Favorite Boss Fights
 

The title says it all. Name your favorite boss fights of all time, whether due to the scenario, the challenge, the music, and so forth.

I've given it some thought, and I'd have to say the following three choices make up my favorite boss battles in my history of playing games.

1. Seven Force (Gunstar Heroes)

http://image2.sina.com.cn/gm/upload/...8649/38659.jpg

Unquetionably the best boss fight for the best action game ever made. Real men take on Green and his Seven Force in expert mode, where you'll have to fight off all seven forms at once. I've spent many summers fighting Seven Force, and just recently I downloaded the Sega Ages: Treasure Box iso to play GH on my PS2. After all this time, the game hasn't gotten old, and neither has Seven Force.

2. Zakat (Zone of the Enders 2)

http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/zoe2/ja...zakat_left.jpg (best pic I could find)

I absolutely love this fight for nearly the same reasons I love Seven Force. The aesthetics all came together perfectly here. The setting has Jehuty (your mech) and Zakat high up in the sky, past the clouds. The two opponents (Dingo and Zakat's pilot) trash talk each other in a beautifully animated cutscene. The whole battle plays homage to the very best mecha anime. Also, the boss music really, really owns.

3. Crocomire (Super Metroid)

http://es.geocities.com/supermetroid..._crocomire.JPG

There are longer, more intense fights in Super Metroid, but this one has always been the most memorable to me for two reasons.

A) It's the first boss fight since Bowser in Super Mario 3 where I was forced to think outside the box, as normal attacks had no effect on the creature.

B) It ended with, to this day, the goriest boss death ever for a first party Nintendo game. The post-battle surprise made me jump out of my seat.

Only two come to mind first.

The final boss in Terranigma (SNES) is a favorite because I think I attempted it too early, and the battle was a challenge. I remember that there was an item that I never managed to get so the battle ended up being longer than necessary. I also didn't figure out when to block certain attacks until my second attempt.

In Dew Prism (PSX), there was a boss called Cloud Whale. I remember the name of that one because I was forced to look it up in a guide after failing at least ten times. I thought there was something I couldn’t see or a trick to use, but there were none. The boss would use three or four different attacks consecutively without leaving much room for the player to attack, and I believe I was also too weak for this battle. I think I started with one or two healing items even if the boss was able to reduce the HP bar to half in one hit.

A boss battle generally becomes a favorite if it happened to be unusually long or very challenging.

Cerberus (The three headed GF) from FF8... He was the best challenge i've ever faced in an RPG . (Not sure if i remember his name right, tho ^^ )

Edit : Also, 3 more i thought of;

Rocket-Demon Baphomet (thats what i call him !) the final boss in Doom.. OMG.. everytime he popped into my face i literally felt my skull quiver and my whole body tingling, i was young, but he was that scary, and that awesome.

The 2 stage hydra in God Of War.. Man that boss was so big, fierce and almost had me shaking in my seat..Only i remembered i was 21, so i didn't.

The crab/scorpion/lava-demon thing in Devil May Cry, that thing REALLY looked like a hell-spawn.

Metal Gear Rex from the first Metal Gear Solid game is one of the most intense boss fights I've played in a game. I like games that are able to actually have a realistic large scale enemy, and Rex is probably the most convincing one I've seen in a game. Usually, large things in games just have the "Final Fantasy" effect: it doesn't matter how big it is, in reality it moves exactly the same and is just as powerful as something much smaller. Rex managed to actually seem plausible despite it's ridiculous size, and the entire fight seemed like an actual David vs. Goliath battle of epic proportions. Plus you actually had to use a bit of strategy: hiding behind boxes out of it's sensor sweeps, using grenades to scramble it's electronics, dodging the heck out of the way when it makes a mad charge at you like a 100-ton bull.

Here's a picture of Rex for the 5 of you that haven't played the game (the Twin Snakes version, but eh, same thing): http://www.home.no/lzp/Rex.jpg

The Azel/Atolm battles in Panzer Dragoon Saga were also a treat, in fact many of the boss fights in that game were spectacular for an RPG. Rarely could you ever win simply by hitting attack over and over again. The only problem was that the game was fairly easy, and some parts of the combat system were pretty broken (like the counterattack spell and Sniper gun attachment).

Look at this shit

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6277/boss129rp.jpghttp://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8339/boss138pi.jpg

Xiga. Be praying.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5779/boss186jg.jpghttp://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9400/boss197mc.jpg


So the end boss of space shoot-em-up Radiant Silvergun is a giant man that attacks you with flying kicks. Totally saw it coming.

He looks amazingly smooth and fluid as he's athletically running, jumping and somersaulting around the screen. All of his attack patterns are wonderfully designed, beautiful to watch, and overwhelming to experience. Bottom-Right: Each phase of falling diamonds is in synchronisation with the beat of his pulsing heart. Cool.

What an impressive and unorthodox last boss. I love it.

The fight against Bunji Kugashira in Gungrave comes to mind, mainly for the challenge of it (it's definitely the hardest fight in the game, even harded than the last boss). He has all the same moves as you, so it's bascally like you are fighting yourself, which means that the fight is friggin difficult (if you look at Gamefaqs, someone actually made a FAQ that only covers this fight because it's so difficult). After you finish it though, the feeling of relief that it's over is one of the greatest things you'll feel while playing a game. Everything else is awesome to, from the cutscenes before and after the fight, to the music during the fight. Awesome boss fight indeed.

Also, the final boss in Xenosaga Episode I comes to mind, if not just for the awesome music they played during the fight.

Another good boss fight was the battle against the four helicopters in XIII. Just the pure franticness of it, with the helicopter shooting missles at you, you trying to dodge them while shooting back at the helicopter, finally destroying one and another one comes, it's all awesome. It's definitely pretty difficult, but still cool nonetheless.

I could go on for quite awhile about boss fights and which ones are pretty outstanding from the rest. But I thought Favorites threads like these weren't allowed? Well, regardless I'll take this opportunity to mention some of the best I've seen.

- The boss in Ikaruga where you cannot shoot. You're trapped and your only chance of survival is colour coordination and memorization. If you're lucky enough to survive (which I haven't so far) until it's death, the death is amazing.

- The alien boss in Metal Slug 3 on level 2. I still haven't figured out a successful way of beating this thing accurately without dying at least once. The balls of energy they throw at you at an extreme speed usually get me killed at least once. This boss stands out just for insane difficulty over the rest (for example, the first and third bosses).

- Flaming Leo from Viewtiful Joe immediately comes to mind. I remember seeing him and going "oh shit" while he kicked my ass a good few times. The way he's drawn is nicely done too, and it was probably one of the best battles in the entire game.

- The battle vs. Lavos. It felt never ending and I didn't think it would ever die. Even though the first time I beat Chrono Trigger all my characters were in their 50's, it still lasted quite awhile. Also, you know that room with the simulation of the end of the world, with meteors showing all over the world? Spine-chilling like nothing.

- Mushihimesama and the level 3 boss. Which is basically the entire level, because it's a gigantic worm which has bugs flying outside of it's stomach that shoot bullets at you constantly. Then there's the arms and sections of the boss which you need to destroy piece by piece. The level's music is the only thing that I dislike about this level. The boss itself is the largest I've ever seen.

- Astro Boy: Omega Factor and the sister robot which transforms into different kinds of animals. I had to kill this thing very carefully otherwise I'd still be working on it. It totally caught me off guard since the rest of the game had been on a certain pace which hadn't been changed until this boss.

- Rez' second boss makes you feel so freaking small, especially when the camera goes sideways and shows how small you are in comparison to how grossly oversized it is. All of the bosses in Rez deserve a mention because they're just so beautifully done that none of them lack interest in challenging.

- The last battle in Gitaroo Man. It was a little farfetched by flying above an island fighting eachother through musical notes, but it was a rush the first time I beat it consecutively with the other levels.

Really? I thought that was only in regards to favorite characters, or any threads that result in listing-style posts.

That Radiant Silvergun boss looks ridiculous to the point of fun. I might give it a download just for the fight.

::kung-fu kicks vic viper::

As far as RPGs go, I'll have to give it some thought, but I can't name too many final boss battles that I would consider memorable. Most of them follow the same formula; the last villain takes some bizzare, usually angelic shape and merely spams planet-destroying spells on you. For all the hype with Sephiroth, his last form and battle felt pretty underwhelming for me.

I guess Kefka would be a special exception, due to tower he sicks at you (living naked statues of himself. jeez), as well as the sudden bulge in muscles he gets along with the slick angel wings. It's definetely less gay looking than Seph's final form. :/

Please tell me how you're going to "download" Radiant Silvergun.

The game can't be emulated accurately even for a Saturn title.

My personal favorite Rez boss will always be the Area 4 running man. The first time you chase him down the twisting corridors as Joujouka pounds in your ears is an indescribable rush. The damn thing just looks so awesome you feel like not shooting him, at least until you get to the straight corridor and he starts attacking.
Maybe a little easy as a boss fight, but no less entertaining, especially if you hold out destroying him fast and he start morphing between multiple forms in rapid succession near the end of the fight.

Killer7 had a host of extremely memorable (and fucked up) boss fights. The seven-part duel against the Handsome Men is one favorite of mine, even if the outcome is prescripted. It just came outta nowhere for me and I was laughing my ass through the whole thing.
I also rather liked the standoff with Curtis in the third level: Encounter. Even though it's so ridiculously simple, it took me ages to figure it out. While a lot of the boss fights had been more or less extravagant blast-fests, Dan's duel with Curtis Blackburn had a far more private, intimate feel, though no less surreal because of the way you had to observe the pigeon and wait.

Resident Evil games have also had a lot of great bosses, not least the fantastic Resident Evil 4. The Tyrant fight in the GC REmake is a personal favorite of mine. The atmosphere and everything that had taken place before it just had you all pumped up knowing this was the "final battle".
It was both scary and thrilling, or frustrating depending how much ammunition you had left. I almost always had plenty of magnum ammo by then so fighting him wasn't a problem. It was also hilariously tense when you fire that last rocket at the Tyrant expecting the usual cutscene, only to have the Tyrant swat the shot aside like a fly. Finally taking him down proved extremely satisfying, thankfully.

Another boss that dies extremely satisfyingly was Verdugo in RE4, Salazar's right hand. The whole fight was incredibly tense for me, desperately trying to dodge his attacks and horrifiedly coming to the conclusion that he doesn't seem to be taking any damage from my shots. Eventually realizing to freeze him with the nitrogen tanks, the final shot completely took me by surprise. I expected him to die in the typically boring overexaggerated and lumbering fall to the ground, but seeing him shatter to a dozen pieces while frozen brought about an excited whoop from me.

That wasn't the sister robot (Zoran), that was Pook, an entirely different character. Zoran has no reason to fight Astro =/

It's Yukari Yakumo from the shooter Perfect Cherry Blossom, if you manage to unlock Phantasm, which I did.

http://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc131.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc132.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc133.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc134.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc135.jpg
http://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc136.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc137.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc138.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc139.jpghttp://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc140.jpg
+ final attack:Yukari's Arcanum "Danmaku Bounded Field" http://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/.../Th07sc141.jpg

This boss has 20 forms, yes you heard it, 9 Non-Spell Card forms and 11 Spell Card forms. Which other shooter does this? And the attacks are awesome, requiring different skills in each form, which means pure adrenaline until the last form (if you ever reach it, that is).

You got knives, butterfly spirits, arrow head bullets, crystal shards, round bullets, medium round bullets, big bubbles, laser blades, laser mesh in any constellation and color.... illusions, confined space, time trick, fanning, spinning, bursting, buck-shotting, alternating, waving, dancing, exploding, disappearing, reappearing... you name it, she got it.

Too bad, most of you won't even know what I am talking about.

I guess these count..pretty much any fight from Shadow of the Colossus (especially the big sword guy, the "bird", and the last fight). Also liked the first boss in Viewtiful Joe 2 (forgot the name but its got the military music going on). Guess there's more but I cant think of em lol

My favourite boss fight I can think of in recent memory would have to be the final fight with Ganon in Wind Waker. It's an epic battle, the atmosphere is just so invloving. I must have replayed it at least 15 times, I love it.

Can I nominate everything from Zone of the Enders 2? That game had some really shining examples of how boss fights should go, as none of them were every really as simple as "regular enemy, except stronger".

You have no less than three battles against Nephtis, who cannot be directly attacked, and each time you have to come up with a new method of getting past its impenetrable shield. The most interesting one is the last fight, which takes place in a narrow hallway. You have to use other enemies as projectiles, or if you're a really good shot, slam Nephtis into the wall with the Gauntlet weapon.

Inhert was also a really unique boss. For the first quarter of his life bar it's a standard fight against a really fast opponent with moving bars getting in your way. Then he renders the room pitch black, and you have to fight completely blind with your computer giving you verbal directions.

The fight with Jean Bison in Sly 2 was a great diversion. You don't attack him directly; instead, you have Bentley running around with a walkie-talkie, giving commands to Sly up in a control room. The idea is to lure Jean into the fire vents, saw blades, or hanging logs, and hit the appropriate button to sic one of the traps on him. It technically plays out like a standard boss fight, but with a really unusual set of weapons.

Also, a second vote for Seven Force. That, I think, is the first time I've walked away from a boss fight physically exhausted. He just doesn;t stop coming. The remade version in Gunstar Super Heroes wasn't bad either, although his attack patterns are more predictable.

I think the big yellow thing from the Megaman games deserves mention too. I don't know what it's real name is, it's the big cyclopean guy who splits himself apart and flies across the room in segments. He still kicks my ass, simply because the pieces fly so fast, you never know which chunk is coming next, and it's really easy to get faked out.

There was one boss in Contra Shattered Soldier which was great, it's during the third level. the music gets you so pumped up going down the elevator toward the stand off with the big thing which then gets mashed by a huge machine after you defeat it. Epic!

Devil May Cry 3 had a nice end battle, and the battle with Agni and Rudra was one I enjoyed, and there Devil Arm is awesome too.

Resident Evil 2 Leon Scenario A because you can finally test the upgraded magnum to show its true power. Ohh yeah, Pigsy in Manhunt was great too

I can't think of any actual boss fights rigt now except Bowser from Tetris Attack. That guy is so hard and requires alot of dedication, and fast thinking to be able to beat successfully first try. He really is the combo king!

EDIT: I mean on very hard mode

SOLDIER mentioned Super Metroid, but he didn't mention the battle with Motherbrain and the giant Metroid. Yeah, it was easy as pie, but it was very cinematic (without being a cinema scene) and very rewarding when you get to blow Motherbrain away with the Hyper Beam.

RPG boss battles usually end up being more frustrating than exciting, but Final Fantasy IV definitely had some good boss fights. The Evil Wall is one of the most tense and unfair battles (unless you're overleveled), and actually kept me from beating the game for years. Also, the final battle with Zeromus can be either epic or a complete let down. It starts off with a rousing scene as your friends all pray for power and revive your characters while the Final Fantasy theme plays triumphantly. Then you use the crystal and this BIG FUCKING ALIEN pops up in front of you. Unfortunately, if you lose this battle it feels very anti-climatic, because you have to watch the scene all over again.

Contra games definitely have a ton of memorable boss battles. I'd say my favorite from Shattered Soldier was the Big Fish at the end of the 4th level. It makes a great entrance as it smashes through the glass and the battle is pretty intense.

Overall, my favorite Contra boss is one from Contra III: The Alien Wars. The big robot guy who would do a 360 flame from his mouth, and shoot guided lasers. Best part of course was when he'd then toss timebombs, and hide. It's just incredibly imaginative and a lot of fun to fight.

My favorite boss fights usually have attacks that are fun to dodge. Atmosphere can play a role, but I'm seeing too many choices here that are based purely on style and no substance.

Seven Force is cool, but it's attacks are extremely scripted. Soldier and Crab force are the only ones I find fun.

I love the Gryffon fights in the first DMC, because you're dodging wonderfully complicated electrical patterns and attacks and stuff. Come to think about it, DMC had overall better bosses and enemies than DMC3.

I also loved the final boss battle "Greedy" from Ristar, because it has a perfect blend of intuition and memorization: once you master it, you can beat him pretty much unscathed, but the feeling is satisfying.

I know everyone hates SNKP's attempts at prolonging the Metal Slug games, but my favorite bosses have always been from Metal Slug 5. THIS is 99% substance... some of the bosses don't even look interesting. The final boss was extremely disappointing, though.

Someone mentioned Shattered Solder, and while I never played it, I have played the incredibly underrated Neo Contra. A surprisingly polished arcade style game, the bosses were numerous and fun to fight, which almost reminded me of Treasure in a way. I never use that guard spinning thing, at all, though, not because it's useless, but because it's TOO USEFUL.

Oh, and Sin and Punishment. Tons of awesome bosses. If you've played it, you'll know how awesome the bosses are.

There's a ton, but let's mention some less exposed ones, plus some favourites.

Giygas from Earthbound will be one of my ever-loved ones, since: 1) he should have just kept the super-shield on and you would really be helpless, and 2) You need Paula to "pray" in order to win, enough said.

Beatrice from Wild Arms 3 was very neat. She had 10 different forms, since it was just thrust at you at the last second that her little world ws evolving and you had to stop it. Plus, immediately before the final battle:
[spoil] BAM! Lamium saves you from an ambush and since Beatrice killed him, the rest of the groups' lives are permanently screwed, because killing a cult leader is serious business. Thanks Beatrice...bitch![/b]

Against giant Garai in Chrono Cross, at one point was memorable, soley for the fact that Harle can shoot balls at his groin, repeatedly!

The fights against every single one of the elite forces in Wild Arms 4 really required you to think, as each member of the elite force had their own specialty and you had to think instead of just attack. One could get extra turns out of nowhere, another could nullify all your attacks with a spatial distortion, one produced clones which if you killed you would die too, etc. My favourite of the force though, was Farmel, the shield. She would be invincible and took me forever to figure out that:

Zeal, another Chrono Trigger classic scared me the first time I fought her in her 2nd form. Smack a hand: Life Shaver, hp to 1! Smack the other hand: MP Buster, mp to 0! Hexagon Mist: 500+ dmg, if improperly prepared. Plus, my favourite attack: Hallation, hp to 1 for ALL. You could charm the wicked prism items from her though.

MidBoss in Disgaea, every time you faced him. Unless you were thoroughy prepared and overlevelled beforehand, it was such a facade. He'd appear to be a pansy in all the dialogue with all his fruity behaviour. When you get to battle, all his minions will wear you down, and you're forced to eat his Adonic Blast and Adonic Fury.

Rugal in the King of Fighters series. Damn now! Genocide Cutter outprioritizes almost everything, and pushes you away. Kaiser Wave is a lot faster than it looks. Not to mentioned God Press which comes out quick to do massive damage.

Princess Sissy from Power Instinct Matrimelee, because the simple Abubo summon outprioritizes everything due to it's ridiculous 1/2 second invincibility. Not to mention the guard dropping frog, and just about any move short of her lame transforming ray will beat yours. She's no sissy if it's even hard to beat her with constant savestates!

My absolute favourite though would have to be the Valkyrie Profile version of Iseria Queen, dueo the Empress Massacre attack wh guarantees your death in a series of flashy angelic scythe strikes.

Favorite Boss Fights , eh?

Well, my favorite battles were:

1. Omega (Final Fantasy 2/5j SNES/PSX)
Omega was impossible the 1st time I fought him but when I figured out an easy way to beat him (Samurai & Monk, anyone?), it was easy, provided I'm fast enough, of course.

2. Kefka (Final Fantasy 3/6j, SNES/PSX)
Fighting him is so damn fun, yet annoying when he uses HyperDrive or Goner (Ugh, I cringe EVERYTIME I see that attack used). But the music is pretty awesome too. I think the title of his theme was Dancing Mad, right???

