Line #15 AwesomeBosses/Metroid


1	[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Super_Metroid_Mother_Brain_3881.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:256:The awesomeness of this fight is only completed by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcvJ8nzxH8c this]].]]
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4	Samus Aran has encountered plenty of awesome boss fights in her journeys across space.
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6	* Let's get this out of the way - [[ArchEnemy Ridley]] in any ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' game ([[AnticlimaxBoss except]] [[VideoGame/Metroid1 the first]]).
7	** His appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' is unique for the game. All the other bosses have predictable patterns and specific weak points you need to hit to kill them. Not Ridley. He has no weak spots, instead just having tons of health to compensate. He's also by far the fastest of the bosses and zips around the room chaotically. There really isn't much strategy to his fight: just kill him before he kills you. Besides the fight itself, this encounter has been built up since the very beginning of the game, and it's satisfying to finally see it through. This was the fight that solidified his status as the Awesome Boss of the series.
8	** Ridley is ThatOneBoss in ''Super Metroid Impossible'', which has you fighting him without Varia. This results in a fight where you have to avoid collision damage with Ridley, and makes defeating Ridley and obtaining Varia so satisfying.
9	** All of this applies to the revamped Ridley encounter in ''Zero Mission'' as well as Neo Ridley in ''Fusion'', which also featured a quick and nimble Ridley with no strategy involved besides ''fight for your life''.
10	** The Meta-Ridley battle in the first ''Metroid Prime'' is epic enough when a giant space dragon is bombarding you with bombs, missiles, and fire breath. Then, you get his health 3/4 of the way down and, for the first time in the series, we get to see how Ridley fights when grounded. [[ThatOneBoss Turns out he can kick your ass three ways across Tallon IV.]]
11	** An especially noteworthy Ridley encounter is in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', where Meta Ridley is fought entirely in ''free-fall'' as you both try to kill each other before you hit the ground - or whatever's down there. Also, Ridley doesn't completely have the element of surprise; Samus gets a few shots off at him before he ''tackles'' her down into the shaft they fight in. The fight with Omega Ridley later in the game isn’t too bad either, but it doesn’t involve you ''falling to the center of the planet''.
12	** The Mecha-Ridley in ''Metroid Zero Mission'' is amazing. Even with all of the powerups in the game, he remains a formidable challenge, [[note]] Mecha-Ridley's HP and attack damage are scaled up if the player has 100% of the pickups in the game, meaning he's actually easier to beat at 99% collection rate than at 100% [[/note]] attacking with no discernible pattern (using his attacks in any order), with a final phase that can only be described as complete chaos, with missiles and lasers firing everywhere, and an increasingly slim amount of time to fire at his weak point. Not many bosses give off such a feeling of satisfaction after beating them.
13	** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'''s Ridley fight is also epic, even despite the divisive cutscene before it. Samus basically shits bricks and has to come to her senses when Ridley takes out her friend. Samus kicks his ass anyway, so much so he freaks out himself and crashes through a wall. But that would be leaving out the actual fight. He plays much like the 2D games, as do you - it's fast, frantic, and awesome. It gets even more awesome on Hard mode, where ''almost every attack'' is a OHKO, even the comes-out-of-nowhere tail attack. He also does fireballs at you which cause shockwaves, tries to grab you and drag you against the wall (which he does in a cutscene in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''), leaps and flies around, and is generally chaotic. Better still, you've been authorised to use the Super Missiles ''and'' the Plasma Beam literally within a cutscene of this fight, so you get to go to town with your new weaponry.
14	** And now there's a new addition... the final fight in ''Metroid: Samus Returns''. Yes you read that right. ''Ridley is the final boss in a ''Metroid'' game''. And it's every bit as epic as that entails. His intro cutscene shows he's come to try and take the baby metroid and likely try and use it to create clones of them yet again. However Samus has ''zero'' tolerance for this bullshit and proceeds to unloads ALL of her abilities onto him. The best part? He's still got pieces of his Meta-Ridley self à la ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and he's ''still'' giving Samus a hard time. And just when it looks like he'll ''actually kill Samus'' the Baby comes in and starts eating off him and giving his energy to Samus. What follows is an ass kicking ''years'' in the making.
