Really Big Bosses

[digitalpress]

After playing through the first level of God of War, where you have to climb up to the top of the ship just to get to the middle head of the Hydra, I got to thinking "these are the kinds of bosses I like best". The bosses who are so massive in scale that you might just wet yourself wondering how the tiny creature you've been playing could possibly win the battle.

A few others come to mind: remember the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man in the Genesis version of Ghostbusters? Though you don't see the whole character, he's clearly way bigger than you are. Likewise for the end boss, Loki, on Ghouls & Ghosts and the fifth level boss in Forgotten Worlds, all Genesis games.

Think about it. What bosses are so incredibly huge in scale that they made you think... "that's one really BIG boss right there"?

[Austin]

There are a bunch of HUGE bosses in Resident Evil 4. The only one really mentionable without any spoilers is the big chained guy whose back you jump onto near the beginning of the game.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

There are some hugemoungus bosses in Painkiller, a FPS for PC. That was kind of one of the things about the game... "Look at the gigantic enemies and the awesome physics!"

[Mark III]

Stage 3 of R-type, where the entire level is one gigantic battleship you have to take out piece by piece. One of the coolest bosses ever.

Going to have to check out Shadow of the Collossus when it comes out, the entire game is supposed to be entirely boss battles. 8-)

[evildead2099]

Castlevania: SOTN

Contra: Hardcorps

Ghouls & Ghosts (LOKI!)

Phantasy Star series (Remember Mother Brain from part 2?)

[Dangerboy]

I second the Coloussus game coming..you actually have to run up the one character's sword to even get to him!

Off the top of my head:

Low G Man - Several Screen high bosses on NES

Final Fantasy 6(3) - Kefka's 3 Story End Boss Mode
Final Fantasy 7 - Not so huge, but Seph's wing span, my lord!

X-men Vs Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter
Marvel Vs Capcom 1 + 2 - All of them had bosses that either stood to/past the top of the screen, or took up the entire stage (like Apocalypse in MVSF)

Warhawk - Techincal Merit. You had to destroy the outside, then actually fly into this huge ship to retrieve the icon. I Still remember doing that during the aunch year of the PSX. Blew me away the first time i had to do it.

Advance Wars 2 and Ico - Technicallity: While the bosses themselves were a decent, regular size, it was theirattack that was so massive it deifed logic, as well as took up the entire stage. Were you not behind the sword in Ico, or on the one single spot on the map in Wars 2, you were as good as dead.

Transformers PS2- Tidalwave Stage. 55 Meters of walking aircraft carrier shooting 20+ missile salvos at you, with you having the ENTIRE STAGE as your escape route. So...freaking..awesome. Worth the entry fee alone to play the game.

Transformers PS2 - Unicron! You took on the entire Planet. Can't get no bigger than that :)

There's a PS1 game on the tip of my tongue that had a huge ass boss fight, and for the life of me I'm drawing a blank....

Jason

[nik]

Super Metroid, Kraid.

[digitalpress]

Don't forget the bosses at the end of EVERY level of Phantasy Star Online. The giant dragon in the first stage is a great set-up for the others you'll meet in the game and the new ones added to v2 and the Episode II gang.

[jajaja]

There are some hugemoungus bosses in Painkiller, a FPS for PC. That was kind of one of the things about the game... "Look at the gigantic enemies and the awesome physics!"

Agree, I think Painkiller have the biggest bosses (atleast the first and last). I never played any other games that have this big bosses and that gives you the feeling that they are huge.

[Berserker]

The boss at the end of the first stage in Megaman X2 comes to mind. I thought it was a nice way to cap off the first level, since you don't really expect to fight something that huge so early on in the game.

[AlexKidd]

Contra III and hard corps both had some pretty huge screen-filling bosses. Along with resident evil 4 and r-type which were already mentioned. The scarab in Halo 2 and the last boss in doom 3 come to mind too.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Kid Icarus (GameBoy) "Giant Orcos"

Wrath of the Black Manta (NES) <--- "Tiny" boss

TMNT <--- Giant Mouser

Super Ghouls N Ghosts <--- "Lord SARDIUS"

Mega Man in Wily Wars (Megadrive) <--- Wily Tower, the final form of Dr.Wily

Ninja Gaiden <--- "The Demon"

CastleVania 64 <--- Drac's final form...man that was huge...

