History Main / WarmupBoss

* Petey Piranha in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl: The Subspace Emissary''. His attacks are slow, easily dodged, obviously telegraphed and he has three ''gigantic'' hitboxes. You also fight him as Kirby, which means that you can just get up in his face and deliver a continuous stream of pummeling during the fight. Once you know his painfully predictable pattern, it's very easy to [[FlawlessVictory not take a single percentage point of damage]] during the curbstomping you give him.

* ''VideoGame/GundamBreaker 3'' has Tiger, a loud-mouthed braggart who interrupts your game and claims to be the local AcePIlot, challenging you at the end of the first mission, "Encounter." Despite piloting a custom mobile suit made up of various impressive-looking Zeon parts, including a dangerous Sazabi core body, his suit turns out to be poorly optimized: it's huge, slow, and its attacks are extremely telegraphed. Even with the hodge podge of StarterEquipment given to you at the start of the game, it's very easy to beat him in under a minute. It turns out that he's more of a PaperTiger and your newfound ally Misa even calls him a loser who only picks on newbies for easy wins. She's right, too--the moment you wipe the floor with him, Tiger abandons the fight and he won't show up ever again for the rest of the game, not even for a rematch. This is not a surprise as he's a DirtyCoward down to the marrow and wouldn't even consider challenging someone who can actually put up a fight.

* * ''VideoGame/GundamBreaker 3'' has Tiger, a loud-mouthed braggart who interrupts your game and claims to be the local AcePIlot, challenging you at the end of the first mission, "Encounter." Despite piloting a custom mobile suit made up of various impressive-looking Zeon parts, including a dangerous Sazabi core body, his suit turns out to be poorly optimized: it's huge, slow, and its attacks are extremely telegraphed. Even with the hodge podge of StarterEquipment given to you at the start of the game, it's very easy to beat him in under a minute. It turns out that he's more of a PaperTiger and your newfound ally Misa even calls him a loser who only picks on newbies for easy wins. She's right, too--the moment you wipe the floor with him, Tiger abandons the fight and he won't show up ever again for the rest of the game, not even for a rematch. This is not a surprise as he's a DirtyCoward down to the marrow and wouldn't even consider challenging someone who can actually put up a fight.

* Each of the ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenNES'' games ends its first stage with a trivially easy boss to defeat:
** The first ''Ninja Gaiden'' has the Barbarian, a hulking warrior who moves slowly and only swings his axe while standing, allowing Ryu to duck under his attacks and slash him to death without taking any damage.
** Dando, the first boss of ''Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos'', is slightly trickier. He doesn't have any weapons, but he will occasionally charge toward the walls and knock Ryu down if he's clinging onto one.
** The Mantis Warrior from ''Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom'' moves as slowly as Dando and shoots streams of fire that Ryu can easily jump over. He can only be harmed while he's attacking, and will block all other damage when he isn't.

** ''Tetsuyuki '', the first boss of the first game, is a crashed plane whole sole attack is a single plasma cannon that fires stronger-than-average projectiles which are easy to avoid, and when damaged to half its health it instead unveils a WaveMotionGun that turns out to be avoidable simply by ''ducking''. The [[BossArenaIdiocy inexplicable presence of several platforms that helps you dodge it's attacks]] and the amount of rebel sergeants it regularly dispenses (mooks which drops extra grenades and rockets when slain) makes the whole thing even easier.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga''[='=]s first boss, MD-113 "Nose Lavagghin", is a bomber that can be easily defeated by continuously shooting at its center, especially with a ship that uses piercing shots. [[AwesomeButImpractical However,]] doing this instead of destroying the boss's many components means you miss out on hundreds of thousands of points that could [[EveryTenThousandPoints contribute]] to an early OneUp.

* [[PlantPerson Red Durathor]] from ''VideoGame/Boktai2SolarBoyDjango'' has a variant of this. About half-way through the game, you become a vampire, lose all your original powers, and gain a slew of dark-based ones. Durathor is specifically designed to be vulnerable to each and every one[[note]]Change into a mouse to dodge her spines, change into a bat to see which pod she is hiding in, change into a wolf to bite her from behind and cancel her hard-to-dodge attack, and use darkness element to deliver the blows in between[[/note]] to test if you've figured out how to use them. She ''is'' beatable without them, but falls clearly into ThatOneBoss if you try it.

* ''VideoGame/TheBattleCats'' has The Face, the boss of the first Moon stage in Empire of Cats. He's a [[MightyGlacier very slow target]], and although he [[DamageSpongeBoss hits hard and has a lot of HP]], he mostly just sits there and dies; even his support is pretty weak. The second boss, Dark Emperor Nyandam, is mostly the same, though a bit harder due to coming with tanky One Horns and having longer range.

In RolePlayingGames, the WarmUpBoss might mark the first time the player has to pay attention to things like elemental match-ups or healing. In {{action game}}s, you may have to do a little dodging or defending instead of just straightforward attacking.