15	* Also, [[EvilCounterpart Dark Samus.]] Period. ''Any'' fight with her is guaranteed to be ''absolutely epic'', what with her using your own powers against you (or in ''Prime 3'', the other hunters' as well), often [[ToxicPhlebotinum Phazon]]-enhanced, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnYAqv1jgzI this]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFOqGV-6bck music]] playing in the background. It doesn't hurt that it's a nice break from fifty-foot monstrosities that you have to crawl all over to defeat, feeling something more like a superpowered shootout. In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'', after defeating the Emperor Ing after everything you've been through and all of its three forms and damage you've taken, you're treated to the familiar sight of the escape countdown. The problem? Just as you get out of the Temple, Dark Samus interrupts your escape and starts the true final boss fight. No healing beforehand allowed, and the timer is '''still counting down'''. Plus you get that awesome escape remix, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A1_ce2PxhA complete with emergency beeps so you won't forget the timer is still up.]]
16	* ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'':
17	** Kraid's encounter in ''Super Metroid''. After easily blowing up the fake Kraid in the hallway, you think you've beaten him, then ''BAM!'' the real Kraid appears; where the fake Kraid is barely taller than Samus, the real Kraid is ''two screens tall'', making for an epic confrontation that spans nearly four screens all seamlessly connected to each other while you shoot at him above a pit of spikes. ''And he's only the third boss!'' If you had played and beaten the first ''Metroid'' game, this becomes even more effective. The original Kraid from ''Metroid'' was much smaller, not much bigger than your own sprite. So those smaller Kraids you encounter on the way would have seemed about the right size. The true Kraid must have been a big surprise to Metroid vets.
18	** The encounter with the Golden Torizo is surprisingly intense. While moving through lower Norfair, you stumble upon a chamber where a Chozo Statue falls from the ceiling. If you remember the other Torizo from earlier in the game, you know what's up. However, this one is much stronger and more agile. Not only that, but it can ''catch your Super Missiles out of the air'' and throw them back at you. What a beast!
19	** The final fight with Mother Brain. You think its over after defeating her first BrainInAJar form, until an enormous battle body suddenly sprouts from beneath her, and the crowning music of doom begins to play! After suffering a huge attack and being brought to your knees, the young Metroid that you saved in the previous Gameboy installment which thinks Samus is its mother shows up, sucks a bunch of energy out of Mother Brain, and transfers it to you, saving your life and giving you the Hyper Beam. The Metroid gets blown up about five seconds afterwards - then, [[MamaBear Samus gets pissed]], and a CurbStompBattle ensues in your favor.
20	* ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'':
21	** In a memorable moment of ''Fusion'', your AI mission control tells you that your only option for accessing your next upgrade at the moment is in a section where one of the station's more interesting specimens has escaped. So what else is new? What's new is that you aren't going to kill this one, because it's an experimental weapon designed by the federation which the researchers nicknamed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Nightmare]]. And it will {{Curb Stomp\|Battle}} you with your current loadout. As you wander through the damaged sector, [[ParanoiaFuel a shadowy figure darts across the screen]] at random intervals accompanied by [[HellIsThatNoise synthetic screeching]]. Later, you return to the area, to find it completely trashed -- the same bulkheads that stand up to the SA-X are torn like tissue paper. And your mission is to kill it because it's going to destroy the station if you don't. All of this is nothing compared to what happens as you fight the thing, however -- firstly, it is most definitely a cyborg and not a robot. An [[BodyHorror incomplete cyborg]]. As its [[MadeOfIndestructium Indestructium]] armor and GravityMaster powers screw with your ability to even land a solid hit on the thing, you fire away at the [[AttackItsWeakPoint stitched-together face]]. And this is where you discover that the [[FacialHorror stitched-together face covering is in fact a vast aesthetic improvement over the abomination it covered]].
22	** Yakuza, the literal [[DemonicSpiders Demonic Spider]] from ''Metroid Fusion'' is both fondly and [[ThatOneBoss fearfully]] remembered. Something about a Robot Spider that spends its time either spitting fireballs and German Suplexing you... you never forget.