3. Monarch (Gradius 3, SNES)
One of the "Bosses On Parade", his/it's music is rather mysterious. He was the only one I thought was very hard (When I first fought him/it), those annoying crystal tentacles almost always got me when I tried to shoot at him/it.

4. Bowser (Final Time, Super Mario 64, N64)
Bowser is actually challenging this time around, huh? When I fought him the last time, I thought the ENTIRE battlefield was gonna collapse within a period of time. But I managed to beat him by chance (Yeah, right....).

Is this good????

Luca Blight, Suikoden II - It takes three parties of six to take this guy down. And it isn't easy if your parties are of average power. And after taking a pounding from him, he is still alive and on his way to escaping before he gets taken down by a group of archers.

Odin, FFVIII - This fight is only challenging if you allow it to be. First of all, you have a time limit. Sure, there is plenty of time to annihilate him, and he doesn't ever actually attack. The fun lies in your attempt to draw as many Triple spells from him as you can, and defeat him within the time limit, because at the end of your 20 minutes {the counter begins the moment you enter his dungeon}, he will kill the party if you haven't killed him first. Drawing 100 Triples each on three characters is tough.

What the holy crap? I didn't know you could kill him. I always figured jumping into the elevator was the only way to finish the fight, and just leave him hangin' up in the power room. Well, you learn something new every day, i'll have to remember that for my next play through.

I love the lake boss in RE4 (name escapes me). I'm creeped out by lakes, i don't know why, i just am. Part of it is cause i have an over active imagination, and seeing stuff like that boss, and jaws, and whatnot kinda makes me edgy when i'm in the water. I know i have nothing to worry about, but it just really gets me every time i go swimming. This boss really played off that fear, especially when Leon gets knocked out of the boat, i always tap A as fast as i humanly can to get back into the boat.

Another underwater boss i really like was the fight with Ursella in Kingdom Hearts. Her second form is huge. I think at that point, you're about the same size as her eye. It just creeped me out, which made it memorable.

Pretty much any boss from any Zelda game has great memories for me. My favourite over all would have to be Odolwa in the Woodfall temple in Majora's Mask. I still remember the first time i fought him. My sister was watching, and she hates video games. In the end, even she said wow, with a genuine look of awe on her face, as i finished him off with one quarter of a heart left.

I really like the fight with Bull in the castle centre in Castlevania 64. You never stop moving, always running, and attacking in the prescious few chances you get. It makes for one intense fight.

I really like alot of the bosses in Metriod Prime 1 and 2. I really like the big Rock boss in the first one (can't remember the name). I remember having so much trouble with that one, but after i got the hang of it, it was still challenging, but adrenalin pumping.

Yeah, you need to keep tipping the nitrogen tanks over to freeze him and shooting. The magnums do nice damage there, I had the Broken Butterfly at the time.
Sadly, I discovered on a later playthrough shooting him with a fully upgraded Handcannon does not produce the shattering effect when he dies, he merely slumps to the floor after a squeeling death animation, which wasn't half as satisfying.

I too loved Del Lago. It was such a thrilling set piece and a massive rush the first time you played it.

Yunalesca, because she was the first boss I ever died against. I had to try six times before winning.

Although I don't recall any details about the battle, I do remember that I didn't struggle too much. Was it because your levels were too low?

I remember Yunalesca. I also had massive amounts of trouble with her. She's the reason i was so powerful when i finished the game. After i found out that Holy did 9999 damage, i went on a quest to get Yuna to learn Holy, but didn't even end up using it cause of it's MP cost. But along with that, came everyone's levels shooting through the roof, and i was able to just barely scrape by, and breezing through the rest of the game.

Qwarky: I remember one fight with him when i had tipped over every nitrogen tank, and shot him each time but he didn't die. It might've been cause it was with my shotgun and not my magnum (i have an obsession with saving magnum ammo).

After i didn't kill him, i figured he just didn't die, and you just had to run away from him. On my next play through, i'll go all the way.

Metroid Prime - This is the boss battle that always comes to the top of my head in these discussions. I'll never forget getting to the end of that tiny morph ball room, opening the door, and seeing Prime hanging there. It comes out of its shell and drops down. Cue the battle music. The fight was great becaue it forced you to use all your weapons and even drop down into morphball form once in a while. Fast-paced and fun.


It (Resident Evil 4) - Hard to remember by name, easy for the two-part battle, this is the boss battle that began with the impossible cut scene that landed Leon in a system of warehouse-like rooms suspended above an infinite nothing. I was more than willing to forgive the game, though, because what followed was one of the most intense fights I've ever played. You had to wander around these dark rooms that resembled mini-mazes, looking for switches to open the industrial shutter door that led to the next room. The previous room would of course fall into oblivion, for dramatic effect. There was the possibility that you would fall with it if your exit was too slow.

Through all of this, the hulking mass of a boss (which, incidentally, must be the most hideous thing ever conceived) would drop down to terrorize you. Sometimes it would haul you up and choke you. After a few shots it would jump back up.

After finally getting through all the rooms, Leon makes it to the other side, some large dirt ledge protruding up out of the nothingness. What can only be called a mutant scorpion-bug presumably fell to its death. It comes crawling up the ledge, however, and is far from done with you. The second part of the battle is also great, but this is getting more windy than I intended. It suffices to say that as a whole, this battle is more ambitious than the final bosses in most games.

I guess it's not a coincidence that Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4 are my two favorite games of this gen.

Metroid Prime 2 gets an honorable mention, because even though it didn't have the second, third, or maybe even fourth best boss fight among the three games, it probably had the best overall compendium of them. The major boss fights were great, and the mini-bosses were both great and numerous. Many were simply ingenious.

Riku- Kingdom Hearts... He was Harder than Ansem. I died Exactly 27 times Before I finally beat him.

Mr.X from Streets of Rage. I love the entire game and I just love fighting him I find it rather fun.

I like the both final Boss of KH 1 and 2 (and I mean every form of those fnal boss) I don't know I think they are really fun to do ^^ especialy the one of KH2 with the reaction commend ^^

I really like to fight the final form of Ultimecia in FFVIII because of the best final boss music I have heard.

I could say all 15 colossi because they all feel like boss and are all fun to kill ^^

I like to kill the Queen in ICO, even if it's not really a fight, I like the feeling, the music and the special effect in this "battle"

it's been a long ltime but I really enjoy to fight Ganondorf and ganon in ocarina of time and the final boss in wind waker too ^^

yunalesca can really be a bitch... I remember the first time I pass her without a single problem and on my second game I must have tried her 20time >.> my friend got stuck on her too. the problem is the mega death she does, you must have a lot of holy water keep at least one character in zombie, because is megadeath always work >.> so zombie prevent you to die (yeah you're kind of already dead XD) and it suck to use a holy water to heal yourself after and prey that she will do zombie again before doing mega death >.<

Actually yeah, Yunalesca was also the most memorable fight of FFX for me as well, more so than any Seymour/Sin fight. Her last form looked so grotesque, being that Medusa meld or whatever it is, especially when casting MegaDeath. *shudder* I wanted that bitch to die after hearing the story before the fight concerning the Final Summoning.

Yes, that, and I wasn't aware of the fact that I should leave my characters in zombie mode.

I don't have any problems with her any more. By the time I get to her, I have already completed everybody's sphere grid path except Kimahri.

(The reason for this is because when I get to the part just before the battle with Seymour on the Bevelle Highbridge, I spend about forty-five minutes to one hour fighting the robots that appear in the random battles there. They are extremely easy to kill and give a TON of sphere points. This is by FAR the best place to level up during normal gameplay. I do this every time I play through the game. So by the time I actually go to fight Seymour, I'm already as levelled as I can possibly be until I get the airship. Except for Kimahri, because he was holding Seymour back the whole time!)

I also don't use any of my special spheres until after I've done this levelling up process. After I'm done, I teach Yuna all of the black magic spells, among other things. It only took one holy and one flare to finish off Seymour that time. That sissy.

Einhander's Level 5 mini-boss, Ausf A Gestell (aka Funky Pink Monkey Thing). Love this guy. So many ways for him to kill you, so many ways for him to be killed. Also, ordinarily he's slow and lumbering, but he's quite a bit faster on Hard Mode, prancing about on his tiptoes instead of trodding. (Good battle theme, too, actually.)

lol yeah any robot in FFX when you have Rikku are REALLY easy to kill: Rikku->steal robot = robot automaticaly dead >.> but I don't remember if you get ap that way XD

Actually, I don't think Rikku's steal works on the huge concrete-looking robots in Bevelle.

Magus from Chrono Trigger is, of course, classic. Probably the most memorable fight ever for me (probably because I was young when it happened).

Sephiroth from FF7 is another favorite.

The last boss from Banjo Kazooie, the Witch, is another very memorable (and tough) fight (suprisingly).

And finally, by far, my favorite of the favorites: Panzer Dragoon 2 ZWEI, Stage 3 (Forest) and 4 (Caverns) bosses were very fun and amazing at the time.

Oh I just randomly thought of Wrexsoul from FF VI. I was always scared to fight him the normal way which involves being near death, which I thought was pretty clever, so I always cheated and used Vanish -> X-Zone on the two thingies. One playthrough I had equipped Phantom/Fenrir (whichever one you learn vanish/xzone from) on another character that was not in the dream and had no way of learning vanish for any of my characters, so I gave up at that point.

My favorite bosses are (in no particular order) -

Matador from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne III. He has a special place in my heart, since he was the first Fiend you face in the game, he's stylish, and he's also the first boss in that game to thoroughly thrash me.

Hitoshura from Digital Devil Saga 1 was tons of fun to fight, despite the luck factor involved in it. Beating him was one of the most satisfying victories in recent memory. :p

Flahgraa from Metroid Prime will always be my favorite boss from that game.

Barubary from Breath of Fire II deserves a mention here, if only because of his boss battle theme.

I once beat it without losing a life by managing to make it all the way there as a zombie. Your zombie form's bomb has a death ray that does MASSIVE damage. I can't remember if those balls affect you or not. I might've killed him too fast for him to do it. :D
But yeah, I think I pulled off beating that thing without dying only once or twice, having played it through in the arcade multiple times.

