masks in quick succession while still requiring precise timing AND landing since even a minor slip-up WILL kill you. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYUEvR2uju8&ab_channel=Rogie See for yourself]].