Favorite Boss Fights

I know that there is a Best Boss Ever trope, but I want to know what you guys have in terms of favorite bosses and why.

For me, one of them would have to be the second fight against Vergil in Devil May Cry 3. Mainly due to the fact that it feels as though you are going up against another actual player, and you have to use pretty much every single one of your skills to beat him. That, and he is so much more agile than all the other bosses, with awesome music to wit.

The Groundshaker and the final boss of Kingdom Hearts 2. Hell, the Reaction Commands (one of the better examples of the trope in my opinion) make every boss fight truly epic.

KHII is an excellent example of QTEs done right.

Some off of the top of my head: Legion in Castlevainia (various), The Boss (MGS3), Eve's various forms and the Ultimate Being in Parasite Eve, and the giant bosses in Bayonetta.

Seven Force.

Credo In DMC 4 has to be my favorite, I don't remember going back to play a certain level and then after defeating the boss restart it in any other video game.

The Metal Gear Solid series has quite a list of memorable Boss Fights, arguably moreso than most games out there.

For MGS 1, The fight against the Vulcan Raven in his Abrams and the fight against the cyborg Ninja were the most memorable for me.

In MGS 2, there was the Harrier fight and the 25x Metal Gear Ray gauntlet... yeah, this kinda was a weak point in the series in terms of bosses.

In MGS 3, which probably had the best fights of the series period, you had the gunfight against Ocelot, the sniper battle against The End, the Sorrow's mindscrew of a fight, Colonel Volgin, the entire Shagohod sequence, and last but not certainly least, The Boss... nuff said.

MGS 4 had some good stuff too, Raging Raven, the REX vs RAY fight, and the final fistfight against Liquid Ocelot were the most memorable. Not up there with MGS 3, but close.

BTW, I didn't mention Mantis because that guy is ALWAYS picked by everybody else!

As far as Bosses Go.

Any fight with Jeanne, Father Rodin and the Jubileus boss fights in Bayonetta stand out as awesome bosses.

The Vigoori Emperor fight in the original Ninja Gaiden (The sigma version especially).

Angra from God Hand.

Both Final bosses from Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2.

And just about most boss fights from Asura's Wrath, but the Wyzen battle, Augus battle, final round with Deus battle, The Final Gohma Vlitra, the last battle with Yasha and the entire level of Episode 22 are stand outs to me as well.

edited 27th Jul '12 9:19:01 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Twilight Thorn in KHII. I was about to hate the game up until that point, but this one fixed it.

Pretty much all the bosses in Yoshis Island. Most of them aren't too hard, but at least they're inventive and entertaining. Special mention goes to Prince Froggy's Intestinal Battle and Bowser.

The excellent use of sound design and voice acting while battling Flame Hyenard makes it memorable.

And, Simply Put, Rare Akuma.

Magma Dragoon from Mega Man X 4. Colonel too, and General. That game was overflowing with awesome encounters. Not that the Mega Man series as a whole wasn't. Somebody needs to string the encounters from all ten eleven twenty twenty-four Twenty seven games together into one awesome boss rush.

Wait, each game has eight unique robot masters/mavericks/etcetera. Each game has roughly 3-8 more bosses once you reach the endgame, averaging out around 5. Accounting for miscellaneous bonus bosses from the handheld games and midbosses sprinkled throughout, and that would be almost 400 bosses. OH SHI-

edited 27th Jul '12 9:57:27 AM by ShirowShirow

A number from the Kirby series:

• Computer Virus from Kirby's Super Star. Bam! Sudden RPG encounter, in the middle of a platformer! But there's still platformer elements incorporated! It's weird, it's wonderful, and it also has some hilarious dialogue in it. "Happy smile points?"
• Miracle Matter in Kirby 64. In addition to amazing music, the boss has a concept I'm honestly shocked hasn't been used before or since in Kirby: He can only be hit with his own power! It makes perfect sense in the Kirbyverse, and I don't know how they haven't used its like before.
• Squashini in Kirby's Epic Yarn. Again, the music is awesome, but the boss has such a cool mashup of concepts (He's a stage magician/gambler who uses a slot machine to decide which magic tricks to play on you, which you have to figure out and use to your advantage) and figuring out all the tricks is inventive and fun.