Zelda Majora's Mask <---Twin Mold (Worms) in the Stone Temple

Silent Hill 3 <--- "GOD"...pretty freaky...

and let's not forget....DEMON'S CREST....The Zombie Dragon at the very beginning of the stage!

[jajaja]

Almost forgot, last boss in Serious Sam is also pretty big.

[Lord Contaminous]

The Final Fantasy series were full of bosses that took out the screen, more namely final battles
>FF3/6, the 3 story Hieronymous (sp?) Bosch type monster and Kefka himself
>Neo Exdeath (FF5)
>Zeromus (FF2/4)
>Master NORG (FF8)
>The "Weapon" bosses in 7-10

And Leopaldon (Guilty Gear Isuka)

[Sotenga]

Damn good ones have been mentioned thus far, but thought I'd also add Titanic Lance from Darius Gaiden. That mofo is so gargantuan that he wouldn't even be able to fit in the original three-screen wide Darius cabinet! And you fight him in the regular-screened Gaiden, which makes him look all the more larger! :eek 2:

Also, Queen Fossil from G-Darius (and her feverish cousin, Fire Fossil) can't cram themselves on the screen all at once. It's rather beautiful.

Final Vargas at the end of Power Stone was unnaturally huge for a fighting game boss, as well as the Pharoah Walker and Dr. Erode from PS2. Ooh, for that matter, Apocalypse from X-Men vs. Street Fighter/Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Onslaught's second form from Marvel vs. Capcom, and Abyss' third form from Marvel vs. Capcom 2... all grossly oversized and fuggin' cheap bosses they are.

What about that big mutated mass of flesh at the end of Stage 3 of Shinobi 3? What an excellent boss that guy is, and only his upper torso fits on the screen all at once.

The big gigantic Icon of Sin at the end of Doom 2/Final Doom is gigantic beyond compare, even if it is really just a wall with a goat face and an open cavity in its head that's really just an opening for John Romero's head on a stick, which is the actual boss and isn't very big at all. But the wall's big, so that's why the IoS is on here. LOL

Typhon from Rygar: The Legendary Adventure was grandly giant too. Five demonic baby heads just WAITING for you to die!

Ever fight the Forgotten One in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence? Oh geez... what a titan. He's basically the brother of Beelzebub from Symphony of the Night (also insanely huge), and you gotta fight three different sections of this thing's rotted body to succeed and snag the coveted black orb. NOT FREAKING EASY.

That's all for now, I'll see if I can recount more later.

[roushimsx]

Low G Man - Several Screen high bosses on NES

Warhawk - Techincal Merit. You had to destroy the outside, then actually fly into this huge ship to retrieve the icon. I Still remember doing that during the aunch year of the PSX. Blew me away the first time i had to do it.


Ah man, you took Low G Man, which was what I came in here to post about :) That game had some awesome bosses.

I liked fighting Grig Org (http://www.roushimsx.com/stoofoo/videos/Panzer_Dragoon_Saga_060.avi) in Panzer Dragoon Saga, though it's really not as big as some of the other stuff already listed. It seems kinda small when you're fighting it until the camera pulls back and shows just how small you really are in comparison.

[njiska]

Contra: Shattered Soldier has a bunch of huge bosses including a giant mech and a massive battleship.

Devil May Cry features some huge bosses like a giant Falcon.

Resident Evil's Plant-42 was giant.

but honestly i don't think we're gonna top Unicron when it comes to sheer size. Good o'l Transformers.

[Lord Contaminous]

Oh yeah I forgot about X/M vs. SF. I remember when X vs SF first came out, there was something about the Apocalypse fight that drew in crowds when someone fights him.

[MattyXB]

The Magic of Scheherazade (NES): Wow, I remember as we played it (my mother played most and I watched) that sometimes the NES crashes, because the Boss Enemies where so big and too still moveing. So it was to much for the NES and sometimes the game was unplayable.

The Guardian Legend (NES) has too some big Boss enemies. Sometimes you have see only parts from them, when I not wrong. The last Boss for example. I have always wonder me, that this game play without much trouble. So much enemies at the same time on the screen and so big Bosses. And no big slow down on the NES.

[FantasiaWHT]

I second the Phantasy Star Series :) Big freaking bosses!

New one- Phelios. The final boss takes up most of the top of the screen!

[DDCecil]

Stage 2 - Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (SFC, Sat, PSX) - The battle with Hikaru and Akane, the bunny women heroines of Gokujyou Parodius/Sexy Parodius.

and not really a boss, but the gigantic showgirl on Gokujyou Parodius - WOW.

