A good boss fight acts as a highlight of a good game. These tests of skill usually end up being incredibly memorable set pieces where the gameplay shines its brightest and usually serves as an excellent story moment. A boss fight can sometimes make or break a game.
But sometimes fights focus less on all those aspects and narrow in on making it a test of skills, truly challenging the player with a nearly impossible challenge to overcome. While they aren’t for all players, difficult boss fights have their place in gaming for truly dedicated players to prove themselves, so here are some of the hardest foes in all of gaming.
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10 Yellow Devil
Sometimes bosses aren’t hard because of them being tough tests of skill or having unique mechanics — it’s just because they’re unfair, like with the Yellow Devil. The Yellow Devil is one of the last bosses in the original Mega Man, a blob of sentient yellow goop, and it’s easily the hardest due to its ability to mix with the limitations of the console.
What makes the Yellow Devil so hard is that you only get one hit in on his eye before dealing with a horrible attack as they’ll split into pieces and move from one part of the screen to the other, forcing you to dodge a hard-to-learn pattern. It can be mastered, but even one mistake will hit hard, and you have to do it over and over and over again. It’s no wonder most players decide to just use an exploit.
9 M. Bison
Fighting games are notorious for sometimes having unfair bosses at the end of their story modes, and yet even with all of them, none truly compare to the first: Street Fighter 2’s M. Bison. The insane dictator and leader of Shadaloo meet you at the end of the arcade mode after beating the other 3 members, and he serves as the ultimate challenge (Unless you’re playing a version with Akuma!)
M. Bison boasts insane attack power and domination in close-quarters combat, being able to eat away at your health in an instant in a way that feels utterly unfair at times. It’s not too much of a surprise, considering he was meant to be a quarter eater for the arcade, but despite that, with good prediction skills and excellent zoning, M. Bison can be taken down.
8 Bernard
A lot of the time, bosses are faster and more intense tests of a single skill, some harder than others. But other times, bosses can test sheer endurance and your survival skills, such as with Bernard from Furi. Bernard is a hidden boss in Furi, a strange debug model with the movesets of every boss in the game and 9 whole phases you have to endure.
Bernard serves as an ultimate test for experienced players, going through the phases and strategies of every boss, now souped up to be harder to deal with and dodge. Surviving one phase of Bernard is a test, so 9 can prove quite a challenge, but there’s nothing more satisfying than surviving that final desperation after a long battle.
7 Ornstein And Smough
When it comes to challenging bosses, no series is as legendary as the Dark Souls franchise, each game giving hellish bosses to go up against, and none stand as tall as the first roadblock, Ornstein and Smough. The two serve as the final challenge in Anor Londo and serve as a test of reflexes as you have to fight both at the same time, each with their own unique moveset.
Learning to deal with both warriors is hellish as each is made to cover the weaknesses of the other, with Ornstein being lightning fast and an up-close fighter, while Smough serves a heavy tank who, while slow, is devastating. And things don’t get easier as when one is killed, the other will get much stronger to cover their own weaknesses more. These two serve as a legendary challenge and a legendary battle.
6 Mike Tyson
Sometimes within a game, the hardest boss serves as the point of the game, the rest of the game simply being training for this last rush of challenge, and that’s what Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out is about. Mike Tyson serves as the final boxer, a fighter who can knock you down with a single punch and has lightning-quick punches, barely giving you an opportunity to fight back.
Mike Tyson combines everything the player has learned throughout the game, making the rest of it just feel like a training course that barely compares to the challenge that Tyson offers. With his name on the box, fighting him is the entire point of the game, and that makes the struggle and eventual victory against him all the more satisfying; even getting a single knockdown on this legendary boxer feels legendary.
5 Orphan Of Kos
But there are plenty who would argue Fromsoftware outdid their challenging bosses in their other games like Bloodborne, such as with the Orphan of Kos in The Old Hunters DLC. The strange offspring of an old one, this boss serves as the final boss of the DLC and is easily the hardest with its strange nature.
Rather than the aggression Bloodborne’s bosses are known for, the Orphan of Kos is rather passive, not even fighting the player at first as they stare at the sky. They’ll begin quite slow, catching the player off guard with quick combos if they manage to close the distance, as well as jumping pounces to close the distance. And at low health, they’ll transform and become much faster and gain moves that let them control the arena far more. It’s a fight even long-term players will struggle with.
4 Minos Prime
A lot of the time, the hardest boss in a game isn’t one you have to beat, instead being tucked away as something optional or secret for players up to the challenge, such as with Minos Prime from Ultrakill. Minos Prime is a powerful soul of King Minos, locked away deep in the layers of hell, and unleashed from his flesh prison to be fought by you.
Minos Prime is an utterly overwhelming boss, not giving you a chance to rest and heal up between his heavy melee attacks, and he can dropkick you from anywhere in the arena. The only way to stand a chance against the king is to listen and learn his tells and then keep up with the frantic pace, you’ll need perfect movement and a good understanding of parrying and your weapons to take him down.
3 Sans
There are some bosses that are simply hard, and then there are others whose challenge has become legendary, beating them and serving as almost a rite of passage, such as with Sans from Undertale. Sans is the final boss of Undertale’s genocide route, standing as a figure of judgment to punish you for everyone you’ve killed.
Sans manages to be the hardest boss in the entire game because of the many attacks that you have to go through and because of how he breaks the game to eat through your massive health bar. Because in Sans fight, you get no invincibility frames, leaving it so if you screw up once, you can lose your entire health bar. It truly is a bad time fighting this skeleton.
2 Absolute Radiance
But while bosses can create challenges through unique mechanics and breaking the game, sometimes bosses just need to overwhelm sheer power, such as with Hollow Knight’s Absolute Radiance. Absolute Radiance is the final boss of the Godmaster DLC, a powered-up version of the already challenging Radiance, serving as the final challenge after a gauntlet of every boss in the game.
Absolute Radiance doesn’t really offer anything Radiance doesn’t already give with massive beams, homing orbs, and arena-controlling attacks; instead, it just sends these out at a nightmarish pace to keep up with and takes even longer to take out with an extra phase. It’s a fight that can easily overwhelm any but the best of players, and for it to be the last step in the biggest challenge makes it utterly terrifying.
1 The Nameless King
But when it comes to challenges and bosses, no one can do better than FromSoftware, and they manage to snag the title with the ultimate boss of their concluding title, Dark Souls 3, with The Nameless King. The Nameless King rests in the hard-to-access Archdragon Peak, being a once legendary dragon-slayer before he decided to ally with the dragons, sacrificing his place as king.
The Nameless King starts off swinging, as before you fight the king himself, you have to deal with a massive dragon he keeps as his companion. Once you deal with the dragon, you still have to deal with the king, who absorbs the dragon’s power. The king plays on players’ familiarity with delayed and devastating attacks as well as preying on their weaknesses by adding on many quick ranged strikes of lightning and wing, along with a long-reaching grab. The Nameless King serves as the ultimate principle of Dark Souls gameplay: Patience.
This content was originally published here.
