As stated already, boss fights are tests to see if you're capable enough to handle all the challenges that the developer have offered. But we sometimes get so invested in the game that it doesn't look like a test anymore, but rather our journey and destination to the bosses that face our path to finishing the game. Sometimes we take these bosses as our own personal enemy, because we fell like the character, and we want nothing more than to beat their ass. But not just simply beating their ass, but we want it to be captivating, gripping, challenging, and thrilling to face them only to have us left eager to challenge them again. This is what makes these villains a character to us by showing how engaged they want us to loose as much as we want to win. A great boss fight shouldn't really be all trial and error and then hit their weak spot (Mario series), but rather an equal rival that is believable enough that can finish you off, like a bully in school. The last thing we want is a boss fight that only have a couple more hit-point than your normal enemy in the game (again the Mario series), but should be intelligent enough to strike at will and make it feel like a threat. And lastly, we want to have the biggest reward after we defeat them because nothing is like facing a worthy foe to feel so rewarding after making it this far and have complete fulfillment when victory is yours! There are so many to choose from but I only have four picks to choose as my favorite. Share with me your favorites in the forums, but here's my list!
Number 4. - Dogadon - Donkey Kong 64
One of the thousands of reasons why I love 3D platformers is that it's a requirement for the genre to have plenty of boss fight, but Rareware always gives us enough the experience. Out of all the character designs that Rare worked on, I say Dogadon is the best one of the bunch. Remember in my Donkey Kong 64 review when I said that facing this dragonfly-dragon was the best part of the game? I still stand by to that statement because this guy is so fun to fight that he had to be fought twice. The first one was your basic boss fight (playing as Diddy Kong) where you avoid his attacks only to have him caught off guard to ask you to throw an exploding barrel at him. The first time facing is not really much to talk about, but when you go to the Fungi Forrest's boss level as Chunky Kong, (surprise, surprise) he survived that lava fall only to be stronger and harder to kill than ever before. The first couple of rounds, it played exactly like the first time when you were playing as Diddy Kong, but after a couple of those explosive barrels to the chest, he does the unthinkable by stomping down your platform into the lava, as it descends slowly. This now makes it a timed fight where you have to not only avoid his attacks and throw an explosive barrel once more, but also transform Chunky Kong into a giant, that's equivalent to Dogadon's size, to only punch him as many times as you can to make him fall into the lava before you do! Punching this boss with these gigantic fists never felt so satisfying. Once you turn Chunky into a giant, you immediately want to continuously attack him like a punching bag that's about to fall off a cliff. I admit that I died so many times facing Dogadon as Chunky, but the scale was so dramatic between the two makes it so memorable!
Number 3. - Gigra / Azel with Atolm Dragon - Panzer Dragoon Saga
Okay, I'm cheating a little here, but there are just so many boss fights to choose from Panzer Dragoon Saga and that should tell you why this game is my favorite role-playing game ever! First, let's start with Gigra. What's surprising about this boss fight is that we were told that a dangerous insectoid was about to hatch out of its egg from the caves in the desert of the first area of the game. We enter in it, only to see that it was a small creature that's no more of a threat than the other baddies that you destroyed. You attack the enemy only to see that this little bugger was a moving sperm and he was protecting an egg. Once his HP is low, he enters the egg that he's protecting and then Gigra matched within seconds. This moth-like dragon was some of the most wondrous creatures of the game. It's really sad to see that this thing of beauty had to be killed by the player (life is too short for him), but what's surprising is that you finally met your match of a foe that's equal to your skills and he's one deadly beast. What I love so much about battling with Gigra is that viewing this creature in all certain angles was so magical, as your dragon and this moth-like beast battle each other like gods striking their powers against each other. Listening to the soundtrack and gazing at the size of this thing of beauty got me saying to myself "Wow… this game is so good…" It's one boss fight that I feel guilty of beating him, but it was that good of a fight that it's worth redoing that fight again and again, as long as you didn't save over that file! Watch the battle of Gigra here!