Stage 2 - Wild Woody (Sega CD) - Zeus

The final Dragon on King's Field was pretty big, too.

[Lord Contaminous]

Speaking of Parodius

The huge Medusa face in Sexy Parodius.

When she takes damage as well as get defeated, she makes sexually arousing moans.

[Cmosfm]

I have to second Painkiller, the HUGE bosses made the game's battles excellent. Having to shoot and run...shoot and run. It was a great experience.

[Crush Crawfish]

Alright, some great one have been mentioned so far (like the 1st boss from Mega Man X2), but I've got a few more:

The Steam Knight from Brave Fencer Musashi was really huge, and easily one of the best boss fights I've ever witnessed (and it's only the first one in that game! :eek 2: ). Not to mention that tiny little Musashi somehow picks up and throws this gargantuan thing not one, not two, but THREE times. With his bare hands. Musashi is such a badass.

Sigma's final forms from Mega Man X5 and X7 are both quite enormous, particularly X5's, since only Sigma's head, shoulders and hands can actually fit on the screen! @_@

And of course, let's not forget the Dragon from the 1st level of Wily's castle in Mega Man 2. It may not look too big now, but back in the day, this guy blew me away. Biggest boss I'd ever seen in a game at that point. And lo and behold, a few levels later you'd fight the Gutsdozer, who was somehow even bigger (though pathetically easy).

And then there's the final boss of Skyblazer, Lord something-or-other (his name escapes me at the moment). To get a sense of how ridiculously big this guy is, you must realize that you spend the entire battle against this guy ON HIS ARM. It's crazy!

That's all I've got for now, I'll try to see if I can think of some more....

[MegaDrive20XX]

Oh man *slaps my forehead* how can I forget the classic Mega Man boss...."The Rock Monster"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/Akumajo22/mmbp-rockman.gif

Thanks Crush Crawfish for reminding me from your avatar! :D

[Lothars]

I agree with these

X-men Vs Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter
Marvel Vs Capcom 1 + 2

also most of the contra games had huge bosses.

In a sense Final Fantasy X does to but that's not really the same thing.

[Pantechnicon]

Mysterio in Spider-Man (PSX) is pretty freaking huge. He grows into a giant poking through 3 stories of a building. You have to hit 6 weak spots on his neck, waist and knees while moving in-between floors as Mysterio's trying to simultaneously shoot you with a laser or stomp on you. Then when you've taken out the weak spots you have to climb back up to his head/neck level and hit him like four more times in the head, dodging an even bigger laser.. Like I said...a big boss.

[Jumpman Jr.]

One that pops into my mind is the last last boss in Sonic Adventures. I've only gotten to him once, and I remember him being huge (like, the size of buildings).

[segarocks30]

Metriod Prime from Metriod Prime,that boss was so freakin huge,no wonder the name of the boss is the title of the game.Also that very big guy in shinobi i think his name was yamoto its the one with the crystel on its head.

[pragmatic insanester]

the next one is probably the largest, next to unicron of course.

anyone ever play Loaded? the final level is you walking around on the boss like some sort of twisted Gulliver's Travels. you blow his eyes and nipples and a bunch of other stuff off.

[shoes23]

G-Darius (PSX) has some massive bosses. Every boss fight leaves you wondering why the goods guys have such a puny ship. Luckily, you can power up your alpha beam to reach at least half the screen in single player mode and you can team up with a friend so that all you can see is a sea of blue laser on the screen.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/shoes23/2gdarius.jpg
A picture of one of the smaller bosses in the game.

[hbkprm]

mg rex: metal gear solid: the twin snakes
metroid prime part 1: metroid prime
mother brain: metroid
perfect chaos: sonic adventure
x-zone: sonic advance

[Slimedog]

Rez and Panzer Dragoon Orta had some pretty huge boss. But the one that takes the cake is definitely Voodo Vince. The last boss in that game was this ginormous robot thing. You started at his feet and ran up and around him to the head. Then you hop in a plane and do strafing runs on him. Because he was always walking around and swatting at you, you never got the feeling that it was a huge hulking monstrosity and not just a level with moving parts.

[lendelin]

I agree with all of your picks; but there is only one boss who was not only of incredible size in game space but also gave me the feeling of being small and overwhelmed by its size.

That "thing" is the Forgotten One from Castlevania Lament of Innocence.