I always liked fighting Sigma in Mega Man X2, where he whips out the claws. He moves almost constantly, and you have to as well if you want to beat him. He's not that hard for me, but the fast action is fun enough for me that I enjoy it every time.

The fairy woman at the end of the Cave of Trials in Star Ocean 2 is easily the hardest boss I've ever encountered and beaten. As if just getting to her wasn't enough of a pain... I must've fought her for over 30 minutes.

The last Vergil fight in Devil May Cry 3 is another favorite of mine. The music was really cool and the swordplay is just intense.

Jack Krauser in Resident Evil 4 was really cool as well. The dialogue and the constant cat and mouse game he played, followed by a timed roof fight. Delicious.

Also, every boss fight in Zone of the Enders 2. Especially the last one against Anubis. Using his own tricks against him was so satisfying. And when it lets you deliver the final blow... That game is a masterpiece, stupid hero name aside.

My favorite boss fight of all time is right in my username. Maybe he was more of a miniboss, but still. The arena was beautiful. It wasn't your typical dark abyss, it was a shallow, flat lake, with a bit of land in the middle, and the entire arena faded away into endless light. I'd done a good bit of gaming before then, but I'd never come across any sort of doppleganger fight before, so this was new to me. The fact that he wasn't an exact carbon copy of you, and was shadowy was pretty cool....who is link really fighting here? Where's the real struggle.

Ok, maybe that's putting more story into OT than there really was, lol. But Dark Link from Ocarina of Time is probably always going to be my favorite boss.

But yeah, I was pretty surprised to have an extremely awesome enemy to fight in an area that was very serene and peaceful otherwise. The only thing it really needed to make it ultimate was some amazing music instead of the standard miniboss fight music.

--------------

Shadow Ganon comes right up there too as far as cool bosses. Leaping in and out of pictures, and then you had that insanely fast tennis ball match that made the real gannon look like a pansy. Creepy outfit. The works.

Argh....Koume and Kotake were so awesome too...such an AMAZING and memorable soundtrack for that fight too, I always hated that you couldn't go back and fight them again. Just the entire dynamics of the fight were really sweet, the whole fire/ice ordeal.

my favorite fight:

Breath of Fire: Myria. I was determined to know what item could be stolen from this boss, so I use calculator and count all my attack toward her (the steal command worked better when the hp is low). It appeared the stolen item definitely crap. I felt idiot back then.

Final fantasy X: Yunalesca battle, just like everyone here. But I win in my 2nd attempt. That battle was truly the hardest and most strategic in traditional rpg ever.
I lost in the first attempt because I forgot to restock my holy water and potions.

Final Fantasy tactics: against wiegraf. I lost around 5 times when I played the game for the first time. Luckily I always use pisces sign so the affinity is very bad, thus the damage could be reduced.

Chrono Trigger: Lavos core battle for the first time. I never thought the left spectre is the real lavos. I was pissed off when it revived other two creatures when I thought 'ha, I almost win'.

Killer 7's final "battle" with the hung body of Greg Nightmare in the school's gym is deserving of a mention. Instead of a boss fight of epic proportions, you get to watch helplessly as the smiths get picked-off one by one by perfect smiles, until only Garcian remains. Then, you finally get to pick the golden gun Greg dropped and use it to blast the last smile away. From there, it's just you shooting heaven smile Greg in the fleshy bits until he meets his demise.

That was a pretty freaking unique way to handle a final boss.

Other favorites of mine would be RE4's U3 (the cage monster) and good ol' El Gigante, for obivious reasons.

I was never a megaman person :). Yeah, I know, may God strike me down, and all that crap, lol. I didn't ever start playing megaman until after OOT, I'm kind of backwards that way =/. I like megaman a lot :p. But I don't think I've actually finished any of them =/.

Never finished Zelda II =/. I could never bring myself to, it's the one Zelda that I think is crap. Thankfully they decided to turn a different direction.

So it looks like I missed out on a lot of doppleganger fights :p. lol

The Vol Opt fight in Phantasy Star Online was an insane battle. Really the first one in the game to be that intense. The dragon and the sewer monster weren't all that crazed, and while they made okay bosses they weren't anything like Seven Force in intensity.

Then Vol Opt comes along, hitting you with missiles, trapping you in rocks, and bringing the entire damn room down around you, and you're like "WTF VISTA BETA SUX." And then you remember that they don't run Windows in Ragol, and something else was causing their computer to go HAL on you, but still.

The final boss from Digital Devil Saga (Hari-Hara) was a pretty intense fight, too. First form wasn't all that much to write home about, but the second seriously ramped up the challenge and complexity of the fight.

Another memorable fight was the battle against Robotnik at the end of Death Egg Zone in Sonic and Knuckles. People go on about Doomsday Zone, but it really felt like an afterthought following the insane marathon of Death Egg Zone and the giant-robot-Robotnik fight at the end. That master emerald laser SUCKED.

Also, there was a certain secret boss in Phantasy Star 4 that was a huge shocker. It wasn't hard or intense by any stretch of the imagination, but seeing what it was and then having to kill it really fucked with your head. The short exchange that came after the battle didn't help much either, though you did get something pretty cool out of it.

I have to say, though, the boss battles in Xenosaga 1 didn't impress me all that much. Maybe it was the redundancy of the battle music or the fact that with the exception of THE last boss, a well-placed Erde Kaiser would lay them all out in one turn, but it seemed like so many of them were full of wasted potential.

I certainly didn't forget the fight with Motherbrain, I just found Crocomire a little more memorable. But thinking about it now, I'm very tempted to swap Motherbrain in its place. A fantastic battle that not only throws a creepy twist on the original fight, but manages to convey a torrent of emotions without using any dialogue.

Another excellent fight worth mentioning is Ganon's final form in OOT. I really loved how his face is mostly obscured by the dark, and is only visible for a split second when lightning hits in the background. It was also a nice touch when Zelda cries out every time you suffer a blow from Ganon.

I was just about to mention that one. The final battle with Ganon in OoT remains the best of all time. Perfect set-up, atmosphere, execution; the only battle where I actually felt the weight of the world on my shoulders.

CAN YOU TOP IT, AONUMA???

If he brings back Gleeock, yes he can.

Seriously, it's been the one boss battle I've been craving for since the Gamecube came out. Imagine a fully 3D, gigantic FOUR HEADED dragon that takes up the whole room, lunging at you with its many mouths, shooting you with fire from four directions. And it only gets worse when you start chopping the heads off, as they then fly around continuing to blast you with fire.

Never going to happen. :(

Ares from God of War. The last part of the battle when its almost like a tug-of-war for health. Always loved that part.

Lucifer from SMT: Nocturne. Didn't realize that I was going to have to fight him and ended up having to level for a LONG time to be able to finaly kill him. But that made the victory all the sweeter.

The End from MGS 3. I don't think there is anything I can say that hasn't been said before.

Kirie from Fatal Frame. I thought that she would 1-hit kill me if she touched me so I was overly paranoid during that one.

Lastly, I can't remember the guys name but the boss from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver where you had to lead him allllll the way back and eventually burn him with a furnace. Took me forever to figure that one out.

Talking about Final Fantasy 10 made me think of the one fight that pretty much jaded me completely, the fight with Seymour on Mt. Gagazet. I actually stooped to levelling up my characters because I couldn't find any way to beat him. No amount of shuffling and self-buffing could keep me alive through his attacks, even using Tidus' haste spells, and trying to tank with the Aeons just got them instakilled.

Then I found out that the best method was to just level every single Aeon up to their Overdrive before the fight and using them all in succession in a sort of crack suicide squad, a tactic that pretty much makes a mockery of the game and retrospectively made me feel silly for actually doing work to beat Yunalesca.

I'd like the second this. As well as add that the music for that fight was pretty sweet. It was energetic without being extremely overpowering, and really kept up the beat with the fight.

The magma spider thing from DMC is something I recall as a great fight. You had to make sure it hit the glass floor, and it ended with the thing being impaled by a honking great statue. Great stuff.

Psycho Mantis from MGS. The whole shift controller port idea was awesome! Also that he could mention savegames from the memory card. "I see you like adventure games..." Sniper Wolf comes close in intensity.

The Minotaur in God of War, just before getting to Pandora's Box. The bemani sequences was great, and the combination of raw button smashing, quick reflex bemani and the gory end was excellent. More of that, please!

Culex from SM:RPG Was fun just because it was way out there and strange...but was really really fun none the less.

I also liked fighting the Mana Beast...it took me a while to figure out what the hell I was doing but it was a crazy fight.

The Twin praying mantis robots (bugs?) from Jet Force Gemini was killer good fun. The shitty part was using Lupus, who was, at the time, very very poor in comparison to my obvious best player: Juno. I had but 15 rockets, a plasma rifle and my pistol to kill them both (my machine gun was empty). Pity I couldn't just fry it with the machine gun.

Final Hazard (Sonic Adventure 2): The only reason is that he's so damn easy compared to the insane Bio-Lizard battle beforehand.

Nelo Angleo (Devil May Cry): The first PS2 battle that really tried my skill and showed me how badass DMC can be.

Diablo (Diablo 2): Because he has such great drops! That and the fact it's easy to find others to do all the dirty work for you.

Metal Sonic (Sonic CD): A boss battle that requires speed, as opposed to general ass kicking (actually most Sonic games emphasize tactics over skill). Plus Metal Sonic is one of the coolest of Sonic's enimies, making Shadow look lame in comparison.

The final fight with the Aparoid Queen in Star Fox Assault, on Gold Medal Survival Mode. That is without question the most intense boss fight I've had in a long time. And it had intense orchestrated music, to boot. I don't think I've ever cheered louder than that time, when I won.

Fighting the Mana Beast in Secret of Mana without the use of the Mana Magic (which to this day, I still refuse to use) makes for one of the greatest bosses of all time!.

Also, I would like to make a mention of the final battle against Lord Blazer at the end of Wild ARMS 2 that everyone has neglected to mention.


Final Fantasy VII had N.O.T.H.I.N.G on Wild ARMS 2's end battle.

