The 21 worst video game boss fights we've ever encountered
Video game bosses are a mixed bag of life-changing experiences to long-winded slogfests. They’re not all made equally.
Some video game series like Dark Souls make boss battles its whole schtick, but even FromSoftware’s legendary work isn’t immune to critiques.
Below are some of the worst boss fights in gaming history, and by worst we mean frustrating, poorly made, or downright pathetic.
Silver The Hedgehog- Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)
Kicking off with the whole package: Silver The Hedgehog. This Sonic ‘06 boss is horrendous. While he’s simple to beat once you know the trick, you need to pray his psychic attack doesn’t send you into a wall; otherwise, he can stun-lock you till you’re throwing the controller at the wall.
Deathstroke- Batman: Arkham Knight
One of the best hand-to-hand combatants in DC gets shoved into a tank; that’s a repeat of a previous boss. Rocksteady…why?
Colonel Volgin (Second fight)
Konami- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Aiming was absolutely atrocious on the OG PlayStation 2 version, making a pretty simple fight a real drag.
Yellow Devil- Mega Man (1987)
We get that NES games were made intentionally difficult to prolong your gameplay experience, but Yellow Devil was just too far. No wonder gamers quickly found an exploit to deal with this boss quickly…
Batman- Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League had pretty poor takes on DC’s mightiest heroes, as they’re nothing more than bullet-sponges. Batman is one of the worst offenders, however. What starts with a terrifying, first-hand experience of what it’s like to be hunted by the Dark Knight turns into a battle with a gigantic caped crusader that’s merely another bullet-sponge.
Jingu- Yakuza Kiwami
The Yakuza games have a lot of tough boss fights, but a downright annoying one is Jingo from the first Kiwami game. The non-stop pistol spam makes what could be a fun and intense boss fight into an irritating war of attrition.
Ellie- The Last of Us Part II
We could feel Abby’s bloodlust in this boss fight. Ellie is a tricky customer, and it was incredibly vexing to have our own tricks used against us.
The Convicts- Dead Rising
Just hearing the soundtrack for this boss fight feels like it’s giving us PTSD. These absolute menaces were a nightmare without ranged weapons, and the worst part is they respawn later!
Gideon Ofnir- Elden Ring
The all-seeing eye of Elden Ring saw you take down literal demigods and still fancied his chances at defeating you? He deserved what he got.
Venom- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
The hate for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 isn’t entirely warranted, but any complaints that Venom was a disappointing villain are spot on. The final fight with Venom was promised to be a thrilling encounter in the marketing, and cut content reveals it would have had a lot of depth. Unfortunately, the real deal was just two back-to-back slogfests in small arenas.
Kellogg- Fallout 4
Quite a disappointment, really. After all of that tough talk, Kellogg turns invisible and tries to shoot us in the back, along with his Synth friends.
Kunikazu Okumura- Persona 5 Royal
This Persona 5 boss is legitimately unfair, to the point where the fight actually gets easier when you increase the difficulty, for some reason. It’s a good thing Persona 5 Royal includes some of the most powerful Personas around; otherwise, this boss would be even worse.
Dragon God- Demon Souls
Demon Souls was FromSoftware’s stepping stone into critical acclaim, but the Dragon God fight sucks. Even when you figure out it’s supposed to be a puzzle rather than a good old-fashioned fight, it’s still needlessly annoying to get through, and the PlayStation 5 remake didn’t make it any better.
Tartarus- Halo 2
The Halo series isn’t one built around boss fights, though Bungie gave them a go in Halo 2. It was an unsuccessful experiment, unfortunately, as Tartarus is just a slightly beefier Brute.
General RAAM- Gears of War
After a killer introduction and a lot of build-up, our final battle with General Raam was sadly disappointing… We don’t think we’ve ever been more underwhelmed with a boss fight before.
Chai- Shenmue
The final boss of the first Shenmue game is one of the most annoying sods we’ve ever encountered. Thankfully, that rage only spurred us on to kick him to the curb.
Mr Burns- The Simpsons Game
A very on-brand boss fight. Mr Burns, weak and fragile as he is, can be defeated with one simple punch.
The Imprisoned- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda series isn’t short on boss fights, but The Imprisoned is undoubtedly the worst. His size does nothing for the spectacle, and the fight itself is mind-numbingly dull.
Onslaught- Marvel Vs Capcom
After fighting your way to the top, Marvel Vs Capcom players are faced with one of the toughest customers in Marvel history. Unfortunately, the boss fight is just this all-powerful being spamming you with the same attacks.
Nemesis- Resident Evil 3 Remake
Resident Evil 3 Remake was very disappointing, but Nemesis in particular was well and truly butchered. His boss fights are awful, and turn what was one of the most menacing enemies in video game history into another forgettable encounter.
The Bed of Chaos- Dark Souls
Possibly the all-time worst boss fight ever made. The Bed of Chaos probably keeps FromSoftware up at night, and it should.
READ MORE: 17 games like Skyrim to play while we wait for The Elder Scrolls 6
Topics: List, Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo