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In Video Games , a boss (sometimes called a '''guardian''' or '''master''') is a particularly large or difficult computer-controlled character that must be defeated at the end of a segment of a game, whether it be for a level, an episode, or the very end of the game itself ('''final boss'''). Bosses appear in many video games, particularly story or level-based First and Third-person Shooter s, Platform Game s, CRPGs , and most Shoot 'em Ups . Most games feature multiple bosses, each often more difficult than the last.


HISTORY


Video games followed Pinball Machines . Since a player can never "win" a pinball machine game, video games initially were thought of as simply "video" pinball machines. Game developers therefore included no mechanism to "win" the game. Video games were viewed simply as contest against the machine, where the only goal was to accumulate points until the machine inevitably won.

E.g., early Nintendo and Atari video games such as Pong repeated the same challenge, although the speed of the object (or objects) of the game would increase. Eventually, the objects moved so fast that no player could win.
(a.k.a. Dr. Ivo Robotnik), the recurring boss of most Sonic The Hedgehog games.]]
The first video game boss was the Golden Dragon from the 1975 video game '' Dnd '', running on the PLATO System, one of the first world-wide computer networks. Game developers such as those from Atari had access to the PLATO system.

The writers of ''dnd'' wanted to implement a "high score" feature. But, since players could save the game and continue from session to session, a "high score" seemed pointless. The writers devised an "end" to the game, so that a character used by a player would be retired and would then be eligible for the high score list. In order to make the game more interesting, a climactic battle was introduced near the end of the game. In order to win the game, a player had to defeat the Golden Dragon, a monster much more powerful than the player had previously encountered. ''dnd'' proved enormously popular, and was played until the early 1990s on PLATO.

''dnd'' was written for a Mainframe , and thus had considerably more computing power available than video or arcade games written at the same time. Thus, it would be some time after ''dnd'' before bosses were implemented in arcade or console games.

The Atari 2600 game Adventure , released in 1978, had three different dragons with differing abilities. However, it was not necessary to defeat any of them to win, and there was no level advancement in the game except by manual variation selection using the Game Select switch. In the first game variation, only the 2 slower dragons appeared. In the 2nd and 3rd variations, the 3rd and fastest dragon could be encountered. However, a player might not even encounter all of the dragons during the course of a 3rd variation game due to their random initial placement. For these reasons, the dragons are not now considered as true bosses.

The first arcade video game with a boss-like attacker was the 1979 game Galaxian . In Galaxian, waves of ships would attack the player. Each wave included a few "flagships". Destroying the flagships resulted in significant bonuses. The flagships appeared at the top of the screen, and were believed to direct the attack. The flagships were thus referred to as "bosses". Although the flagships usually were defeated by a player at the end of a level before advancing to the next level, it was not a requirement of the game.

The first arcade video game with a true boss was Phoenix introduced in 1980 by Centuri . In Phoenix, a player was first attacked with several different smaller types of enemies. A player is first attacked by a series of small ships. After disposing of the small ships, the player is then attacked by birds. After the birds are destroyed, the player faced a large mothership. Only by defeating the large mothership could the player advance to the next level.

The first console games with a boss were Vanguard and Phoenix for the Atari 2600 . Both games are ports from arcade video games. The games were released almost simultaneously. Vanguard has a part number of CX2669 while Phoenix has a part number of CX2673. If the games were released in sequence, Vanguard would have been released before Phoenix.


BOSSES IN GAME STRUCTURE

Many single-player games feature a Level /episode structure, the game becoming progressively more difficult as the player advances. Bosses are a consequence of this structure, appearing at or near the end of a level or episode and being the hardest enemies to defeat, often requiring a highly complex sequence of attacks or other actions that the player must deduce during the battle (and, usually, multiple defeats), in order to beat them. Other games have a storyline instead of a level-based structure, but they still feature boss-like enemies at various points in the story or at the end of the storyline.

The boss battle generally marks the climax of a dramatic buildup resulting from the player's anticipation and anxiousness. Game designers often add design elements, such as suspenseful music, that enhance this effect. For example, in '' Metal Gear Solid 2 '', the penultimate battle [against Metal Gear Ray ] has been heavily Foreshadowed in dialogue, and the threat represented by the boss enhanced by an attempt to disable or destroy it before it is mobile, and by scenes of it causing carnage to demonstrate how deadly it is to the player. The final scenes in Quake 2 also implement "quiet, too quiet" effects before the player finally confronts the Makron .

A boss fest is a game with radical emphasis on boss battles. Examples of this style are Milestone's '' Chaos Field '' for Dreamcast and Gamecube , Treasure 's '' Alien Soldier '' for Genesis , and Taito 's extremely rare '' Darius Alpha '' for the PC Engine . '' Final Fantasy VII '', for the Sony PlayStation , is also a prime example of this, and has often been derided for its habit of throwing bosses at the player with little or no regard to how they fit in the story. This has sometimes been known as ''Random Boss Syndrome.''

An interesting variation on a boss fest game can be seen in '' Freakout '' (Called ''Stretch Panic'' in North America) for the Sony PlayStation2. This game has only four "normal" levels in which the character gains points. These points are then used to gain access to the twelve different boss arenas that make up the rest of the game. Shadow Of The Colossus takes this one step further, as the game features no enemies except the 16 giant monsters the player must hunt down and slay. It is very rare for a game to be comprised mostly of what would normally be bosses.
, the final boss of Super Mario Bros. ]]

Some games also include a special mode, or ''Boss Gauntlet'', in which the goal is to defeat a number of bosses one after the other. Famous games with this kind of features are the '''', where Kirby couldn't use his copy powers. Often, modes like this are unlockables that are earned after beating the game to test a player's skill.

Bosses are traditionally used as choke-points in RPGs , used to ensure a player has taken the time to level-up (raise their abilities through fighting anonymous easier foes) before progressing to a new section of the game. A player may find that they have not increased in level sufficiently to weather a boss's attacks, and must spend time gaining experience points by fighting lowlier creatures (often a very repetitive process) before attempting the battle again. This can be viewed as an effort to ensure the player has the level the designer expects before they progress, however it is one of the more common frustrations with the genre. A well-designed RPG will have the player level up enough to defeat bosses during normal play, and may provide bonuses if they have grown strong enough to defeat certain opponents beforehand.

In modern MMORPG s, where the game has no true "end", the boss structure is often used within game " Dungeons " or " Instances ". For example, in '' World Of Warcraft '', the instance Uldaman has a number of small boss encounters, many of which are skippable if the players don't want or need to do them, and a huge, highly dramatic "end boss" encounter which finishes the instance: Archaedas, the Ancient Stone Watcher.
In " Final Fantasy XI " monsters called "Notorious Monsters" exist in almost every area. These
monsters have special names and are stronger than the surrounding beasts, and usually respawn after a special condition and/or time limit is met. They are not usually necessary to proceed in the game, just to gain items or complete quests. These might be considered bosses by some people. There are Notorious Monsters that are necessary to the story line but are in battle arenas and will limit your level so it is still a challenge no matter your level that you normally are.


TYPES OF BOSSES


Note that some advanced bosses may combine any number of the following basic characteristics.


Strong boss


This boss is difficult to defeat because it has a lot of energy and / or deals a large amount of damage. Defeating it is generally a matter of hiding from its powerful attacks and hitting it when it's not attacking, or simply wearing it down through attrition. This is the simplest boss type, and may just be a regular enemy with a lot of life.

A popular variant of this is that the boss will alternate between long periods of total invulnerability and short periods when a player's attacks actually weaken it - typically the difficulty in beating such a boss is that it will unleash devastating attacks which must be avoided during its invulnerable period by retreating or taking cover, but the player must then break cover and get close to the boss during its vulnerable periods in order to counterattack, then flee again before the next cycle (for example, the sub-bosses of FFX). As a sporting gesture, most games employing this feature offer some clue to when the boss is vulnerable to attack and when it is not, often a change in appearance. See also Puzzle Boss and Unbeatable Boss.


Stylish boss


This boss is difficult to defeat because it is fast and has a lot of quick attacks that are difficult to avoid. Often this kind of boss is around the same size as the player's character, and is a martial artist or similar. This type may have a lot of life or be relatively weak but tricky to hit. Shiva from who blocks attacks rapidly and perfectly, and executes powerful Dragon Fist punches. As well in Kingdom Hearts , the final boss can kill you within a few hits because of rapid attacks.


Giant Boss


This type of boss is common in first- and third-person shooters. The boss is vastly larger than the player's character or any of the other bosses, often with a single relatively small weak point (usually an excess eyeball, or a red bulb located on the hands or head.) made difficult to hit by their sheer size, or no weak point at all (making it a .


Final boss

"Final boss" (also "'''last boss''' or '''end boss'''") is the term generally used for the final Antagonist of the game (e.g. Ganon from the Legend Of Zelda series). They are normally much larger and more powerful than any other enemies that appear in the game. This is sometimes referred to as the "last guy" derived from the common "bad guy", being the last "bad guy". There are a few common forms taken by the "last boss", including a massive creature with a small vulnerable spot and/or a creature which takes on a number of different forms during the final battle, with the Ultimate form often being the most imposing. Sometimes, the final boss requires fighting in several battles; its first form as one boss and then an evolved form as the true final boss. The Biolizard in '' Sonic Adventure 2 '' and Sigma from the '' Mega Man X '' series are examples. Defeat of the final boss usually means the game is complete (unless there happens to be an extra "hidden boss", as explained below).


Mini-Boss


A weaker version of a boss that appears earlier in the level is called a mini-boss, sometimes derived from the fact that it is a smaller form of another boss (alternately known as a mid-boss or sub-boss). These are generally intermediate between bosses and standard enemies in their properties. An example of this is Metal Mario from Super Smash Bros. Melee .

Occasionally, a defeated mini-boss or boss may return as a standard regular enemy at a later stage of the game. This often stresses the use of a certain strategy or action, and the player learns how to use it well for later purposes as a result. This typically only applies to bosses or mini-bosses which are not key characters in the game's storyline. For example, in '' Metroid Prime '', the player encounters many Baby Sheegoths before a boss battle against a fully grown one; upon revisiting the level at a later stage, adult Sheegoths are commonplace.


Hidden Boss

Another version of this is the Hidden Boss, or ''Secret Boss'', which may be fought just before just after the final boss. Its existence or location may only hinted at within the game, and usually requires the player to already completed a certain task within the game - this task often involves collection of a complete set of some kind of item. Naturally, this boss is usually ''the'' most difficult one in the game, with game designers specifically adding this unbalanced boss to challenge hardcore gamers who have leveled their characters to be strong enough to easily defeat the last boss. Defeating it usually has a reward such as a rare item or ability, although many gamers feel they would need to be at such a high level of skill as to make the reward ironically useless. This is pointed out in " The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés ." Although in recent games the item/weapons received for defeating an optional boss are ridiculously overpowering compared to the other item/weapons to the point the player can generally defeat any opponent with one or two strikes.

Not all hidden or secret bosses are at the end of an optional dungeon, some of these kind of bosses actually replace the last boss but generally can not be reached the first time. An example of this is Bomberman 64 where if the player has achieved 100 gold cards and then defeats Altair, instead of being saved by Regulus, Siruis Bomberman's ally throughout the game will kill Altair and reveal himself as the true villian which Bomberman will then have to fight.

Recent '' Final Fantasy '' games have become known for their challenging optional bosses, such as Omega and Shinryu from ''FFV'', the various WEAPONs from ''FFVI'', ''FFVII'', ''FFVIII'' and ''FFX'', Ozma from ''FFIX'', and the Dark Aeons from ''FFX''. Other examples of this are Kingdom Hearts 's Sephiroth (who appears in both the original Kingdom Hearts and in Kingdom Hearts II, with a slightly larger role), the Ice Titan, Phantom, the so-called Enigmatic Man and Kurt Zisa. Culex is also a hidden boss in Super Mario RPG acting as an example of a boss inspired by the Final Fantasy series. It is a common misconception that he was a final boss, yet this is not true.

Perhaps one of the most notable but little-known optional bosses, however, is . The opportunity to fight her only comes after completing an extremely challenging, multi-level hidden dungeon called The Cave of Trials. Even then, the player has little chance against her without utilizing a piece of armor called "Bloody Armor", which constantly drains the equipped character's health while making it impervious to all other damage.

'''' also has two notable (and quite well known) secret bosses: Crazy Hand and Giga Bowser. Although Crazy Hand does not actually come ''after'' the final boss, it comes in the middle of the fight, and only when specific requirements are met.


Team boss


Team bosses are different from all other forms of bosses in the sense that while most bosses are portrayed as one significant enemy, these are shown as multiple normal or half-as-powerful-as-a-boss enemies. Common characteristics where the battle is not simply a fight against multiple bosses at once:

  • The first boss of the Playstation 1 game Koudelka featured three spinning eyes that had to be killed independently of one another, and whilst each eye was only marginally harder to defeat than normal enemies, the trio together was sufficiently strong enough to constitute a boss.


  • The Elite 4 from the original Pokemon gameboy games featured 4 independent bosses specializing in a different type of attack, each getting progressively harder. Supposedly, after beating this group 100 times, a special game item was unlocked.


  • Tag Team battles in which usually two opponents may leave the fight and allow the other one to attack. These are usually solved by killing both of the enemies or just hitting both of them until the health bar is drained and they both die regardless of how many hits were delivered to either of them. Examples are the zombie dogs from Medievil and Agni and Rudra in Devil May Cry 3.


  • Minion battles in which there will be one normal boss along with a few (2 or 3) mini-bosses or plain enemies. These are solved by either killing all of the opponents, or simply killing the "leader". Examples include many of the bosses in Tales Of Symphonia , General Guy from Paper Mario , and most Boss battles in Tactical RPGs .


  • Army battles in which a swarm of normal enemies will come at you wave after wave after wave. The waves usually get harder as you proceed through the fight. Examples include the "Robot Carnival" and "Robot Storm" levels in Sonic Heroes and a level involving a swarm of robots in the Futurama Computer Game .


  • Generator battles, where one or more tough 'factory' enemies produce large numbers of regular enemies; the player must destroy or disable the 'factory' enemies while surviving the attacks of the regular ones they create.


  • Some team boss encounters involve a two-part strategy, where you must fight multiple bosses individually and in their more powerful combined form. Examples of this include Bit and Byte from Mega Man X3 , and the Koopa Bros. which appear in Paper Mario .


Generator and Army battles are sometimes not regarded as traditional Boss battles because of the absence of a single specific 'boss' figure in them, but frequently occupy the same place in games they appear in


Puzzle boss


Another type of boss is the "puzzle boss", which is invulnerable to conventional weapons. In order to be defeated, the player must solve a puzzle – often revolving around activating some type of super weapon which is able to defeat it. Other times the player may have to activate something that drops the boss down a pit, or the boss may be defended by some impregnable shield which the player will have to somehow deactivate before they can harm the boss. (Sometimes the boss's shielding will eventully come back.) Good examples of this kind of boss include the first and final bosses from ''''.


Trick Boss


There is a breed of boss sometimes called the "trick boss". This is a boss who is extremely powerful and can't be easily defeated by the characters at their current level. In many cases there is a particular weapon, skill, or special item that can be obtained to defeat the boss easily. Otherwise the player is left to continue to gain experience until they can beat the boss the normal way. For example, some undead characters take damage from HP healing spells, meaning an inexpensive spell or item typically used to immediately revive a character will immediately kill the boss instead (an example is Evrae Altana from Final Fantasy X , which can be defeated easily with Phoenix Down items). More common are elemental bosses: these tend to only take damage from their opposite 'element' in the game (dark against light, ice against fire, and so on) which the players may not be given until a certain point, until which an elemental boss will be impossible to defeat. Another typical, classic example of the Trick Boss is Metal Man from Mega Man II, who is killed by one hit from the metal blades that can only be obtained by defeating him first.


Timed Boss


Occasionally the boss fight's length is determined not by the player's actions, but by a countdown of some sort. In such cases, the boss itself is generally impossible to destroy; the player must wait until the time limit expires and survive the boss' attacks until then. Variations include an invincible boss chasing the player to a certain point with the Shagohod chase in , and of course the conventional boss which must be defeated within a time limit.

A unique example is found in R-Type Final , as well as Ikaruga , where ''every'' boss has a time limit as well as a damage limit: in this instance, bosses will either explode on their own, destroy the player's ship or disappear once the time limit expires, allowing a player to defeat them simply by evading their attacks.

An interesting spin on this type of boss is where, in some situations, the game may give a special reward for dealing a certain amount of damage to the boss in a given time limit. An example of this is the X-ATM-092 from Final Fantasy VIII , which chases your party through the town, intercepting you regularly for various battles. Once this boss is knocked down, you have the option of running or trying to reach it's maximum damage limit before it gets back up again. Choosing the latter will result in a handy reward.


Multi-stage boss


Many games contain bosses which change shape or gain alternate attacks as they grow more heavily damaged, and can occupy several types on the list in the course of the player's battle with them. Examples of this type are present in most scrolling shoot 'em ups, where the huge vehicles presented as stage bosses would often become smaller and faster as they became more heavily damaged, or else gain new and more powerful attacks. The various stages of these bosses can normally be considered separate bosses in the various classes they occupy, since it wouldn't make any difference from the player's perspective if a new boss flew on or the old one changed shape.


Unbeatable boss


Related to the trick boss is the "unbeatable boss", often found in RPGs. This rare boss is actually undefeatable—either invincible or massively more powerful than the player—and for storyline purposes, the player must lose. This however does not result in a Game Over . Often the unbeatable boss will become defeatable much later in the game, when the player has significantly grown in power, obtained a certain ability/weapon/item or when some story element has removed the boss' invincibility; some multi-stage bosses start as an unbeatable boss, but after defeating the player in the first phase, something happens to remove their invincibility, and becomes beatable in the next phase such as in the N64 title Paper Mario. In some cases, a boss may seem unbeatable, but it can be beaten either by excessive leveling, or amazing player skill; since the player is supposed to lose the story will not change, or change very little should the player manage to win.

One of the best examples of the unbeatable boss is ''Fire Emblem:Path of Radiance'' Black Knight. Appearing at the end of Chapter 7, he kills Greil in a single blow, then manages to dodge Ike's attacks with remarkable speed despite the huge suit of armor he wears. Later, he appears at Chapter 12's end, almost killing Ranulf while taking no damage himself. Only in Chapter 24 is his weakness (the Blessed Sword Ragnell) revealed. Even with Ragnell in hand, though, Ike can only do small amounts of damage to the knight at a time in their Chapter 27 fight, while the Black Knight (and his own Blessed Sword, Alondite) can easily wipe out half of Ike's Health in a single hit, and destroy Mist altogether with the same hit, all the while recovering health lost from previous attacks. Because of this, many players consider the Black Knight the game's hardest enemy, even though the Daein King Ashnard has yet to be fought. Also, in Jade Cocoon 2 , near the beginning, Kahu (the Protagonist ) has to fight an evil kalma much, much stronger than himself - the player has to lose in order for the plot to progress. This is the players enemy through a lot of the game and eventually the player gets to fight him again, in a match that the player can win. Another example would be Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia, who challenges Vyse and his party to a battle on their base, Crescent Isle. While possible, it is extremely difficult to defeat Ramirez in this part of the game at the normal level. Later, as a final boss, the player defeats Ramirez in 3 stages.


TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS



Role-playing games

In complex games (particularly Role-playing Games ), bosses are so noted for effective attacks and a large number of Hit Point s. They also have "special" attacks, such as stunning/freezing the player, Teleportation , inflicting massive damage onto the characters, inflicting Curse s on the characters that decrease their abilities, and so forth. Bosses are often immune to certain abilities that the player possesses, and often can only be defeated by specific attacks and strategies, or by using the environment or their own attacks against them. A common way of implying this power is to make the boss much larger than the player's on-screen representation, as opposed to normal enemies, who are more commonly smaller than the player, or at most roughly equal in size. Some bosses have multiple targets, the targets being either its allies (like a boss fight with one or two bodyguards) or multiple parts of its body. The battle with this breed ends whenever the main target or all of its parts die, but sometimes the pieces will be revived if the player doesn't kill them quick enough. In some games in which combat takes place in real-time (Like in '' The Legend Of Zelda '' or '' MMORPGs ''), some bosses may use the environment to their advantage. This includes the boss picking up objects and throwing them at the player characters, lighting the stage on fire, dropping mine-like explosives, or by reducing the available space to fight in. Sometimes the player can use the environment to their advantage too, like standing in a specific space to avoid damage from an attack or knocking projectiles back at the boss and stunning him/her/it. Sometimes it is a certain object in the area that can damage the boss. This is attributed to the "Puzzle Boss."


Action games

, the boss of the first level of ''''. Note that he is flashing red, indicating that he is close to defeat.]]

In Fighting Game s such as '' Street Fighter II '', the final few characters the player faces in matches are usually referred to as bosses, as they are placed at the end of the game and often have Noticeably Greater Difficulty than previous opponents. Bosses in these games are often not available as playable characters at leisure, or may have a much weaker version available for play.

In scrolling fighting games and other Arcade Game s, a boss's health level is often determined by a health bar comparatively longer than the player's, sometimes taking up several lifebar lengths. When not determined in this manner, the character may also flash Red as he takes hits, progressively flashing faster until he is defeated. This not only determines the boss's health, but also permits internal programming to discreetly adjust it as players enter and leave the game during the boss battle. Sometimes, bosses may also adjust their attacks (including desperation moves when near defeat) according to how much damage they are taking.


First-person shooters

In more Fantasy - or Science-fiction -oriented First Person Shooter games like '' Doom '' or '' Quake '' where the player faces different species of monsters, bosses are generally large, highly durable monsters, often with their own unique weapons or special pre-scripted attacks and complex arenas. In more realistic FPS games where the player faces exclusively human foes, such as Wolf3d , bosses often are unique characters who behave exactly like regular enemies, only with better weapons, more health, and typically greater intelligence; or else they are vehicles such as Tanks or attack Helicopters to account for their greater durability and damage.


Scrolling shooters

Scrolling shooters almost always feature end-of-stage bosses, which are often screen-filling vehicles or creatures with multiple attack phases depending on how much damage they have taken; frequently they change shape to mark these phases. Mechanical bosses are often freakishly oversized, such as the Ground Battleship in Strikers 1945. Some Scrolling Shooters will also have a Boss Stage, a stage in the game that is made almost entirely of one gigantic ship several screens long/wide, as well as any escorts. The player(s) usually have to destroy the ship piece by piece, often causing sections to fall off. However, these stages tend to end in a traditional boss, generally the ship's engine or command section. The R-Type series is known for having one of the earliest examples of this kind of stage. There are also sometimes levels made entirely of boss fights, which are given varied nicknames such as ''Boss Alleys'' or the ''Boss Parade''. The Gradius series (since the second installment) are known for featuring this kind of stage.


Arcade flight sims


While almost nonexistent in realistic flight sims, boss encounters do appear in those the focus more on action, such as the Ace Combat games. This will either take the form of an enemy 'ace' or group of aces significantly more difficult to hit than the standard enemies, or sometimes a massive vehicle such as Ace Combat 5 's Arkbird enemy, a spaceplane as big as an Aircraft Carrier . Other 'boss' like encounters can be stages that require extremely precise flying, often down narrow tunnels; Ace Combat 04 's Megalith stage fits this description well.


Space Sims


Unlike conventional flight sims, space sims often contain bosses, usually in the form of colossal, heavily armoured capital ships which dwarf the small ships piloted by players and conventional enemies (almost invariably one-man fighter or bomber spacecraft). and its sequel ''Freespace 2'' are excellent examples, frequently relying on boss levels in the form of missions where squadrons of small craft must engage and either destroy or capture vast enemy vessels. Conversely, sometimes in such games the roles are reversed, for example when an allied capital "boss" ship must be defended against swarms of regular enemies. Occasionally two capital ships engaging each other in a boss fight actually form nothing more than a backdrop to a conventional dogfight.


CRITICISMS


Bosses have recently fallen out of favor with some videogamers and specific Game Designers ; it is argued by them that they are a hangover from pay-to-play Arcade Games , and inappropriate for current games. Poorly engineered bosses may simply be an enemy which absorbs or deals an exasperating amount of damage without providing especially engaging gameplay, existing purely to slow the player's progress. Particularly boss-heavy games may lack coherent segments between the bosses; this is frequently an issue in 2D Shooters such as '' Gunstar Heroes ''.

Some gamers have complained that bosses can break the Suspension Of Disbelief by disrupting the level of realism. In games which attempt for a "realistic" atmosphere where the player character and the enemies can survive about as much damage as a "real" Human Being (albeit perhaps one wearing body armor) could, it can be quite jarring to suddenly encounter an enemy who can survive superhuman amounts of damage, especially when this enemy is apparently human - this is particularly noticeable, for example, in Max Payne . For example, the incongruously drawn-out boss battles in '' Red Faction 2 '' and other similar games were derided by many as repetitive, awkward endings to otherwise dramatic, coherent games. However, the frequent lock-in battles of some games which claim to be without bosses are often just as problematic for suspension of disbelief, since they require the player to accept that, for example, a character with a rocket launcher could not destroy a flimsy door barring his escape.

Alternatively, some view bosses as the ultimate expression of the concepts in the game's design, the other segments bridging and introducing ideas to be explored fully in the boss battles. Developer Treasure constructed '' Alien Soldier '' as a relentless series of bosses to interesting effect; the '' Metal Gear '' series includes its bosses as the ongoing Storyline , battles with them driving the plot ahead; in the '' Metroid '' saga, bosses test the player's Skill and grant them new abilities that allow the gameplay to expand.

Games may instead have various scenarios which serve as boss "replacements," however, such as requiring the player to defeat a larger-than-normal amount of (often strong) enemies in a limited period of time or a confined space with little cover. This kind of 'boss room' is especially common in first person shooting games, with its origins in the Doom series, though it will soon wriggle its way into the role-playing series with Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon . A common version is to force the player to remain in one location while waves of enemies attack them; the player being forced to fight them all to progress either because they are locked in (a frequent occurrence in BLACK , where such a situation occurs at least once on most levels, and the Serious Sam games which consist of little else) or because there is something in the area they must protect for a fixed period of time (possibly the most well-known example being the infamous sequence in GoldenEye 007 where the player must guard Natalya; the Pegasus Bridge and Pavlov's House sequences in Call Of Duty are other examples).

It is also worth noting that the line claimed to exist between these "replacement" scenarios and a true boss is not a clear one, and many consider these situations just as much boss encounters as any other type; as an example, the final boss of , Mordekai The Summoner , has no means of directly attacking the player and can only summon other enemies. He is thus effectively an object the player must destroy to end a "boss room"-type battle, much as some such battles would end when the player destroys a bunker or computer in the room. Certain games combine the "puzzle" and "army" boss variants to form a situation reminiscent of a boss fight, attempting to perform a complicated sequence of actions while under assault from endless waves of enemies, without technically having a boss present.


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