History Main / Superboss

** In the non-canon ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'' crossover, the land of Sorcier is transported into Elder Tale. The Adventurers are rather confused that these new people have no User Interface details for them; no names floating above their heads or levels displayed. That is, until one idiot manages to aggro Maria, at which point a GIANT healthbar appears, complete with boss music, declaring her to be "Lady Maria Campbell, The Double Isekai Rom-Com Protagonist DLC Super Boss."

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has Dry Bowser, who is fought the exact same way as his living counterpart except under harder conditions. His castle can only be accessed in World Star after ''all'' of the Star Coins are collected.

*** The game has a Bonus Boss that is exclusive to the BossRush mode called "The True Arena". [[spoiler:It's Galacta Knight, the popular FinalBoss of the Meta Knightmare Ultra mode of ''Kirby Super Star Ultra''.]]
*** Also, there's a boss in Extra Mode that doesn't appear in the regular mode. [[spoiler:It's the giant Dedede robot seen in the trailer for the cancelled Gamecube ''Kirby'' title that would eventually be retooled into ''Return to Dream Land'', given a new Metal General-themed coat of paint and named "HR-D3".]]
*** The Switch remake takes it up a notch with The True Arena's Magolor Soul, having him become ''much harder'' than your previous bout with him in Extra Mode; but that doesn't stop there. After seemingly depleting his health bar, he has an ''entire second phase'' where he fully recovers, is further corrupted (to the point where the only eye that is shown is the one coming out of its mouth), and has a whole array of new attacks (a villainous version of the new Mecha and Sand copy abilities) — cementing this as one of the most challenging FinalBoss in the Kirby series.

** The Old One's Army is an optional crossover event themed on tower defense. Its third and most difficult tier ends with with fighting Betsy, a giant fire-breathing dragon who could prove to be difficult to take on even with endgame-tier equipment. She must be fought while ''also'' dealing with the enemies from previous waves.

** The [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 first game]] has Reptile as a secret boss. There is [[LuckBasedMission a very small chance]] that he will appear before the fight begins and give you clues on how to find him (ex."Look To La Luna"). You can only fight him if, on the fight at the Pit stage, you don't block, get a [[FlawlessVictory Double Flawless]] on your opponent, and finish them with a Fatality. Furthermore, [[LuckBasedMission there must be a ghost floating in front of the moon]]. If the conditions are met, the screen will flash with the words "You have found me, now prove yourself!" appearing, whereupon you will be taken to the Bottom of the Pit to fight him.

** ''VideoGame/TheBouncer'': If you're able to make to the final stage of [[MultiMookMelee Survival Mode]], you can fight against Jet Black Sion. He is one of the hardest fights aside from the TrueFinalBoss who moves fast and hits hard, but if you can defeat him, you can unlock him as Sion's alternate costume.

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'''s ''Octo Expansion'' has [[spoiler:Inner Agent 3]], accessible after collecting all of the Mem Cakes. Appropriately, the framing device is [[spoiler:Agent 8 imagining what would have been like to have fight a non-BrainwashedAndCrazy [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo Agent 3]]]]. It's a [[SNKBoss fairly difficult]] five-phase fight with CheckpointStarvation, with the boss throwing Auto Bombs often, having short cooldowns on their specials, and performing other techniques that wouldn't be possible in normal gameplay. Defeating them unlocks the [[AndYourRewardIsClothes Golden Toothpick]] headgear for multiplayer battles.

* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' Dynasty Warriors 8 features the most overpowered version of Lu Bu in the series. On levels where he's not the boss, defeating Lu Bu almost comes down entirely to luck. His midair Musou attack has the largest area of effect in the entire game and is completely unblockable, and on harder difficulties all his Musou attacks can 1 shot the player regardless of how leveled they are. If the player is unfortunate enough to get him airborne all they can do is hope for the best, because if he triggers said attack the only method to survive is through the immunity of their own Musou.

* ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/Dota2'' has Roshan, extremely hard to defeat single-handedly, but defeating it will yield a good boon to the team that defeated it.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has Baron Nashor (and Vilemaw for Twisted Treeline map).

* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'''s optional yet powerful bosses are locked behind [[BrutalBonusLevel Prime Sanctums]], which can only be unlocked by getting P-ranks for all the levels in their respective acts. So far, there is only P-1, which contains [[spoiler:Flesh Prison and Minos Prime. The former is a StationaryBoss with 100 HP and medic mooks, and the latter is a ''LightningBruiser'' with 130 HP that puts V2 and Gabriel to shame. It doesn't help that Flesh Prison takes half damage from the Nailguns and the Electric Railcannon.]]

