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Hardest boss fights

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danshewan polycounter lvl 8
So, after 45 minutes, about 15 deaths, 150 health potions and much kiting, I finally finished off the boss at the end of the third act of Titan Quest - so not even the last boss. Seriously, he's a motherfucker.

Then I got to thinking - what other boss fights were so difficult, so maddeningly frustrating, they got us throwing control pads or ragequitting? Final Fantasy 3 on the DS also springs to mind - just about every boss in the whole game was impossibly difficult.

Hardest boss you've ever encountered?

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  • R3D
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    R3D interpolator
    Dullahan in Golden Sun: The Lost Age

    Not only is he 4 times harder than the final boss of the game but Djinn storm everywhere...

    He's known as a Superboss
  • Nick Carver
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    Nick Carver polycounter lvl 10
    I remember the git at the end of Viewtiful Joe causing me a lot of pain and frustration. There were some doozies in Contra III/Super Probotector as well. I think that game made you fight a bunch of bosses in a row. I hate it when games do that, especially when they just recycle bosses from earlier in the game.
  • Zipfinator
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    Zipfinator polycounter lvl 9
    Hmmm... Something I remember being hard off the top of my head is the final boss in Sonic Spinball. For that matter, most of the final Sonic bosses are hard. It's a shame that most games these days are being decreased in difficulty so that all of the mainstream players can beat them.
  • Jon Rush
    Laugh if you will, but to this day I still haven't beaten Bowser in Super Mario Brothers.

    Stage boss of lvl 100 in Bubble Bobble is pretty daunting.


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  • Psyk0
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    Psyk0 polycounter lvl 18
    Jason in all his NES evilness, that punk mofo refused to die!

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  • Rwolf
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    Rwolf polycounter lvl 18
    Never thought of Titan Quest as a hard game. Diablo II on medium, or hard is a pita.

    Damn final boss in Dead Space, the controls are so wonky (at least for me) I couldn't get a good bearing for clean shots.
  • Joseph Silverman
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    Joseph Silverman polycounter lvl 17
    God hand -- double final boss fight

    Ninja gaiden Master Ninja Tournament -- any boss
  • TheMadArtist
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    TheMadArtist polycounter lvl 12
    Jon Rush wrote: »
    Laugh if you will, but to this day I still haven't beaten Bowser in Super Mario Brothers.

    Stage boss of lvl 100 in Bubble Bobble is pretty daunting.


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    My brother and I got really good at that game, that guy was tough, but we could take him out without too much of a problem. Helps having a second player than just doing it solo.

    For RPGs, I remember the Atma Weapon in Final Fantasy 6 was pretty tough, and in the same FF vein, the Emerald Weapon in FF7 is a bitch.

    The last guy in Shinobi 3 is pretty tough.

    Grim Reaper in the original Nes Castlevania.

    Oh, and Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
  • AtlusZMH
    Rwolf wrote: »
    Never thought of Titan Quest as a hard game. Diablo II on medium, or hard is a pita.

    Damn final boss in Dead Space, the controls are so wonky (at least for me) I couldn't get a good bearing for clean shots.

    The assault rifle makes that last boss a joke.. srsly.. i tried with this set up: Plasma Cutter, Ripper, Line Gun, and Force gun like 3 times before saying fuck it. Sold all those weapons minus the Plasma Cutter and bought the rifle with a bunch of ammo and some ammo for the plasma cutter. Took all of 3 minutes to kill the boss with the rifle.. and only like 3 or 4 clips (of 50 rounds)

    i lol'd

    And im currently going through it again :P
  • HonkyPunch
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    HonkyPunch polycounter lvl 18
    God Hand has mean bosses.
    I Wanna Be The Guy has incredibly mean bosses, Mike Tyson is a straight up bastard.
    I guess lots of shit in Disgaea, too.
    ALSO those two damn snake things in the tunnels under Reno (I think) in FF9 were fucking mean, but maybe I just suck. So was the end boss. And every god damn boss in Lost Oddysey until I got Kaim to be damn near invicible.
  • bounchfx
    everyone bitches about Alma in Ninja Gaiden (xbox) she can be annoying.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Ninja gaiden


    SMB for the gamecube, Double master hand pissed me off sooo much I was always so close to beating those guys.
  • AtlusZMH
    As for hardest bosses from me..

    I'd say a good number of fights in Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi 2 for Wii have made me want to kill puppies..
  • Mezz
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    Mezz polycounter lvl 8
    Anyone here played FFX? Cause if so, you probably remember &%$#%@ Seymor Flux!! What a FRUSTRATING boss fight that was. Oh, lemme just turn all your characters into ZOMBIES. AHH^%^*$&%!!!!

    But what REALLY makes this so rage-inducing is that it was still early enough on the PS2 that studios hadn't quite caught on that SKIPPING cut-scenes should be an option. And just before this battle, there was a LONG ass chit-chat first. I replayed so bloody much I had the timing of the cutscene down that I could leave the room, get a drink, go to the bathroom, etc, and be back in time to lose again in the freakin' battle.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Mezz wrote: »
    Anyone here played FFX? Cause if so, you probably remember &%$#%@ Seymor Flux!! What a FRUSTRATING boss fight that was. Oh, lemme just turn all your characters into ZOMBIES. AHH^%^*$&%!!!!

    But what REALLY makes this so rage-inducing is that it was still early enough on the PS2 that studios hadn't quite caught on that SKIPPING cut-scenes should be an option. And just before this battle, there was a LONG ass chit-chat first. I replayed so bloody much I had the timing of the cutscene down that I could leave the room, get a drink, go to the bathroom, etc, and be back in time to lose again in the freakin' battle.

    This game had to make me go back, rethink my strategy, and grind for 20 hours to get some immunity items at that point, but yes. that seymor, what a bitch.
  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    there was one thrown into the middle of prince of persia warrior within that was an absolute pisstake. Especially so since it was obvious that someone had said 'there's absolutely zero challenge in this, make that boss mentally hard so the game takes longer than 4 hours to complete'. Y'know that aged trick, the one i thought that people had moved on from and into proper game design... oh no.

    and seconded for Viewtiful Joe, the GC one. Probably the only game i've been forced to give up on mere inches from the end. I just pretended to myself i completed it, and felt happy enough.
  • crazyfool
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    crazyfool polycounter lvl 13
    Seth from street fighter 4, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! and I remember getting angry with King K rool in donkey kong country 2 haha :D
  • Yozora
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    Yozora polycounter lvl 11
    eld wrote: »
    This game had to make me go back, rethink my strategy, and grind for 20 hours to get some immunity items at that point, but yes. that seymor, what a bitch.

    Hmmm yes, "go back and grind" is the simple answer to most FF bosses. Except for the marathon ones.
    Giving a boss crap loads of HP does not make a boss hard, just time consuming and very boring :(
    It reminds me of those endurance races in gran turismo! Mind numbing stuff.

    As for the hardest boss.... thats gotta be... Sigma from Megaman X3!
    One of the annoying things was that after losing all your lives and using a continue, you had to do the whole level again.

    The most recent "hard boss" encounter I've had is probably... Maneater from Demons Souls. Actually, most of the bosses are quite hard in Demons souls if you dont use "cheap" strategies (such as standing miles away and just shooting arrows).
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    One that immediately comes to mind was Omega in Metroid Prime 1. Its a good thing game controllers are so durrable otherwise I'm not sure it would have survived that boss :p

    edit: Oh, The first boss in Bart vs the Space Mutants for NES was crazy hard, I probably sunk more time in that game then most rpgs, and I never managed to beat the boss at the end of the first level! Its one hit deaths for everything in that game.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    Cave story.... the real final boss. freaking insane.
  • Stinger88
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    Stinger88 polycounter
    Pretty much every boss in retro platform games was stupidly hard.

    The Big boss in Narc was particularly stupidly hard. Still never beat it.

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    The boss stage before the final boss in God of War had me beat as well. The multiple Kratos stage I think it was.
  • Wahlgren
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    Wahlgren polycounter lvl 17
    I had so many issues with the Dead or alive (xbox 360 one) boss. The fucker has combos that can take down 60-70% of your life.

    GODDAMN I HATED HIM! THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES ME WANNA GO OUT AND TAKE OUT MY AGRESSION ON PARKED CARS!!!!
  • MattQ86
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    MattQ86 polycounter lvl 15
    Shinobu from the first No More Heroes comes to mind.
  • Bibendum
    Anyone here played FFX? Cause if so, you probably remember &%$#%@ Seymor Flux!
    The only thing I remember about that game was the overwhelming embarrassment I felt after sinking 2 hours into chocobo races to get Yuna's (I think it was hers at least, I don't recall) ultimate weapon.
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    the armored minotaur back on my 1st titan difficulty play through of god of war 1 I smashed a ps2 controller when i tossed it at the ground and it hit the metal base of my computer chair. now days its pretty easy peasy but I was pissed at the time :D
  • Martin Henriksson
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    Martin Henriksson polycounter lvl 9
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZuidKexBQ[/ame]

    Ninja Gaiden had some pretty hard bossfights aswell.
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    I never played a lot of those retro games. For reasons like this.
    I still remember the Genie boss in Warioland 1 being very hard, I only beat him once as a kid.
    Recently all I can recall is some RE5 bosses on the first playthrough when you don't have overpowered weapons with infinite ammo.

