![Guacamelee! screenshot E](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Guacamelee%21_screenshot_E.jpg)
In
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the
player
Player may refer to:
Role or adjective
* Player (game), a participant in a game or sport
** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games
** Athlete, a player in sports
** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...
has faced up to that point. Boss battles are generally seen at climax points of particular sections of games, such as at the end of a
level or stage or guarding a specific objective. A
miniboss
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
is a boss weaker or less significant than the main boss in the same area or level, though usually more powerful than the standard opponents and often fought alongside them. A
superboss (sometimes 'secret' or 'hidden' boss) is generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game's plot and is often an optional encounter. A
final boss is often the main
antagonist of a game's story and the defeat of that character usually provides a positive conclusion to the game. A boss rush is a stage where the player faces multiple previous bosses again in succession.
For example, in a
run 'n' gun video game, all regular enemies might use pistols while the boss uses a tank. A boss enemy is quite often larger in size than other enemies and the
player character. At times, bosses are very hard, even impossible, to defeat without being adequately prepared and/or knowing the correct fighting approach. Bosses usually take strategy and special knowledge to defeat, such as how to attack weak points or avoid specific attacks.
Bosses are common in many genres of video games, but they are especially common in story-driven titles, and are commonly previously established antagonists in the plot of the video game.
Action-adventures,
beat 'em up
The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...
s,
fighting games,
platform game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
s,
role-playing video games (RPGs), and
shooter game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...
s are particularly associated with boss battles. They may be less common in
puzzle games
Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion.
...
,
card video games,
sports games, and
simulation games. The first video game with a boss fight was the 1975 RPG ''
dnd''.
The concept has expanded to new genres, like
rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press ...
s, where there may be a "boss song" that is more difficult. In
MOBA
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that i ...
games, defeating a map boss usually requires help from the other players, but it brings various benefits to the team, such as buffs or lane push power. Some games, such as ''
Cuphead
''Cuphead'' is a run-and-gun video game developed and published by Studio MDHR. The game follows the titular Cuphead who, in a deal with the Devil after losing a game at the Devil's casino, is sent on a quest to repossess the souls of runaway ...
,
Furi
''Furi'' is a 2016 action shoot 'em up video game developed and published by indie studio The Game Bakers available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Amazon Luna. The game takes place on a planet ...
'' and ''
Warning Forever
''Warning Forever'' is a freeware 2D fixed shooter for the Windows platform written by Japanese indie developer Hikoza T Ohkubo and released under the name of his software house, Hikware.
Gameplay
The game is broken into stages; each stage is a s ...
'', are centered around continual boss fights.
Characteristics
Bosses are usually harder to beat than regular enemies, can sustain more damage and are generally found at the end of a level or area.
While most games include a mixture of boss opponents and regular opponents, some games have only regular opponents and some games have only bosses (e.g. ''
Shadow of the Colossus
''Shadow of the Colossus'' is a 2005 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. It takes place in a fantasy setting and follows Wander, a young man who ...
'').
Some bosses are encountered several times through a single game, typically with alternate attacks and a different strategy required to defeat it each time.
A boss battle can also be made more challenging if the boss in question becomes progressively stronger and/or less vulnerable as their
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
decreases, requiring players to use different strategies to win. Some bosses may contain or be composed of smaller parts that can be destroyed by the player in battle, which may or may not grant an advantage.
In games such as ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'' and ''
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night'', an enemy may be introduced via a boss battle, but later appear as a regular enemy, after the player has become stronger or had a chance to find more powerful weaponry.
''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'' series and games inspired by it are recognized for having dungeons with bosses that are specifically vulnerable to a special item that is located within that dungeon. The player typically acquires this item while exploring the dungeon and is given opportunity to learn to use it to solve puzzles or defeat weaker enemies before facing the boss character.
Boss battles are typically seen as dramatic events. As such, they are usually characterized by unique music and
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
s before and after the boss battle. Recurring bosses and final bosses may have their own specific
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
to distinguish them from other boss battles. This concept extends beyond combat-oriented video games. For example, a number of titles in the ''
Dance Dance Revolution
(''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...
''
rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press ...
series contain "boss songs" that are called "bosses" because they are exceptionally difficult to perform on.
In combat-focused games, a boss may summon additional enemies or minions or simply "adds", for players to fight alongside the boss. These additional enemies may distract from the boss battle or give time for the boss to regenerate health, but may also give the player opportunity to regain health and ammo to continue the boss fight.
Specific boss types
Miniboss
![Broforce_miniboss_animated](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Broforce_miniboss_animated.gif)
A miniboss, also known as a "middle boss", "mid-boss", "half-boss", "sub-boss" or "semi-boss", is a boss weaker or less significant than the main boss in the same area or level. Some minibosses are stronger versions of regular enemies, as in the
''Kirby'' games. Others may be a recurring version of a previous boss, who is either weaker than previously encountered or is less of a challenge later in the game due to character or equipment progression. Other video game characters who usually take the role of a miniboss are Vile (''
Mega Man X
is a series of action platform video games released by Capcom. It is a sub-series of the ''Mega Man'' franchise. The first game was released on December 17, 1993 in Japan (January 1994 in North America) on the Super NES/Super Famicom; most o ...