The Crystal King from Paper Mario. Boy, is he hard. And that's why I love him! He's a great challenge, with lots of attacks to trip you up. Even if you know the strategies, you still have to fight your best against him. Plus, awesome music. Are you noticing a theme here?

The chameleon colossus, from Shadow Of The Colossus. Is picking a boss from an all-boss game cheating? Eh, whatever. I don't care, because he's awesome! I know the airborne colossus is the reigning champion of favorites, but the chameleon has the sickest arena. Plus, you have to use the arena to your advantage in a way I really like.

I have many more, but that'll do for now.

Picking a boss from SOTC isn't cheating in the slightest.

On that note, Phalanx from SOTC was another boss I really enjoyed. Everything about it, from scaling it's massive in-flight body over the sands, to its heart-wrenching death scene, was pure brilliance.

All Main Bayonetta Boss Fights.

Astaroth and Final Boss fight from Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Final Boss of KH 2.

The Rival Boss Fights of Sonic Generations.

Zero and X's fights in X2 and X5.

If picking bosses from boss-centric games isn't cheating (yay!), I also have to throw some points NMH's way. So many great bosses to choose from! But I'm gonna have to go with (can't remember their names right now) the Magician from NMH and the Cosmonaut from NMH 2. I seem to have a thing for magician-based boss encounters. The Magician? I like him because he's flashy, he has cool swords, and I love his little magic tricks. The Cosmonaut wins for some sick powers, and for having a surprisingly touching finale.

The second-ranked boss from NMH 2 would be higher on the list, but I am filled with rage for her ludicrously cheap stunlocking attack, so no win for her!

I also love NHM's early boss Charlie, for the sheer WTF his boss battle entails. He has a giant robot... made out of transformed cheerleaders. GIANT. CHEERLEADER. ROBOT.

edited 29th Jul '12 12:57:11 PM by FreezairForALimitedTime

Off the top of my head, I remember all three fights with Nelo Angelo from Devil May Cry to be really cool. Plus the background music rocked, that always helps.

YMMV on that last part. For me that's when NMH 2 Jumped the Shark.

Final Jeanne and Father Baulder from Bayonetta are definitely picks. As is Seven Force from Treasure.

edited 29th Jul '12 1:02:50 PM by Vertigo_High

Well duh. This is a YMMV thread. Also you are wrong but let's just keep naming our fave fights.

After playing a few rounds of Castlevania Fighter I started remembering how much awesome that series was made of. And Legion is made of corpses. So yeah. Legion.

I mean come on. It's a big ball of bodies that's trying to kill you.

edited 29th Jul '12 1:12:40 PM by ShirowShirow

This dude from Intrusion 2.

Reminds me a lot of General Tor, especially when he goes into the background. But Tor can only wish he was half as epic as this guy.

And yes, this is a flash game.

edited 15th Mar '13 4:03:57 AM by ironcommando

Bob the Killer Goldfish.

Still stand by my earlier post, but add in nearly all the bosses from God Of War.

The final boss from Terra's story in Birth By Sleep. An excellent example of a difficult and challenging but not cheap final boss. Take lessons, Chain Of Memories.

Hmmm...

