alt title(s): Boss Fight
"Finally, a boss fight."
"Time for a boss battle, suckers!"
A climactic confrontation with a unique, stronger than average, and often monstrous enemy creature. It has several important features depending on the genre of game in which it is found.
In old-school
Shoot Em Ups and 2D
Platformers, the boss comes at the end of a level or series of levels (commonly called a "world"). He will often require a
special trick to defeat, or have a targetable
Weak Spot.
In
FPS,
3PS's, and 3D
platformers, they divide up the game. There's usually not that many of them, three or four total.
In
RPGs, they wait at the end of dungeons. They have a mountain of
Hit Points. If they're the last one, you'll fight them
more than once. Most have a
specific weakness.
In a
Fighting Game, the boss is simply the last character you fight, in that even when the rest of the battles have you going up against a randomly-selected opponent, the boss is always the same. Occasionally, the penultimate battle will
also be against a "boss". (The penultimate opponent is often dubbed a "
Mini Boss".)
Tropes