Gaming Most Memorable "Boss" Fight...

[Sol-Blade]

In your opinion, what would you say was the most memorable "boss" battle in the entire history of videogames? Im talking about the ones that made you want to play them over and over again because they were just so fun. The ones that were innovative...that incorparated really unique gameplay into the fights. Where you said: "Whoa, that was cool!" and "Who's the man? Im the man..." (You know you did :D) because of how awesome they were.

Personally, I would have to go with the Harrier fight from Metal Gear Solid 2. That stood out in my mind, mostly because "dodging" all the attacks were so invigorating and really made my adrenaline rush. Even more so than the fight at the end [spoiler]with the multiple Metal Gear Ray's after boarding Arsenal Gear[/spoiler].

So what's your personal favorite?

[B]Note:[/B]There [I]were[/I] boss fights [I]outside[/I] of the Final Fantasy games people...:rolleyes:

[Shinmaru]

Cool topic.

I think that my personal opinion of the most memorable boss fight in gaming, and my favorite boss fight in gaming are two very different things.

Most of my favorite boss fights are from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, because the game has some real top-notch fights. My favorite from the game has always been the fight with Blind the Thief, even though it's nowhere near the toughest fight in the game (that goes to the Helmasaur King and Trinexx, in my opinion). I've always had a soft spot for Blind for whatever reason lol. The whole fight is pretty frantic, which I love, and I always have fun with it when I play through it. I always wished you could go back and fight the bosses whenever you wanted to.

The most memorable boss fight in gaming, for me, was the first fight with Bowser in Super Mario 64. Super Mario 64 was my first taste of [i]good[/i] 3D gaming, and I was absolutely floored when I first fought Bowser. He was just so damned big lol. I also remember loving grabbing Bowser by the tail, spinning him around and letting him loose against the bombs. It was fun stuff. Looking back on it, Super Mario 64 has aged a [i]ton[/i] graphically, but I can still see the Bowser fights as being really fun, innovative and memorable because they are just that.

[Attimus331]

My favorite boss fight ever is Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time. God it was so awesome. You guys know what i'm talking about right? *drool* wish i could go back and experience it all for the first time again *sigh*

[BlueYoshi]

[quote name='Sol-Blade][B]Note:[/B]There [I]were[/I] boss fights [I]outside[/I'] of the Final Fantasy games people...:rolleyes:[/quote]

Haha, yes, I hear ya, mate. Turn based RPG boss fights don't require much knack, anyway. All you really need to do is make sure you're in tact with your abilities, weapons and armour, and your HP and magic limit. After that, the battle becomes chicken scratch and you're good to go.

Regarding the question, though, I'd say that my most memorable boss fight came from The Hand in SSB. It was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen in any game, and it really managed to catch me off-guard. After playing through the one player mode just once, I could already tell what type of a game SSB would be, and I was constantly contemplating in my mind just how well the Nintendo characters had been utilized, but, a hand as the big cheese? Some really mad stuff.

I guess it was memorable for me because I was expecting any one of the uber-evil bosses from any other Nintendo game to play The Hand's role, or at least, to have either one of them incorporated in a way as effective as The Hand was. It was an awesome idea, I think, and seeing both hands in SSBM was a classic, not to mention hard as hell.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Dangit, Shin, you stole both of the games I was going to mention. At least I have a different favorite in A Link to the Past. ...

The most memorable boss battle I've fought in any video game so far would be the final Bowser fight in Super Mario 64. Despite the fact that I had seen my brother beat him before, doing it for myself was such an awesome feeling. In SM64, knowing what to do and actually being able to pull it off can be quite far from each other, so the fight was still plenty difficult -- and plenty satisfying -- my first time.

The fight was tense, also. I remember having to periodically pause the game and wipe the sweat off my hands to keep my fingers from slipping as I spun the control stick to swing and throw Bowser. And each time I would manage to grab his tail, my heart would race as I swung him around and released for the throw, all action stopping for a moment as I watched him fly through the air, waiting to see if my throw would be accurate enough to land him on a bomb.

