Top 12 Boss Battle Types

Let’s end the year on a more relaxed article.

Boss battles are one of the defining traits of video games. Most genres include them in one way or another, and it’s tricky, but not impossible, to imagine a game that does not have them. They represent thresholds to cross in the story a game tells; they run the gamut from easy to insane in terms of difficulty; early ones may teach you a skill, later ones may force you to master that same skill; and they can be central to the plot, if any, or wholly unrelated.

Because I covered a lot of them, expect several
examples pulled from Nintendo games.

In over 50 years of video games, there’s been plenty of room for experimentation in how video games work and how their stories are told. As a result, we’re not lacking in types of bosses out there waiting to spring out and offer a challenge. Full disclosure, the types of bosses covered today are mostly described through their entries on TVTropes, because it’s a simple way to accurately discuss them. It’s also going to help fishing up examples for each type making the list, as I hope to pick from titles I discussed on this very blog to illustrate my choices. I’ve been reviewing stuff for 10 years now, so I ought to have examples for each of them. "Boss Battle Types" can cover the boss itself or the kind of battle we have against it.

This is, obviously, a subjective list going off how I feel these types of bosses and battles rank against each other, or above the ones I excluded. Are there any that you feel I missed out on? Feel free to comment!

Word to the wise, don’t make a drinking game out of every time I use the word “boss” here. I don’t want a death on my friggin’ conscience.

We’re starting with...

12. The “Tactical Suicide Boss”

While cutting the various types of bosses down to twelve only for the list (as my original cut picked out of 64 possible options on TVTropes’ page about boss battles), I eventually wondered whether I wanted to focus more on the bosses themselves, or the type of strategy needed to defeat them. I wound up focusing on the monsters, but there’s a handful of entries for strategies, and we open on one.

King K. Rool would be unstoppable, but he has to throw his
crown to attack, exposing his soft noggin.

The core idea behind the “tactical suicide boss” trope involves a boss that would, by all accounts, be undefeatable. There’s just one problem: To attack, this enemy must reveal the only means of harming them. This differs from battles where the means of defeat of the boss is found in the arena itself, another type of oversight on the part of a baddie we’re battling. There’s something poetic to how the fault lies entirely on the enemy themselves for exposing the one thing that can beat them, and it feels even more satisfying as a result. Due to these parameters, this specific type is more common to platform and adventure games, but has been seen in other genres as well.

11. The Background Boss

Picture this: You’re at the end of a grueling platform stage, ready to face the villain head-on, and... it’s not standing in front of you. Not behind you either. From the ceiling? From underneath the floor? Nope! The background peels away, revealing a towering monstrosity that attacks from the safety of an unexpected tridimensional element. Surprise!

Being in the back doesn't mean "I'm impervious to
all attacks". It does mean "I'm huge", though.

Going big is one of Bowser's favorite tricks, but some of his
uses of the trick are more amazing than others.

I thought the first background boss I had personally seen was on the SNES console, but scrolling down a list of examples pointed me to cases from as early as the NES. My personal image involved a boss that required a lot of processing power as it moved around, but no – sometimes it can be as simple as a stationary boss so large it takes up the whole screen, staying in the back, with its weaknesses still accessible in some way. This is a type made famous in platform games of the 2D or 2.5D type due to the necessity for a clear difference between foreground and background – though, with that said, a few 3D games tried implementing this as well.

10. The Damage Sponge Boss/Marathon Boss

Not pictured: The thousand or so hits it takes to bring down
Henry Cooldown, AKA "Sir Henry Motherfucker".

Two types that may overlap, but don’t describe the same situation. In both cases, we’re talking about bosses who take a fait bit of time to take down. A fight against a Damage Sponge may not always be lengthy, but it will usually be. Their strategy generally involves wearing the player down with attrition while they soak up every attack the hero(es) can dish at them. Those things may not have the best stats and may even be on the weak side... were it not for a staggering amount of Hit Points or a high defense that makes getting rid of them harder than it looks. Sometimes, they even have healing spells!

Even if you're really good, a battle with four phases, like
Ganondorf here at the end of Twilight Princess, is still
going to take a while.

In comparison, the Marathon Boss is not described in terms of amount of HP, but the time it takes to beat them. Expect the encounter to be several minutes longer than the average battle. And minutes, that’s if you beat them on your first try. Compared to the Sponge, a Marathon can range from docile to utterly brutal, and an accumulation of mistakes on the gamer’s part can cause defeat down the line.

Both types of bosses have been seen in several genres, but they appear to be most prominent in RPGs due to the inherent mechanics of combat there. Final bosses and superbosses can fit the description if they have a ton of health and/or take a while to properly defeat. Done poorly, both types are supreme annoyances. Done well, they’re among the most memorable battles.

9. The Wake-Up Call Boss

If you haven't learned yet that your team
rations Flower Points between them, or how to
use items or defend... Croco is here to remind
you of both.

After a more relaxed trial period in which we’re taught the controls and mechanics of the title we’ve begun playing, a point comes where it decides to stop going easy on us. This can apply to levels as well, but let’s focus on the bosses. Those that fit the criteria go into two categories. The first: If there’s a mechanic you’ve underutilized so far that is vital to how gameplay works, you can expect this bastard to be waiting right around the corner, forcing you into a fight where you either can’t win, or can win with extreme difficulty, without using that feature.

Alternately, it can be the first actual roadblock you face, the boss that represents the first true spike in difficulty. The game’s getting serious on you, time to get serious on it. It's only gonna get tougher from then on.

8. The “One-Winged Angel”

Marx, the actual final boss of Kirby Super Star,
didn't look that deranged previously. Also
he had no wings.

Specifically named after Sephiroth’s penultimate form in Final Fantasy VII (a game I have yet to get to), this trope, which isn’t exclusive to video games, refers to an antagonist who takes on a grander, powerful form before kicking the fight up a notch. This isn’t limited to final bosses, though it’s more common for those than for any other due to their plot significance. It only makes sense that the last obstacle would have this trick up its sleeve.

It may be one of the more overdone tropes out there when it comes to major villains, but the awesomeness of it trumps its overuse. Its appearance at a climactic point can be very welcome. You may already know it’s coming, or you might not – and your enjoyment of the trope may vary as a result. Also of note, a twist on the idea where the new, ultimate form has weaknesses to exploit, a trope all its own dubbed the “Clipped-Wing Angel” by the same website.

7. The True Final Boss

“Final Boss” isn’t on this list on its own, as it’s the most common sub-type of boss by virtue of being meant as the last story challenge a game has to offer. That said, final bosses may be the sub-type with the most variations. Which is understandable since, again, plot significance. The True Final Boss is a different beast, however.

Playing Smash 4's Classic Mode on a high enough difficulty?
Say hello to Master Core and, potentially, its 4-5 forms.

This type won’t appear unless other requirements are fulfilled. Some of these may include beating the game on a higher difficulty or picking up every collectible of a sort. In some instances, this requires beating the game’s actual final boss once beforehand, other times it can be unlocked regardless of whether that was accomplished before. Sometimes, they replace the (original) final boss. Maybe there’s a new area, an entire postgame to explore beforehand, opening the way to this stronger enemy. One way or another, what we previously thought to be the final boss, at what seemed like the end of the game, wasn’t... if you’re willing to put in the effort.

Asriel Dreemurr represents the concept as well,
since you need to complete a handful of extra
quests to befriend everyone before you can
properly battle him at the end of True Pacifist.

6. The Climax Boss / Disc-One Final Boss

Once again, two types that have similar descriptions, leading to overlap, but with differences. The Climax Boss is meant to be the closing encounter of a major part of the story. Not the final boss, but a significant one on the way to get to them.

You think you're done by killing Mom?
Hah, there's like a dozen extra final bosses past this point.

The Disc-One Final Boss... heh, that’s a name that feels so antiquated nowadays. Anyway, this type of boss represents characters who were previously believed to be the driving antagonistic force in the story, until they are defeated and revealed to merely be pawns, and the real bad guys are waiting much further down the line. It bears mentioning that despite the name, this type neither has to be at the end of a “disc” or, even, at exactly the midway point of a story – it may even be fought in the last stretch, mere moments before the actual final boss.

Once again, neither type described here is limited to gaming, but the conventions of the medium make it one of the more likely places for this to happen.

Aghanim, AKA Ganon in disguise. Happens
at a climactic point and also ends Part 1 of
A Link to the Past.

5. The Sequential Boss

A widespread type, this is an encounter made of a sequence of multiple fights, generally against the same enemy using different forms. It isn’t rare for this type to be the final boss, a marathon boss (when all the phases are added together), a One-Winged Angel (if one phase involves the enemy transforming into said form), and even a true final boss (if it's part of the same battle and the requirements have all been met).

This isn't even Zero's penultimate form.

The only necessity is that there’s more than one form to fight – most fights under this umbrella will be against two forms, often three, but some games have gone kind of crazy with the concept. You just know someone out there made a boss with 10+ forms. It exists, I’m betting on it. That said, the definition of the trope is large enough that a form change can be somewhat minor, like a monster formerly tied to the ground uprooting itself and becoming mobile. This is another type we associate to RPGs, because sequential bosses are especially notable there, but they’re also very common in platform, action-adventure and shoot’em-up games. And memorable, for good reason.

