If Sonic can get a bubble shield, Eggman can too.
The placement of a boss arena underwater can radically change a boss battle and how it plays out. The Oxygen Meter can often be a big problem if your character needs to breathe. Even if your character can somehow breathe underwater or doesn't need to breathe at all, movement is often a lot trickier. In these cases, the boss is typically an aquatic creature that cannot survive on land. Common forms for these bosses include giant fishes, octopi, crabs, and assorted Sea Monsters, as well as enemies in submarines and other aquatic vehicles.
Subtrope of Boss Battle. This is very commonly found Under the Sea.
Examples
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Action Adventure
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has Dagon, some kind of weird reptillian... thing. You fight him underwater, and one of his attacks even involves taking away all the water temporarily in order to use it like a weapon.
- Clash at Demonhead: Shark's base is underneath the sea on Route 22, which you'll need an Aqua Lung to reach (and survive).
- Jaws has you fighting the shark underwater, like everything else.
- Jaws Unleashed: The game only has a few bosses that are actually completely underwater. The most notable is the giant squid.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Angler Fish, the boss of the fourth dungeon, is an underwater sidescrolling boss.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D: The second part of the fight against Gyorg, in the 3DS remake, plays entirely underwater.
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: Plasmarine, the boss of the seventh dungeon, is fought underwater. The Angler Fish returns to serve as the mid-boss of this level, although even though the background suggests that you're underwater you control Link as if you were on land.
Action Game
- Bomberman Hero features some levels with Bomberman turns into a vehicle. One of these is the Bomber Submarine. The boss rush at the end features an underwater re-encounter with a stone lion for no particular reason.
- Monster Hunter Tri is the first game in the series to add underwater fighting, and thus underwater boss fights. The final boss Ceadeus, the cause of the earthquakes, has no way to get onto land and is a giant, mobile monster on terms with the Jhen Mohran. The fight against it will only be under water, there is no active land to go on to, but there are some set up weapons to use against it. In Ultimate, Goldbeard Ceadeus is fought the same way, as well as Abyssal Lagiacrus, the game's final monster, fought in the same area. Fortunately, your Oxygen Meter is quite generous and can be refilled or extended in many different ways, or outright rendered a non-issue with the right skill points.
Many underwater-capable bosses reappear in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and Monster Hunter Generations. Since neither of these games have underwater mechanics, these bosses are fought on land, averting this trope.
Beat 'em Up
- Bayonetta 2: The fight against the demon Insidious takes place underwater, as does the second part of Valor's boss fight.
First Person Shooter
- Duke Nukem 3D: The Alien Queen in Episode 4 is fought underwater.
- Duke Nukem Forever: The penultimate boss, the Energy Leech, is fought underwater in a battle complicated by Duke's slow swimming speed.
MMORPG
- AdventureQuest Worlds:
- You get to battle a Nessie as an underwater boss battle for the third boss fight in Arcangrove.
- The Deep Dweller is an underwater boss battle that also serves as a third boss fight in a different area, this one in Etherstorm Wastes.
- Guild Wars 2 features a significant amount of underwater battles, a fight with a giant escaped shark being one of the earliest.
- World of Warcraft:
- Maws is a giant shark is summoned out in the sea. The raid composition determines whether he's fought at the water's surface or underneath.
- The Lurker Below, the second boss of Serpentshrine Cavern. While he's mostly fought on platforms (due to the fact that the water is hot and deals damage over time while you're in it), you're forced to go underwater every so often in order to avoid his Spout attack, which will knock you 100+ yards away into the boiling water, probably causing your death as you try and swim back to the platform. Post buff and pre nerf a dedicated Shadowpriest could keep its section of a raid alive and underwater the entire fight thanks to Vampiric Embrace shenanigans.
Platform Game
- Banjo-Tooie has an anglerfish of the type 1 variety named Lord Woo Fak Fak. You can actually fight him as the submarine transformation in this level or as bear and bird.
- Bug has Quaria's boss, a giant octopus who throws dogfish (fish with dog heads and collars) at Bug, who has to swat them back with a tennis racket. While the whole world is underwater, the physics in the level are exactly the same as on dry land.
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Fugu the Frightening. Unlike other underwater battles, in this one the Kongs have to keep an eye on the Oxygen Meter, and collect bubbles if it's running out.
- Drawn to Life has an anglerfish boss that is fought entirely underwater.
- The Itchy and Scratchy Game: The boss of the "The Pusseidon Adventure" level is Scratchy in a submarine. To defeat Scratchy, Itchy must open the hatch to the submarine to fill it with water and drown Scratchy.
- Kirby:
- Kirby's Dream Land 3: Acro the orca starts off as a land-based boss until he destroys the floor and begins the second phase in an underwater arena. He also appears in Kirby 64, but this time the whole fight takes place underwater.