* the fight against [[spoiler:Laurnce the First Vicar]] in VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} is a scaled up super fight against a new variant of the Cleric Beast. Unlike the original, this one has multiple phases that change the battle drastically, and he has access to fire damage. To make matters worse, during the final phase of the fight, [[spoiler:Laurence]] coats much of the room in lava, which will instantly kill a player or leave them vulnerable to easy damage while he crawls around the arena causing explosions. Fighting him is very different in comparison to almost any other boss in the series since he has a persistent floor hazard active and exceptional movement only outdone by the other bosses in the DLC.

* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'''s infamous [[BrutalBonusLevel Hell Temple]] has its own guardian, The Boss (no, not [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 that one]]), a giant blob with Naramura's (the game ideator) signature face that [[ShoutOut behaves a lot like the 4th boss of ''Maze Of Galious'']] and summons smaller copies of himself that throw grenades around. Interestingly enough, The Boss is generally easy compared to the level around him.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' has a huge number of optional bosses drawn from Ancient Greek mythology, ranging from eight legendary animals to cyclopses, the Minotaur, the Sphinx, and even a bunch of Greek gods up to and including Hades himself. However, the definition of what counts as a BonusBoss is a bit murky in this installment due to its multiple independent story arcs, many of which are tied to DownloadableContent. For instance, the mythical monsters like the Minotaur are optional bosses in the main game but mandatory for the DLC arcs that lead to the game's true final ending.

* ''VideoGame/ExtrapowerStarResistance'': Completing the Rival Fights BossRush mode with no game over unlocks the series big bad Dark Force as a BonusBoss. He comes at the player with more aggressive and complex patterns than any other boss in the game. Even an experienced player who can survive every preceding boss fight at once will struggle to keep afloat of his attacks.

** If you manage to beat ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact Regulation A]]'' without using any continues and with enough Super Finishes, you'll get to fight [[GuestFighter Makoto Mizoguchi]] of ''VideoGame/FightersHistory'' fame.

* ''VideoGame/SparkTheElectricJester''
** The second DLC update for ''VideoGame/SparkTheElectricJester3'' adds two superbosses to the game. The first one is a monochrome version of the final boss whose attacks are far more difficult and is fought 100 floors in. The second one requires you to complete 100 floors of [[BonusDungeon Endless Dive]] and pits you against [[spoiler: Freom Mk.0]] who has a wide variety of blade related skills to keep you on your toes and whose defeat sets up a SequelHook for the next game.

** In ''VideoGame/TouhouKaikidanMysticSquare'', the stage 3 boss, Alice, returns for a revenge match using powerful magic from her undealed grimoire.

** ''Superboss/AnotherEden''

* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'''s optional yet powerful bosses are locked behind [[BrutalBonusLevel Prime Sanctums]], which can only be unlocked by getting P-ranks for all levels in their respecive acts. So far, there is only P-1, which contains [[spoiler:Flesh Prison and Minos Prime. The former is a StationaryBoss with 100 HP and medic mooks, and the latter is a ''LightningBruiser'' with 130 HP that puts V2 and Gabriel to shame. It doesn't help that both bosses take half damage from the Electric Railcannon.]]

** ''The Unending Coil of Bahamut'' takes the cake as the first raid content to be pegged at the '''Ultimate''' difficulty. And it certainly doesn't disappoint, as it consists of embellished and fiercer version of the final turn for each part of the Binding Coils of Bahamut (Turn 5, 9 and 13), with all of them [[TurnsRed pulling all their stops at the get-go compared to regular Coil]], culminating with Bahamut Prime dropping [[ColonyDrop a mini-Dalamud]] to the stage and sends powerful shockwaves that will wipe the party if not mitigated with a Limit Break from a tank-role player. And then after the Tera Flare phase, Bahamut Prime proceeds to [[TurnsRed unleash its inner rage]] in its golden form, and starts to spam Akh Morn and Exaflare, and if it was not defeated quickly it will begin to spam Morn Afah (appropriately means "eternal death" in dragon language) until the whole party is wiped out. Clearing the Unending Coil demands a great amount of team synergy and their proficiency with the battle mechanics much more than any other raids before it, to the point that Deltascape 4.0 Savage (the highest-level raid content when Unending Coil was released) is a mandatory requirement ''just to enter it''. Furthermore, at the time of its release, none of the participants were able to clear it within the first week, with the world first clear happens on the 11th day after the release.
** The Weapon's Refrain is just as difficult. Just like the Unending Coil, this fight is a gauntlet against several bosses in a row; Specifically: Garuda, Ifrit, Titan, Lahabrea, and the Ultima Weapon. In addition to the moves they usually do being supercharged, the whole encounter is a [[PuzzleBoss giant puzzle]], as the party needs to ''[[ViolationOfCommonSense hit the Primals with their own attacks to power them up]]'' in order to obtain extra {{Limit Break}}s for use against Lahabrea, and failing to do so will ''always'' result in a wipe. A Level 3 Caster Limit Break is required to destroy several [[ActionBomb self-destructing Magitek Bits]] before they explode, a Level 3 Healer Limit Break is needed to cleanse an otherwise uncleansable Doom debuff Lahabrea places on the party, a Level 3 Melee Limit Break is needed to finish off Lahabrea before he casts Dark IV to wipe the party, and a Level 3 Tank Limit Break is needed to survive the Ultima Weapon's opening attack of Ultima. Then, once the Ultima Weapon fight begins proper, ''dying to it causes it to build up its own Limit Break faster''. If the Ultima Weapon reaches 100% charge, it begins dragging players one at a time into the air and blasting them with an attack that deals 999,999 damage ''and prevents their corpses from being targeted, in turn preventing them from being raised''.