23	** The climactic encounter with the SA-X. You've spent the entire game running in fear, hiding in dark corners, trying to keep away from something orders of magnitude more powerful than you. Now, ''it's your turn''.
24	* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'':
25	** Flaahgra is a combination between a puzzle and a boss. It is a giant monstrous fly-like plant, which attacks in all sorts of manners, and you have to flip mirrors over in order to get into the tunnels (giant vines guard the tunnels) to damage it with bombs. It is clever enough to flip the mirrors back over, and you're required to flip more mirrors on each hit. This is the first major boss in the game aside from the Parasite Queen, which was just a warm up boss.
26	** The encounter with the Omega Pirate is a contender for the hardest boss in the game, but it's also amazing. One of the best parts is when you first enter his arena; he waits within a capsule at the end of a Phazon-lined cavern - making the player think "I have to fight ''that''?" - as you approach. He breaks out and the battle begins, a truly fearsome confrontation that will test your mobility, aim, and strategy as he summons waves of Beam Troopers and hammers you with Phazon attacks. One of the coolest moments is when he goes invisible in order to start healing, roaring what sounds like ''"FINISH HER!"'' before laughing as Samus fights off the Troopers. Plus, you get the Phazon Suit afterwards, one of the coolest upgrades in the game. How do you get it? The dude just melts on top of you!
27	** The Metroid Prime itself, especially on Hard Mode/Hypermode. It has two phases, the first being an armored form that not only requires you to use every weapon in your arsenal to beat it down, but also uses said weapons ''against you!'' Being on the receiving end of a charged Plasma Beam blast HURTS. What's worse, it's only vulnerable to one type of beam at a time. You have to constantly switch beams, dodge its incredibly damaging attacks and chase it deeper and deeper into the crater it resides in as it desperately tries to get away from you. You'll end up having to use nearly every weapon and even all your visors against this monstrosity of a MarathonBoss, and some attacks formerly thought useless have some use here! Then, just when you think it's over, turns out it has a second form which has you [[CurbStompBattle blasting the living crap out of it with your brand new Phazon beam]], complete with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42A3uigYXsQ this absolutely epic music.]]
28	* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'': In spite of their brutal difficulty, or perhaps BECAUSE of their difficulty, almost any of the boss fights in ''Echoes'' could fit this. They can be so controller-smashingly frustrating that victory is almost on par with beating a [[Creator/FromSoftware "Soulsborne"]] boss. Try finding someone who didn't cheer upon watching the Boost Guardian convulse and expire.
29	** The Amorbis. In the higher difficulties, given you have relatively few powerups to find and the lack of the Dark Suit, they're absolute monsters. And that's without going into how awesome it is to kill them by '''jamming bombs inside their throats.'''
30	** Also from ''Echoes'' is the Adult Chykka. After the hell that is Torvus Bog, a fast and furious fight with a giant mutant dragonfly is just the palette cleanser necessary. After killing the (laughably easy and ''very'' boring) Larvaform Chykka, it turns into a cocoon and metamorphoses in a matter of seconds, then bursts free. The first phase of the fight features you stunning it with your weapons, then blasting its wings off. Then, it falls into dark water and becomes Darkform Chykka, which you kill by... unloading your Light Beam on its egg sac-filled stomach. All the while, it spawns hordes of Chykklings to assault you.
31	** The Spider Guardian is either a wickedly frustrating ThatOneBoss, or one of these. It really depends on your personality; you have to be ''very'' patient and keep a cool head throughout the fight. Get frustrated or try to rush things and you will get slaughtered.
