Most frustrating bosses in older games

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

Mainly in the 8 or 16 bit era, but any will do.


A good candidate is the shark from Cobra Triangle.




Short amount of time given to beat it, has a tiny hitbox meaning it's easy to not hit it even at point blank range, and it can eat your boat, instantly killing you.

[Deleted]

Judge Doom in Roger Rabbit for the NES

I got to him multiple times as a kid but could never figure out how to actually win.

[Push R Truth]

Zelda: Link to the Past

That asshole centipede boss on the platform that randomly moves around like he's hopped up on Meth and Mountain Dew and he'll knock you over the ledge over and over and over and over for hours. It doesn't kill you, but it restarts the fight because he's an asshole like that.

Then you'll kill him once without trying in like 10 seconds total. He's the definition of Random Hell. He's the hardest boss in the game if the random movement isn't in your favor, but he can be so easy and simple if it is.

It's the definition of frustrating.

[chrom]

Nov 16, 2020 11:38:57 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

Zelda: Link to the Past

That asshole centipede boss on the platform that randomly moves around like he's hopped up on Meth and Mountain Dew and he'll knock you over the ledge over and over and over and over for hours. It doesn't kill you, but it restarts the fight because he's an asshole like that.

Then you'll kill him once without trying in like 10 seconds total. He's the definition of Random Hell. He's the hardest boss in the game if the random movement isn't in your favor, but he can be so easy and simple if it is.

It's the definition of frustrating.

Agreed, that's when the game takes off the kid gloves.

[Dr. T is an alien]

I could blaze my way through Zelda II. I could topple Death Mountain without breaking a sweat. I could ace everything....up to the second to last boss. I could not beat that thing for the life of me. I could always just get one blow away from killing it. Just one, but always one blow away. I could never, ever, close the deal. I cannot explain why.

[Rumble McSkirmish]

I got the second Mega Man Legacy collection (Containing games 7,8,9 and 10) on the Switch recently and I got a grim reminder of how annoying the final battle against the Wily Saucer at the end of part 7 was.

It's annoying because:

It shoots four random projectiles in a hard to dodge pattern.
Two of said projectiles (Fire and Ice) cause either massive environmental damage or leaves you wide open for a second attack.
Most of your weapons do little to no damage to the boss save for...
The only weapon that does any decent amount of damage (The Noise Coil) is the one that is hardest to hit Wily with.

Jeez no wonder Mega was so eager to finally bump off the old jerk after beating him.

[chrom]

Your only real chance of beating Wily 7 is to just get hit by the electric attack, it'll hurt but not as much as the fire or the freeze attack and you get a chance to counter attack.

[Cyno]

Goenitz in King of Fighters '96. Combine a zoning moveset with typical SNK Boss Syndrome bullshit and you have a real headache.

KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA?

[Captain Patren Fenderbaum-X]

f*** THIS UGLY SON OF A BITCH!!

You even so much as approach him and he just f***ing goes off on you...this was the absoloutle definition of quarter muncher in the arcades.

A single gawd damn combo can take you for 90% DAMAGE!!!

[Sephiroth]

Heat Man was easy once you got his pattern down. But that damn stage to get to him!

[chrom]

Wily Boss 4 in Megaman 2. Due to the limited ammo of the Crash Bomb which is the only thing that can hurt it. And unlike the post NES games, if you die, your ammo remains where its last at.

[Derk!]

The G******** F******** Demon wall boss in Final Fantasy VII. Sure, there are harder bosses in the game, but at the point in the game, he is tougher than nails.

[Push R Truth]

Nov 26, 2020 17:23:50 GMT -5 Derk! said:

The G******** F******** Demon wall boss in Final Fantasy VII. Sure, there are harder bosses in the game, but at the point in the game, he is tougher than nails.

If I remember right, the Demon Wall boss was a nasty bitch in FFIV too.

[Triangle Lancer]

Second title defense against Amazon is a pain in the ass to get through.

Great Puma was easy.

[MrElijah]

Nov 16, 2020 13:56:20 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Goenitz in King of Fighters '96. Combine a zoning moveset with typical SNK Boss Syndrome bullshit and you have a real headache.

KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA? KOKO DESU KA?

Best bet is get in close then wreck him. How ever Rugal, no matter what game, is a bitch. f*** him.

I give nods to Kaiser Sigma, Wily Capsule #7, MK 2 Shao Kahn and stage 4 boss from Contra 3.

[MolotovMocktail]

Pretty much every boss in X-Men for Sega Genesis. I never figured out how to win other than use Nightcrawler and cheat like crazy.

In Red Dead Revolver, putting Bad Bessie and Mr. Black back to back was some sort of sick joke on the part of the developers.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I was able to run through the game eventually, but the Draygoon monster in Super Metroid was pretty irritating because it would spew out mucus and grab me with it before stabbing me with a hook tail.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Nov 26, 2020 21:16:41 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

Pretty much every boss in X-Men for Sega Genesis. I never figured out how to win other than use Nightcrawler and cheat like crazy.

In Red Dead Revolver, putting Bad Bessie and Mr. Black back to back was some sort of sick joke on the part of the developers.

Man, Zaladane and Deathbird in the X-Men game were terrors.

Bad enough I had to deal with a pain-in-the-ass asteroid storm before Deathbird, which I don’t recall getting through without Cyclops shooting some of them.

[Cyno]

Nov 26, 2020 21:24:17 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

I was able to run through the game eventually, but the Draygoon monster in Super Metroid was pretty irritating because it would spew out mucus and grab me with it before stabbing me with a hook tail.

I like the tricky way of killing that dude. Expose the electrical things on the side, let him grab you, then Grapple Beam the exposed electric things and it electrocutes him to death.

[MolotovMocktail]

Nov 26, 2020 21:30:35 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

Nov 26, 2020 21:16:41 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

Pretty much every boss in X-Men for Sega Genesis. I never figured out how to win other than use Nightcrawler and cheat like crazy.

In Red Dead Revolver, putting Bad Bessie and Mr. Black back to back was some sort of sick joke on the part of the developers.

Man, Zaladane and Deathbird in the X-Men game were terrors.

Bad enough I had to deal with a pain-in-the-ass asteroid storm before Deathbird, which I don’t recall getting through without Cyclops shooting some of them.

Scary thing was, those two were a picnic compared to what followed in Apocalypse, Ahab and Mojo. And I never was able to beat Magneto, making this the only one of my Genesis games I couldn't finish.