* In ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'', if you spend a total of 1000 coins on a certain item and use it to access a hidden floor beneath the Black Powder Mines, you'll end up running into [[spoiler:the Resourceful Rat, who's likely stolen a ton of goods that you left behind]]. This is a long, difficult fight that consists of multiple phases (the High Dragun and [[spoiler:the Lich]] are the only other bosses with this distinction), with the third and final phase [[UnexpectedGameplayChange playing absolutely nothing like the rest of the game]]. If you win, though, you're treated to a stash of items, weapons and pick-ups.

* ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Dawn of War II]]'' has two optional missions. One, against the Eldar, has you fight an [[PhysicalGod Avatar of their war god]], which is considered to [[ThatOneLevel the hardest mission the the game]], not just because the avatar is really strong, but because the damn thing calls in lots of vehicles for help. The other has you fight an [[AssKickingEqualsAuthority Ork Warboss]], who, while weaker then the Avatar, is still considered tougher than the final boss, though part of that is clearing either of the levels gives you a nice set of Terminator armor and because in the final level, you get to use your entire squad, unlike the rest of the game.

** Demon Supreme Overlord Baal in the ''Marl Kingdom'' series, ''VideoGame/LaPucelle Tactics'', ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'', ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'', ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', and ''Disgaea 2''. In fact, most Nippon Ichi games let you fight characters from their other games as bonus bosses, and they're always at obscene levels. Laharl, Etna, and Flonne from ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' are all Bonus Bosses in ''Videogame/PhantomBrave'', for example. In many cases, defeating them will recruit them into your party. While the final bosses of the games tend to be at level 90-100, the bonus ones usually start somewhere around level ''1000.'' That's ''start'' mind you, and further ones will have stats souped up far beyond what their level would indicate. In "Etna Mode" of the new ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea|HourOfDarkness}}'' PSP remake, Baal is level 9999. Special mention should go to his Disgaea 3 DLC. Max level, three copies of his Tyrant form (as shown in the page image), well over 400 million HP, and an evility that nulls out damage each round based on how many copies of himself there are on the field. If you don't act quickly enough, the enemy base panels in the back will summon more Baal copies. If you're still too slow, they'll start bringing out Omega Sentinels for the Baal clones to Magichange with. Either you finish it quickly, or otherwise you're screwed.
** ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}''. The final story boss of the game is often one of the absolute weakest enemies the game has to offer. Disgaea 2 had, alone, Overlord Priere at level 500, Marjoly at 1000, Overlord Zenon [[spoiler:(the real one)]] at level 2000, Overlord Baal (the first round) at level 4000, and you still have quite a lot of others. The re-release (mentioned below) also added the DLC characters whom are easy to beat but all sit at 100, and three characters form Disgaea 3 starting at level 500 and ending at level 3500. Additionally, the final boss of Disgaea 2 is level 90 and has no geo effects on the field and is alone. The bonus bosses are often not that gracious, and may have backup, geo effects, and ridiculous levels.

** Tyrant Overlord Baal in D2 goes above and beyond the call of duty as a boss. It's not just the boss fight itself that's a marathon. It's preparing for the fight that is an Iron Triathalon itself. Getting the levels and stats of your characters, weapons, and gear high enough to fight him and have a chance at winning can take dozens upon dozens upon dozens of hours of gameplay. Strap yourself in, tighten up that sphincter, and notify your loved ones that you might be unavailable for a while, as you can end up dedicating days or even weeks on end to just preparing for this boss fight.
** Tyrant Overlord Baal in [=D6=] has three optional fights. The first is a level 9,999 fight with stats that are outrageous for his level, but easy to clear once you hit the post-game, however the other two fights play this hard. The first has him at level 9,999,999 and his stats far surpass any fully-leveled character, and then the third and final fight has him sitting at 99,999,999 which requires strict adherence to grinding and item leveling to even stand a chance. Besides that, Baal has all the same insanity to his boss fight as usual: Immunity to stats, unlimited movement, multiple phases, etc.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' has the [[spoiler:mock battle with Metal Gear ZEKE]], souped up versions of the military vehicles and AI weapons, ''[[NintendoHard custom]]'' versions of these bosses, and all of the ''[[spoiler:Franchise/MonsterHunter]]'' bosses.