Has a high probability of showing up at the end of ATasteOfPower. Sometimes used as the first encounter with the GoldfishPoopGang. More likely than other bosses to be a TacticalSuicideBoss or suffer from BossArenaIdiocy. See also BreatherBoss, for when a boss of this level of challenge shows up later in the game and is expected to be harder. Contrast with WakeUpCallBoss, an early boss that's surprisingly challenging. If another one like it shows up later, DegradedBoss is likely to be in effect, with the lucky ones getting to be a MiniBoss and the unlucky ones relegated to EliteMook or GiantMook status.

** Goopy le Grande, a BlobMonster, is more mobile than the Root Trio, but most of his time is spent bouncing around, and he's the only boss in the game who doesn't use projectiles or [[FlunkyBoss minions]] to aid him.

* [[GiantHandsOfDoom The Fists of Grudge]] in ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'', the first boss is relatively easy, not very fast, easy blocks to move, and the only special move she has is the ability to change blocks into very heavy blocks you can still move, just ''very'' slowly. Which can be undone with a powerup in the stage, no less. After this though, [[NintendoHard this being an Atlus Game]], the bosses get ''much'' harder.

* Glass Joe in ''VideoGame/PunchOut'', and his successor, Gabby Jay in ''Super Punch-Out'' on SNES. They're both rather frail boxers who take a while to mount any offense; their special punch merely consists of them [[TheComputerShallTauntYou taunting you]], and leaving themselves wide open to an easy knockdown.

* ''VideoGame/Infinitode2'' has Broot, the boss faced in 1.8. As the game mentions, it is slow, heavy and simple. It shouldn't be difficult to win if you've placed several well-upgraded towers.

** Boom-Boom is the ''very first'' boss that is encountered in the Fortress/Tower levels of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU''. In both cases, the terrain is flat, there is no bottomless pits, and it's just Boom-Boom flailing around.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' has the return of the Fake Bowser (his true form being once again a Goomba). He's relatively easy to dodge and get through, compared to the rest of the Bowser fights.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' has the Reznors as the very first bosses fought in the World 1-Tower. There's only 2 of them, and you can easily get from one platform to another, especially with Raccoon Mario.

*** O'Chunks is the very first boss in the game, fought at the Yold Desert in Chapter 1-3.
*** In terms of chapter bosses, Fracktail is this, fought at the end of the Yold Ruins in Chapter 1-4. Defeating him grants Mario and Tippi the pathway to the second Pure Heart.

*** Junior Shrooboid is the Warm-Up Boss for Adult Mario.

** Bowser himself fulfills this role in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', where you just have to get behind him and press the switch and the fight is instantly over, just like in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''.

** Dino Piranha from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and Peewee Piranha in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''. Both Dino and Peewee have their tails as the primary weakness, so you simply have to attack them from behind.

** Bowser himself fulfills this role in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', where you just have to get behind him and press the switch and the fight is instantly over, just like in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''.

** Bowser again in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' (and the first part of the game that allows player input apart from the bit with Toad) is literally impossible to lose against. Your only option each turn is to attack, and even if you mess up every one of your attacks and get hit by every one of his, he will still hit 0 before you do.

*** Smouldergeist is this for 'real' world combat and Dreamy Mario is this for dream world combat. Possibly also Robo Drilldigger for giant Luigi battling. They can all turn into either ThatOneBoss or WakeUpCallBoss on [[HarderThanHard Hard Mode]].

** The Magikoopa fight of ''{{VideoGame/Paper Mario|64}}'' qualifies, as it comes immediately after you get the Action Command function.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Since the first trainers you encounter beforehand tend to have [[ComMons extremely low-level bug]] Pokémon that can be beaten without much effort, the first gym leader is typically the first battle in which you're required to utilize strategy and type match-ups. However, if you chose the wrong starter Pokemon or rush in without having leveled up much, it could easily be a WakeUpCallBoss. A notable example from the first game ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and their remakes: Brock, the first gym leader. Due to type advantages, a Squirtle or Bulbasaur trainer will be able to wipe the floor with him. Even a Charmander trainer can get around the type disadvantage due to both of Brock's Mons having a low Special stat and no actual Rock-type moves. (You just need to beware of damaging Onix while using Bide.) The remakes take it even farther, where Charmander can learn Metal Claw, which is super effective against Rock-types. This is subverted in Yellow, as your starter Pokémon is Pikachu that only has Electric-type attacks, which have no effect on his Pokémon, or Normal-type moves which are not very effective. Catching the Fighting-type Mankey (or a Nidoran and teaching it Double Kick) can solve this problem, though those options require some LevelGrinding.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' also has an armored fighter in Abyme as its first real boss. She attacks your party with more soldiers than they can handle on their own, but Alfred and his retainers Etie and Boucheron join you at the start of the second turn to make things easier.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' also has an armored fighter in Abyme as its first real boss (Lumera, the boss of the previous chapter, is a TrainingBoss). She attacks your party with more soldiers than they can handle on their own, but Alfred and his retainers Etie and Boucheron join you at the start of the second turn to make things easier.