Of course, once I managed to land two hits and chunks of the platform fell away to make the bombs even farther away from the edge, the nervousness only increased. I only needed one more successful throw, but it was both harder to time the throws and dodging Bowser's fireballs had also become that much harder with the smaller platform. I remember I made it to that point once and came [i]so close[/i] to landing a third hit ... but I missed, and then ended up dying. I think it took me somewhere between five and ten tries to finally beat him.

Some more recent memorable boss fights I've had were in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was playing through the game while getting as few items as possible, meaning the later Dark World bosses were doing three or four hearts of damage per hit. And, in turn, that meant that I could only take two or three hits before dying since I hadn't been picking up any pieces of heart. The game gets downright brutal for the Kholdstare (boss of Level 5: Ice Palace) fight and everything beyond when you do that because, of course, you're expected to have the Blue Mail and at least the Tempered Sword.

The Kholdstare fight was a mad frenzy of running, dodging, and slashing, where breaking my concentration for a mere half second meant getting hit. All of my magic power had to be used up just to break Kholdstare out of its block of ice, so I was left with no Fire Rod attacks except when a small magic jar happened to appear from out of one of the falling chunks of ice. My Lv.2 Master Sword, already one level behind the Tempered Sword I was supposed to have at that point, was my best weapon. But using my sword meant getting close, and getting close meant getting hit if I didn't time my swings right; getting hit four times meant death, and each section of Kholdstare (there are three) was taking what seemed like a dozen hits to kill. Can you see why that fight has been burned into my memory?

And that's only the third hardest fight in the game for me. Trinexx took me about twenty tries to finally beat on that minimalist game, and I still haven't even gotten to the final stage of the battle with Ganon yet, let alone beat him. Ganon is just ... well ... the King of Evil. You have to use charged up Spin Attacks to even hurt him with the Lv.2 Master Sword. Normal swings bounce off.[/color]

[Sol-Blade]

Actually, call me crazy but I got another favorite of mine for ya.

It was the final fight in Super Mario World for the NES. The last one with Bowser, at his realm, on top of his castle.That one was so simple...wait for him to come down and jump on his head. But I could [I]not[/I] beat him!!! And im not talking about me failing on the first couple tries...I mean I could not solve the mystery of this fight for about half-a-year :laugh:. I was calling the help lines, looking up Walkthroughs, asking friends for help...

[B]I could not take down that prick.[/B]

Finally, I triumphantly toppled the lizard from his flying contraption (The exact thing escapes me at the moment, ironic because you would figure I would remember something like that...), and no other person on Earth celebrated more than me on that day. I actually felt like I accomplished something great, considering the ridiculous length of Super Mario World. Go me :D.

[CENTER]Anyways, besides my little victory story...[/CENTER]

I would have to touch upon what Desbreko and Shinmaru said about Bowser in the 64 game, except the 2nd fight with him (The one over the lava) was probably the best in my opinion. I was pretty much taken by surprise when he tilts the whole platform over to one side at almost a 90 degree angle there. That was definitely an eyeopener for me. Gotta hand to them for making you change your tactics although you fought the same guy. That plagues alot of would-be-great boss fights.

Some other good ones are from The Thing and Silent Hill 2. I remember the boss fights in The Thing, they were unique in the fact that the "things" could not be harmed period by anything except fire. So you had to work your way around to burning them somehow, which was always ended up in interesting results.

As for Silent Hill 2, what can I say? Nothing else was better (Or disturbing in my case...) than a boss you [I]couldn't[/I] kill. If you've played it, you know what I mean. Pyramid Head gave me nightmares for awhile, all that stalking through-out the game really sent chills up my spine. Especially since...oh I don't know...4 out of 4 fights you can't do anything but run from him. Speaking of running from him, that was probably the best part. That ridculously large knife he carried around (For the first half of the game anyways) always made that screeching sound due to him dragging it behind him, one-handed mind you :D, on the ground. No other game scared me more than when I was walking down a long, dark hallway just to hear the sound of that knife approaching...*shudders*

Then, of course in the end, when [spoiler]you learn that there were countless numbers of them, and yourself had to fight off 2 of them at once until they killed themselves[/spoiler]. One of the more chilling boss fights.

