Innovation of the Week: The Boss

This week, let's dive into something that has excited, frustrated and intimidated many players over the years – the boss. From the early days of video games to the more recent classics, bosses and kicking their butts have become an integral part of gaming culture. They add a layer of anticipation, challenge but also narrative depth to video games as they present a clear antagonist to the player. They are often the climax of a level, sometimes the entire game, providing players with a higher challenge to overcome and (usually) set things right in the game's world. The sense of accomplishment after defeating a well designed boss is for some unparalleled, making it a memorable and rewarding experience.

Facing off against one AI controlled on-screen enemy character at a time has been a thing since 1970 I believe, but for this post I'm defining a boss as a tougher than average opponent that is generally faced at the end of a level or enemy lair/headquarters. Even so, the concept still dates back to the 1970s, or 1975 to be specific. The first turn-based game to feature one seems to be dnd, a dungeon crawler RPG that has come up several times already in this series. At the lowest level, players will meet The Dragon that guards the magic orb, the object players are sent to retrieve to beat the game. Perhaps this is the first game to really put players on edge towards the end as it is also a game with perma-death - if you fail here then you have to start over from the beginning of the game.

The first real-time examples are found in the 1979 shoot 'em ups Astro Fighter and Ozma Wars, with the former being a bit older. The bosses aren't that interesting to fight, behaving much like the enemies in Space Invaders with more hit points. However, the first one gets its own screen and is noticeably larger than the other enemies, while the second makes an unusual entrance in the form of a meteoroid that the player shoots to reveal a very aggressive space ship.

Some Later Notable Examples:

Samurai (1980) - In this arena action/hack 'n slash game, players face a single swordsman after fighting off his underlings in each level. These are quick duels as each character dies in one hit to the body. Players can lock blades with the boss, then mash the button to try and knock him back and stun him, leaving him open for attack (which is what's happening in the pic). Or they can try to strafe and hit the guy's body.

The commanders from Sasuke vs Commander (1980) - In what is essentially a Space Invaders variation with a different setting, players can face off against four different bosses throughout the game, all introduced by an ominous lightning strike and the background going mostly black. A ninja shooting firebeams, a komuso (?) throwing shuriken and tricking the player with holograms of itself, a second ninja that throws swords which become obstacles for the player as they hit the ground, and a second komuso which transforms into a giant frog thing that teleports around and shoots firebeams. Later on there are also variants on previous versions, such as a ninja with more HP or a komuso that spawns multiple shuriken throwing frogs. Pretty awesome for 1980!

Donkey Kong (1981) - For the last level of the first platformer, players take on Donkey Kong in a basic puzzle style fight - removing the screws holding up the platform (while avoiding or taking out the enemies) that the monkey is standing on causes it to fall, knocking him out in the process and letting Mar-I mean Jumpman reunite with Pauline. This style of boss fight would later be expanded on in Zelda games, as well as imitated by Startropics and Quake.

The chopper from 005 (1981) - In this early stealth action game, boss fights take place on a separate screen and force the player to move and shoot past what looks like a mass of parachute bombs, forming both a defensive layer between the player chopper and the boss chopper at the top as well as moving walls on either side. This while the boss is dropping more bombs at the player AND balloon bombs are frequently lifting from the ground below, making the fight pretty intense. If they survive for long enough, there is an opening in the upper layer and the boss also eventually moves down and leaves itself exposed to attack.

Sinistar (1982) - This free-roaming shooter is perhaps best known for its intimidating boss, how it goes after the player instead of waiting for them and the build-up towards facing it. It tends to be considered an early horror game just for how this boss was designed. As the player is flying around and taking out small enemies the size of their own ship, the boss suddenly proclaims "Beware! I Live!" through a creepy, loud and somewhat scratchy voice sample. It then starts quickly chasing the player from somewhere off screen and as it gets close, a larger blip is displayed on the GUI's radar while it tells you that Sinistar is now in scanner range. The threats continue with the words "I hunger, coward!" before Sinistar enters the screen and lets out a psychotic shriek while heading straight for the player at a faster speed than they can get away. At this point, the player hopefully has the mine weapon and should use a defensive approach to survive.

Punch-Out! (1984) - In this arcade-style boxing game, players face six unique opponents in one on one matches. While not proper bosses by my definition above, I think they are worth mentioning for a few reasons: They're visually impressive, behaviorally distinct and the knockback and stun with each hit the player or their opponent lands adds a lot of impact. Each fight also has a satisfying ending in the well made knockout animations. Adding to these aspects is the anticipation of the KO potential meter, which rewards skillful and restrained play.

The three Shadowlords from Ultima V (1985) - In an RPG series that continued to evolve and surprise players since its first couple of games, a non-traditional approach to boss fights is I suppose expected. To get rid of these guys, the player must find a certain item and use it in a certain way that relates to one of the virtues that are central to the game's mechanics and narrative. To say more would be to spoil the solution. Furthermore, the Shadowlords are active in the game world and can randomly attack one of eight cities, signaled to the player as they enter one with the words "an air of cowardice/hatred/falsehood surrounds thee", with a different noun depending on which of them is present.

Bowser/King Koopa from Super Mario Bros. (1985) - This one's interesting in that there are multiple ways to beat him (either run past him and hit a switch or if you have the fireflower, take him out directly) and that the same fight is repeated but tweaked somewhat in later levels, with added obstacles, rate of fire and Bowser being able to throw hammers at Mario.

Fantasy Zone (1986) - One of the first so-called cute 'em ups is also known for its unique, large and detailed boss fights. The moon and snowman bosses are particularly interesting in that they have more than one phase during their fights, possibly the first example of it. The moon initially moves up and down while firing a row of laser cannons covering its front, but if the player takes too long then it will start chasing Opa Opa around. The snowman slowly moves onto the screen while letting its gun drones work, but after taking them out it will get more aggressive and start spraying a bunch of larger bullets while moving up and down around the middle of the screen. Bosses 6 and 7, while having simpler behaviors are also cool in that they make use of sprite rotation and scaling respectively.

Mega Man (1987) - The first in this long running action platformer series also introduced its unique mechanic related to its bosses - they each have a weakness to a particular weapon and to gain these weapons the player must defeat the bosses themselves. This leads to a strategic and experimental element where the player (if they want an easier time that is) can eventually plan the best route throughout the game's first 6 levels, freely accessible via a level select menu, so that after the first boss they'll always have the best weapon to use on each boss. After the first 6 levels, the game continues to impress with the large yellow devil boss which repeatedly picks itself apart and builds itself back together to launch pieces of its own body towards Mega Man, an evil clone fight, a continuously escalating fight where part of the environment can be used as a weapon, and finally main antagonist Dr. Wily's aircraft which also has two phases.

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What boss(es) stands out to you as the most memorable, and why? Have you encountered any games recently that introduced innovative boss mechanics? Share your thoughts below!