• Kurt Ziza from Kingdom Hearts has an awesome design and a very unique boss-fights that requires you to be familiar with both magic and dodging. If Tinkerbell wasn't there, he'd be the hardest boss in the game.
• Marx Soul from Kirby Super Star: Ultra is hella dangerous. I put him here over Galacta Knight because the first time you fight Galacta Knight, he's very easy; the first time you fight Marx Soul, he's probably gonna kick your ass. The best part of the fight is the end because of that horrible sound he makes when you kill him.
• Phantoon from Super Metroid. Part of this is nostalgia because Phantoon was the first boss I fought in Super at my friend's house, but another part is the awesome design. His eyeball is in his mouth! Also, dodging the blue fire in a cramped space is a unqiue sort of challenge for that sort of boss.
• Metroid Prime. It's a twenty foot tall crab face that is going to fuck your shit up with missiles, laser beams, tractor beams, gas bombs, shock waves, tracking orbs, and just punching you in the face. And then, once you beat it, it comes back as a creepy blue face and tries to fuck your shit up again, only this time you have the Phazon beam and can laugh as you pump it full of radiation.
• Nightmare from Metroid Fusion is a tense boss fight with a unique mechanic. The visual design of the monster is freaky and looks like little else in Metroid. The music of the boss is wierdly low-key, yet it matches perfectly. Just great in general.
• Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls are great. Smough is a giant fatty with a hammer, Ornstein is a smaller and speedier foe with a spear. When you manage to kill one, the other gets back full health and gets a super mode; Smough's hammer gains lightning abilities, while Ornstein becomes a giant. It's a challenging boss fight that requires you to learn both visual and audio cues; I would never be able to fight them without volume.
• Knight Artorias from the Dark Souls dlc is a badass super saiyan berserker cripple who flips thirty feet in the air before impaling you. He's pretty awesome.
• False King Allant from Demon's Souls is just wonderful and is the perfect example of a final boss (Yeah, technically he's not the final boss, but I don't care, Old King Allant ain't the real final boss). He hits like a train, he has a variety of both close-combat and far-range moves that keep you on your toes, and he has a grab move that lowers your level. What an asshole.
• The Titan Dweevil in Pikmin 2 is a giant spider that wields a water gun, a taser, a gas bomb, and a flamethrower. Definitely a great end to a great game.
• The best fight from Shadow of the Colossus for me is Dirge, the sandworm colossus. I love riding on my horse, turning around, shooting him in the eyeball, and then veering out of the way as he's about to crash into a wall. It makes me feel like more of an action movie badass than any qte can.

So many good boss fights, so little time.

I... AM... THE GREAT MIGHTY POO.

AND, I'M GOING TO THROW MY - SHIT - at - you!

Kingdom Hearts II: Saix, mostly because I hate that smug bastard and love the chance to pummel him into oblivion. Sora got on his knees to beg that asshole for Kairi's safety, and the jerk's response was to make his use of her for a hostage even more blatant.

The last three monkey fights in Ape Escape 3. I thought that Monkey White and Monkey Blue were kind of cheap and difficult to win, but the last three were wonderful. Monkey Yellow because of his really disturbing flamboyant clown-samurai monster design, and that he was a rather complicated puzzle boss. Monkey Pink because magic is cool and I'm a sucker for boss fights with songs in them (see: The Great Mighty Poo, Margaret Moonlight). Monkey Red because I just like his patterns, and his dialogue. Ape Escape is really underrated, anyways.

The epic Duel Bosses towards the end of Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia.

On a related note, pretty much every non-Dist God General battle from Abyss was awesome^note Dist is awesome, but his fights are unfortunately bland. The final boss is really awesome as well.

The boss fight at the end of Mass Effect's Citadel DLC. Hilarious, awesome, and a nice challenge.

Luca Blight from Suikoden II. A four phase fight that pits up to sixteen badasses against one, otherwise ordinary human.

The last Yuber fight from Suikoden III. That fight was three games in the making and didn't disappoint.

The final boss of Jade Empire. There's something very awesome about fist-fighting a god.

Darth Malak from Knights of the Old Republic. The fight just felt epic.

The Arishok from Dragon Age II. Not sure why, since most of the fight is running away from him and hitting attack if you ever manage to gain enough distance. I really like the fight anyway.

Not sure if it counts as a fight, but the final cross-examination of Dahlia Hawthorne in the third Ace Attorney game was really satisfying.