    But seriously, compared to Call Of Duty: World At War on Veteran, all of those are easy. I just could not finish that game on that difficulty, it really wasn't fun anymore. I sold it after having beat about half of it (and getting to that half took way more time than it should have).
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    Jon Rush: THE HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahah loved that game

    I love me some boss fights :) Here are a few of the ones that i both love, hate, and will remember forever:

    Ares: God of War 1
    Father Rodin: Bayonetta (seriously WTF he's impossible)
    Long Gui/Shao long gui: FF13 not really a boss... but most difficult enemies in the game, may as well be a boss.
    The blue guy in SF4: fuck him.
    Maneater: Demon's Souls, seconded! The hardest part of him was your own over active dodge button :) Much harder the 2nd and 3rd time around!
    Final boss of PoP: Sands of Time: Think this is the chick who tossed the tornadoes. She was brutal... maybe i just suck!

    I primarily raided in world of warcraft, as it was the only element of the game that had lasting power over my interest (team-based bosses). These bosses each got significantly easier as time went on, they're listed here when they were completed during the current level of gear.

    Nefarian: The first real mind-fuck gimick boss, had item gate requirements for survival, random elements that changed the encounter every week, and a series of random abilities that were directed at specific classes that more likely than not fucked you over. To top it off they put timers on his respawn that made learning him very rough.

    3 Drake Sartharion: Bilzzard's first killable "adjusted difficulty" encounter (all-priest Hakkar was the first, but don't think it was ever killed until gear levels were super high), that got exponentially more difficult the more variable sub bosses you left alive when starting the fight. Was extremely fun doing this, especially in the then-current max-level gear. It didn't get easy until the next tier of content, and even then was still lots of room for error.

    Hard-mode Mimiron in Ulduar: one of the tightest, memorable, and most challenging boss boss battles i've ever completed. Worked this one for at least 6 weeks.

    Archimonde in Mount Hyjal: Not really extremely hard, but was technically hard making sure everyone functioned at the highest level and 25 people played in harmony, extremely unforgiving margin for error.

    Kil'Jaeden, Kalecgos, Brutallus, Eredar Twins, Felmyst, Muru in Sunwell: Some of the most technically challenging boss fights the good guys at Blizz ever put together. Was glad I was able to work through all of these bosses when they were ripe, they were soul crushing, without being a fun-suck.

    Algalon in Ulduar: This was the optional "secret" boss you gained access too after completing all of the "hard modes" of 4 of the watcher bosses in the instance. Not only was he soul destroying, but also you only had 60 minutes per week to kill him.

    I'm sure there are other MMO's that have more redonculous bosses than WoW (seem to recall a FF11 boss that was supposed to take days to defeat), but it has, and will be my only MMO :) The boss designs are fantastic, they've come a helluva long way from the "over sided sack of hitpoints" bosses.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    Durial in Diablo 2 is a real pain.
  • Bibendum
    Most of WoW's encounters boiled down to finding competent players :(

    It's why AQ40 really cockblocked so many guilds, a handful of people could carry a guild through MC/BWL because with the exception of rag/nef, fights really revolved around the tank. But once you got into AQ you needed most of the raid to actually be trying.

    Definitely agree about HM Mimiron though that fight was hilarious. Ulduar was the best raid instance in WOTLK imo. Also did you ever fight his trash the first week? GOOD GOD. We wiped 5-6 times before we gave up and just had a paladin jump in one of the tanks and ride it down to the platform so we could teleport past it instead of clearing it. I think we only ended up managing to kill the first two packs.
  • lefix
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    lefix polycounter lvl 11
    final boss in touhou 8 extra stage (starting at 1:40), ridiculously long fight
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHwA52bSNLs[/ame]

    clearing the extra stage was probably the biggest accomplishment in my life :P
  • Zpanzer
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    Zpanzer polycounter lvl 8
    Ohhh Nefarian.... You silly old bastard. I can't remember any other game where I felt so relieved when our 40 man raid finally downed him. That and killing Ragnaros is probably the my best kept boss memories.
  • igi
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    igi polycounter lvl 12
    i have some asspain memories about UT99 boss XAN...well he is so fkin hard for the first timers...but i was a kid...
  • Disco Stu
    Psycho mantis in metal gear, untill we figured out the controller trick... after hours :)
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    That arse at the end of Prince of Persia Two Thrones. Three stage boss fight which was pretty tough on hard, no checkpoints in the fight. Then when you died you had to replay a couple of minutes before you even get to the fight, then you have to watch the cutscene AGAIN BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SKIP THE DAMN THING, try to kill him, die. rinse and repeat for a few times, quit the game.

