I just had a humbling experience. I was at a friend's house, enjoying some quality Wii time, when I saw he had the VC version of Punch Out on his channels. My desire to play overwhelmed me and I repeatedly wailed "Punch Out! Punch Out!" until the game was set up and ready to go.
"Let me tell you," I brag to the friend,"I have played this game so many times I can do it without paying a scrap of attention." I get all fired up and ready to beat all the opponents seemingly with no effort whatsoever, sure of myself as can be. Down went all the usual goons without a wasted punch. "Wow, go you!" says the friend. Now it's time for King Hippo, and I get really snarky in the head, thinking, this gimmick piece of sh*t, he's the easiest thing in this whole game.
Then King Hippo slapped my ass to the ground and knocked me out. I went from proud hero to humbled hooker in one minute flat. It hurt, friends, but let me tell you: my pride was mortally wounded. Not only had I been beaten by Hippo, but I had been beaten IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE. The shame drove me to drink, but even in a haze of spirits and illegal intoxicants, all I could think about was Hippo in the TKO position.
It occurred to me that it is this rare state that produces the adrenaline that drives so many gamers to keep trying to beat an infuriating part of a game. What's the difference between a death that makes you doubly as determined and one that makes you throw your controller on the floor and quit? It's a delicate balance, that's for sure. Something about NES generation games seemed to have it down to a science. Hit the jump to check out the triforce of successful bossery.
1. Unforgettable bosses.
King Hippo is such a distinctive guy. He might smell like a pile of festering skunk corpses, but he is memorable enough to stick in your mind. Good character design personifies a jumble of graphics and code into something resonant enough the straddle the border between fantasy and reality. This makes him much more important to conquer than a random character that you really don't care about.
2.Solid dialogue.
If you say "a miserable little pile of secrets" to any Castlevania fan, you're sure to see eyes light up instantly. In retrospect, this dialogue is so bad it's good, but associated with a boss fight; it helps to immortalize the sequence in the minds of the people playing. In the upcoming Destructoid video game, the upcoming Ron Workman miniboss has some award worthy dialogue, but you'll have to wait and beat him to see for yourself.
3. Battle formula.
All bosses have a pattern. The smart gamers sit tight in their initial encounter with a new foe and watch for it to become clear. The most unique of these stick with you like glue -- anyone can tell you Hippo's weak point is his annoying big mouth. Shame you can't stuff something other than your fist in there for him, really. Sometimes game designers try too hard to create the magic formula here (see final boss in Chrono Cross for a prime example).
Hippo was designed well. The reason why I know this is that I woke up this morning thinking about ripping his tongue out of his face. I pulled up Punch Out on my NES, played up to his fight and took him out with a vengeance worthy of Hitler. I got satisfaction out of it, but more importantly the game got repeat play twenty three years after its original release. If that's not a victory for replayability, what is?
Contest:
11:54 AM on 05.05.2007
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But anyway, King Hippo will always be my favorite Punch-Out boss if only because of his intro: that dorky music, and the way he opened his mouth to the beat for no discernible reason immediately endeared him to me. Even after he kicked my ass a few times, I still liked him.
In other words, the rush of "How do you like [i]that[/1], you goddamn fucker! Aaarrrrgggh!!!!"
Yes, yes, one of the finest moments in any gamer's life.
only other notables were:
1. Metroid prime, OH MY GOD the boss thats titled after the game.. queen bitch herself Metroid Prime... between her first and second forms that was intence and no save point?.. but your right after the pattern is found i only lost 2 boxes of health and killed her in under 5 minutes :)
2. Duke Nukem 3D and that football field in the sky, forever till i die will i remember that fight, and every boss battle going up to it... there was really no pattern it was RPG and run RPG and run and my god was it fun...
recently i have to say not many boss fights stick in my head, maybe some Devil may cry or god of war but nothing epic and that made me go at it over and over and over... Duke and Metroid were the first 2 to jump in my head esp Metroid getting her random/pattern down pat and makeing my numbs have some kinda nerve trigger responce to her color shift
the only Memorable Boss that comes immediately to mind is Lavos from Chrono Trigger. I got my ass handed to me my first two times. on my 4th try i beat him. and I swear to god that had to be the longest boss battle of my life. on top of the length of the battle it was still hard. So thats what I remember him for. that difficult grind to take him down
1. Master Hand- Come on who didn't like fighting a giant hand?
2. Ganon/Ganondorf/whatever the fuck else he called himself- Because this boss battle was fun.
3. Alma- O.K. Shes not really a boss really but fighting alma and her fucking insane spirit fuck things was not only scary and hard but also strangely rewarding.
4.The Boss from MGS3- This is probably my second favourite boss battle of all time and its hard for someone not to like this fight. I mean come on fighting in a fucking field of flowers is amazing....and the end of the game was so good that killing the boss was the best thing I've ever done.
lavos I believe can go down as one of the best bosses of all time.
however super crazy whatever lavos from chrono chross where you need to line up the elements in the perfect order, while hoping the boss casts the right kind of magic so as nut to fuck said order up... and then being quick on the draw to use the chrono trigger... is a bitch... even if the last boss is schala ducttaped to lavos back... it could've been a better boss. of course you can just kill himnormally... but then yuo get a shitty ending.
lavos' shell which has every boss battle in the game combined into a single boss... when once you defeat youre allowed inside the shell to fight the actual lavos... which is even harder. lavos = best boss fight ever.
back then i knew nothing of balance, so basically it was up to my level 70-something venusaur to carry me. against my rivals charizard with no moves left, not even tackle, and no pp up to replenish, i ended the fight with a struggle. it was epic
And this may not count as a “boss” per se, but I still have yet to master Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” on Expert in Guitar Hero II. But I will have my revenge, in this life or the next.
You try to leave the church but you can't, you head back and she busts through the glass then promptly kicks your ass about 30 times.
The fight is even better when you master it, it was a great idea when I killed her on Master Ninja without needing to heal. It requires such amazing precision that it just sticks with you.
Now, worst boss fight ever (for me, anyways) was the final battle in Dead to Rights. No matter what strategy I played out, the fucker just kept pummeling me into the ground. To this day, I still have not finished the game.
If you want the straight dope though, Megaman [Screw Battle Network] was the Well-Tempered Clavier of bossology. The umpteen billion boss fights of this whole series proved two things that hold well in any good modern boss. 1) The devil is in the pattern. 2) If you know fuck all about patterns, the right amount of ammo and rapid fire rage will do just as well.