32	** Quadraxis is a contender for one of the series best bosses ever, being a HumongousMecha and all. It's a '''much different''' version of the Quads you've been fighting all throughout the Sanctuary Fortress and Ing Hive, except instead of being about your size, it's twenty times bigger. Then it uses the Annihilator Beam against you, other forms of lasers, spinning attacks that literally draw you in for a good chunk of damage if you don't backpedal and shoot a Super Missile's worth of damage to undo the vortex spin, and is just generally huge. After hitting its weak points on its knee joints, it's dismantled. But you're not done yet! Then it tries to repair itself, where you blast the core with beam attacks in Echo Visor mode (yeah, most of the body was destroyed halfway through the fight already) before attacking its floating head, and THEN after that, you finally hit it again a few more times by planting bombs in its head by using the Spider Ball and Boost Ball up there. After that, you're finally done, where the head flies around and destroys everything else, and Samus makes a ThreePointLanding from morph ball mode, while the head bounces around behind her, and the Annihilator Beam appears for the taking. You literally dismantle it bit by bit, and it is epic, with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTbagKhTaNk dark, menacing music]] being the icing on the cake. It's even more awesome if you fight Quadraxis on a [[SelfImposedChallenge No Dark Suit Run]].
33	* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'': All of the corrupted hunters double as this and a TearJerker.
34	** The fight with Ghor gets a lot of build-up, as you meet him earlier in [=SkyTown=] as he taunts and sabotages your efforts. Then, you get a transmission from your Gunship that it's under attack. You race back to the landing platform to find Ghor, in full battle armor, beating the ever-loving shit out of your ship! Then he throws it at you and the fight begins. The subsequent battle is a very creative one, involving clever use of your bombs, Ice Missiles, and Boost Ball to take down your oversized opponent.
35	** Gandrayda's battle isn't too shabby either. After being assisted by what seems to be a stranded GF trooper, he suddenly attacks you from behind, revealing him to be Gandrayda in disguise. In the battle that follows, she takes on the forms of previous enemies including a Berserker Knight, a Pirate Aerotrooper, Rundas, Ghor, and even ''Samus herself''. Even when she's not using her shapeshifting powers, she is incredibly acrobatic and throws electric blades at you as she swirls around the arena.
36	** The battle with Rundas is the most heart-wrenching of them all, occurring earlier in the game when your friendship with him is still fresh. During a scuffle with some Space Pirates, ice suddenly appears and kills them all, before Rundas appears to stare you down. For a second, you wonder if he's still an ally, but he makes his intentions clear and the fight begins. He soars around the stage, hopping from pillar to pillar, shooting sheets of ice and swinging giant mauls as you frantically try to rip his armor off. The frantic nature of the battle is only heightened by the beautiful and terrifying soundtrack, possibly the best boss theme in the game. When it's over, Rundas seems to momentarily come back to his senses, before he is suddenly impaled by his own icicles - whether it was Dark Samus' doing or self-termination is left vague.
37	* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'':
38	** The Vorash fight is quite impressive. This thing has already almost eaten you on multiple occasions, so it's nice to finally go to town on it. It stalks the floating lava platforms which you stand on, occasionally breaching like a whale to launch fireballs at you. Fortunately, it has a Grapple Beam point lodged in its mouth too, meaning you can grab the thing and yank it out of the lava and onto dry ground. That's right - Samus is going fishing for giant lava shark monsters.
39	** Nightmare is back in ''Other M'' after a long absence since ''Fusion''. Despite some cheap exploits and the eventual use of the Gravity Suit to shit on it, Nightmare gains a ton of new moves instead of simply floating around like in ''Fusion'', such as limping at a fast speed to body-slam Samus and wailing like a screaming baby when its face is revealed. NothingIsScarier indeed.
40	** The Queen Metroid encounter in Room MW, which definitely delivers as far as 3D boss translations go. Special mention goes to the climax, where you ''blow it up from the inside out with a Power Bomb while your health ticks away like there's no tomorrow.''. There's a bit of overlap with ThatOneBoss. While fighting it, you've also got a growing swarm of Metroids during the fight while you put mommy down. This is the first and only time in the entire game where you run into the bastards, and they get killed just as you would expect; freeze 'em, and blast 'em with missiles. Doesn't seem too bad, but keep in mind there's a lot of them, and you have to switch to first person to fire missiles. So let's review: You've got to freeze one, stop and leave yourself vulnerable to the other three or four, aim at the one you froze, and hope to blast it with enough missiles before one of its buddies takes a bite. And if one DOES take a bite, it will drain your health FAST and you probably won't get yourself free before the frozen one thaws. ''All the while avoiding their rampaging mother.'' It does get better as you wear down their numbers, but dealing with them is far from easy. Still, all this makes it so satisfying to watch the actual boss get vaporized.
