Top (was gonna be 10 but now) 17 Boss Fights

Ah, I remember when this was gonna be 10.  Yeah well that was before I took a good look and thought at what I've done in games.  17 is my idea of being conservative o_O.  There is just too much greatness.  So yeah, if you don't like that, just skip the first 7 or whatever.

The following list is my favorites of what I've played, so don't give me any of that "ZOMG no fuckin Ocarina of Time I'm gonna pee" shit.  Make your own damn list and I'll read that after.

My criteria includes things like style, cool factor, precedence, epic factor, difficulty, plot, and creativity.

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#17 Silver Sonic/Death Egg Robot  (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)

0 rings....awesome.

In the early days of the NES and Sega, this was one of the very first instances of epic.  To get to the Death Egg zone, Sonic jumped off of a plane onto Robotnik's space station and was brought into orbit.  Once he made his way inside, he battled Silver Sonic (although everyone called him Metal Sonic), who would become iconic in the series as a badass.  If that wasn't enough, he then has to fight Robotnik in his very own Megazord.  The scale, the setting, the music; made the encounter top notch, bigger and better than almost anything at the time.  The ending when he jumps out also kicked some ass.  Maybe the best Sonic game, definitely the best Sonic boss.

Sonic 2 Bosses

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#16 Red  (Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver)

You're not ready.

Pokemon games are generally pretty kiddy.  The remake of HG/SS though added in a bit of intrigue to the otherwise monotonous tone and formula that had been Pokemon for over 10 years.  Once you beat the basic game, you gained access to the first game's world.  You got to play through another 8 gyms and another elite four.  Once you beat them and you were the new champion there was only one person left that was stronger than you, and you had to climb a damn mountain to find him.  Once you finally found your way there, and met him face to face, the music stopped.  It's mother fucking Red!  The very same guy you used to beat the game before is now your strongest enemy.  That is so god damn cool it hurts.  He looked you over, silent as you thought to yourself that some shit was about to go down.  Then he beats your monkey ass with a level 88 Pikachu.  Seriously, I don't know anyone who's beaten him the first time. There's nothing like the humility in realizing that you just got beat by the strongest trainer in the world, and a surprisingly badass character in Red (not fucking Ashe Ketchum, Red).

 Battle with Red (Japanese)

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#15 Vile  (Mega Man X)

Better than Boba.

Another one of my personal favorites, Vile was awesome.  You start off not being able to touch him and being saved by Zero, to battling your way up in power, to finding yourself in a showdown.  Zero tells you to stay back, and you're thinking that Zero's gonna beat some wholesale ass.  You bust through the door and find out that even Zero couldn't take him.  Vile beats your ass, and all hope is seemingly lost, then the unthinkable happens: Zero self destructs himself to destroy Vile's ride Armor; Goliath.  While becoming wrought with despair and anger (in real life, everyone thought Zero was the coolest character ever, and to see him go was heartbreaking) you take your bloody revenge on that son of a bitch.  In a VERY cool segway, the level's actually not over yet, and they make you keep going to finish the level.  The beauty in it is is how the music starts off and puts you in that pissed off mood, and you wanna rip the walls apart.  An amazing moment in gaming that everyone should experience.

 Vile Battle

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Oh SHIIII-

 #14 Baby Bowser  (Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island)

Super cool shit going down.  Not a lot to say, it's just a great boss fight and a decent bit out of the norm from Nintendo at the time.  Cool, fun, intimidating, and just great fucking design.  Everyone gets freaked out when Baby Bowser starts closing in on you, no exceptions.

 Bowser Battle

GLHF.

 #13 Valus  (Shadow of the Colossus)

So.  Damn.  Cool.  The first time you take out a Colossus, you're just filled with that feeling of  'Oh dear god, am I really doing something so awesome right now?'.  Shadow of the Colossus must have the world record of fulfilling the customers' purchase satisfaction the fastest.  10 minutes into the game you're sitting there telling yourself, 'Yup this was worth 50 bucks'.


 Valus Battle

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#12 Xemnas  (Kingdom Hearts 2)

Xemnas.  Occupation: Sky scraper thrower.

One of my personal favorites that if you're not into Kingdom Hearts, seems like a waste of a choice.  Xemnas  has that awesome Byakuya-esque anime style confidence where he almost doesn't even acknowledge his opponents' existence.  The last fight consists of multiple stages of fights, revealing plot points, and awesome, lots of awesome.  If you're unfamiliar with the KH formula, the games generally progress with the first trips through the worlds being boring and Disney associated, then you go back to the worlds with the real storyline going.  It gets continually more interesting and fun the further along the story goes.  So by the time this fight is going, you're literally slicing through fucking sky scrapers and catching up to huge aircraft carriers to then do huge cinematic sequences while fighting the final boss who dual wields light sabers.  Yeah, there's fucking light sabers in this game.  Music is right on point to give you the feeling of epic ridiculous over the top action.  It may seem like it's so over the top that it's silly, but that's the point.  Let go and have some fun and this game will reward you.



 Final Battle (lol 58 mins long?!)



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007-373-5963

#11 Mike Tyson  (Mike Tyson's Punch Out [No shit])

This fucking game is so damn awesome.  Unaffected by age, Punch Out is still a blast.  The very idea that Nintendo contracted Mike Tyson to star in a cartoonish boxing game is hilarious and awesome.  Not a lot of people could even get far enough to fight Tyson (I could never beat fucking Soda Popinsky 2), and next to NO ONE can beat him.  He gets on this list for 2 reasons; the awesomeness of Mike Tyson, and the degree of difficulty.  Think about it; you want to beat Mike Tyson, the best boxer in the world?  You better have the best skill in the world to do it.

Tyson Fight (Ears included)

#10 Magus  (Chrono Trigger)

"Say, can you hear that? It's the sound of the Reaper..."

During the course of the game, you're led to believe that Magus is the reason that Lavos has been summoned and destroyed the world.  So you undertake an epic quest just to get the damn weapon to get to his castle.  You get the sword, move through the insanely awesome castle, beat the 3 henchmen, and finally get to Magus' room.  The lead up with the candles intimidates you into thinking you're going to lose against such amazing power, but you push through the awesome fight with legen-wait for it....dary music to realize that he's a fucking GOOD GUY, and you just cock blocked the world.  Magus is one of my favorite RPG characters of all time, and his fight is worthy of a ton of praise.  The quintessential boss fight twist.

Magus Fight

Senor Douchenstein.

#9 Egil  (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Oh Egil, you dirty motherfucker.  So yeah, for this fight you are inside the face/control center of a giant Mechanical god, which serves as the peoples' world.  America is the chest, Africa is an arm, Europe is a leg, I think you get the idea.  The setting for the fight is breath taking, while fighting the boss he will randomly manipulate the god into slashing the other god, effectively killing thousands of people with each swing.  The stakes are about as high as they get, and the fight is just something amazing to behold.



 Egil Fight (Major spoilers)


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 #8 Psycho Mantis  (Metal Gear Solid)

"Put your controller on the floor..."

Was initially gonna say The End from MGS3, but my buddy Dino changed my mind after some thought.  This was just an amazingly unique and cool boss.  Kojima did a kick ass job making this encounter.  Not just another boss fight, but a complete mind fuck.  At first you have no idea what's going on, just that Meryl has decided to try to get laid.  Soon you realize this fucker is sitting back laughing his ass off just toying with you.  He also has some fun games he'd like to play with you.  Reading your mind was astonishing, and if you didn't understand the mechanics it was pure sorcery.  "WTF HOW DID HE KNOW I LIKE CASTLEVANIA?!?"  To quote Keith Apicary, 'We're talking classics here.'


  Pyscho Mantis



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 #7 Sephiroth  (Final Fantasy VII and I didn't purposely make it #7)

Awesome.  Wait what, no Ultima Weapon?  Scrub.

There's a lot of cool Final Fantasy fights: Kefka, Seymour, Kuja and so on.  Mine though is probably a bit biased to my love of FF7.  To me, the last boss fight with Sephiroth's 2 are super cool.  The first fight you fight with your entire 6-8 person party, taking turns with the groups of 3, which had never been done in the series.  Sharing an experience with FF6, you got to break that suspension of disbelief where you only fought with 3 people and really got that feeling that ALL of you guys were in it together, and that did a lot for immersion and pumping you up.  The second fight is iconic.  The first game possibly to use orchestral music for a boss fight, and it was epic as hell.  Safer Sephiroth was incredibly tough, and even had his own full summon to use on you.  The One Winged Angel will never be forgotten to those who have seen it.
But the real coup de gras is the last fight with Cloud and Sephiroth.  The legendary showdown was finally happening, and the build up was immense (getting goosebumps remembering).  The graphics were bumped up for the fight too.  A lot of gamers' first time through, you had never seen or even heard of Omnislash, and then BAM.  You watch that gauge build up and you feel Cloud's anger, and then he unleashes one of the most badass moves in gaming history.  I dare you to watch that and not feel some awe to this day.  Best damn game ever.

Best Omnislash Ever (new and improved with Ultima Weapon)
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Human Reaper = Terminator.

#6 The Suicide Mission  (Mass Effect 2)

So I should probably state that it's not the boss himself that makes the list, but the final mission.  Preparation for the final mission is deep.  If you don't make the right calls your crew dies, and there are a LOT of calls to make.  Once you start, you're immersed head to toe.  The sense of panic as your teammates are taking fire, going through vents, holding doors against Collectors, and taking chances dying.  It's a great and tense mission that will live with me forever.  On a negative note it's almost impossible to conceive that BioWare could do this final mission so amazingly well and then in turn make such a terribly disappointing final mission in ME3.

Suicide Mission
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#5 Giygas  (Earthbound)

Fucking creepy.

Giygas is a bitch, and I mean that in a holy crap this guy is strong kind of way.  Giygas is so damn powerful that he is "the Evil Power", physically undefinable by human standards.  He has so much evil power that he can no longer think or speak rationally and is not aware of his existence or his own actions.  So how the hell are 4 kids going to stop that?  By praying for strength (fucking Spirit Bomb in this bitch) from the world.  This mechanic was mind blowing because Pray was just a random move that was rarely used and was not obviously thrown out to be used for this fight, but this time it's use was special.  You pray for the strength to win from everyone fathomable, and you still come up short, and are going to lose.  Who or what can possibly save the world now?  Only you have the power to find out.  It's worth playing the game just for this last little bit, and you should not watch the video to find out, but you can because you're too damn lazy to experience awesome that you earned yourself.  It's especially creepy if you buy into that theory of how Giygas is a fetus and is brought about by the developers childhood trauma.



 Creepycreepycreepycreepy
(link for some reason will always start at around minute 11)
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Inb4 Death lasers.

#4 Mother Brain  (Super Metroid)

What can I say that hasn't been said about this game and it's final boss fight?  It's too awesome.  I seriously can't come up with words, you just have to experience it.  The fakeout with Mother Brain, the feeling of desperation, the shock and awe of the Metroid sacrificing itself, the brutal revenge you take back, and the feeling of panic while you're escaping.  It's universally recognized as one of the most badass moments in gaming, and I'd be retarded if I didn't put it on here.

2epic

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#3 Edgar Ross  (Red Dead Redemption)

****SPOILER MOTHERFUCKING ALERT*****
If you read this and have not played through the game yourself, you are effectively ruining the story of the game.  Do yourself a favor and just don't read this just in case if you haven't played it yet, because it's so amazing that you should just keep this game open and unspoiled if you play it sometime 10 years from now.

Chode.

Rather than just talk about a boss fight, let me describe my playthrough experience of the game briefly.  As John Marsten you are a former Outlaw who gets caught.  The premise for the game has you finding your old outlaw buddies and bringing them to the law, as part of a bargain so you can be free and go back to your family.  Once you finally take care of all of your former comrades, you are reunited with your family back on your farm.  After playing a few missions and building back the bonds with your wife and son, you are then betrayed by the very sheriffs and marshalls who you helped, the last loose end.  You then pick up much later in the game as your son Jack, with only one mission; to kill the son of a bitch who murdered your father.
My experience personally, I played John as a good guy.  I thought of him as someone who's trying to right their wrongs and lead a good life.  After getting betrayed and turning into his son though, I played as a pissed off madman, killing anyone who got in my way.  After finally finding the marshall and killing him, the words RED DEAD REDEMPTION popped up and I got chills.  That was fucking amazing.  Then it dawned on me....how deeply I was manipulated and controlled throughout the game.  This is what the developers wanted, and I played along perfectly without even knowing it.  Hands down one of the most powerful experiences gaming has ever had to deal out.  This single handedly trumps Bioshock out of the list entirely, because it expands on the "Would you kindly" idea to a point where you can't believe.

******END SPOILERS*****

Stupid Hat (Orgasm @ 6:29)

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#2 Scarecrow  (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

"And at the end of fear... oblivion"

Mind destroying.  It's an experience.  You cannot be told how good it is, you must be a part of it first hand.  It comes out of nowhere and you don't even know you're fighting a boss, and then alluva sudden, you get that oh shit feeling.  It feels like it drew a lot of inspiration from Pyscho Mantis, and ramped it up ten fold.  Everyone needs to experience this at least once.

Mindfuck.
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#1 Jubileus the Creator  (Bayonetta)

"May Jubileus, the Creator, bless you"

How could this not be #1?  There's absolutely no way.  The funny thing is a lot of people have never even played Bayonetta.  So you're playing through the game, fighting badass after badass, and after all the twists and turns, you're finally put up against......GOD.  YES, YOU FIGHT GOD.  She's the size of a god damn sky scraper in 1:1 scale.  The sheer scale of the fight is breathtaking; you spend a few minutes on a motorcycle climbing her god damn leg.  Once you get into the meat of the fight you are treated to badassery on a level that Devil May Cry and God of War wish they could come near, but can't (since this game is better than DMC in every way, and is funnier thatn GoW, which helps the suspension of disbelief again since GoW acts like it wants you to take it seriously when you're climbing a god).  The music, MY GOD THE MUSIC! Beautiful orchestrated music that crescendos at all the right parts.  When I first fought the boss, I had to pause the game because I couldn't handle what was happening, and I'm dead fucking serious.   What happens when you finally emerge victorious?  YOU PUNCH GOD ACROSS THE GALAXY INTO THE GOD DAMN SUN.  Punching god into the sun is it's own mini game for christ's sakes.  Unbelievable.  It is physically impossible to top puching God into the Sun.  There is nothing you can come up with that is more epic and awesome.  Therefore it's the best of all time.



Best Boss Fight Fucking Ever.
(Awesome music crescendo @ 3:06)
(Galaxy Punch @ 8:10)

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Phew this took fucking ages to finish.  5 hours I believe?

Special thanks to my friends for suggestions!  Chris R (aka MKULtra of World's Ugliest Dog), Chris G, Dino, Josh, Keaton, Bertoooooo, and Devin.  Grats you're now celebrities to the 14 people who will read this!!  ZOMG!!