Dumah. "My once-proud brother would have burned with shame to have me find him there, bleeding like a stuck pig."

All of the boss fights in the LoK series were quite inventive and necessitated some clever trickery on the player's part to beat them. Particularly Zephon and Rahab. That was, of course, to go along with the best VO dialogue EVER.

Sarmoti: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. You have confirmed what I have been saying to people for AGES. FF7's last battle had a pushover enemy and a song that immediately stops being cool the instant you find out how horrendous the lyrics really are. WA2I had everything a gamer could ever dream of in the final confrontation of a game. For that matter, "Battle With Lord Blazer," in spite of being significantly shorter (goddamn you Michiko Naruke, but we love you anyway), mopped the floor with "One Winged Angel." There is truly a lot to be said for using a recurring melodic theme and, well...amping it up on crystal meth for the climax of the game.

DarkLink: I've actually beaten Episode 1 on Ultimate Mode. Olga Flow is kicking me around on Very Hard, and I'm basically harvesting Scape Dolls to make it through the battle. I really don't look forward to fighting that bastard on Ultimate. Oh, while I'm on the topic, Elsydeon ("ELYSION") and/or Dark Flow: HOW U GET? T____T

Let me second the Mecha-Minotaur from God of War. That was one tough, challenging and rewarding to beat piece of meat.

From the MGS Series, Snake Eater probably had the best boss fights.
Of course "The Boss" is the best of those, for just being so... Minimalistic and schmalzy overdrawn at the same time. Minimalistic in that now you just fight a "normal" human, after smashing apart the usual mutant suspects and their mechanical counterparts. Schmalzy for the whole setup. And the music. For some reason, when the music set in, it always broke my concentration... *_*

Shadow of the Collossus had nothing BUT boss fights. The Bird. The Crab. The Barbarian. Total insanity.

Metroid Prime gets bonus points for extra "whoa".

I would have to say that my favorite boss battle has been the Dragon God from Chrono Cross. Big, imposing, deadly and the best damn music ever for a boss battle. Close runners up are Zeromus and the last boss from Mystic Quest.

I will have to add a couple more to the list.

As part of my Super Cosplay War Ultra obsession, Zenka is easily one of the most and frustrating bosses in fighting game lore. Even if she is fan-made, she's pretty lethal!

Her trademark move is a super in which she'll slice the whole screen in front of her, which will instantly lop off 50%-90% of your lifebar. What's worse, is that you have be in mid-dash or have a move with very long invincibility to avoid it (eg. waste a super bar). For Zenka, it only takes one super, so she can do this four times in a row if she wished:

If you can't escape, you take massive damage as she cleaves you in half. For girls. it's a mere slice in half, but against guy characters it's a censored comedic strip:

She also has another move in which she'll send out her giant sword to whirl around the whole screen, which is inescapable. You'll have to take a lot of damage, or take insane chip damage. It's basically this X 45 or so hits (the sword spins around really fast:


The super secret final boss which is the 2nd fight after Zenka, is also my favourite boss fight, because he's obviously more lethal. No need for his fancy 56 hit "tiger combo" super, or the giant snake laser, because he has a move that breaks the ground and instantly covers the entire screen with a giant rock, which he can abuse ad nauseum.

God of War - Hydra
Impressive action and sound, and for the very first level too!

Metroid Prime 2 - Quadraxis
A massive spider-like creature which requires full utilisation of Samus' arsenal to defeat

Zelda OoT - Ganon
A colossal finale, facing off with the ultimate evil

Shadow of the Colossus - 15th colossus
This is the King Kong of the colossi. Some crazy stunts required to defeat it, including jumping off a bridge from an insane height!

Soul Calibur 3 - Night Terror
A winged nightmare, remiscent of Tekken's True Ogre and Jinpachi cheapness. Amazing looking and packs a wallop on the warped arena

Castlevania CoD - Dracula
The latest version of the battle against Vlad Tepes, with possibly the best boss battle music ever

more later

Except that game came out 5 years ago and has had at least 5 sequels.

Curse of Darkness?

I think you're getting confused, buddy.

Heh, gotta love this topic, a stretch of games both new and old.

Super Metroid's best fight to me was with Phantoon. He's the only one close to mother brain in creepiness, that and his design was cool as well.

I second the giant robot fight in Sonic 3 & K. I also second Greedy.

Speaking of Sonic and Giant Robots, Sonic Rush had EXCELLENT final and extra bosses, something I found the equally awesome Advance 3 to be lacking. The whole having to hang on to the flailing limbs, the awesome music, and the fact that you have to survive his attacks unscathed later on to convince him to pull the attack you need him to do to jump on him.

The Extra boss is Doomsday Zone in everything but name (and an extra character)

Castlevania DS had some very awesome bosses. Most notable was your fight with Death (complete with his servants cameoing all throughout the crappy mine you waded through), mainly because he's the most versatile boss in the game. He has more attacks than any of the other bosses in the game.

Not too much later from death you wade through the creepy abyss and then you encounter Abaddon. With his conductor wand and suit and those damn locusts that can just RAPE your HP if you don't counter/dodge them correctly, he screams dark comedy. I can seriously imagine him being voiced by Tom Kenny in some Castlevania anime dub just for some laughs. Quite simply he has the best design of any boss in the game.

Ahahaha I thought it stood for Circle of Darkness since I forgot the game I meant was called Circle of the Moon. I'm a moron, nevermind.

OK I just recalled some more..

Prince of Persia T2T - Minotaur Bros. & Final Vizier
2 really cool fights requiring some use of your speed-killing reaction skills to defeat

Yoshi's Story - Bowser
A really creative way to do a boss fight, in a way that only a Yoshi could achieve

MGS 3 - The End
A fresh way to a boss fight, requiring some 'real-life' strategy to beat..

MGS 2 - The Harrier
The whole scenario was just great. Lots of excitement and action here

Wario Blast - Final bomber-mech
Nifty final battle in which you'll have to employ a myriad of abilities to somehow bomb thru its impenetrable armour

Trauma Center - Kyriaki
A bit off.. but I really enjoyed tacking these critters, altho my hands end up real shaky after the rapid-fire work needed to work with them esp at higher levels

Wow, most of mine have already been mentioned. Agni & Rudra is definitely up there because of the convo before and the sweet tag-team action they pull and how much it pumps you up during the course of the fight. That and trying to clash with their swords to get them to drop it.

The final fight with Vergil is one of the best I've played, since he really goes apeshit (or at least, moreso than the first two times you face him). Recently I added Sephiroth (KH2) to that list, considering the massive amounts of rape he delivers.

Haven't gotten around to doing the 49th round of the Hades Paradox cup that has you facing Tifa/Cloud/Yuffie/Leon all at once. Sure sounds like a boss battle to me.

Allow me to nominate something from the import scene; Berserk for the PS2 has some fantastic boss fights, full of excellent fanservice if you're a fan of the series. Each battle makes like KH2/GoW/RE4 and has preset sequences during the battle if you push the right button in time, resulting in some excellent re-enactmens of the famous battles from the series. The highlight though is against Zodd. The sword clashing and countering is a real adrenaline rush, especially if you take him on in 100-Animal Murder mode, where he gets a boost in power and speed (but the reward, including a sweet cutscene, is well worth it).

Oh man. Zakat. Great first post <3.

DMC3: I agree with Agni and Rudra and Vergil3. Probably my favorite DMC3 bosses. Well, Beowulf is pretty cool too.

Let's see, what else: The final battle of Final Fantasy IV stands out amongst all of my gaming years. Partly because everything leading up to it was just so EPIC, and partly because the fight itself was amazing. I won't say any more about it so as not to spoil it, but the last couple hours of that game hold a very special place in my heart.

"Laugh and grow fat."

My favorite boss fight has to be fighting Fatman in Metal Gear: Sons of Liberty. Chasing a fat man on wheels while disarming C4s is just something you don't see in every videogame. It was fun and frustrating at the same time since I had trouble knocking him off his rollerblades the first time...plus, I had no idea where the last C4 was. Things got a lot easier with the SOCOM.

I have a couple of fights (Possible Heavy Duty Spoilers):

1. The G-Elements (Human) (Xenogears)
When you fight them without your gears, they are an absolute joke (Except Dominia. *Shudder*)!

2. The G-Elements (Combined Gear Form) (Xenogears)
I thought I was done for when I first fought their combined gear form (I was using Fei, Emeralda, & Maria*), until I used System Id & WIPED THEM OUT! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

*-You read right. I. Used. Maria!

From off the top of my head, I would say the 16th colossus, Malus, from Shadow of the Colossus. The music, atmosphere, and the sheer power of the firebolts were enough to scare the shit out of me. It was definitely different from other boss battles, primarily because it felt nearly hopeless to fight against such a beast.

Without a doubt I have never had so much fun fighting a boss until I came across the Goemon Impact Giant Robot Boss Battles of the N64 Goemon games. You start off terrorizing the countryside and doing as much damage to the landscape as possible to build up strength, then when your opponent robot comes in you wail on him with a hailfire of kicks, punches, nose bullets, (and if you manage to pull it off) a gigantic laserbeam that bursts from your chest and annihilates the opponent onto the other side of the screen as the sky turns black.

They can get very hard and somewhat intense as the games progress, but that right there is some good and seriously funny shit. XD

givin the dood some props...
 

I'm with Qwarky on Verdugo. He was definitely one of the most intense battles for me, simply because of the fact that I hate being chased... its amazing how I even got through that game... yet it's one of my all-time faves.

I'm probably the only one who would say this, but I still cant forget Bowser from the original Mario. that was just emotionally satisfying, given my age at the time.

Also, it may have been easy as hell, but the second boss in Starfox 64 (I think the big dood in space...can't remember his name.) was fun.

:guitarist:

Now...this is something that I really need to think about....

But I am going to go with the first Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus.

It was the first time that I played the game. Just had bought it, popped it into my PS2, spent some time figuring things out, and started to find the guy. So first, I am freaked out as I go into this HUGE valley, and it is all dark, so I am thinking, he is just going to be on the other side of this valley. And then it cutscenes to the first guy you face...and I am just sitting there, gaping...