And then we have the best villain of the game, Azel. This isn't a spoiler but we all thought that Azel was going to be the damsel in distress when we found her in the mines in the beginning of the game only to have her kidnapped by Craymen and his army. We thought that our hero Edge was going to be that typical hero that has to save the damsel in distress, but NO! She decided to join Crayman's army and face you like a personal foe. You battle Azel and her Atolm Dragon a couple of times in the game, and it gets more and more epic the more they encounter each other. Remember on the last episode of Boochow were I was counting down the best games I've ever played when I described the battle between Edge and his dragon versus Azel and her dragon felt as epic as Goku vs. Freeza? I couldn't describe the thrill I had as goosebumps went all over my body when I was so pumped to beat this bitch so badly! Sometimes I wonder why we can't have more female villainess to be that engaging to battle because there aren't really that many of them! This game was released in 1998 and there hasn't been as much of great villainess video games than Azel! Minus her numerous monotone voice in certain parts of the game, she's too calm to scare her and so wise to have her dragon to beat the living shit out of you only to make you more eager to finally beat her the last time you face her. My favorite battle with Azel was the second battle with her, so click here to see why I love facing Azel so much!
I looked, and looked, and looked, and still to this very day, I can never find another RPG that is similar or as awesome as Panzer Dragoon Saga, and it leave me to still believe that there is no game like it! I know it's MIGHTY expensive to play Panzer Dragoon Saga… (call me crazy if you want to) … but for that over $200 price on ebay/amazon… it's worth it!
Number 2. - Ripto/Dr. Nefarious - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage/Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Then Insomniac struck again with Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal when they made the scales of facing Dr. Nefarious more grander than ever before. The first phase you're in the typical arena with just the two of you. Then, unexpectedly he yields and ask for mercy, then escapes calling our heroes "Suckas!" only leaving Ratchet to get pissed. On phase two, you're trying to catch up to Nefarious but you're not just in a boss level anymore, you're in a battlefield where his army is facing against you! This really blew my mind the video games could actually do this but Insomniac accomplished the unthinkable! As you're trying to catch Nefarious, he's protected in a force-field and blasting a hyper beat at you while you have troopers in your way. Then the phase continues on another arena where he breaks free of his field and start to give everything that he got with many clones and his best powers. It's amazing to see how overpowered Nefarious really is because not even your best weapons could easily take him down as you run out of ammo for nearly all of your weapons (especially the Challenge mode). Then on the last phase, he summons his giant robot that already makes it too difficult for our heroes to face, so they have to use a ship to go against this massive monstrosity (see how similar to the final phase is to have it take it up in the air like Spyro 2?) I really think that the battle with Nefarious was the last really satisfying boss battle I can think of.
I remember a dear friend of mine said that he never defeated Dr. Nefarious because he was too hard to beat. Obviously he never played Jak 2, but I decided to help him out by playing this game in our teen center, which was an activity center for middle and high schoolers, and surprisingly enough everyone else wanted to see it. I did die a couple of times, but then on my third try, everyone was jumping up and down to finally have this overpowered beast to be taken down. Then finally, as soon as I defeated Nefarious, I got down on my knees screaming with joy as everyone went nuts seeing something that epic has been accomplished. Funny enough, I also had the same reaction when I told my friends that I finally reached Ripto's boss fight back in 1999/2000 as they were eager to see the Ripto beaten. That's one of my favorite memories with video games and I will cherish that moment of both of those series as long as I live! Thank you so much, Insomniac for giving me some of the most joyful moments I've had from these two boss fights.
Number 1. - Psycho Mantis - Metal Gear Solid
Psycho Mantis just fucks with you. I told this story once and I'll always share it again. I remember back in 1998/1999 where my friends were so obsessed with playing these new horror games already in the market and was shocked to see that one of my friend's brother had a collection of these horror games that our families will never approve of. We had a church party at his place and convinced his brother to show us these horror games. We tried Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, Silent Hill, Resident Evil: Survivor, Clock Tower (PS1), and for some odd reason we tried Metal Gear Solid. At first I was wondering, why are we playing a military action game, but then we realized that this was beyond expectations, and thus we agreed to play this game longer than we tried the others. We had no idea on what a stealth game was and how to play it at first. It was scary as fuck to get caught by the enemy which makes it so scary to play at the time. It was the first time that I was more scared to get caught by the terrorists than encountering a zombie because once they find you, they will continue to catch you and more will come after you as you finish one of them off until you're either dead or you find a perfect spot.
