[General Discussion] Favorite Boss Fights

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.