History Main / TimeLimitBoss

** Not exactly a single battle, but a sequence of battles and the use of controls during the runaway train sequence in ''VII''. Cid's party must catch up with the train carrying a Huge Materia by moving two levers, fight several large mooks on board, and be able to stop the train before it crashes into North Corel.

* Every single boss in ''WarioLand 4'', made harsher on [[HarderThanHard Super Hard]] difficulty.

* In ''MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', the later fights against the Koopa Kids have them accompanied by Bob-Ombs that will explode after eight turns. You have to beat them before then.
** Every single boss in the Gauntlet in MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory has to beaten within a turn limit, which is aggravating against [[spoiler: Dark Star X]], and plain cruel when you have to beat every boss in order in 35 turns straight.

* In SuperMarioGalaxy2, you have to fight the bosses Gobblegut and Peewee Piranha with a time limit ticking away in the background. Then there's the Boss Blitz Galaxy... a BossRush where you have to beat all five bosses in about 2 minutes at most.

* Subverted with ''BorderDown''. You get bonus points for killing a boss as close to 0 seconds as possible, with the maximum bonus being 3 million points. The timer will continue to run donw to -30, but after -10 seconds you start ''losing'' points, all the way up to ''-6 million points.''

** It's also present in [[Portal2 the sequel]], where [[spoiler:the entire facility is about to go down in a nuclear meltdown due to Wheatley's gross incompetence. The point of the battle is to corrupt him enough via personality cores so that he can be replaced with [=GLaDOS=] so that she stops the meltdown.]]

* ''{{Portal}}'': [[spoiler:The final boss is the only explicitly timed puzzle in the game, wherein Glados pumps the room full of poison gas, setting a time limit before you die.]]

* In ''MajorasMask'', once you reach the top of Clock Tower and challenge Skull Kid, you have five minutes to beat him before the moon crashes. Since beating him involves playing one song on your ocarina, however, this isn't too difficult. [[spoiler:And then the ''[[FinalBoss real battle]]'' begins...]] which is ''not'' timed, thank goodness!

* In ''MajorasMask'', once you reach the top of Clock Tower and challenge Skull Kid, you have five minutes to beat him before the moon crashes. Since beating him involves playing one song on your ocarina, however, this isn't too difficult. [[spoiler:And then the ''[[FinalBoss real battle]]'' begins...]] which is ''not'' timed, thank goodness!!!

* ''{{ResidentEvil4}}'' has [[spoiler: Krauser]] who sets up time bombs on the tower on which you're fighting. Obviously you need to defeat this boss before the tower goes boom.

* In ''{{Kirby}}''\'s Adventure, you battle Power Orb in ''[[FixedScrollingLevel fixed scrolling stage]]'' which if you won't kill Power Orb quickly, level will smash you.

** MetroidPrime 2 gives you 8 minutes to fight the final boss ([[spoiler:Dark Samus for the third time, and it is bullshit cheap as she stalls like fuck]]).

* Every boss battle in GuitarHero III must be won before the arrow reaches the skull. If you can't beat them before then, they get one last solo, then you automatically fail.

** Optional boss Gogo the Mimic in ''FinalFantasyV'', in an unusually [[TheDevTeamAreSadists psychologically cruel]] variant on the trope. Gogo lives in a sunken tower, guarding a unique and valuable treasure (The [[AndYourRewardIsPants Mime Job Class]]), so your party only has seven minutes to get in, get to the bottom, kill Gogo, get the treasure, and get out--no shortcuts like Teleporting out after allowed. Upon reaching Gogo, the player's instinct is to start unloading everything they have on him, most world-killy first. However, he'll counter EVERYTHING you do with something that hurts even more--even if you can deplete his HP this way, you won't have enough time to make it out alive. The [[PuzzleBoss trick]]? ''Do nothing.'' Sit there as the counter ticks closer to CriticalExistenceFailure and do nothing but pray Gogo decides to wander off soon enough to allow you to leave alive, several minutes, usually. It's utterly nerve-wracking.

** Zalera in FFXII has a five minute time-limit before you're forcibly thrown out of the arena. [[NighInvulnerable He's invulnerable to damage]] [[FlunkyBoss as long as he has flunky skeletons]], then he spams level-specific ailment skills, which essentially limits the levels you can fight him efficiently to 35, 49, 55, and 91. [[ReviveKillsZombie Good thing he's undead...]]