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse: The battle against Claykken and the rematch with Hooplagoon take place underwater.
- Mega Man:
- Mega Man (Classic): Many Robot Masters, including the first-ever Robot Mistress, Splash Woman from Mega Man 9. Also Bubble Man from Mega Man 2 and Dive Man from Mega Man 4. Since the main effect of water is super-high jumping, they usually put insta-kill spikes on the ceiling.
- Mega Man X: Launch Octopus and Tidal Whale are fought entirely underwater.
- Mr. Nutz: The giant octopus boss is fought in an underwater room.
- Psychonauts: The Hulking Lungfish is an underwater enemy whom you fight from within an air bubble. Since Raz can't swim, you have to figure out how to damage her without leaving the bubble. Eventually, though, she leaves the bubble and starts attacking you as normal.
- Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: The boss of the Land of the Livid Dead is a Hoodlum piloting a giant underwater mecha.
- Ristar: The hammerhead shark. Hitting it would knock it into a cork which would lower the water level. After knocking out all the corks, all the water is drained and you win, but until that point it just gives you less room to swim around and dodge his attacks.
- Rocket Knight Adventures: At the end of the second part of Stage 3, the mini-boss is a robotic Giant Enemy Crab piloted by one of Emperor Devligus Devotindos' Pig Soldiers. Because it is underwater, Sparkster has to swim underwater to attack it.
- RosenkreuzStilette has you fight Trauare Wrede underwater or above water depending on which path you take in her stage.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The Game Gear/Master System version, unlike the Genesis/Mega-Drive version, had its Labyrinth Zone boss fight completely underwater. And there were no rings. The game was kind enough to turn off drowning during that fight.
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD: The Tidal Tempest fight against Eggman's Eggmobile, where Eggman thoughtfully surrounds himself with bubbles that Sonic can breathe through.
- Sonic Blast: The fight against Robotnik's submarine in Blue Marine Zone. In order to get more air, Sonic or Knuckles must trick Robotnik into firing a harpoon at the ocean floor so an air bubble will appear from it.
- Sonic Rush: The Water Palace with Eggman's Egg Turtle is an example where you actually can't drown, though occasionally the water level will drop.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii: The second battle against Wendy O. Koopa. The basic gist is that Kamek has submerged the arena; considering that you can't stomp on enemies underwater, you have to hold out until the water level becomes low enough for you to jump on Wendy. A similar battle occurs in New Super Mario Bros. 2, implying this trope to be Wendy's arena of choice.
- New Super Mario Bros. U: The first battle against Bowser Jr. takes place entirely underwater, and the water won't disappear. Fortunately, the boss is a Tactical Suicide Boss, as he launches Targeting Teds that you have to direct into him.
- Super Mario Sunshine: Eely-Mouth, which is the only underwater boss in a water-based game.
- Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3 has you battle a giant green mutated crab while underwater. Notably, your air meter is also your Life Meter, and both are replenished by surfacing or swimming into jets of bubbles. Since there are five such jets in the arena, it is literally impossible to lose.
- Wuppo: Beneath Popocity's channel, you'll encounter the notorious Breevis — a ridiculously oversized kneft vermin prowling around a large underwater cave. The fight consists of avoiding his attempts to suck you into his mouth, instead filling it with paint from your Gumgumgun and forcing him to spit up segments of his own body.
Role Playing Game
- E.V.O.: Search for Eden: King Kuraselache, the boss of the First Epoch, and King Rogon, one of the bosses of the Fifth Epoch, a great white shark and a Gillman respectively.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy VII has Emerald WEAPON, an Optional Boss who hangs out at the bottom of the sea. And you don't even fight him in your submarine. There's also a couple of underwater (though air-containing) areas.
- Final Fantasy X: Sinspawn Echuilles, Geosgaeno and Evrae Altana. Shinryu, one of Final Fantasy's two recurring Optional Bosses, is an Underground Monkey of Evrae Altana. All of these battles restrict you to the only three party membersnote who can fight underwater: two blitzball players and one salvager.
- Romancing SaGa 2: You fight Subier either underwater or on a boat depending on your actions.
Shoot 'em Up
- In the Hunt has five of its six boss battles like this. Then again, your character is a submarine, so it's not surprising.
- Star Fox 64:
- The giant clam boss in Aquas, the underwater level, while piloting the submarine vehicle exclusive to the level.
- The boss of Zoness is a submarine, though battled at the water's surface while in the Arwing.
- Ultimate Crab Battle. The entire games takes place in a boss battle against a Giant Enemy Crab, who has a ridiculously high variety of special attacks mostly based on gadgets he pulls out of himself, hammerspace style.