'' series), Allen O'Neil (''
Metal Slug
is a Japanese run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK in 1996 after the completion of the first game in the series. Spin-off games include a third-person shooter to commemorate the 10th ...
'') and
Dark Link (''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'' series, though he appears as a final boss in ''
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link''). There is also a subtype nicknamed the "Wolfpack Boss", for its similarity to a pack of
wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
, often consisting of a group of strong normal enemies that are easy to defeat on their own, but a group of them can be as difficult as a boss battle.
Superboss
A superboss is a type of boss most commonly found in
role-playing video games. They are considered optional enemies and do not have to be defeated to complete the game. However, not all optional bosses are superbosses. They are generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game's plot or
quest, more difficult even than the final boss and often the player is required to complete a sidequest or the entire game to fight the superboss. For example, in ''
Final Fantasy VII'', the player may choose to seek out and fight the Ruby and Emerald Weapons. Some superbosses will take the place of the final boss if certain requirements are met. This is common in
fighting games such as
Akuma in ''
Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. Some superbosses can also yield special
items or skills that cannot be found any other way that can give a player a significant advantage during playthrough of the rest of the game, such as added experience or an extremely powerful weapon. For example, the "raid bosses" from ''
Borderlands 2'' give rare loot unavailable anywhere else. Some superbosses in
online games have an immense amount of health and must be defeated within a time limit by having a
large number of players or parties working together to defeat the boss. Examples of such superbosses can be found in games like ''
Shadow Fight 2
''Shadow Fight 2'' is a role-playing fighting game published and developed by Nekki and Banzai Games. It is the second installment in the '' Shadow Fight'' series and was soft-launched on October 22, 2013. The full game was released worldwide on ...
'' and ''
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes''.
Toby Fox
Robert F. Fox (born October 11, 1991), known professionally as Toby Fox (previously Toby "Radiation" Fox), is an American video game developer and video game composer. He is known for developing the role-playing video games ''Undertale'' and ...
's games ''
Undertale
''Undertale'' is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical ...
'' and ''
Deltarune
''Deltarune'' is a role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox. The player controls a teenage human, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal t ...
'' both feature superbosses in the form of
Sans the Skeleton, Jevil, and Spamton NEO. Some major video game series have recurring superbosses such as the Ultima Weapon and Omega Weapon in ''
Final Fantasy
is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...
'' and the Amon clan in ''
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
''. The Warden from ''
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'' could be considered a superboss, as it is vastly more difficult to fight than the final boss, the Ender Dragon. However, Mojang has explicitly stated that the Warden was not intended to be fought by players.
Final boss
The final boss, last boss or end boss, is typically present at or near the end of a game, with completion of the game's storyline usually following victory in the battle.
The final boss is usually the main antagonist of the game; however, there are exceptions, such as in ''
Conker's Bad Fur Day
''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' is a 2001 platform game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The game follows Conker, a greedy, hard-drinking red squirrel who must return home to his girlfriend. Most of the game requires the player ...
'', in which the final boss is the antagonist's alien pet. Final bosses are generally larger, more detailed and better animated than lesser enemies, often in order to inspire a feeling of grandeur and special significance from the encounter.
In some games, a hidden boss, referred to as the "true" final boss, is present. These bosses only appear after the completion of specific additional levels, choosing specific dialogue options or after obtaining a particular item or set of items, such as the Chaos Emeralds in the ''
Sonic the Hedgehog'' series or performing a series of tasks in ''
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker''. These bosses are generally more difficult to defeat. In games with a "true" final boss, victory leads to either a better ending or a more detailed version of the regular ending. Examples of a "true final boss" include the Radiance in ''
Hollow Knight
''Hollow Knight'' is a 2017 Metroidvania video game developed and published by independent developer Team Cherry. In the game, the player controls the Knight, a nameless insectoid warrior, who explores Hallownest, a fallen kingdom plagued by ...
'', Indalecio in ''
Star Ocean: The Second Story'', the Moon Presence in ''
Bloodborne
is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. ''Bloodborne'' follows the player's character, a Hunter, through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian-era–inspired ...
'', Zero in ''
Kirby's Dream Land 3
''Kirby's Dream Land 3'' is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Starring Kirby, it is the fifth installment in the ''Kirby'' series and the third game under the ''K ...
'' and Unknown in ''
ActRaiser
is a 1990 hybrid platformer, god game, and city-building game with light action RPG elements for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Quintet and published by Enix, combining traditional side-scrolling platforming with urban ...
