These are the 11 most challenging boss battles of all time

I’ve been gaming since before I could read, and if I could have played Game Boy as a Foetus (Womb Raider?), I would have. With gaming, it’s the accomplishments that please the most, and no accomplishment is as great as beating a really tough boss. As such, I’ve collected a list of the most challenging boss battles yet. No boss that’s unfair or cheap, such as Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat 9, is included on this list. Only the greats.

Dark Souls II, Crown of the Sunken King DLC — Elana, the Squalid Queen on New Game++(Sunlightblade)

Reason for inclusion: only top Souls player with encyclopaedic knowledge of the game can defeat her. Those who were fooled by her easy incarnation were torn apart in New Game++.

Metal Gear Solid – Psycho Mantis (DeltaForceSFODD)

Reason for inclusion: Extreme lateral thinking required to defeat this ugly sucker.

Mega Man 1 – Yellow Devil (ThePolishGamer)

Reason for inclusion: Pattern-recognition and patience is the key to defeating it.

Street Fighter Turbo II, Arcade – Akuma (erobassAlex)

Reason for inclusion: Just watch the video below, this is a fight for Street Fighter die-hards only.

Punch Out!! – Mike Tyson (Dacicus)

Reason for inclusion: As the teeny, tiny player, you need to knockout Mike Tyson three times. As you can see by the video, that’s no easy feat. Dodging Tyson’s killer blows takes spilt-second timing.

Super Mario Bros. 3 – Bowser (megagrey)

Reason for inclusion: there was no such thing as the internet in back in the early Nineties when the game first released. So figuring out how to beat Bowser was both challenging and exciting. He was seemingly invincible until you eventually figured out that his ground stomps can do him in.

Dark Souls – Ornstein and Smough (LightningHawk96)

Reason for inclusion: when the Soul series was still one giant mystery, this was the first boss to undo us all. I remember becoming so frustrated with Ornstein and Smough that I threw my Xbox 360 gamepad out of the window, of a third story apartment complex. The duo takes patience and luck to beat, and is one of the most memorable and challenging bosses of the entire series. The gamer in this video has incredible skill, as most players can only defeat the duo with a co-op buddy.

Kingdom Hearts – Sephiroth (mikeyspiky200)

Reason for inclusion: As a game, Kingdom Hearts was deceptively coy. While the levels weren’t that challenging, each boss fight was a true battle to the death, with the extra boss Sephiroth (he from Final Fantasy) presenting a steep challenge for any gamer. It takes micromanagement at the most minute levels to defeat him. I tried, and failed.

Mortal Kombat 1, Arcade – Goro (Sergio Rojas)

Reason for inclusion: This was the boss of nightmares. After easily defeating a few human opponents in Midway’s Mortal Kombat, Goro appears. He had four arms and never stopped lumbering towards you. Fear factor alone contributed to many wasted coins at the arcade. Worst of all, Goro could grab you out of the air, so spamming jump-kicks was out of the question.

Gears of War 1, Insane difficulty – General Raam (GuerillaTacticz)

Reason for inclusion: this is the highlight of the entire Gears series, a one-on-one battle with General Raam atop a speeding train. With a sniper rifle and steady aim, it was possible to take him down, but not after a long, protracted battle.

Chrono Cross – Time Devourer (Rukh)

Reason for inclusion: because beating it simply wasn’t enough. Killing the Time Devourer triggered the “bad” ending. Killing it correctly, by defeating it by using coloured magic spells in the correct order, was the only way to truly down it. This has to be performed perfectly and messing up the pattern means starting again. The Time Devourer hit hard, healed itself quickly and took no prisoners.