10 Games With Clever Boss Designs (2024)

Boss battles are supposed to be the end of a chapter or the end of a story. These fights give players a sense of accomplishment while also treating them to a gameplay element that might be absent from other parts of the game.

Some of the most clever boss designs know how to utilize the gameplay and the boss's personality. This can create a unique scenario that other games don't have and, at times, even trick players by getting them accustomed to one set of movements only to flip the script. Here are ten games that have clever boss designs.

10 Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins

Wario Copies Mario

Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins may be a retro Game Boy game, but it had a final boss that wasn't Bowser. Jumping on bosses three times is easy enough. However, Wario, Mario’s evil counterpart, takes advantage of his personality to get a one-up on the heroic plumber.

Wario can use the same powers as Mario and each time you fight him, he drops another power-up such as the carrot or the fire-flower. This creates a simple but dynamic boss that shows Wario trying his hardest to be better than Mario in every way.

9 The Simpsons Game

Facing Both Creators

The Simpsons game has two unique boss fights that take advantage of both the animated medium and the Simpsons’ legacy. The first is the creator of the Simpsons, Matt Groening, who can summon other characters he created, such as Bender and Zoidberg from Futurama.

The second clever boss is fighting God, who is a recurring character in the Simpsons. Fighting him in a rhythm game for the PrayStation, Exodus Box, and the Hii, in an attempt to return to their normal lives outside the video game.

8 Batman: Arkham Knight

Capturing A Villain’s Nature

The design of Riddler’s boss fight is one that many players find the most frustrating to complete. However, it is completely in character for someone like the Riddler. The first time you reach him, he will instigate the fight only to immediately pull back and challenge you to find his trophies all over Gotham.

This means backtracking and solving puzzles to get each one. Only after you have completed this tedious quest will the Riddler respect you enough to fight you. While many consider the puzzles to be a prerequisite, in reality, they are part of the grand fight between the brightest minds in Gotham.

7 Fallout

Talk The Master To Death

Fallout games let you tackle problems in a variety of ways. Many times you will go in guns blazing, while other times, you can boost your charisma skills to turn the tides. The Master in Fallout is a boss battle design that encompasses everything that the series has to offer.

If you’ve boosted your intelligence and charisma, you can convince The Master to kill himself. This can be done by pointing out the flaws in his plan. When he realizes that all his work has been for nothing, he will blow himself up.

Psycho Mantis Reads Your Mind

Psycho Mantis is one of the most unique and 4th wall-breaking bosses ever. He has the ability to read your mind and the game takes full advantage of this. One of his most iconic traits is being able to read your memory card and see the games you’ve played in the past.

He has unique dialogue depending on the games he detects. One example of this is if he finds Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Contra: Legacy of War, he will note that you enjoy action games. He will also specifically mention Konami if you have plenty of them in your memory card.

5 Dead Rising

People Are The Real Monsters

The Dead Rising Franchise has a perfect template for creating unique boss battles. Instead of having big special zombies, the franchise instead focuses on ordinary people who have had enough of their daily lives or are using the outbreak as an excuse to act out.

Their boss fights are also unique, with some of them fighting you directly, while others force you to do some tasks for them before the encounter begins. Some psychopaths can even be saved for some bonus goodies down the road.

4 Cuphead

King Dice’s Game

Every Cuphead boss has a barrage of projectiles you need to dodge. They are already unique due to their theme, background music, and animations. However, one boss adds a clever mechanic to the mix that might even be better than what the final boss has to offer.

This element is rolling a die to determine which mini-boss you will face next. Some spaces will replenish your health and others throw you into a fight. This element of surprise forces players to time their parries to get the right dice roll. These rolls could determine how healthy you are at the start of the true fight.

3 Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Most Disgusting Boss Battle

One disgustingly clever boss design can be found in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. The Great Mighty Poo will sing his song, which has lyrics between each of your successful attacks. During the battle, he will sing while the player looks for special spaces they can pull out a roll of toilet paper from.

Once the toilet paper is acquired, you will need to toss a roll into his open mouth mid-song. This is a clever way to integrate a musical number into a boss battle without having the pacing feel completely off.

2 Donkey Kong Country

K. Rool Cheats

Every other boss in the original Donkey Kong Country goes down after being jumped on five times. They also only have one attack that speeds up with each jump. However, K. Rool is different.

Each phase starts off with an attack that plays on the movement the previous phase melted into the player’s brain. K. Rool will even roll the credits, giving the player the illusion that they have beaten the game, only to unleash yet another phase of the battle. This 4th wall breaking technique often leads to the player taking damage.

1 Super Mario Odyssey

Take Control Of Bowser

One of the most cleverly designed boss battles in a Mario game is the fight against Bowser and the race to escape the collapsing Moon. While the boss battle itself is an escalation of the prior boss battles, this fight does not end with Bowser’s defeat.

Instead, the moon starts collapsing, and Mario needs to take control of Bowser using Cappy. It’s the perfect boss fight because it answers a question players have throughout the game; if Cappy can let you possess anything, why not just use it on Bowser?