'' Renaissance.
The term "Foozle" is used to describe a
cliché final boss that exists only to act as the final problem before a player can complete the game.
Scorpia stated in 1994 that "about 98% of all
role-playing video games can be summed up as follows: 'We go out and bash on critters until we're strong enough to go bash on Foozle.'"
History
The origin of naming the final enemy in a level or game a "boss" cannot be readily traced, but ''
Kotaku'' points to the term coming from the
crime boss of a criminal gang.
A precursor to video-game boss fights is
Bruce Lee's
Hong Kong martial arts films
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Ko ...
, including ''
The Big Boss
''The Big Boss'' (, lit. "The Big Brother from Tangshan"; originally titled ''Fists of Fury'' in America) is a 1971 Hong Kong action martial arts film produced by Raymond Chow and starring Bruce Lee in his first major film in a lead role. Th ...
'' (1971), in which Lee fights a criminal gang before battling the big boss,
and ''
Game of Death
''The Game of Death'' (Chinese: 死亡的遊戲) is an incomplete Hong Kong martial arts film, filmed between August and October 1972, directed, written, produced by and starring Bruce Lee, in his final film project. Lee died during the making ...
'' (1972), where Lee fights a different boss on each level of a
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
, which later inspired the boss battles of
martial arts action games such as
beat 'em up
The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...
s.
Another precursor is
tabletop role-playing game
A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...
s starting with ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
'' (1974), in which in a typical dungeon campaign there would be one powerful enemy acting as the boss of the weaker minions that players would face beforehand, in the same sense as a crime boss, which later inspired the boss battles of
role-playing video games.
The first interactive video game to feature a boss was ''
dnd'', a 1975 role-playing video game for the
PLATO system
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
.
One of the earliest
dungeon crawls, ''dnd'' implemented many of the core concepts of ''Dungeons & Dragons''.
The objective of the game is to retrieve an "Orb" from the bottommost dungeon. The orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy named the Gold Dragon. Only by defeating the Dragon can the player claim the orb, complete the game and be eligible to appear on the
high score
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in th ...
list.
In 1980, boss battles appeared in several
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
action games. In March 1980,
Sega released ''Samurai'', a
jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—'' Portrait of H ...
-themed martial arts action game where the player
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
fights a number of swordsmen before confronting a more powerful boss samurai.
SNK
is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...
's ''Sasuke vs. Commander'', released in October 1980, is a
ninja-themed shooting game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...
where the
player character fights enemy
ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...
s before confronting bosses with various
ninjutsu
, sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some trad ...
attacks and enemy patterns. It was one of the earliest games with multiple boss encounters, and one of SNK's earliest games. ''
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
'', released in December 1980, is a
fixed shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
where the player ship must fight a giant
mothership
A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft.
Examples include bombers converted to carry experimental airc ...
in the fifth and final level. At several points in Namco's
vertically scrolling shooter ''
Xevious
is a vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades in 1982. It was released in Japan and Europe by Namco and in North America by Atari, Inc. Controlling the Solvalou starship, the player attacks Xevious f ...
'' (1982), the player must defeat an Andor Genesis mothership to advance.
In
side-scrolling character action games such as beat 'em ups,
Irem
is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwa ...
's 1984 arcade game ''
Kung-Fu Master'' established the end-of-level boss battle structure used in these games, with the player character progressing through levels (represented by floors of a temple) and fighting a boss character at the end of each level;
in turn, this end-of-level boss battle structure was adapted from the Bruce Lee film ''Game of Death'', where Lee's character fights a different boss character on each floor as he ascends a pagoda.
The game was distinctive for giving both the player character and each boss a
health meter
Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the for ...
,
which leads to the game temporarily becoming a one-on-one
fighting game during boss battles, a concept that ''Kung-Fu Master'' designer
Takashi Nishiyama
is a masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
The name Takashi can have multiple different meanings depending on which kanji is used to write it. Some possible writings of the name include:
*江詩 - "estuary , inlet, poem"
*隆 - "prospe ...
later expanded on when he created the fighting game ''
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...
'' (1987) at
Capcom.
The term "boss" was used in reference to the game's final boss by Mike Roberts in a review of the game published in the May 1985 issue of British magazine ''
Computer Gamer
''Computer Gamer'' was a video game magazine published in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-wester ...
'', while he used the term "super baddies" for the end-of-level bosses.
Sega's arcade game ''
Fantasy Zone
is a 1986 arcade game by Sega, and the first game in the ''Fantasy Zone'' series. It was later ported to a wide variety of consoles, including the Master System. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights an enemy inva ...
'' (1986) popularized the concept of a boss rush, a stage where the player faces multiple previous bosses again in succession.
American magazine ''
Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'' has been credited with popularizing the term "boss" for video games around 1988.
See also
*
Glossary of video game terms
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boss (Video Gaming)
Video game terminology
1975 neologisms