4. The Recurring Boss

Jr. Troopa is fought six friggin' times throughout Paper
Mario, and is a persistent pain in the party's backsides.

The enemy who is met once... then once more... then again... and then some more... How many times has that been? I lost count. But you get the point. This is the character who is tougher than a regular enemy, may or may not be related to the actual threat, and is a constant thorn in the heroes’ side, reappearing where they’re going to annoy them (and you!) the most.

Like all other types on this list, this concept has been approached in a couple of different ways. The first is that the boss doesn’t really change all that much from a fight to the next, and becomes a nuisance rather than a threat. The second is a category of its own, the “Varying Tactics Boss”, in which an opponent is the same but fights in a way that’s radically different at every battle, and much trickier to go against if you're expecting consistency.

Is it cheating to include a game I've played but
not reviewed yet? Here. Sonic Adventure 1.
Chaos, who's fought a lot.

3. The Colossus Climb

You have to climb on Reflux's arms to attack his weak
point in one phase of the final battle in Rayman 3.

An entry that refers to both the kind of enemy and the fight to take it down. The Colossus Climb is a battle against a gigantic enemy whose weak point is located high up on their body. It’s up to the player to scale this enemy to reach that weakness. Size is relative, all that matters is that the opponent is big enough to be climbed on – and since this usually translates to platform-like gameplay, we’re not talking a difference of a few feet. Couple yards, maybe. Miles aren't unheard of. (I’m not good with the imperial system. Metric FTW.) Fights against these enemies tend to go the same way as a result, but nothing beats the feeling of taking down a giant while we’re only a fraction – at best – of their size. Or rather, some things do beat that feeling, that’s why it only ranks #3.

Megaleg from Super Mario Galaxy.
You run up its leg to reach its weakness.
Is that big enough for you?

2. The Mirror Boss

Dark Link breathes this trope, though I'd argue his appearance
most relevant to this entry is in Ocarina of Time.

What’s better than fighting someone giant? Fighting a copy of yourself. This type of boss has moves that are reminiscent of, if not identical to, your player character’s. Some details may change; since this enemy acts through its AI, it can end up with weaknesses a normal player doesn’t have. This may be remedied by the mirror boss having much more health than you do, or having extra tricks you can’t access. In more extreme cases, this boss can even wield the exact same equipment you walked onto the battlefield with, with possible exceptions if you’re carrying the best stuff in the game.

This isn’t the most common type, but it’s bound to catch people by surprise. It helps that this sort of battle is usually surrounded by an air of mystery. If it’s a separate character with the same skillset, it’s already odd; but if it’s a perfect copy of the hero, one must wonder how this mirror boss came to exist. And like other type on this list, variations have come to exist aplenty.

The Mario RPGs have a thing for those mirror
bosses. This one, Shadoo from Super Paper Mario,
also fits my #1 spot.

Quick honorable mentions:

-The Boss Rush, where multiple past bosses are fought in sequence;

-Broken Armor Boss Battle, a boss whose equipment has to be destroyed before you can wound it;

-Ring-Out Boss, which involves throwing the boss out of the arena’s bounds.

-The Giant Space Flea from Nowhere, whose origin is unknown. It just... appears and you fight it.

-The Zero-Effort boss, an oft-comical take on a boss who is immediately defeated.

-The Final Exam Boss, forcing you to reuse most of the skills you’ve obtained through the journey.

On to...

1. The Superboss

A legendary battle.

Bit of an obvious choice, but I couldn’t help it – superbosses are super memorable. This type is a bonus challenge that’s meant to be harder than anything you’d encounter in the main story proper. It may be harder than everything else without exception, even. Challenge is the reason of their existence, and someone who puts in the work to find them is already more invested than someone who’d merely seek to beat the final boss.

Most titles will feature only one, but games who truly want to test their players will have several. Unlike other examples on this list, you most often must go out of your way to find this one as it may be a completionism reward, fought at the end of a grueling challenge, or hidden behind a side-quest. Some games are devious enough to spring them upon you without notice in which case, good friggin’ luck. A combination of difficulty, how you find them, and the resulting battle helps make this what I consider to be the best boss type. And the most rewarding type to defeat – ah, what a feeling.

I tried to not include a game twice in my examples,
but I couldn't skip mentioning Culex, a great
example of the type. (Plus, with the new version
of Super Mario RPG that came out recently...)

That’s it for now! That’s it for 2023, in fact. I might still post some Gaming Memories till the end of the year, though.