what was the first game with a final boss that has two stages?

[tom]

Probably happend on some arcade game, most 'firsts' happened at the arcades.

[Sunnyvale]

Don't know how far this skirts the OP's focus, but the boss in Yars' Revenge had 2 forms. But he's kinda always there, so to call him a 'boss'...

[portnoyd]

Ninja Gaiden on the NES essentially had a three form last boss.

[The 1 2 P]

The last boss in Gun.Smoke had two forms. Well actually he just came back to fight you immediately a second time after you killed him the first time. I liked that boss fight as I did all the bosses in Gun.Smoke.

[MrSmiley381]

I can't think of anything earlier than what's been mentioned in this thread, but I will say that I found the Dracula X Chronicles version of Dracula to be awesome. This mostly has to do with the fact that he has a third form, and that sure as hell wasn't in the original.

I remember spending a good hour trying to beat him while waiting at the Guitar Hero III midnight launch. I did succeed, but time certainly has changed things since then.

MUSHA's final boss encounter went from delicate to incredibly claustrophobic. Seriously, first a good third of the screen is covered in death, then for the second phase it's two-thirds death. Die once and things suddenly become much, much harder.

[aryoshi]

Holy freakin' crap, nobody mentioned the first Dragon Quest?! I do agree with the Yars' Revenge one, but in 1986 when Dragon Quest was released, the final boss, Dragonlord, has two forms. First form is a smaller humanlike form, the second and final form is a large blue dragon.

[GarrettCRW]

Holy freakin' crap, nobody mentioned the first Dragon Quest?! I do agree with the Yars' Revenge one, but in 1986 when Dragon Quest was released, the final boss, Dragonlord, has two forms. First form is a smaller humanlike form, the second and final form is a large blue dragon.

I think we have a winner.