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Sol-Blade']I would have to touch upon what Desbreko and Shinmaru said about Bowser in the 64 game, except the 2nd fight with him (The one over the lava) was probably the best in my opinion. I was pretty much taken by surprise when he tilts the whole platform over to one side at almost a 90 degree angle there. That was definitely an eyeopener for me. Gotta hand to them for making you change your tactics although you fought the same guy. That plagues alot of would-be-great boss fights.[/quote]

I definitely agree with you there. With the Bowser battles, Nintendo really took advantage of what 3D had to offer at the time. Stuff like spinning Bowser in circles with the control stick, throwing him and the tilting of the platforms may be elementary and basic today, but it made for a good transition to the 3D realm back in 1996, heh.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I have fond memories of battling Mizar from Jet Force Jemini. He wasn't awfully difficult, but he did force me to abandon fighting him for a bit and go find the homing missile upgrades I passed up in Rith Essa. The music was good, the boss was big and scary, and Earth (or something Earth-like? I forget) was in the background as the asteroid you were on hurtled toward it. Coolness. It was a bit disappointing that the Mizar battle music was the same as that of the other bosses, but it's still some of the best boss music I've ever listened to (if not [i]the[/i] best).

Good stuff. I just wish I wasn't forced to use Juno. Vela and Lupus were cool, too.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Most memorable boss fight? That's easy. I have two.

First, if you play as Ghost in [i]Enter the Matrix[/i], there's a point where you get to fight Trinity. That's fun. It's not too hard, but it's very fun.

[i]Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner[/i] has a fight that's even more enjoyable than beating the crap out of Trinity. In the original ZOE, your character (The pilot of Orbital Frame (giant robot) Jehuty) is Leo Stenbuck, who, among other things, is a whiner. And I don't mean reluctant to kill. I mean crying because he had to fight someone who was trying to kill him. I got tired of him really fast. In ZOE 2, Jehuty's pilot is Dingo Egret, a much more likable character. Leo Stenbuck pilots Vic Viper, and I knew this before playing the game. Imagine my delight when Vic Viper attacked Jehuty. Kicking the crap out of Leo is one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done in a game.

[Zidargh]

The [i]Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon[/i] fights were quite special to me. Every single one was so damn unique.

I mean, one minute you're running around in a dome-like arena that's centralised around the boss, jumping to dodge giant chef plates, and then you're in a huge robot named Impact that is the equivalent of Gundam Wing and stuff. Mental times.

I agree that it doesn't take much to fight in a turn-based battle system, but in FF7, when I fought that huge robot-thing that Scarlet and Heidegger have towards the end of the game at level 37 and winning, caused some serious celebration.

[BlueYoshi]

Some more of my most memorable boss fights came from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. All of them were crazy and had their own sense of style, and Nintendo refrained from making them too repetitive as there were ways to defeating them other than having to jump on their heads three times, which I liked.

However, when I think of the bosses in that game, Bowser comes to mind. Dealing with the first stage of the fight wasn't all that much of a big deal, but when Kamek super-sizes him, it gets interesting. I really liked the way that all of the factors that made it so exciting added up, and they coincided with each other perfectly.

Before making sure that you weren't standing on any of the potentially unstable platforms, you'd have to keep Bowser as far away from you as possible, which means good egg-shooting skills, but then that raises the issue of having a sufficient number of eggs to fend him off with. But, in your upcoming attempt to obtain the eggs from those roaming floating balloons that pass by, you'd have to be dodging his attacks, and possibly the falling boulders at the same time while repositioning yourself to a new platform. So as you can see, the battle is fairly constructive, and there's a reasonable amount of difficulty.

If you're sad like me, you'd have noticed that Bowser's attacks are synchronized, [spoiler]as in, he'll shoot fireballs after every three steps he takes towards you[/spoiler], so once you get the hang of it, it pretty much becomes child's play. Still good, though, and the music rocked.

[naota]

[COLOR=Teal][SIZE=1]I like the boss fight from Kingdom Hearts when you are fighting the ice monster.That boss is fun and alittle hard,I like dodging all of the icicles and running all around the collosium.That was very fun to me.

The second one is beating the hell out of Trinity.I first put some cheats on then I go into the infinite focus mode then I kick her butt.I keep on knocking her into stuff making her break them and stuff.That part is very fun to me,maby its because I don't like Trinity.But I would probably like beating up Neo or Morpheous better.But I guess she will have to do.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Wingnut Ninja']Some more of my most memorable boss fights came from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. All of them were crazy and had their own sense of style, and Nintendo refrained from making them too repetitive as there were ways to defeating them other than having to jump on their heads three times, which I liked.[/quote]

Oh yeah, I really agree with this, as well. Yoshi's Island's bosses had a lot going for them. Like Mr. Ninja, I loved how [i]different[/i] they all were, and how they all took advantage of the graphical capabilities of the Super FX2 chip in different manners. Right from the get-go, with Burt the Bashful, the bosses are fun to fight and have their own unique style. Super Mario World 2 was definitely when Nintendo was really hitting their stride in terms of boss battles (it also helps that the rest of the game was just as excellent, heh).

[Sol-Blade]

Speaking of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, I would have to say the fight with Anubis in compressed space was one of the more harder fights (Harder doesn't necessarly mean bad) i've seen in awhile. Besides the fact that Jehuty is pretty much crippled except for his melee attacks really...[I]really[/I]...made that one hell of a fight. Of course, using Zero Shift (Which was way more cooler than anything else I have to say) made that into one climatic fight. That fight took me a couple tries to finish also, but was really worth the effort. Even the last fight with Aumaan Anubis couldn't top the sheer awesomeness of that fight in space.

Anubis 0-shifts away, you follow him...at least you think you did...when he grabs you out of nowwhere (ala 0-shifting in behind you) and beats the crap out of you.

He zips away unscathed. Rinse, wash, and repeat as necessary until you finally master the full potential of 0-shift and kick his piece of crap Frame back to Phobos, using only your energy blade.

Sweetness.

[DetectiveMikeRS]

The battle against General Mohc in the first Dark Forces. I tried several times and died each time, I'd run to get more ground and before I knew it, a volly of missiles were on me and I was on the floor dead. The Jedi Knight ones have some awesome battles as well, more inovative too with the smarter AI and force powers. Then when he finally fell after many tries and lost lives later, it was one triumphant moment.

I loved the battle agaisnt Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time as well, the music in that fight is awesome too.

[JC Goodwin]

Oh my most favourite boss fight of all time is when i defeated the emerald weapon on Final Fantasy 7. i had trained so long in the crash gerliniker untill Cloud, Cid and tifa were all level 99. I train so hard and when the battle came i had done everything to gain victory like the qudra magic linked with phoenix and knight of the round etc. i remeber the battle took for so long and when the final blow was hit and the weapon turned that crimson colour when monsters die. i was in disbelieve but then i was so proud when i had done it. know all i need to do is beat the ruby weapon. that thing always beats me :flaming:

[Korey]

[quote name='JC Goodwin']Oh my most favourite boss fight of all time is when i defeated the emerald weapon on Final Fantasy 7. i had trained so long in the crash gerliniker untill Cloud, Cid and tifa were all level 99. I train so hard and when the battle came i had done everything to gain victory like the qudra magic linked with phoenix and knight of the round etc. i remeber the battle took for so long and when the final blow was hit and the weapon turned that crimson colour when monsters die. i was in disbelieve but then i was so proud when i had done it. know all i need to do is beat the ruby weapon. that thing always beats me :flaming:[/quote]
[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]
amen my good buddy, that was one hard fight. although the most memorable boss fight for me would probably have to be fighting the final bosses in chrono trigger. Just fightin' those things takes mad skillz even for an experienced turn based rpger. the whole thing took me 4 EVER!

Also the boss fights in the pokemon stadium games are extreeemely frustratiing. (yes i know, i play pokemon, so what?) the whole battles took an extreme amount of luck in being able to hit the bosses and the whole thing felt like it was out of my hands. i danced when i beat them though. :D [/COLOR]

[Sir Gawain]

My favorite boss battle of any game I've ever heard of (and that's a lot of games) has got to be with Mizar at the end of Jet Force Gemini! It has a totally different way of boss battles than other games of its time, and the total randomness of attacks from Mizar is incredible!
Don't get me wrong, I think all other game ending boss battles are cool, its just that for its time, it was the ULTIMATE battle!

[Beorhun]

[quote name='Sol-Blade]Speaking of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, I would have to say the fight with Anubis in compressed space was one of the more harder fights (Harder doesn't necessarly mean bad) i've seen in awhile. Besides the fact that Jehuty is pretty much crippled except for his melee attacks really...[I]really[/I']...made that one hell of a fight. Of course, using Zero Shift (Which was way more cooler than anything else I have to say) made that into one climatic fight. .[/quote]

I have two fights that stick out in my mind as the best fights in any game: Anubis in compressed space (hence the quote) was one of the coolest 'boss' fights I have ever played, mainly because of the sheer intensity of it. You're completely crippled from your last fight inside the fortress, and you are immediately shoved into this climactic battle with the real Anubis...[spoiler]and it still wasn't the final boss fight[/spoiler] (which was also very cool)! Sorry if that spoiled it for anyone. Still, however...one of my favorite boss fights of all time is Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker. That battle stands out because the combat system in that game was so much deeper than in past Zeldas. Man, what I wouldn't give to play that for the first time again...

P.S. I still don't know why most of you hated Windwaker! :flaming:

[color=#4B0082]Added spoiler tags -- if you think something might spoil a part of the game for people, please put it inside spoiler tags. Take a look at the sticky thread at the top of the forum for more details. Thanks. - [i]Desbreko[/i][/color]

[GuyYouMetOnline]

I don't hate Wind Waker, but I do think it's extremly overrated. But the Ganondorf fight was awesome, I have to agree.

As for the Anubis fight in ZOE2, I don't like the compressed space battle as much as you all seem to. Sure, it's fun, and it's a challenge, which is a plus, but I don't think it's as intense as you do. See, Anubis runs a lot. He shoots his Burst atack at you, you Zero-Shift in and get a couple attacks off, then he Zero-Shifts away. Repeat. Ocasionally, he'll engage in melee combat, but this is rare. Personally, I like the final battle more. That battle is intense. Sure, Anubis still Zero-Shifts, but you don't have to wait for a Burst attack to get back in there. Sure, it's not as hard, but that only applies to the main game. If you want a challenge, play that fight as Damaged Jehuty in the VR Missions mode. That makes it one hell of a lot harder.

[DeadSeraphim]

[COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial]The most memorable boss battle I ever had was against Bongo Bongo ins the Shadow Temple. It was the first time I'd ever actually undertaken a boss fight in an action game (I kinda... took over a friend's file >.>) and I was pretty damn happy with myself when I say that sucker fall. Granted, it was an easy boss fight, but it was memorable nonetheless.

Not many other boss battles really stick out in my mind though, heh. Even when I finished Final Fantasy 7, the boss battle was rather lacklustre. I've never really been a fan of multi part bosses. [/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Erika]

[quote name='Alan][COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial]I've never really been a fan of multi part bosses. [/FONT][/SIZE'][/COLOR][/quote]

[size=1][color=purple]Yeah, they are the suck. I've seen those in a lot of Final Fantasies. XD

My most memorable boss fight, actually, ONE of my most memorable boss fights would have to be [spoiler]Yunalesca[/spoiler] from FFX. (I dunno why I put spoiler tags there, but just in case, I guess, lol. Don't mind my random spaciness. XD) Good God she gave me a hard time. I was always confused as to who to heal, who [i]not[/i] to heal, because she inflicted Zombie status on my party members and went on a Full-Life fest, and when my characters needed healing, I'd be killing 'em off rather than curing them. So, by the time I finally defeated her, my brain was pretty pooped.. XDD

I thought there'd be only two forms, but then a giant female head appeared out of the ground after the second and I'm thinking, "Oh, sh**, time to die."

