19 Most Brutal Boss Thrashings in Video Games

Brutal Boss Thrashings

Boss fights are a helluva thing. They’ve been around since storytelling has been a formulaic (though not in a bad way) endeavor, and have seen incarnations in the likes of big boss men in James Bond movies who threaten to kill the aforementioned character in the most creative manners, with henchmen (or sub-bosses) to do their bidding. They’ve also been in all manner of kung fu movies, with heroes like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan facing off brutes who smash their faces in—usually early on in the films—only to have their asses handed to them by the end of the film.

Needless to say, video games carry on this great (if arguably tired) tradition of boss fights, who provide the player with an ample challenge. Everything you do in the game leads up to the boss fight, and particularly well-designed boss fights take into account everything you learned up to that point and take your skills to task.

Without further ado, here are the best and most brutal boss thrashings that gamers have faced in recent years. Keep in mind that spoilers are abound! 

#19 Bowser from Super Mario Galaxy

One of the most iconic bosses of the gaming space, Mario’s final battle with Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy happens against an epic backdrop of a molten planet, while the princess looks on from an airship. The fight itself is engaging and not particularly easy, not to mention rather long by Mario standards, spanning three entire planetoids, each covering a different phase where Bowser employs different tactics. The ending is a great homage to the original, but I’ll let you take a gander at that.