    Uninstall.
  • ivars
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    ivars polycounter lvl 17
    CONTRA shattered soldier, whole game is pretty much like like a series of boss fights. Never completed the 4 stages even with 99 continues......

    End boss in "prehistoric Isle 1930" was ridiculous. took us three guys to win, two players and one continuously feeding coins to the machine :P
  • Skamberin
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    Skamberin polycounter lvl 14
    The Arch Fiend Final Form in Ninja Gaiden 2. On Hard.
    On Master Ninja the entire game is fucking retardedly difficult.

    Oh and the odd alien Temple Boss in Ninja Gaiden: Black
  • Lord McMutton
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    Lord McMutton polycounter lvl 17
    MattQ86 wrote: »
    Shinobu from the first No More Heroes comes to mind.

    On that subject, the final boss from the sequel. He would spam this attack that was nearly impossible to dodge, and would sometimes hit you off of the stage, killing you. =_=
  • MegaMoogle
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    MegaMoogle polycounter lvl 9
    The last level of the original Trauma Center for DS. This is so hard, the only way I figured it out was to look up an online walkthrough, and you have to wait to use your "star power" after he does it automatically to basically stop time. Let me repeat that, THE ONLY WAY TO BEAT THIS BASTARD IS TO STOP TIME.

    Another ridiculous one, Omega Weapon from FF8, only way to beat him? Use Hero on all of your characters to make them invencible. INVENCIBLE!! Lol, sorry, this cracks me up. In order to beat this (optional) boss, you have to make it to where you can't take damage. Woooow.
  • Joseph Silverman
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    Joseph Silverman polycounter lvl 17
    bounchfx wrote: »
    everyone bitches about Alma in Ninja Gaiden (xbox) she can be annoying.

    When i destroyed my knee a couple of years back i played through the original ninja gaiden on Master Ninja Tournament (super hard dlc) mode up until right near the end (well after second alma) and surprisingly she's not that bad once you get really good. She's one of the fairer bosses in the game, fighting her is just so alien to how most action games are played that if you haven't been really galvanized by the ninja gaiden playstyle at that point (i wasnt the first time i beat the game) she's a nightmare.


    edit: also seriously nobody should complain about multi-stage bossfights until they've beaten God Hand. First a super fast mobile boss that can reliably one or two combo you to eat up all of your continues and items, then a second screenfilling nearly impossible to dodge boss for you to beat. Took me something like 3 hours to get past them, and i was scoring very well up into the last levels of the game.
  • frostymoose
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    frostymoose polycounter lvl 17
    I do remember Alma being pretty tough in Ninja Gaiden way back when. I actually was never able to finish the game, but it was well past Alma that I got stuck and I don't think that it was on a boss fight.

    Demon's Souls has Maneater.... Maneater is incredibly hard if you have a melee oriented character because you can't hit him half the time, and when he hits you you can easily be knocked off the narrow bridge you're on. If he doesn't knock you off the first time, you probably got stunned, and while you are still stunned he will attack you again and you will die that time! I think the Old Monk is even harder, though. If you play online, the Old Monk boss is another player and the fight is a LAG FEST. Plus, they can use cheap tricks like hiding around a corner and backstabbing you when you come in or preparing a spell that will almost surely cut your life in half and knock you down. Not to mention they can heal to full with all the healing items they would normally have. Got to my 4th playthrough before getting too fed up with Demon's Souls TERRIBLE PvP system and quit.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Mongrelman wrote: »
    That arse at the end of Prince of Persia Two Thrones. Three stage boss fight which was pretty tough on hard, no checkpoints in the fight. Then when you died you had to replay a couple of minutes before you even get to the fight, then you have to watch the cutscene AGAIN BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SKIP THE DAMN THING, try to kill him, die. rinse and repeat for a few times, quit the game.

    Uninstall.

    I can't believe the designers thought it was a good idea to force people to watch cut scenes over and over.
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    Bibendum wrote: »
    Definitely agree about HM Mimiron though that fight was hilarious. Ulduar was the best raid instance in WOTLK imo. Also did you ever fight his trash the first week? GOOD GOD. We wiped 5-6 times before we gave up and just had a paladin jump in one of the tanks and ride it down to the platform so we could teleport past it instead of clearing it. I think we only ended up managing to kill the first two packs.

    hehe yeah, we had trouble the first pull- which was a clusterfuck of GY running and kiting around the giant ring. The 2nd pull we figured out a better kill order and they were easy. Saved the exploders til last, used pet sacrifices or paly bubble to kill bombs initially, kick riders out of vehicles one by one, then stunlock rider while ranged grabed vehicles to kill off the other 2 vehicles. healers ff'ed vehicles to keep them alive, so that we could use them on all the packs. After the first vehicles were acquired, we used them to detonate the bombs by syncing jumps, and could clear the hallway in about 4 minutes.

    Back OT:

    I tried fighting Father Rodin again after posting, and remembering how hard he was. I still couldnt get him below 30% :( so. fucking. hard!
  • BunnyJen
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    BunnyJen polycounter lvl 6
    I remember struggling on a fight on Jet Force Gemini. It has two praying mantis type creatures...I never finished it. I was young at the time though. :/

    0.jpg


    Another one would be Ecco The Dolphin. First you had The Machine where the whole screen moves fast and if it touches you you die, if anything touches you you die....instantly, and there are no saves, you die you restart lol. Then if you manage to survive that you fall into the last fight, where a massive alien basically kills you instantly and if that happens you have can't just redo that oh no.... you gotta redo The Machine AGAIN! LOL games were so much more challenging back in the day. :P
  • Mezz
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    Mezz polycounter lvl 8
    MegaMoogle wrote: »
    The last level of the original Trauma Center for DS. This is so hard, the only way I figured it out was to look up an online walkthrough, and you have to wait to use your "star power" after he does it automatically to basically stop time. Let me repeat that, THE ONLY WAY TO BEAT THIS BASTARD IS TO STOP TIME.

    Ohhh yeah, good point. That Trauma Center was a BITCH of a hard game, for the ENTIRE second half. Each surgery you thought couldn't get harder, but it DID. And each type of guilt got more annoying than the last. And then, THEN, you've finally made it to the final boss... and what is the final boss? IT'S EVERY GODDAMN GUILT COMBINED FOR YOU TO FIGHT THROUGH IN ONE GO. Ahhhh!!! Oh, and by the way, HARDER THAN EVER. Why. WHYYYY.

    And obviously you had to stop time, that was sorta the point of the game, what with the Healing Touch and all :P
  • Saman
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    Saman polycounter lvl 14
    Has anyone mentioned gunsmoke for NES? The last boss was really hard(some guy in a poncho) and the only way I could beat him was by using the magnum revolvers. Not only was he hard as hell but he has some decoy poncho boss as well(when the first one is killed another one comes up).
  • MegaMoogle
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    MegaMoogle polycounter lvl 9
    Oh, another really difficult boss, Miguel from Chrono Cross. You are in this room with a bell in the center, and once you go in there, you can't leave to try to level up and come back later to fight him. That game was pretty difficult in general, but I remember just about losing my mind trying to fight him! More hard bosses that make my list are:

    The Kiryu twins from Fatal Frame II, they attack you at once, but only one of them takes damage because the other is a possessed doll! And they attack you in the thinnest of hallways, so maneuvering is almost impossible, but since they're dead and ghosts and all, they can come at you through walls. HATE THIS FIGHT!

    Barthandalus from Final Fantasy XIII is a pain too, I fought him so many times and died so many times I almost threw the controller through my television. Normally it doesn't take me any more than 2 or 3 tries for me to beat a boss, but I worked on him for two days!

    I know there's more, but I can't even think of what games I own right now, let alone what I've played. I need a nap. u_u
  • notman
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    notman polycounter lvl 18
    Psyk0 wrote: »
    Jason in all his NES evilness, that punk mofo refused to die!

    f13th.jpg

    hahah, I had completely forgotten about that bitch! Agreed


    Gears of War: What I think makes it so hard, is DOM is such a stupid bitch, who dies within seconds. I know people have completed that level, but not me :/ I WAS able to complete it in co-op with my brother, but not in single player mode.
  • ironbearxl
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    ironbearxl polycounter lvl 18
    M. Bison from Street Figher II SNES, even on easiest it was impossible.
  • ebagg
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    ebagg polycounter lvl 17
    The final boss in Contra Hard Corps with the rotating orb of death.... I just said fuck it, turned off the Genesis, got on the computer and played it thru an emulator so I could quicksave and load from wherever.
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