There were also instances where we were overwhelmed by Metal Gear Solid because of the threats about nuclear weapons and all of the lessons that they shared. This was the very game that got me obsessed learning about the history of the Cold War because of constant discussions of how a nuclear strike will change the world for the worse and we can't let FoxHound and these Genome Soldiers get away with it. After we faced Revolver Ocelot and Vulcan Raven in his tank, everyone in the party had to leave the house, but our parents left us as a sleep over not knowing what game we're playing. And then… Psycho Mantis…
Out of all the fearful and surprises that we faced in the beginning of the game, this fucker tops it all down. It's past 11 PM and we were so looking forward to see what happens next. First, we notice that Meryl got a headache before we entered the office. After she got over the headache, something was wrong, she didn't feel like herself by speaking like she's wearing a gas mask and calling us "Mr. Foxhound." As we enter the room she creeped the living daylights out of us by asking to make love to her and pointed her gun at Snake. We had no choice but to knock her out (we killed her first time around and had to restart the mission again). Then Psycho Mantis appeared which was him all along and now showing in his most evil moment!
Just looking at his mask and into the visor covering his eyes disturbed us completely. He started talking in cryptic dialog, then he broke the forth wall. He wasn't talking to Solid Snake anymore, he was talking directly to the audience which started to get us cuddling each other in fear. One of our friends was crying like it was his worst nightmare as he read my friend's memory card saying he like playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was the first time that he knows that his brother owns Metal Gear Solid and he cried out "how the hell does he know I play that game." Then Psycho Mantis discusses about placing the controller down and my friend did. I had no idea that the dual shock had a vibration feature at the time, but when he vibrated the controller as it moved around the floor, we fucking jumped! We jumped and screamed at the level of mind-fuckery this really was! We were all too scared to pick up the controller because we thought that he was finally coming out of the video game. And then, the boss fight started and no one wanted to pick it up. Then, Solid Snake died. One of our friends decided to face Psycho Mantis and restart the fight. Then another mind-fuck came along where the TV input was out, or so we thought. At that moment, my life paused there like Psycho Mantis finally came out of the video game and has came to get us. Then the fake output was to fool us only to loose control of the fight. We only redo the fight twice, but we were up on our feet so eager to beat this source of evil for scaring the living shit out of us. None of us could beat him because Mantis was beyond scary and too god-like to defeat him that he predicted our every moves. Then finally one of my other friends cried so badly, that we had to stop the game. That was indefinitely one of the most thrilling and scariest moment that I've ever had in a video game at that time.
I never wanted to play that game ever again, until the hype for Metal Gear Solid 2 was announced for the Playstation 2. Instantly, I wanted to beat the first game before I got myself the PS2. Around 2001, I had to swallow my fear and get the copy of Metal Gear Solid 1 and face Psycho Mantis once more. It felt that level of scare that I've had back in 1998/1999 and got me more than curious to see where does this game go after it. I died and died so many times because Psycho Mantic knew everyone of my moves and I could barely hit him. I thought that this game was impossible, until your ally Colonel Campbell called you and finally said switch the controller from port one to two so that Psycho Mantis won't read your every move. And then, after all those times wondering what the game was like to finish him, I finally beaten him. But it wasn't the victory that I was expecting because that glorious moment of beating him finally went a complete 180 when Psycho Mantis started to have an epiphany and made us sympathized his curse about reading other people's minds. This was when I started to cry for him as I watch the cutscene of him talking about his past with his father and all of the other people's minds of how he hated each and everyone of them wanted to bring pain and misery to others. He couldn't stop seeing everybody's deepest and darkest secrets of the same obsessions, which is why he wanted to join Liquid Snake's revolution; he wanted an excuse to kill as many people as he could. That moment when he said that, I choked and teared up because I never felt sorry for a video game character, let alone a villain that scared me and my friends half to death years ago. And after Mantis died, it wasn't the last time that this game made us feel sad as another villain confessed their sins before their fate is sealed (Sniper Wolf), but for Psycho Mantis… what a huge surprise to see something as scary and sad could be the most misunderstood character ever, let alone probably the best boss fight of the entire Metal Gear Solid franchise! And that's why Psycho Mantis is remembered as one of the best villains of the series, with all the things I've said already. Still to this day I can't hold my tears on Psycho Mantis's story, as you can hear that on the last episode of Boochow, but it's something that answered my problem with the human race. Thank you, Psycho Mantis for being the most surprising character that I've ever seen in, not only in video games, but in fiction!
So that's my list, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it and tell me what you think in the forums! Tomorrow is my Top 3 Gaming Accomplishments! Once again, Happy New Year for every one! And I hope for the best in 2014!