That feeling of oh shit! was worth buying the game alone...

Deemor, or the final boss of Granstram Saga. You don't know him, or what he is until VERY late in the game. He just pops up as the last boss, explaing to you why things are the way they are. He talks a lot of shit and when the fight starts, he backs it up with phenominal power. He flies all over the screen(you're fighting in space btw) and the only way you can damage him is by using the sword charge attacks. Very challenging and fun all at the same time.

Not a favorite per se, but nonetheless interesting: among the boss units in Naval Ops: Warship Gunner (IGN profile) and its sequel, Warship Gunner 2 (official site (Japanese); TotalPlaystation profile), is a supercarrier named after and designed on the principles of Project Habakkuk. In both games, it exhibits regenerative capabilities akin to D&D trolls - that is, slowly regenerates any damage not inflicted by incendiary weapons; however, by the time I encountered it in both games, my battleships were capable of delivering sufficient damage-per-second to overwhelm this effect.

One of my favorites would have to be The Boss in MGS3. The setup was perfect, just perfect.

the two megaman Juno fights at the end of Megaman Legends. That was such a What the fuck moment that I've yet to have matched.

Juno didn't exactly seem like he'd have an ass reamer form but low and behold, there it was.

Ganon in Ocarina of Time.
The most epic, emotionally involving fight to be ever put on a videogame. EVER.

The Axem Rangers in Super Mario RPG.
It was not only an intense battle, I was giggling most of the time just watching them.

Ultimecia in FF VIII.
This was the very first FF game I played, so finally defeating Ultimecia at the end of disc 4 was extremely satisfying. The battle is long and hard if your levels are not very high. Quite memorable.

Any boss in RE4.
Seriously, all the bosses in this game are brilliant. And not only the bosses, the game is full of memorable scenes. The garden with the colmillos... the castle basement full of novistadors... the freakin' mine cart ride...
All awesome.

shadow of the collosus
every single boss battle in this game is nothing but an awsome memory. It's the second one that really got me into the game because it was first colossus that was so damn huge and being able to climb it and hear such heroic music got me pumped and made me believe that this guy can really do the impossible for his love.

Kingdom Hearts II
Roxas vs axel


Metal Gear Solid 3
snake vs boss


I'll think of more later

Okay, no way I can list every boss fight I really loved, but I'll name some games that had boss fights I really loved and pick a specific few that I particularly liked, of those.
May also include some miscellaneous bosses, too.

Metroid Prime - Flaaghra, Thaardus, Metroid Prime, and Meta Ridley. The latter was probably my favorite, just because my battle with him was so intense. I lived with only 7 life, no extra energy tanks.

Metroid Prime 2 - Giant bug (can't remember name; took me forever to figure out how to beat it), Quadraxis, final battle (especially with the final Dark Samus, I loved the way that ended)

Zelda: Link's Awakening - Boss of the Catfish's Maw (one of my favorites of all time), and the final boss Nightmare, which was just bad-ass

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - King Dodongo, Volvogia, Bongo Bongo, Twinrova (hilarious ending dialogue), and of course the epic finale

Zelda: Wind Waker - Helmaroc King, Gohdan, Molgera, and once again an epic finale. I've played that ending more than any other video game ending.

Mischief Makers - chock full of them, but Merco and Lupin deserve special note, and the surreal final boss.

Resident Evil 4 - the liquid nitrogen guy (too lazy to go back and check his name; I didn't kill him, but he creeped the shit out of me), the scorpion guy in the hanging thing, dude in the burning farm. Lots of good ones, really, though the final boss underwhelmed me.

Super Metroid - don't remember any of their names, but all of them were excellent

Metroid Fusion - Nightmare, I think is the name, and for being so weird and confusing and hard to beat

Kirby 64 - had some good ones, but I like the final boss most: awesome music, plus I had no idea what the hell it was. Is that an avocado coming out of its ass? They just put random shit together for that boss.

Kirby's Adventure in Dreamland - the nightmare at the end, both orb and vampire form. Loved that boss. Meta Knight also gets a mention, for this game and the others he was in.

Pikmin 2 - lots of fun ones: Giant Breadbug (cuz it cannot hurt you), Waterwraith (constantly terrifying), Titan Dweevil

Sonic (in general) - Dr. Robotnik. Cuz c'mon, he's basically every boss, and most of them are awesome.

Maybe drop some more in later, if I remember any. This is nowhere near all the bosses I like, but they're some of the most awesome-boss games out there.

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past - Agahnim. This was the only boss whom you could not harm directly with your own weaponry. Pretty cool to say the least.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Ganon. Very amazing fight to the death. The music was awesome as was the setup for the fight and the fight itself.

Metroid Prime - Metriod Prime. This required changing to the right weapon while dodging its attacks, plus the cutscenes in between were pretty cool, because while Prime tried to escape, Samus kept jumping down after it.

Kingdom Hearts - Sephiroth. I spent so damn long leveling up to beat this guy it wasn't funny. Eventually, I had to look up a strategy online and that still wasn't a guarantee to beating him.

Kingdom Hearts II - Organization XIII. Any fight that involves you fighting a member of the Organization (like Axel) was memorable. At least once a week I go back and try to fight them (I have a save file before any fight with an Organization member). I still have trouble defeating them, especially a certain black haired one who uses spears.

Chrono Trigger - Lavos (final battle). Quite possibly the best turn-based RPG fight I've ever played. The background was freaking amazing, the music was awesome, and the boss was tricky. I keep finding new ways to defeat this guy. :P

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes - Psycho Mantis. Even The Boss from MGS3 can't top this fight. He read your memory card, made your controller vibrate, started making people in pictures laugh. "Blackout" was freaking crazy, he used various objects in the room to attack you with. All the while, he could read your every move so guns are almost nullified. There's a trick to beating him, but I'm not gonna spoil it. I HAVE beaten this boss without using the trick, but it took me around 40 minutes. Truly one of the most amazing and innovative boss fights ever.


I'll list some more later, especially some Sonic ones.

Kintaro from MK2. Ridiculously cheap, but always very rewarding when defeated.

My favorite is the fight with Romeo Guildenstern's second form. One, because it's damn hard, and two:

Both of the Paper Mario games and the Mario and Luigi games have some pretty kick-ass bosses. Hooktail, General Shy Guy, Lava Pirahna Plant, a soda beast, and my personal favorite, a stomach.

i'd forgotten about the General Guy battle in Paper Mario. Everything about that is hilarious from the introduction (hordes of Shyguys doing baby screams), to the concept (you're battling a giant electrified baby buggy for cripes sake), to the shyguys actions (Shyguys on Stilts! :D), right down to the dialogue (YOU SIR, ARE RUDE!)

Next to anything that has to deal with Fawful from Superstar Saga (who is awesome simply by default) that has to be one of the funniest Mario boss battles ever.

Also making the memorable-duel list: the very last ace you confront in Ace Combat Zero - quite aside from the very cool music, strict time limit, and the fact that this is the only ace with more than one special weapon (three, in fact, one used exclusively for each phase of the fight; two of them can ruin your whole day)... well, there's something to be said for a dogfight where jousting is pretty much the only viable tactic for two out of its three phases (the special 'weapon' used in the final phase makes all attacks - including, oddly enough, cannon fire - from any angle other than head-on ineffective).

I'd say my favorite boss fight is either M. Bison from SF2 or Sephiroth's LAST form in FF7 (the one where you get to omnislash him and he just dies). Since you really can't call that last scene in FF7 much of a fight, I guess that leaves me with M. Bison from Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior.

I remember sinking quarters into the SF2 machine at the local arcade and being cheated in more ways than I can count by Bison. He is the kind of villian you just loved to hate back in the days before anyone had ever heard of "Champion Edition" or "Akuma". He would nail you to the side of the screen with a stream of double-kneepresses, cheese your life away with the Psycho Crusher when you blocked, and throw you out of just about anything. SF2 joysticks were broken all across the world because of Bison's cheap tactics; no one can dispute that.

Thankfully, he was made easier in Champion Edition and future versions of SF, but remained a cheap @%^* when controlled by the game's AI.

My favourite boss battles are as following:

Star Ocean Till The End Of Time - Norton because this is the first boss your fight and Cliff comes to help you making it so easy

Lion King - Scar because you get to throw him into the fire plus you seriously cant die from so many hits in the game

Lol no i havent cause i only recently bought the game 1 week ago yea i found it which was kinda rare for me and so of course i wouldnt play it on universe or 4th dimension and i dont really care about battle trophies

I can barely remember any of the old games with their boss fights since I haven't played them in a long time. I know fighting Sephiroth in FF7 was an enjoyable one though.

Fighting Kefka in FF6 was cool too. Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate II was also interesting.

Agreed on Irenicus, but I found Sarevok and his gang from BG1 to be far more challenging and interesting. Irenicus was just not as good of a villain in terms of challenge. Once you got his cheesy spell shields down, he was toast.

I've read through all these posts as I had difficulty deciding whether or not I had any 'fun' boss fights. Now that I think of it, Kingdom Hearts II is the only game I've ever played where the boss fights are enjoyable. I especially liked battling Sephiroth at level 79 countless times before finally taking him down.

On the subject of awesome boss fights, while I haven't played this myself, I'm sure you'll all aggree that this fight ranks high up after you watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yz_Oi_6w0Q

Now if only Nintendo would release a similar final boss.

Final Fantasy VI - It was the first time I ever made it to a final bad guy and the music was awesome. I had just enough power to beat him and I was as nervous as they come. But in the end, it was SOOOO MUCH FUN! I had a great time fighting against Kefka.

Gill from street fighter 3: 3rd strike
Really really REALLY challenging. I remember using 26 continues just to defeat him on my first try....

Smithy from Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars
challenging, but really love the music as well.

Ash from Pokemon Gold and Silver
just because his pkmn were at a ridiculous level, lol

cant think of any others right now:doh:

The End from MGS3, god the way i killed him was just "OMFG!" i saw the glare of his sniper shining while he was aiming at me, when i looked around the level and shot him in the head lol..he was already at like 2/3's hp XD god the coolest boss battle i've ever played.

mk 3,umk3,mkt MOTARROW OWNES ALL!

