We now return you to your regularly scheduled awesome. RetroforceGO! is back in its normal time slot, (right after Family Matters), and we're all set to take on the final boss. While we're at it, we may as well take on all the other ones, too.
Tonight we take a look back at some of retro's greatest boss battles, be it due to their infuriating difficulty, charming good looks, or just plain enjoyability. Believe it or not, some of the bosses we tackled back in the day were a hell of a lot of fun. We're sure you have your favorites too, so hit the comments and let us know what they are, and leave us some questions for the show while you're at it.
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Contest:
2:00 PM on 01.08.2009
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A lot of the old 2d games had bosses shooting projectiles all OVER the screen, but in 3d you typically only need to strafe a bit to avoid the line of fire.
I'm currently stalking Yu Suzuki
WhoreMouth
@Stella,
Last week you said that no one ever plays Street Fighter Remix with you. I'm always game for a... game (awkward sentence structure, to be sure). I'd be honored to play against you!
xbla: haxan1 psn:Haxan (yeah, I bought it for both).
Oh, and do you think multi-phase Bosses are sort of anti-climatic? Like with the Resident Evil games (not really retro, I know), I kind of get that "wait, I've got another one!" feeling...
Also, this falls more under "retro-limbo", but the Hag-1 from Banjo-Tooie still take my prize for hardest/most frustrating boss battle EVER. Chad, since you're a fan of the series, you should know what I mean. >.>
Those things changed the way we played, when the lives system as still being used you used to try to play a perfect game to get with as many lives and/or health to the boss. These days you can get a little bit sloppier since all you have to do is save before that gigantic stuffed dolphin or whatever the boss is and if you loose you'll start before the boss and not and the start of the level or...at the start of the game.
Ultima Weapon (FFVI): The fact that it was balls hard was cool as VI was a relatively easy game up til that point, but what got me most was that it had it's own theme. The first time I heard it my jaw dropped. "The Fierce Battle" was one of the finest examples of the quality of VI's soundtrack and, in my opinion, is only bettered by Dancing Mad.
Giga Gaia (Chrono Trigger): Man... This dude looks imposing as all hell. I got my ass handed to me way more times than I care to count, but the main impact to me was how menacing it looked. It was like something out of a fucked up (yet awesome) DBZ episode...
I could name a few more but it'd just be reiterating what I know people are gonna come up with.
Frost Gigas!
Actually, in this particular boss, shooting the testicles triggers a difficult-to-avoid attack while doing no damage to the boss. You're supposed to avoid hitting them, which can be difficult because most ships' powerups include multi-directional shots.
I think Sexy Parodius is the only Konami horizontal shmup I have yet to complete.
Did that really confuse you or upset you that first time?
I think my favorite boss battle, not because of game mechanics or epic setting but because of my personal experience, is Mack from Super Mario RPG. He's the first real boss, and he's supposed to be fairly easy. However, the first time I played it, for some reason Mario got taken out immediately, and I ran out of flower points, so Mallow was stuck on his unarmed attacks. However, every time my health would get low I'd get the Once Again and HP Max events when I killed the minions, and I somehow managed to win. It only took about 30 minutes.
How about a really weird F, marry, kill? Bowser, Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Wily
And then, of course, you have pretty much every single boss in Super Metroid. They're all events.
Plok!, a very underappreciated Super Nintendo game (mostly due to its inherent weirdness and frustrating difficulty), has some pretty insane boss battles, too. In particular, the rockface boss. Plus, the boss music rocked, as one can witness here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-P6lbOimmk
You mean like Shadow of the Colossus and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out?
I have to say I disagree whole-heartedly.
Sexy Parodius, a Japanese-only PS1 shmup and the last shmup in the Parodius series. Don't worry, it has more tits than nads overall if I remember correctly.
I'm going to say Johan from Rage of the Dragons.
But anyways here is my question:
A lot of bosses from retro games have different ways of attacking you. My question to you guys is which one of those things do find to be the most annoying.
(For me it's in FF games there will be a boss that doesn't do anything but on each turn will do a countdown and at the end of the countdown will do some sort of powerful move that either kills everyone or leaves everyone near death.)
(Here's some visual aid)
Loved Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie 1
Best boss battle ever? Metal Gear Solid 4 - epic
SMB was the first game I got and as a kid my tactic in the endlevel was to hold my breath and franticly try to avoid the axes. The literal breath of relief when I managed it could be heard in the whole house.
But I think the gold cartridge boss battle was more fulfilling. After a long quest with only a little help from my sister (the pre-internet solution) using the silver arrow to finish the adventure is still a cherished memory.
In that case, Ganon was awesome; loved Super Mario Brothers 3 Bowser.
I'm just saying that games like Warning Forever and Chaos Field are exhausting compared to traditional shmups that feature many smaller enemies in between. I don't have the patience or endurance to deal with that kind of challenge for long.
If you're tricky you can import Parodius Collection on PSP if you're curious about the title graphic.
Since Shadow of the Colossus is essentially all boss battles which one was your favorite? Mine is the first flying Colossus. (4th I think)
Love you guys! :)
If you were an end boss, what would you look like and what would your attacks be?
Also, tanooki balls.
Also:
Oh and any boss on a 4 player arcade beat em up is ok with me.
I'll throw the entire game of Contra: Hard Corps in there too. That game is one incredibly long boss battle, interspersed with the occasional battle with "normal" enemies lol.
Almost forgot one. Its not tough, but funny. TMNT: Turtles in Time I think. Stay with me here: the Shredder is shooting at you from a turret or something, and your view is from over the Shredder's shoulder. You're fighting foot soldiers, and tossing them towards the screen, at the Shredder. I'm sure I messed that up, but a nice use of Mode 7 scaling, and a very cool fight.
- From old school RPGs, where you had to cast "WALL" or "REFLECT" on your party, and then cast damaging magic on yourselves to hit the boss.
-In RPGS when you had to fight "arms" of something, where one would heal, and the other would attack hard
- The fact that Dr. Wily's later forms were defeated with your weakest or most awkward weapon
- Dark Link in Adventure of Link. Epic. Boss. Fight.
- Cecil vs Cecil
Since it's one of my top 5 ever, I'm thinking "yes".
and the only thing i really hated in games was fighting the same boss, more than once as filler.
My favourite boss battle must be Baby Bowser from Yoshi's Island also on the SNES (seriously, best console ever). How can a fight get more epic than this: baby Mario on your back as Yoshi and a giant magically transformed baby Bowser rushing at you getting bigger and bigger with just eggs as your weapon. Also the music is badass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHuaH3Zvpnc#t=5m26s
Whoever disagrees that every boss battle from Rocket Knight Adventures were amazing from variety to epic music:
If you guys and girls all owned an arcade together what would be some of the gaming cabinets you would put in? and what would the arcade be called?
Do you think the last boss of a game should be the hardest one and extremely difficult because to me there is nothing more annoying then to be that close to the end of the game and get stuck. Your thoughts?
What genre do you have the most fun fighting bosses. For me its RPG's, there is nothing more fun than finding its element weakness and seeing the massive damage inflicted on the boss. What about you guys?
With that said, some of the suckiest moments I had as a gamer was while playing in turns with friends, when we would get stuck for a couple of lives on a boss, then I would figure out how to kill him (but die in the process) and then my friend on his next turn would kill the boss. Did that ever happen to you guys? I hated being the one that found the weakness or the one that finished the levels but lost to the boss (megaman comes to mind)
Also Chaaaad I miss you and Luna
I also love the huge watermelon boss on the first level of Stinger. Maybe I'm just hungry right now.
Could the more traditional point-and-click games be relevant to today's gamers, or has the genre evolved itself into nonexistence like survival horror?