Not only mysterious, not only hundreds of years imprisoned with rotting flesh in the Prison of Eternal Torture, but also incredible in size: our little Belmont guy was only the size of half of a finger of this monster.

Three stages of intense battles, going up by elevator from the torso, the hands, and finally to the monster's head was challenging and fun....and very well prepared by exposition of gameplay: going down a long spiraling staircase to the entrance of the torture chamber gave the gamer the feeling of a thrilling mystery and of gigantic size.

Size matters after all...

[MegaDrive20XX]

Ah yes, aka "Beelzebub" in Lament of Innocence...you are correct...that still holds the trophy for one of the largest bosses I have ever seen in a game to date.

[SoulBlazer]

Not to mention a very gross battle. :D

But I still kicked his ass. :P

[Steven]

I agree with Joe -- I love me some huge screen-hogging bosses. My pet peeve is going against bosses who are the same size as me... sorry, that's just not very "oh yeah that rocks, that there" you know? Megaman's regular "x-Man" bosses -- while some of them looked cool I wished they at least were a bit bigger than Megaman.

I liked the first boss in NiGHTS... I remember being blown away... and Zombie Revenge had some real good big nasties. Who could forget Silent Hill 1's moth-creature in the mall? Good stuff.

[RJ]

No one's yet mentioned them by name, but there's Galamoth in the inverted 2nd castle in CastleVania: SotN. IIRC his Achille's Heel WAS his heel, or some part of his foot. Anyway, thats how I beat him.

And, in/under the first castle, down in the corner, the Granfaloon, that abso-fricking-lutely HUGE round red thing that only went down piece-by-piece only after hitting certain parts.

Man, the first time I saw those humanoid bodies falling off of it... @_@ O_O :eek 2:

[imanerd0011]

All of the bosses from Totally Rad for the NES. I think that most of them are the size of the screen.

[Steven]

All of the bosses from Totally Rad for the NES. I think that most of them are the size of the screen.

LOL I liked that game from memory, and recall renting it just based on its "totally rad" cover of the monster creature's eyes peering out, lol. However, it seems like every "critic" hated it with a passion.

[Cryomancer]

For a similar discussion check out my old "breakaway bosses" topic, there's many big ones mentioned there too. http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=58173&highlight=breakaway

I agree with Joe on PSO. Although I've killed the dragon so many times he doesn't feel very big anymore. LOL The Gryphon or however they spell it is pretty crazy though. Another foot-stabber.

Have you seen episode 4 Joe? There's a "regular" enemy thank shakes the screen when it dies it's so big. About as regular as say, Delbiters from episode 2. Acts very similar to them also. Thing is huge though, and has quite a few HP. They also have a rare variant, although I've yet to see one.

[crazyjackcsa]

Panzer Dragoon sereis has some pretty large bosses. So does Skies of Arcadia. But to be honest, the first one I thought of was Steel empire On the Genny. the Graphics weren't very good, but the bosses were massive!

[Ruudos]

Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES)
Mega Man games (NES)
Totally Rad (NES)

[Jorpho]

A fine list... The only ones I might add are Wizpig from Diddy Kong Racing, and perhaps certain incarnations of Krang (like in the Game Boy version of TMNT2).

[fpstream]

How could you forget Painkiller, those guys are collosal.

[Sotenga]

Time for some more specific examples.

The Vigoorian Emperor from Ninja Gaiden (XBOX). Both forms were titanic, not to mention that you had to float around on a platform to fight his first form.

Empress Bulblax from Pikmin 2. That gigantic mass of rolling death is an intimidating sight compared to the diminuitive Olimar and Louie.

The vile alien leader Rootmarks from Metal Slug 3. Yes, I read that its name is indeed Rootmarks. Silly as it is, this mofo is so gigantic that you have to use him as a platform while blasting at his brain... and falling down through the atmosphere, no less!

The ambiguous demon at the end of Metal Slug 5. You get to see how large he is in the background, and when he's up close, it's just scary to see how he dwarfs the heroes. Too bad we don't know much else about this guy other than his size...

Bowser from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Honestly, when I was little, I thought I had beaten the game when I whomped Baby Bowser. Then Kamek gave him the most potent potion ever, and I pissed myself to see that the baby had transformed into fucking Godzilla in the background! He was huge, and it's made scarier by the fact that he gradually advances towards you, growing even bigger in scale. And if he gets too close, he crushes the platforms you're standing on merely by using his girth, and ya lose. Bowser's most intimidating form to date, methinks.