I too have to go with Shadow of the Colossus, in particular, the 16th colossus:



Fuckin' incredible, that game is.

The last boss for Shadow Hearts was another epic for me. I was rather young, and couldn't afford to buy it, so I rented it from Blockbusters or something.

I'm going to have to add a couple of rather unknown ones as my favourites again:

Space Channel 5: Part 2 - Full of very nice boss battles, having you face off against odd aliens with the funky power of dance. My favourite was the Band Confrontation when your teammates have the instruments and you duke it out against the shadow team to "Band Confrontation".
The last battle against Purge is also neat, having the entire galaxy help you out, dancing in unison to defeat Purge to "Heart Connection".

Wild Arms 4 - Full of bosses that requires certain elements to watch out for in the battle. Being a sucker for the Wild Arms' strong emphasis on the power of teamwork, the final battle with the mandatory group finish (Arc Impulse) attack, along with the unconventional last boss music (The Hand Reaching Out to the Sky), definitely caught my favour.

Okami I've only made it to the 3rd boss, so I'm sure there are even more beautiful crazy battles, but Boss 3 takes the cake so far:

Metroid Prime 2- Quadraxis
Because as someone already mentioned, you need to use all te arsenal in order to defeat it, and you can't really just wait to know what is its weakness or "the air will hurt you"

Tales of Symphonia - Abyssion
Fighting for 44 minutes and owned -.- , I won the second time :P

My favorite boss was the final boss of legend of dragoon. I was at such a low level that it took me about 3 hours to beat him :d

favorite boss fights? there are a number I could list. Lavos, Kefka, Necron, however, there is but one picture that describes my all time ultimate boss battle: http://www.taganet.it/public/tutorials/10/nemesis.gif

wow, only six? it took me like 20 times to finally beat her... and it was only because i got lucky, but besides frustrating the heck outta me, she is a pretty good boss.

Speaking of FFX, the Seymour bosses were pretty good, the last one was disappointing though, i killed it in two hits...

Edit: The last boss of Kingdom Hearts II was good just because of the backgrounds, and music. it also had a huge 'What The Fuck' factor

seriously though my top bosses are

biolizard form sonic adventure 2 that boss and the contenued battle was just fun with music that went great with it(hate me)

final battle of FFVI i love final fantasy 6 and you gotta love the final battle against Kefka.

unknown from tekken tag, to me she was enterstingly cool.

first and third are just different, and thats why i liked them.

I've missed out on so many of these awesome things it's not even funny :(

But from what I've played so far, MGS 1 & 2 take the cake for me. The battle against the dozen RAYs in 2 was just epic (not to mention HARD!).

That, and the final battle of Donkey Kong '94 (on the good ol' Gameboy). Fantastic music and a HUGE boss.

Strangely, I think one of my favourite boss battles ever must be Magus from Chrono Trigger. It happens relatively early in the game as well, I think that's what makes it so epic. You've heard so much about him, they've been building up the encounter since you arrived at his castle, but you still don't know what's he's going to be like to battle against. The fight itself just feels so epic. The music is unique, and his sorcery makes this a tough, but not annoying battle, to have.

The second of my two favourites has major spoiler potential (from Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams):


Another that immediately comes to mind is Richter from SotN. Even though he's not the true final boss, he probably should have been. He's also quite easy, but that doesn't stop the fight being very climatic in its own way. Sometimes I even play the game fighting him at the end because it's seems like a complete story in its own right.

There are a few others as well, most have already been mentioned. Guildenstern (both forms) - there's something about fighting on the roof of a cathedral that's just so cool!

I'll probably think of some others when I've glanced at my video games list. There are just so many!

Forgot to mention the boss battle against in Drakengard 2. This is another case of aesthetics making the fight memorable. The music was fantastic, as well as the emotional tension between the two characters. The flowerbed in the center, which would bloom and spread out from the shock of the boss's attacks was a nice touch as well.

The final fight against was also a great fight carried by its music (very different for a final boss theme) and drama.

one of my favorite boss fights was bass.exe ''THE SUPER NAVI!!!!!!!!''
from Megaman Battle Network 2

http://dark-rukario.lache-tes.com/pi...E_2%5B1%5D.jpg
a link for a bass.exe pic cause i cant put in image's

''KUSO!!!!!'' :gonk:

Emerald and Ruby Weapon in FF7 / Omega in FF8 / Bison in any SF :>

I think one of the greatest strengths that Seiken Densetsu 3 had was that it's boss fights were all memorable for a shared reason. A reason I feel that some Japanese RPGs seem to be lacking in these days. Now granted not all of the battles compare to some of the mentioned fights in this topic, but the one thing that the game did right was that several of the major creature boss battles (that composed the majority of the boss fights in this game) were extremely well-animated for the time and, for lack of a better word, big.

The Wind and Lunar God Beasts were two fights that stick out, just off the top of my head. When you fight Dangaard, it is atop of Flammie in a mid-air battle. The transitions you make as the battle goes on just give it an amazing feel, especially as you dart through the clouds and attack at different angles.

The Lunar God Beast is worth mentioning simply because of its entrance. The party stands atop a massive tower, as the screen shakes and the sound of something equally massive begins to make its approach. Dolan's gigantic and imposing figure takes up the upper half of the screen and makes for a dramatic scene.

I think the one thing RPGs can benefit from are great direction as far as combat is concerned. Event driven scenarios are a great way to immerse the player and take advantage of the type of unique experience video games can provide. I think these battles are a great example as to how to accomplish that.

There's too many to list, but the ones that come to mind at the moment:

Metal Gear Solid 2 - Rays

Unless you play on the higher difficulties, it's not really a hard battle, but it is quite fun. When you first see it you can't help but think "wtf" fighting that many at the same time. There's so many good MGS fights to mention, but I really loved this one. Phycho Mantis and The End are close seconds.

Suikoden 2 - Luca Blight

I was kinda disappointed he wasn't the last boss, but he was definately the hardest in the game. For starters you need to made 3 balanced groups to ambush him, and that's a problem right there. I for one only leveled up 8 characters, so making 3 decent groups was hard enough, and even if they are balanced, they can still die easily because he is insanely overpowered.

Homeworld - Last Stage

Technically not a boss fight, but I found it really fun and worth a mention. In the last map, you are close to your original homeworld, but what awaits is a massive fleet that is going to greet you. As soon as you enter the area that fleet drops what it was doing and goes straight to your mothership at full speed, ignoring everything else. They come in several waves, but you don't get as much as a breather. Your only objective is to prevent your mothership from being destroyed. It can be really challenging if you did not prepare probably before getting here.

Ace Combat Zero - Solo Wing Pixy

You saw it coming, and this was one hell of a epic fight. What made this fight so hard is that you have to hit him head-on, or the missiles will bounce off. The timer makes it even better.

Valkyrie Profile - Hel Servants

I love these guys, because they have one ability that makes them hard, and that is that they can revive ANYONE with full health at the end of the round, so the only way to beat them is to kill them both in the same round. Normally, this is where you use great magicks to kill them, but these have such high magic resist that it will do 1 damage, so physical attacks is the only way to go. Later on in the game you'll encounter them as normal monsters, and sometimes in packs of 4, that's where it gets REALLY hard.

I'll try and think of a few more.

Final Fantasy IX - Necron

Unless you were around Lv 70 (or doing a Lv 1 challenge to post on Youtube) there would be no chance of survival. This' assuming that you don't have the support abilities learned to combat the various status attacks that Necron throws at you when he performs Grand Cross.

And this was a really cool fight, because the setting was like an Italian coliseum and that you were fighting in the air)

Oh man, that was one hell of a dogfight. I like how you can see the missile in the background, and coupled with the music, and his arrogant yammering definitely added to the tension.

I've got one from Okami:

Ugh.

Any battle in Shadow of the Colossus. Most particularly the flying bird one and the flying "worm" one. I remember spending 15 minutes just figuring out how to get onto the bird boss, and when I finally did, I almost peed my pants. And then climbing on its back while it's flying at like 100 mph. Just watching the scenery below blur by and the hair and fur on the creature's body whipping in the wind... soo awesome. I almost forgot I had to kill it. I'd rather ride it all day!

Super Metroid's final Mother Brain fight was epic for me. I think SM was the first game that made me FEEL for the game and it's characters. I actually felt bad when my metroid, all grown up in Tourian, sucks my energy until the last second when it realizes who I am, and then flies away in shame. Then when I think Mother Brain is dead, she rises from rubble with that ominous music playing in the background and her ugly form rising. AND THEN when my metroid comes back grants me its ability, and then SACRIFICES itself for me... OY VEY. I think I actually yelled "IT'S PAYBACK TIME, AAAAHHHHH!!!" the first time I played it as a kid. I wish they'd remake that game for the Wii or something, just for that epic battle. I'd want the music fully orchestrated, though, but knowing Nintendo, they'd probably just stick to midi.

I'll have to go with the Dominia/Kelvena boss fight in Xenogears. What made it specifically memorable for me is that it's a very fair fight. 2-on-2, equal strength, equal ability. I remember the first time I ever fought them, I had around 500 fuel each, and less than 1000 HP, both due to not knowing what was ahead, and I was murdalized unmercifully. On top of that, I had neglected to give Elly a Flare Rod. I had to laugh at how horribly I was dismantled. Nowadays whenever I give XG another runthrough, I know exactly what to do, making the battle far more enjoyable.

Of all the games I've played, I gotta say that I've had the most fun with the old old Castle Wolfenstien, and Spear of Destiny bosses. Back when I was a kid, those were the scariest things I'd ever fought. I didn't have nintendo or anything like that. I played these first person shooters on the old 486. I remember having nightmares for a little while after playing that game where I would be running through mazes being chased by UberMutant or Barnacle Wilhem.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Ubermutant.gif http://content.answers.com/main/cont...clewilhelm.gif
UberMutant ^^ Barnacle Wilhelm

also, heres a link to pictures of the rest of the bosses

Spear of Destiny (just scroll down) : http://www.answers.com/topic/spear-o...-computer-game

Castle Wolfenstien (once again, just scroll down) : http://www.answers.com/topic/wolfenstein-3d

Amen to that. Shadow of the Colossus blew me away with each boss that I went after but really when I first played the game NOTHING topped that introduction with that sense of impending doom.

I'm actually surprised that only ONE OF YOU who talk about "challenge" have mentioned any of the bosses in Ikaruga. I haven't been past the boss in Chapter 4: Reality myself (because I suck at the game, obviously) but he's the one that's a pinwheel full of electric charge turrets and you have to be REAL careful when you enter that opening in the core while simultaneously avoiding the electric charges from the turrets. I've gotten OK at it but DAMN that fucker's hard to beat.

Okami had some intense bosses too but my favorite of them all was Kyūbi. That was an amazing bossfight because, well... she had the same divine powers that Amaterasu had and was tough as nails to beat. But aside from that, I just loved how perfectly symbolic that whole fight was with the light and dark contrast in the midst of an ethereal tug of brush war. Beautiful game, beautiful fight, bar none.

God of War always had me raising my eyebrows with its boss fights, not because they were hard or challenging, (Unless you played in God Mode, which I managed to do with the first God of War but never got around to doing on the second one.) but because they were immensely fun and over-the-top gory. The Minotaur boss in the Architect's Tomb was hard as fuck to beat the first time I played through it because I had NO clue what I was doing. I was just avoiding this massive bull-like creature charging with the intent of impaling me all the time and Athena-forbid you didn't have your Blades up to at least a level 4 or you were gonna be doing this for A LONG TIME.

God of War II had some incredible bosses with most of them being mythological figures with great voice acting but the one that seriously just set a superlative pace for the rest of the game was the Rhodes Colossus. You started out avoiding him all the time and he took the entire run of the level to swipe at and beat to a molten pulp but MAN that was awesome. I mean, shit... You're walking through a bathhouse, fresh out of busting a nut with two Greek honeys and BOOM! FOOT STOMP THROUGH THE ROOF! Fucking epic~

But the honor of best bossfight goes to... HELLO? KEFKA from Final Fantasy VI~ Towering monster that took me a year to beat. Beautiful artwork and an all-around awesome final battle. That's still a game that I play just to go back to this battle and witness it over and over.

I've had quite alot.


Magus and Lavos - Chrono Trigger

It was just legendary for me, going through a castle like that to fight with Magus who was a bit challenging and came with great music. Same for Lavos


Safer Sephiroth - FF7

Super Nova. Plain and simple.


Ultimecia - FF8

I enjoyed the music and the fact that she could take a couple on Lionhearts and live. I enjoyed this game and had a blast the whole way.


Necron - FF9

Although I hate this boss just because I have no clue why Square involved him, he was quite a challenge, mostly because of alot of status effect abilities.


FATE - Chrono Cross

I can't explain it, I just enjoyed this boss fight, probably because of the setting of the fight.


Borgan and Zophar - Lunar 2 : The Eternal Blue

Both legendary in their own rights. The first from its difficulty and overcoming this insane challenge. Probably the hardest boss I've fought. Zophar was hard as well, but the real reason was that it was an enjoyable yet challenging fight to a beyond awesome game.

Most of the Psychonauts bosses were refreshingly wacky. I liked fighting the troop leader with clairvoyance and the Brain tanks. The last bosses, while hard to get to, were also very fun. Nothing compares to the Ultraman wanna-be in the Gogglor-Lungefish level though. "IMPOSSIBLE-TO-DODGE AREA ATTACK!"

I considered it a difficult boss battle because I was laughing so hard I couldn't concentrate!

I also loved all the bosses from the Earthworm Jim series (for the record, 3D doesn't count in my book). Sure, it was mostly pattern memorization and blasting, but they were fun! Evil the Cat was probably my fav, but Major Mucus was a good bungie-battle.

Some of the recent battles in Super Paper Mario were fun and innovative, but too easy. I did like the Brobot and the Underchomp battle that was set up to be like an RPG battle. The gag had been done before (Kirby Super Star), but it was still a good time.

I loved the Wolf Sigma battle in Mega Man X. That one was just fun to play. Had to get on his hands and lead up to the head. Nice. Good Times!

Most of the battles in the Mario and Luigi series were fun because of the multitude of moves you could perform with your bro. Always funny and challenging.

Kefka at the end of FFVI is also noteworthy IMO. The tower of random stuff and then Demi-God Kefka was a long battle. Great music. Fitting.

Battletoad Bosses were pretty good too. I'd always get hit just to see their special moves.

Ah, good topic.

I'll help you with that ;).

Gods of FATE ~ (the track that plays during the fight)

FATE's words before the fight: "Make me feel ALIVE"

Also I just loved how the camera would zoom in on him when he uses a spell.

I would say one of my favorite battles is with the cyclops creature in the Mega Man games. It can be kind of tough at times. Especially when it gets more attacks in Mega Man 8.

I think it is also because I get to fight FATE, since I'm not someone to believe in fate.

Unlimited Indalecio from Star Ocean 2. Not only is this boss one of the hardest bosses in video game history, it's also one of the most frantic and exciting. On the easiest game difficulty he was hard enough. You needed 4 characters all at or close to level 255. Also, Opera was an ideal character for Healing star at 999 proficiency and @ on One just to HIT the boss long enough for others to catch up.

Bunny shoes or any speed-enhancing items was mandatory since he was as fast (or faster) than your characters with the Bunny shoes. He could also cast spells while moving at this speed and most of his spells, without proper resistance, could kill you in a single shot. He also had powerful normal attacks that were multi-hitting and extended 360 degrees around him. He had the most HP of any boss in the game and takes a good 30+ minutes to kill with a balanced party.

Keep in mind, this is on the easiest game mode. There are 2 more harder modes, each raising all enemies' HP, MP, and stats more than the previous difficulty. So on the hardest mode, this boss isn't only stronger than before, he's near impossible and is hardly ever beaten without the use of the 50% instant-death items or the Bloody Armor invincibility trick. Otherwise, you need to have the MAX amount of every healing item you can find, still use Opera for Healing Star (in fact, control her yourself and spam it), and have at least 2 other fighters just to pin Indalecio down.

Hard as hell but my god so fun!

FF10 had so many awesome bosses but I'd have to nominate the Yunalesca battle and the first three Seymour fights. I love how he brings Anima into the mix during the first one, that nightmare creature that wrecks s**t up in an earlier CG sequence. The first time I played that I was like "HOLY S**T I HAVE TO FIGHT THAT F**KING THING ALREADY!!!" I also loved the big-ass dragon that ambushes you as you exit the cave into the Zanarkand Ruins (Auron says that Yunalesca sics in on you). That battle surprised and tormented me.

I've not played Metroid Prime 2, but the huge battles at the end of 1 with the Omega Pirate and the revamped Ridley were some of the most brutal and fiendish fights I'd dealt with in years.

A really cool fight that I always liked was the battle in Chrono Cross with the guy who wields the diesel Masamune sword. I don't remember the details as much as I remember getting my ass handed to me again and again. The earlier battle in that game with Miguel is also incredibly emotional with the "Prisoners of Fate" theme going.

In FF8, I think the Adel battle was awesome. She's like 15 feet tall and has the female main character strapped to her as a sort of human shield.

Almost all of the bosses in Conker's Bad Fur Day were an absolute riot to fight. Some of them were also pretty difficult. The Great Mighty Poo's opera singing is worth the price of the game by itself.

Last but not least, Mike Tyson from the original Punch-Out. Tyson was probably the first last boss who ever made me almost destroy my NES. That first 90 seconds of one-shot kill uppercuts is still a royal pain in my ass!

Level 255 didn't even help. His attacks can still kill you in one hit. Even with bunny shoes equiped he is still faster, and my god casting spells while walking is so cheap. I don't even want to think about how insane he is at universe difficulty.

Iseria Queen is probably harder then him as well, but unlike Indalecio I can actually corner her and beat her up that way. Indalecio is never in one place for long.

My favourite NES Boss Music
 

I will omit all those wonderfull modern melodies from RPG games like Final Fantasy, or action games like MegaMan. :p

This is list of my favourite Nintendo Entertainment System songs: :D

1. Little Nemo - The Dream Master (1990) - Battle with The Nightmare King
2. Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Ryukenden (1989) - Battle with Masked Devil
3. Doki! Doki! Yuuenchi (1991) - The Final Battle
4. Kick Master (1991) - The Final Battle
5. Kage/Blue Shadow (1990) - Normal Boss Battle

Actually they aren't the best ones I've heard, but ones that I remembred first :D That's because there were so many great songs, although some of them were quite repetitive :D You can still feel the nostalgia :eagletear:

There is a link to the first song from the list - Little Nemo Nightmare King's Dream OC ReMix - wonderfully arranged by Shane Barber:
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01206/#

Enjoy!!! :D ;)

Oh yeah. I liked the Den Mother's cookie flailing and the last battle's "Giant Psychic Raz Force!".



After beating Okami, my favourite battle of all time is easily now the fight against Ninetails on Oni Island. Everything from start to finish was just epic, in my opinion:
1) Pre-Oni Island, there's a clear reason you'll want to kick Ninetail's ass.
2) Go through harrowing ordeals on Oni Island.
3) Reach the platform..."What's that in the sky!?"
4) Ninetails uses EVIL brush techniques if you take your time making yours!
5) Oh shi~ It pulled out the 9 pronged sword for a massive attack!
6) Ninetails explodes into 9 demon children souls that can lay a beating on you if you don't kill them fast. Gangbanged for heavy damage!
7) Lol just kidding, its true form is blindingly fast and can deal even more damage.
8) Revenge fulfilled.

The most awesome boss battle I've seen, mostly because of the counter brush techniques which were totally formed out of nowhere.


On a side note, the battle with Nechku was also fun, since the golden brush techniques were drawn really fast, and not by you, but fortunately they made the fight such a joke.