History Main / AdvancingBossOfDoom

* A hilarious example in ''[[AliceMadnessReturns Alice: Madness Returns]]'' where you navigate Queensland while occasionally fleeing from the Executioner who was earlier mentioned to be invincible. Then you reach one point where you face the boss in a cutscene where the tables are turned. Cue the following OhCrap moment and subsequent literal CurbStompBattle.

** "FinalFantasyVI" arguably has a Type A in the form of the Phantom train, since the character sprites play their fleeing animation throughout the battle when they aren't doing anything.

* ''{{PaperMario}}'' has Tubba Blubba. Tubba is invincible [[spoiler:and chases you throughout his castle, until you find his removed heart and beat it]]

* Mimi from SuperPaperMario. And it's ''[[NightmareFuel terrifying]]''.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'': The Lich King encounter in the Halls of Reflection works much like type B, only that you don't get to fight him at the end. Instead, you need to fight off several waves of mooks while an allied NPC destroys the ice blocking your way. He can be damaged while advancing, but he has far too much health to be killed within the escape sequence.

* ''TheSmurfs'' Gargamel in the first SNES game is a similar example. Any contact with him is instand death, and you must throw acorns at him to force him back until he falls off his manor house's roof.

** Then, [[spoiler: THe Finagler goes apeshit and starts chasing you and Trouble Bruin down a corridor and it shoots at you as Bruin tries to cling to you attempting to slow you down.]]

* ''ArmoredCore 4''One mission places you in a tunnel. In front of you, the GiantMecha you have to destroy; a massive, tank-like thing that fills the tunnel so there's no way past it. Behind you, the colony in which the player character resides, which you have to protect by destroying aforementioned tank before it gets to the end of the tunnel and razes the place.

** ''FinalFantasyIV'' and ''FinalFantasyXII'' both has a boss called Demon Wall.

* ''Devil May Cry'' has an optional example. After defeating the first boss, Phantom, in the cathedral, the next level sees you leave the room to proceed to the statue where you need to use the Pride of Lion, the key item you pick up before Phantom confronts you. But before you can get through the doors into the room where the statue's located, Phantom emerges from up the corridor behind you and chases you the rest of the way along it, lobbing a fireball every five seconds. It's possible to fight and defeat him here, but you don't have to; if you go into one of the rooms leading off from the corridor, then go back the way you came, he'll be gone and you can reach your objective unhindered

* ''TheSmurfs'' Gargamel from the first SNES game is a similar example. Any contact with him is instand death, and you must throw acorns at him to force him back until he falls off his manor house's roof.

* One mission in ''ArmoredCore 4'' places you in a tunnel. In front of you, the GiantMecha you have to destroy; a massive, tank-like thing that fills the tunnel so there's no way past it. Behind you, the colony in which the player character resides, which you have to protect by destroying aforementioned tank before it gets to the end of the tunnel and razes the place.
* Twin Freaks from ''DynamiteHeaddy'' is a weird-looking machine with a giant reversible face that chases you through a looping DeathCourse of walls and spikes. Another example (somewhat more marginal) is the Super Finagler, the miniboss in the ''very next segment'', a machine that shoots at you as you ride a moving platform upward through a gauntlet of traps.
* The final boss ([[TrueFinalBoss unless you have all seven Chaos Emeralds]]) of ''{{Sonic and Knuckles}}'' is the Great Eggman Robo, Eggman in a HumongousMecha. The second phase of this fight has him chasing you across the exterior of the Death Egg, which is collapsing behind you. This apparently isn't enough of a threat on its own, though, as Eggman periodically shoots flames and ridiculously huge laser beams at you.
** Another example from the same game is the boss of Sandopolis Zone, a spiked mechanical statue that shoots lasers from its eye while slowly marching forward. You can only run so far from this one: If you take too long, it smashes you into the wall at the other end of the room.
** Yet another Sonic example, albeit a rather strange one, is the boss of Stardust Speedway in ''SonicCD''. You race with Metal Sonic to reach the level goal while Eggman follows close behind you continuously firing some sort of death ray. Get too far behind Metal Sonic and the beam kills you instantly, regardless of whether you have rings.
* Viy from ''{{La-Mulana}}'' is a monster so huge that only its Cyclops-like face fits on the screen, and it chases you upward through an endless shaft with platforms in it, firing an endless barrage of small shots and the occasional half-screen-wide laser.