Hooktail from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Yep, he can't fit onto the screen. Matter of fact, you really only see his head and front claw in the battle screen. His siblings Gloomtail and Bonetail make for even more commanding presences.

Quadraxis from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. YEESH. Quite the sizeable machine. It was tough enough, but not as hard as I would have thought. The uber-frustrating Spider Guardian battle aggravated me more, and he wasn't very big at all... say, that could be a good nominee for the small bosses thread. Heh...

Mundus from Devil May Cry. I tell ya, it was thrilling to be fighting him in "Space Harrier" perspective for the first battle. He was huge, but it was fun to shoot constantly at him while darting to and fro evading his numerous projectiles. Then reality hit me for his second form... EUGH. HARD. OUCH. To beat him on Dante Must Die, I had to use TWO Invincibles, and that was to drain HALF of his life.

The Geschellschaft from Mega Man Legends. Taking on the Bonnes' aircraft was damn difficult. I had to take it on one by one, starting with... the wings, I believe. Not sure, haven't played it in a while.

Sigma's final incarnations from every Mega Man X game, specifically MMX5. You could really only see his face and a bit of his upper body in that one.

The second-to-final boss in Alien Hominid. Most of the bosses are really huge in AH, but this guy just takes the biscuit.

[Jumpman Jr.]

I was just playing Battletoads and Double Dragon on the SNES a few minutes ago. I've never gotten to the third boss, but the first 2 bosses are pretty freaking big.
The first level has got that big muscle guy, and the second level has that big fat rat.

[Yago]

The arcade game Alien Syndrome had a large boss. It was the big brain with a head poking out of the top of it with another green head and arm hanging out, don't think that did anything but was there for show.

Another I recall is in MDK2. The alien you have to fight is at least 20 times larger than you. You start off by having to shoot him in the eyes 3 times. Then the room you are in, has the walls collapse. You are on a platform in a huge room. Where again, you battle the huge alien. Have to rescue your dog friend by shooting his hand, then have to zap him by shooting targets on the wall. I recall It took me several tries to beat him, finally did. But yeah, he was the biggest I recall.

I don't know if this qualifies, but in a lot of shooters, the bosses at the end are always huge. Take Twin Cobra for example. The tanks at the end of the first level take up the entire screen just about.

[NeoZeedeater]

I remember the old Datasoft Bruce Lee game having a huge last boss which was amazing at the time, especially since bosses in general weren't common in games yet.

[Sotenga]

I remember the old Datasoft Bruce Lee game having a huge last boss which was amazing at the time, especially since bosses in general weren't common in games yet.

You don't mean the old Commodore 64 game? If so, please whip up a screenshot if possible! I could never get to that guy. :(

[NeoZeedeater]

That is the game. I looked for a screenshot but all I can find are pics of early levels.

[CartCollector]

There's a boss on Macbeth in StarFox64 that CAN be really big. The boos here, Mechbeth, is on a train. There's 8 switches that, if all of them are shot, the railroad track changes its route. Since Mechbeth is on this track,

---SPOILER!---

Mechbeth goes straight into his own base! Cue big explosion, +50 enemy counter thingies.

[RJ]

Oh, an unrelated aside here but just LAST WEEK I realized "Alucard" was "Dracula" backwards...

Seriously. :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed:

[shoes23]

I think that it is safe to nominate Shadow of the Collosus for this too. Nothing quite like scaling a 200 foot beast, only to crawl to his head and kill him.

[kevin_psx]

What bosses are so incredibly huge in scale that they made you think... "that's one really BIG boss right there"?

Sin in FF10 scared me.

Literally.

[Whiskers the Wonder Cat]

One of the most under-rated and great titles out there for the PS2, Blood will Tell. GET THIS GAME!

[kainemaxwell]

Ever fight the Forgotten One in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence? Oh geez... what a titan. He's basically the brother of Beelzebub from Symphony of the Night (also insanely huge), and you gotta fight three different sections of this thing's rotted body to succeed and snag the coveted black orb. NOT FREAKING EASY.
Will attest to him, damn! Don't forget the Mobile Armor bosses of Gundam Battle Assult 2.

[Ruudos]

The bosses and especially the last boss in Blue Stinger are big too.

[kainemaxwell]

I'm just trying to get an Invincible Jar now to help a bit with the Forgotten One...

[christhegamer]

The final boss in Strider 2 is extremely cheesy, but, none the less, pretty big :eek 2: