Do you remember when frustrating boss fights used to be common in videogames? Some of the old Mega Man boss fights still frustrate the hell out of me and almost force me to buy a new controller. Only because the ones they make now can’t take the stress of hitting a wall at high speeds.  I enjoyed the challenge for all 40 lives I lost to it, and sadly this is something that is severely lacking from 95% of all games released today.  I would love to play a game where a final boss is actually something that makes me think and stay on my toes for instead of being like an inflatable punching bag that is just waiting to be hit by something sharp as it bobs back into place.

 

 I could probably venture a guess that all of us are tired of playing through a game that can be genuinely challenging until you get to a final fight that only asks you to run around a bit before you get in a few hits and then repeat the process. I’m talking about the all or nothing days where a boss would unleash hell at you and you had to pound away and take your fair share of lumps before the big son of a bitch went down.  Instead we’ve been subjected to boss fights like those in Batman: Arkham Asylum where you either throw a batarang or use your batclaw and then sidestep to ultimately bring something all angry on roid rage down by something as trivial as a thump on the nose.

 Now for some noteworthy examples of things left disappointing. Resident Evil 5 as well as 4 are great examples of a very powerful entity being too stupid to actually land a hit and dying because they can’t fight. You literally have to run circles around Wesker, who kicks your ass throughout the entire game and becomes less powerful with urobuoros, while taking some random shots. Even on the highest difficulty you’ll find it hard to die unless you are unarmed. Mass Effect 2 is also guilty since the final boss left me disappointed after I was completely on board for the 20 hours before the 5 minute peek-a-boo match with the villain. This is becoming an epidemic that saps some enjoyment completely out of what could be an incredibly epic end. Instead I’m going in as unprepared as possible with as weak a weapon as I can get my hands on just to provide a little bit of uncertainty (very little). If the final showdown is less intense than the path leading to the villain then there is something wrong.

 I’m not saying that boss fights should be extremely difficult to the point where you die about 20 times before you triumph, but it should at least be more than running around in circles and taking a few cheap shots during an enemy’s recovery. It needs to find that nice median of push and pull instead of seeming like an exchange of blows entirely dependent on your timing and willingness to sidestep.  There are a few out there that seem to deliver a challenge and hopefully many more to follow.

By: Cody Toothman

Tags: Boss Fight, Difficulty, Mass Effect 2, Resident Evil, Wesker

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Editorial, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.