* In ''[=~Yoshi's Island~=]'' there's Sluggy the Unshaven, which pushes you off the stage if you don't hit its heart multiple times.
** The final battle against a godzilla sized Baby Bowser could also be seen as this, only he is in the background slowly trudging towards you while you throw gigantic eggs to keep him at bay. It's actually [[NightmareFuel pretty damn terrifying]].
* Cerberus Alpha in ''MischiefMakers'' is a multi-phase boss, the first phase of which is a Type A, with the HumongousMecha chasing you while you're riding on a cat. The other phases of the fight include chasing after the boss from behind and fighting the pilot himself while his steed keeps moving independently.
* ''MetalSlug 2'' has one of these in the Egyptian-themed level. The boss is a huge mechanical snake-thing that keeps following you up a huge stone pillar you must climb. Very annoying as one of its attacks is a huge laser that covers most of the screen.
* ''MetalSlug 3'' has the giant crab boss in the first level.
* ''MetalSlug 6'' has that [[ThatOneBoss goddamned]] BrainInAJar HumongousMecha boss.
* Demon Wall from ''FinalFantasyIV'' and ''FinalFantasyXII''.
** A version of it also appears in ''SecretOfMana.'' Take too long or kill the eyes, and it'll start pushing you into the only instant-death trap in the entire game. (It has a PaletteSwap, but it doesn't advance.)

* The jailer from ''DigitalDevilSaga 2''. He was annoying, and creepy as hell with his pelvic thrusting.
* The Pyramid Head chase in ''SilentHill2'''s hospital basement. You can't beat him, but on Hard Mode, you do have to shoot him to slow him down.
* Wolverine's second level in ''Spider Man an X-Men in Arcade's Revenge'' is a fight against Juggernaut. If he catches up with you, you die. Reportedly, he can be defeated by cutting the ropes suspending numerous anvils from the ceiling so that they land on him. In practice, he typically catches up before you can slash your way through one of the many breakable walls.
* The giant alligator in ''ResidentEvil 2''. If you get cornered at the end of the corridor, it automatically [[HaveANiceDeath swallows you whole]].

* The most iconic example (and, for a great many gamers, probably the most iconic AdvancingWallOfBoss, period) is the giant robot dragon from ''Game/MegaMan 2'', which chases you over a long series of tiny platforms over a void and then turns into a standard boss fight once you reach a group of three platforms at the end of this chain.
** The above boss is reused in ''IWannaBeTheGuy''.
** Also in ''MegaManX 5''.
* In ''KirbySuperStar'', Heavy Lobster pursues you through a long corridor inside the Halberd, during which time you must dodge walls to avoid being crushed. At the end of this sequence, you get to face Heavy Lobster in the open.
* In ''RocketKnightAdventures'', at one point [[TheDragon Axel Gear]] hops into a HumongousMecha. Eventually you find one of your own and fight him, but before that you have to spend a good-sized stretch fleeing from him through a series of tunnels and trying not to get crushed.
* In the 11th stage of ''{{Battletoads}}'', you control a motorized vehicle called a 'Clinger-Winger' as a Hypno Orb runs around and tries to catch up to you while you attempt to cut around corners and outspeed it. [[NintendoHard Notice how I said 'attempt.']] Eventually, though, the orb stops chasing you and fights you.

* The Lungfish from ''{{Psychonauts}}'' chases you for a while along a fixed track in JawsFirstPersonPerspective, and then you fight it.
* [[TrueNeutral The Guardian]] of the [[SideQuest Cave of]] [[NightmareFuel Bad Dreams]] from ''{{Rayman}} 2'' works rather like the Lungfish, although in the second phase your goal is not actually to harm him directly but to make your way through the final stretch of the level by turning the skulls he spits at you into temporary platforms.

* In ''NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', [[spoiler:the final boss]] is this. You don't fight [[spoiler:Bowser]] exactly, just try to escape him until [[spoiler:you hit the actually useful switch at the end]].
* In ''GearsOfWar'' the Berserkers fit this pattern as you can't kill them until they are outdoors, and many of the segments begin indoors and consist of trying to get outdoors in order to kill them- simply running away isn't enough however, they must be killed.
* * The Chapter 3 MiniBoss in ''{{Ikaruga}}''.
* In ''MegaManLegends'' the giant boss boat at the end of a hard water fight is this, it chases you while firing streams of missiles. You can't injure it until you get to a small lake at the end of a river you travel along. Before this though you do get the option of retreating to restore your own boats health (considering how hard the fight was just to get to this point you might want to retreat before going to the boss battle.)

* ''Devil May Cry'' has an optional example. After defeating the first boss, Phantom, in the cathedral, the next level sees you leave the room to proceed to the statue where you need to use the Pride of Lion, the key item you pick up before Phantom confronts you. But before you can get through the doors into the room where the statue's located, Phantom emerges from up the corridor behind you and chases you the rest of the way along it, lobbing a fireball every five seconds. It's possible to fight and defeat him here, but you don't have to; if you go into one of the rooms leading off from the corridor, then go back the way you came, he'll be gone and you can reach your objective unhindered.
* Crocomire from ''Super {{Metroid}}'' can be considered a variant. He keeps moving towards you, pushing you towards a spiked wall. He's also invulnerable to your weapons. However, shooting him in his weak spot causes him to retreat. Forcing him back enough causes him to fall into a pit of acid, leading to a very FamilyUnfriendlyDeath.
** Two vaguely similar examples from the Sonic series - Sandopolis's main boss slowly goes forward trying to make you go into the wall. Very slowly (faster as Knuckles). You hit Eggman normally (weak point) though. Another example is in Advance 3's Toy Kingdom. You can hit Eggman many times to knock him back before he attacks you, but you won't beat him until he goes into the pit on the other side. However, he very slowly advances forward, and if you're really shit/lazy, he'll go right to the edge where you have no room to manouver around his attacks and the bottomless pit.
* Aside from Sluggy, ''[=~Yoshi's Island~=]'' also gives us the Potted Ghost, which is a wall you literally have to push back. It works very much like Crocomire.
* Gargamel from the first SNES ''TheSmurfs'' game is a similar example. Any contact with him is instand death, and you must throw acorns at him to force him back until he falls off his manor house's roof.
* The Doom Train boss fight in ''FinalFantasyVI''. You don't fight a boss on the Doom Train - YOU FIGHT THE TRAIN! Your characters are constantly running in front of it, stopping only to take swings at the train behind them.
** [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Or, in Sabin's case, to]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u84cH_bmTA SUPLEX THE TRAIN.]]
** Or anyone can immediately [[ReviveKillsZombie use a Phoenix Down on him]].

* ''[[SonicAdvanceTrilogy Sonic Advance 3]]'' also uses the Crocomire variant in one fight. If the boss advances all the way to the left, he uses an attack that covers the entire battle area and seems to be unavoidable. Every hit knocks him slightly to the right, and if knocked all the way to the right he falls off a ledge.
* A non-video game example. In OnePiece, Luffy and his allies instigate a mass breakout from Impel Down, a giant government prison. When the QuirkyMinibossSquad proves unable to stop them, Chief Warden Magellan TurnsRed, using his power to create a giant monster made of poison so vile it saturates anything that as much as touches it, bringing horrible agony to anyone too slow to get away. The rest of the encounter consists of Magellan chasing the escaping pirates up a giant staircase while their allies above are trying to get them a ship.

* The giant alligator in ''ResidentEvil 2''. If you get cornered at the end of the corridor, it automatically [[HaveANiceDeath swallows you whole]].

* In ''NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', [[spoiler:the final boss]] is this. You don't fight him exactly, just try to escape him until [[spoiler:you hit the actually useful switch at the end.]]

* One mission in ''Armored Core 4'' places you in a tunnel. In front of you, the GiantMecha you have to destroy; a massive, tank-like thing that fills the tunnel so there's no way past it. Behind you, the colony in which the player character resides, which you have to protect by destroying aforementioned tank before it gets to the end of the tunnel and razes the place.

* ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' features Meta-Ridley as a boss you fight while it chases the Blue Falcon, which you're standing on, as it makes its way out of the Bomb Factory. Meta-Ridley, however, doesn't so much attack you as he does the craft in general, with you happening to be in the line of fire.

* The Pyramid Head chase in ''SilentHill 2'''s hospital basement. You can't beat him, but on Hard Mode, you do have to shoot him to slow him down.

* In ''{{Kirby}} Super Star'', Heavy Lobster pursues you through a long corridor inside the Halberd, during which time you must dodge walls to avoid being crushed. At the end of this sequence, you get to face Heavy Lobster in the open.

* In MegamanLegends the giant boss boat at the end of a hard water fight is this, it chases you while firing streams of missiles. You can't injure it until you get to a small lake at the end of a river you travel along. Before this though you do get the option of retreating to restore your own boats health (considering how hard the fight was just to get to this point you might want to retreat before going to the boss battle.)

* ''Uncharted 2'' has several examples. First is the attack helicopter which you must flee along rooftops and through a building from as it strafes you, ''until it blows up the building you are standing in''. You get a short breather, then find a roof full of grenade launchers and fight it to the death. Then, you get the ''other'' attack helicopter that you fight on the train. This helicopter you flee from as it destroys the train cars behind you, until you lose it in a tunnel. It pops up later, as you conveniently get to a heavy machine gun on a tank being carried by the train. Finally, you have the tank, which you flee through a Tibetan village to escape, only finding a rocket launcher will allow you to defeat it.

* ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Advance 3]]'' also uses the Crocomire variant in one fight. If the boss advances all the way to the left, he uses an attack that covers the entire battle area and seems to be unavoidable. Every hit knocks him slightly to the right, and if knocked all the way to the right he falls off a ledge.

* ''{{Castlevania Order of Ecclesia}}'' has Brachyura, a gigantic crab that chases you up a lighthouse before holding still to fight you. Widely considered to be ThatOneBoss.

Quite simply, a boss that chases you and that you can't get around. One way to invert GetBackHereBoss, and a boss version of AdvancingWallOfDoom. Usually, but not always, found in 2-D games. As with an AdvancingWallOfDoom, this kind of boss is frequently accompanied by additional hazards for it to chase or squash you into. It may also fire projectiles or attack in other ways. As this kind of boss typically takes up a large portion of the screen, it is very common for [[AttackItsWeakPoint only a small area to be vulnerable]]. These bosses typically either have a looping, indefinitely long track on which to pursue you, or an effective time limit in that there's some sort of hazard towards which they are driving you.

* The final boss ([[TrueFinalBoss unless you have all seven Chaos Emeralds]]) of ''{{Sonic and Knuckles}}'' is the Great Eggman Robo, Eggman in a HumongousMecha. The second phase of this fight has him chasing you across the exterior of the Death Egg, which is collapsing behind you. This apparently isn't enough threat on its own, though, as Eggman periodically shoots flames and ridiculously huge laser beams at you.

** A version of it also appears in ''SecretOfMana.'' Twice. Both times, it'll crush you to death against spikes if you take too long.

** Or anyone can immediately [[ReviveKillsZombies use a Phoenix Down on him]].