41	** The secret fight with Phantoon is a welcome treat. He's a ''lot'' bigger than you might remember him, taking up nearly the entire screen with his size. He hits you with an insane onslaught of fireballs, tentacles, and creepy hands that will have you mashing the D-pad to [=SenseMove=] more than you thought you ever could. All the [=SenseMove=] opportunities get your Charge Beam up insanely fast, letting you hit Phantoon back just as hard as he's hitting you. The Lethal Strike used to finish the battle is also epic, as Samus rides Phantoon's gross eyeball stem and launches the finishing blow directly into his pupil.
42	* ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'':
43	** The Zeta Metroid is the most interesting of the Metroid line to battle, and are coincidentally the most [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorph]]-like. Unlike its relatives, which mostly just require precise aim and timing, the Zeta Metroid battles have you grabbing them with the Grapple Beam to pry them off the walls. Plus, it's got one of the coolest Melee Counter animations in the game.
44	** It's widely agreed that Diggernaut is the coolest boss in the game, and not just because of its cool design. You encounter it several times before the boss fight, a classic ''Metroid'' staple to up the tension. When you finally fight it, you're thrust into a brutal war that's a lot more intense than the battles you've had so far with the wildlife of [=SR388=]. Diggernaut does tons of damage, so every move matters - fortunately, you can get creative with the Spider Ball to avoid many of its attacks. It can be a long and grueling battle, but it's worth it for the way Samus [[OffhandBackhand effortlessly deals the final blow]].
45	* ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' has a couple of these when the [[KillerRobot E.M.M.I.]] aren't making you piss yourself in fear.
46	** The elegantly-named Experiment No. Z-57 is a ''monster''. Its plasma beams and tentacle scythes will keep you on your toes the entire fight, and there's its creative "''VideoGame/FlappyBird''" attack where it uses fans to force Samus to jump through flames like it's the circus. The Experiment also has one of the coolest Melee Counter animations, where Samus ''rides it'' as it frantically scrambles across the lava dynamo in the background, making for one of the greatest spectacles in the game. The boss rewards creative players who can build up a Speed Boost during the "''Flappy Bird''" segment, granting a one-hit kill on the boss if they can hit its head with a tricky Shinespark.
47	** For the first time since ''Zero Mission'', Kraid is back, and while he's worse for wear, he still puts up as much of a fight out of sheer rage. What starts as flinging nails and roaring at you becomes more hectic once his left arm breaks free and he smashes the platform, bringing out the belly spikes and pustule discharges as well as taking swipes at you when you're up top with his face. If you have any doubt after Corpius that the bosses were going to be lightweights, this should put them to rest, and yet there's still one that tops this fight...
48	** ...and that would be the final battle with Raven Beak, who can be aptly described as the Chozo equivalent to [[VideoGame/FreedomPlanet Arktivus Brevon]], down to how badly he'll make you work for your win. After owning Samus at the start of the game, having a Robot Chozo Soldier cut down Quiet Robe in front of her, spending the rest of the game deceiving her via impersonating ADAM, and mocking his 'daughter' when they meet face-to-face at the end, you're treated to a three-phase boss fight with no OneWingedAngel garbage - just you and the evil bird soldier in a battle to the death. At first he's mocking you like before, throwing out dark spheres and shrouding the arena with harmful radiation when he's not [[BringIt taunting her]] with a BadassArmfold stance, all while under Lightning Armor, but as the battle wears on he takes flight, mixing charging kicks with Hyper Beams and Beam Bursts, and when he finally lands again he adds in miniature suns, Phase Drifts and Shinesparks to keep you on your toes at all times. All while taking every opportunity to punch your shit in whenever he feels like it. [[FinalExamBoss You're going to need every trick at your disposal to come out on top]], and the very notion of going easy on you would make every fiber of his being puke at once, which makes bringing him down quite the adrenaline rush in the end. Sadly, this makes his actual [[ClippedWingAngel involuntary transformation via X parasite]] strangely anticlimactic.

Context AwesomeBosses / Metroid