Basically, I didn't have much armor with the Zombie Ward/Proof abilities. But I managed after about, like, 10 tries, if my memory is doing me any good right now. :moron:[/color][/size]

[WW2]

Ok I think I mentioned this in a previous topic, but I still have to say one of the best boss fights I've experienced is the subway battle against Green, in Gunstar Heroes.

For those who haven't had the pleasure, it goes like this: You're jetting down a subway tunnel on your little spider-like vehicle until you reach this boss floating on a green metal platform thingy.
What makes this fight so cool is that he uses the platform to transform into multible mechanical beasts.

Oh by the way I haven't played the game in a couple of years so my memory is kinda rusty. The last two rounds might be a little mixed up, but I think you'll get the general idea. :D

Round on against this guy is always the same, he turnes into a giant, green robot man, sprinting down the tunnel on foot. This was always his easiest form, since he only had like two easy to avoid attacks: Some Extendo Punch and the Blaster in his head.

Round two is where things get interesting, since you randomly end up goin' up or down an elevator shaft. If you start going up, Green transforms into a large metal crab like thing, shooting lasers and dropping mines down at you.
If you end up going down he turns into some weird machine with a long metal tail, and starts spinning around.
I think he also had another third form he could change into for this round, but like I said my memory is kinda rusty. I sorta remember him turning into a purple star fish thingy a few times, but I'm not too sure.

Ok, finally you have round three at the top or bottom of the elevator shaft. There he transforms into into one of his final forms. One option being a large gold cat, running on all fours, and shooting laser blasts out of its tail.
His second form, and my favorite, was a giant golden pistol, spinning around letting off shots.

Once you beat this final form the battle is over. But of course Green gets away, and you end up fighting him two more times later on. The other two battles against him are pretty good, one is in an R-Type style shooting level where he randomly changes forms again, and the final battle is a one on one fight without his transforming platform.

But it was the first fight that I always enjoyed the most, because of its high speed and replayability. Each time you played this level over he'd have a new combination of transformations, adding variety and all around coolness.

Man.....I really wish my Genesis hadn't stopped working. :(

[Erika]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=Purple]I haven't read the whole thread, but someone probably already mentioned the final Sephiroth battle (Safe Sephiroth? Gah, I can't remember). If not, then oh well. I'm here, heh.

Seriously. I haven't fought him since '99, but I still remember the events as if they all happened last night. I remember feeling somewhat anxious, but since I waded through all those nerve-racking "pre-battles", I was feeling a lot more confident than when I first started. However, as soon as "One-Winged Angel" came on and Sephiroth started summoning Meteor (or whatever it was), my confidence all went to hell. -_o;

But I defeated him, although everyone was at 1 HP. :whoops: That battle was pretty high-strung for me, and I had it in Active mode, which is what I normally use.

So yeah. That battle's [i]the[/i] most memorable one on my list -_o; Took about a good 15 minutes, too.[/color][/size]

[Noside]

There are a few heart pumping battles that really got my heart going, most you guys and gals have already said.

Gun Star heroes Green and final boss battles were pretty memorable, especially the last battle it got me going.

Alien Soldier is pretty much a bunch of boss battles,but I remember one boss who was pretty much just like Green from Gun Star Heroes, the boss had a bunch of forms and ya only had one life so it was a tough battle.

The final battle with Bowser on 64 got me going. Spinning him around and the stage getting smaller, the longer it went the higher the anxiety.

The First time I fought the Hand in SSB64 also pumped me up, I only had 1 life left and had no idea what to expect and I barely won.

Most of Ocarina of Time is downright memorable, especially that final fight with Ganondorf.

The most recent two incredible boss fights I can think of that really got my senses high was Viewtiful Joe's Joe V Joe fight and Final Fight and Ikaruga's Final Fight.

There's just something about the music and atmosphere about those two battles that really got my blood pumping.

Ikaruga's an incredible air fighter and the final battle puts your dodging skills to the ultimate test. Everythings flying at you at once and you know it's always possible to survive but how? Since I was down to my last continue the desperation to stay alive was pretty high.

I know there's one boss battle that completely filled me with triumph and happiness after going through a nervous battle that nearly made me wet myself. I'll edit it in if I ever remember.