Top 10 Surprisingly Hard Video Game Bosses
These boss fights were a lot harder than we were expecting. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at video game bosses that surprised us with their level of challenge, whether it was due to their appearance or their placement in the game’s campaign.
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00:00 I beg of you, grant me the strength to take this final prey.
00:09 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at video game bosses that surprised us with
00:13 their level of challenge, whether it was due to their appearance or their placement in
00:17 the game's campaign.
00:27 Number 10 - Puppet Ganon, The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker
00:38 When Link heads into the Wind Waker's final dungeon, players are right to expect a tough
00:42 fight with the big bad.
00:44 What they might not expect is to get bodied by a goofy-looking marionette.
00:48 Before Link can fulfill his destiny, he faces off against Puppet Ganon, which surprisingly
00:52 puts up a bigger fight than the villain.
01:00 Players must deal with three animalistic phases, all of which have the same weak spot.
01:04 However, it only takes damage from light arrows, which cost magic, and landing a hit is deceptively
01:09 hard since the Puppet moves erratically the entire time.
01:13 No one said becoming a legendary hero was easy, but even the most evil of puppets shouldn't
01:17 be this big of a problem.
01:25 Number 9 - Goopy LeGrand, Cuphead
01:38 Cuphead deserves its brutal reputation, and its high level of difficulty becomes obvious
01:42 fairly quickly on a first playthrough.
01:45 Even still, look at this bouncing puddle.
01:47 Surely, such a basic design encountered early in the game will be more manageable.
01:51 Well, no, not really.
01:54 Phase 1 isn't so bad as Goopy bounces around and turns into a boxing glove to attack.
01:58 However, phase 2 sees him grow twice his original mass, severely depleting the size of your
02:03 safe space.
02:11 Even in death, Goopy is a nuisance.
02:13 Phase 3 has you contend with powerful gravestone slams.
02:16 Additionally, as he's fought early, you won't have many power-ups to choose from.
02:28 Number 8 - Tinker Knight, Shovel Knight
02:37 The retro-inspired Shovel Knight has players contend with the Order of No Quarter, a group
02:40 of strong-willed and differently themed knights.
02:43 Many of them are strong, but when players make it to the end of the Tinker Knight stage,
02:47 they find an unimpressive foe who does little to actually hurt them.
02:51 After dodging his stream of wrenches and depleting his health, that's when the real fight begins.
03:01 Tinker Knight then brings out a mech so massive, it takes up most of the arena's space.
03:06 The rest is taken up by the barrage of projectiles the boss constantly hurls your way.
03:10 He's by no means the hardest boss in the game, but the clever misdirect made this a memorable
03:14 fight.
03:22 Number 7 - Gruntilda Winky Bunion, Banjo-Kazooie
03:33 While you may come across the occasional hard-to-obtain jiggy, Banjo-Kazooie is a pretty easy platformer.
03:38 And the same goes for its boss fights, save for the last one.
03:42 The game spends a lot of time making fun of the evil witch Grunty, so when we reached
03:46 the top of her tower, we were only expecting a mild pushback.
03:50 What we got was a five-phase long ordeal full of powerful attacks.
04:03 Grunty likes to fire spells from afar, one of which homes in and can only be negated
04:07 by using golden feathers, which grant invincibility but are in short supply.
04:12 She also eventually gains a force field that requires destroying a bunch of statues to
04:15 get rid of, while still peppering you with damage.
04:25 Number 6 - Phantomanta, Super Mario Sunshine
04:38 Sunshine has more deceptively hard moments than most of Mario's adventures, and the
04:41 fight against Phantomanta is one of the more annoying ones.
04:45 After entering the fifth level, Serena Beach, Mario must play hero against a giant spectral
04:49 manta ray that leaves behind a trail of electric goop.
04:53 By spraying the boss with water, it separates in two, which you must keep doing until they're
04:57 all gone.
05:05 The boss' design is incredibly simplistic.
05:07 It doesn't even seem to have a physical form, and yet, whenever a manta bumps into
05:12 Mario, he's hurled backwards, likely into one of the many pools of electric goop.
05:16 We wouldn't have expected what is basically a shadow to give Mario such a run for his
05:21 money.
05:28 Number 5 - Spike, Spyro, Year of the Dragon
05:45 Sometimes an innovative feature can blow up in your face, or in the case of Spike from
05:49 the third Spyro the Dragon game, in your player's faces.
05:52 Spike is only the second boss in the game, yet became known for being the hardest.
05:56 While he uses a gun with a quick fire rate and several ammunition types, it's really
06:00 his ferocity rather than his mechanics that make things tough.
06:10 One of the game's new features was auto-challenge tuning, which was meant to adapt to a player's
06:14 skill level over the course of the game.
06:16 Because the opening levels and the first boss were a breeze for most, Spike came in and
06:20 absolutely wrecked us.
06:22 Good thing this was fixed for the HD remake.
06:33 Number 4 - Whitney, Pokemon Gold and Silver
06:42 The most challenging fights in Pokemon are usually due to clever tactics and high-level
06:46 attacks.
06:47 However, Whitney, leader of the Goldenrod City Gym, gained her reputation with one cheap,
06:52 infuriating Miltank.
06:53 While she's only the third gym leader and only has one other Pokemon, Whitney has been
06:58 ticking players off for years.
07:05 Her Miltank can heal half its max HP and use a tract to make your male Pokemon less likely
07:10 to attack.
07:11 But the most aggravating aspect by a long shot is its rollout attack.
07:15 The move hits five times in a row and deals more damage each time.
07:19 There are ways to ease the pain, like using a fighting type or female Pokemon, but no
07:24 one was expecting this much of a fight.
07:32 Number 3 - Morgan Freeman, South Park - The Fractured But Whole
07:44 Not only was it surprising to see Morgan Freeman appear in this South Park RPG, but also that
07:48 the Oscar-winning actor provides the most challenging fight in the game.
07:52 By visiting Freeman's Tacos and attacking the Thespian, you'll begin a secret encounter
07:55 that will make you wish you had it.
07:57 You may as well wait until the end of the game as you'll need to be very high-level
08:00 and have a ton of resources stocked to make it through.
08:13 Freeman has a ton of health and many of his attacks deal a lot of damage while covering
08:17 wide areas to catch multiple targets.
08:19 This could have easily been a joke appearance at the celebrity's expense, but Morgan Freeman
08:23 does not mess around.
08:30 Number 2 - The End - Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater
08:42 Players have fought many elderly antagonists that put up far greater fights than they'd
08:47 expect, but not many of them can catch the disconnect between The End's decrepitness
08:51 and how hard his fight is.
08:53 The sniper uses the dense jungle setting to his advantage, expertly tracking and hitting
08:56 Snake with tranquilizers should he get too close.
09:00 Players must use heat vision and sound to hunt him down, but he'll prove his age doesn't
09:04 mean you'll get the drop on him.
09:06 The End will not make it easy to track him down, despite literally being 100 years old.
09:11 In fact, he's so ancient that an alternate way of winning the fight is setting your console
09:15 date forward 8 days so he dies of old age.
09:39 Number 1 - Flowey - Undertale
09:52 Even more deceptive than a fight against someone on Death's Door is a fight against an average-sized
09:57 flower.
09:58 Flowey comes as an early surprise in Undertale as we're both entertained and creeped out
10:01 by his malevolent nature.
10:03 However, the game's plot builds up Asgore, the Underground's king, as the final boss.
10:08 After you defeat him on a neutral playthrough, Flowey appears to steal multiple human souls
10:12 and transforms into an unholy abomination.
10:21 When he's not laughing maniacally, Flowey fills the screen with so much damage that
10:25 your little heart will barely be able to keep up with any kind of avoidance strategy.
10:29 Never before has a flower been this detrimental to our video game health.
10:47 Which tough boss caught you off guard?
10:49 Share your thoughts in the comments and be sure to subscribe for more great gaming videos.
10:53 Thanks for watching!
11:12 -End Screen-