Boss battles are meant to be difficult, but these unfair fights abuse the privilege.
The whole point of a boss battle in a video game is the challenge of the thing.
What use isDouble Dragonif Machine Gun Willy is just as easy to take down as Williams?
You want things to escalate so that your later and final victories truly mean something.
You want to feel like you didnt just finish a game, but you conquered it.
You earned that ending and the scrolling credits.
Sometimes the developers go too far.
The villains you face stand too tall.
Their abilities are too formidable.
The sense of fairness is off in another dimension, leaving you irritated and overwhelmed.
Controllers are thrown and monitors are cracked.
Screams of, What the HELL?!
and, OH, COME ON!
wake up the neighbors.
Quarters are dropped into swear jars.
Heres a look at some of the cheapest, most unfairly hard bosses in video game history.
Some are bad by design while some are just victims of bad game design.
This isnt aSoulsencyclopedia, you know.
That includes a very throwaway reference from the tenth episode that ended up being the games final boss.
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The games story cribs fromMaximum Overdrive, where a mysterious, radioactive comet unleashes chaos.
He breaks out even more forms, making the whole fight last roughly ten minutes!
A fighting game match should not take longer than a damn Road Runner cartoon!
If you lose, you dont get a rematch.
You will just have to start all over again.
All this so you could attempt to get one more shot in and start the process all over again.
Yellow Devil is soover-the-topthat theres a pause glitch thrown in there to make him far more bearable.
The Sleeping Table (Persona 3)
In Dudleyville, you get the table.
In Tartarus, the table gets you.
That the games best ending is about sparing their souls (or just the robots?)
from an eternity of torment in Hell is a grave injustice, as somebody needs to suffer for this.
Like many bosses in this game, Kahls Robot has three forms, and theyre all rough.
The second phase is the least annoying, as it centers around evading homing missiles.
Mike Tyson (Mike Tysons Punch-Out!!)
Punch Outdoes a good job of ramping up the difficulty as the game goes on.
While Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man are hard enough, but theyre absolutely beatable.
For 80s gamers, he was a legend when it came to ominous boss fights.
What made it sting the most was that losing to Tyson meant immediate game over.
Just seeing 007-373-5963 causes certain people to feel a trigger in their muscle memory.
Sprites looked great and huge, they had different match types, and the designs were wonderful.
If not forone thing, this could have been a bona fide classic.
The game is ridiculously difficult due to its unforgiving dedication to mashing buttons for every grapple.
This pastiche of Road Warrior Hawk will absolutely wreck you.
Akuma is always a rough fight, butSuper Street Fighter II Turbohas a little extra spice to it.
No matter how you venture to set the game, it will always be stuck on the hardest setting.
The skeletal wraith freely floats around the screen while sending four mini-scythes around after Simon Belmont.
Much like aFinal Destinationmovie, there seems to be no escape from Death.
There are plenty of choices out there, like Goenitz, Magaki, and loveable Igniz.
If I could choose any to highlight, its surely Rugal Bernstein ofKing of Fighters.
Rugal was the final boss in the first two games, as well as various non-canon dream match games.
InKing of Fighters 94, Rugal really goes over the top.
You make a move towards Rugal and youre eating that foot.
That last part matches up with another unfortunate ability in his repertoire.
Bed of Chaos (Dark Souls)
Dark Soulsis all about difficult boss battles.
Due to a rushed production, theres no sense of fairness in this fight.
The Chaos part hits a bit too hard.
Unfortunately,Dark Souls measured, clunkier playstyle is not a good fit for that concept.
Its a battle that inherently lacks fairness, and you absolutely need luck on your side.
Then you challenge for the Platinum Match against ?
and we get a cameo fromFinal Fantasy VIIs big bad.
Sephiroth then proceeds to annihilate you without missing a beat.
100 tries later and you might make some kind of dent in him.
Luckily, its only an optional battle.
It feels more like a reason to keep playing after youve completed the game.
His sliding kick hits several times.
One was that cartoon crossover where Michelangelo teamed up with Slimer and Bugs Bunny.
Shooting through the endless scores of KRAKs henchmen finally leads you to its leader Mr. Big.
At first, hes a cackling nuisance in a wheelchair.
After you deal with that, he becomes something much worse.
You might remember this trippy visual from the Foot Clans headquarters in the originalTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesmovie!
Have fun with that!
