5 Most Persistent Fighting Game Final Bosses Who Never Go Away

One consistent quality of any good Fighting Game is its final boss, a villain or antagonist who stands between your character and victory. Sometimes these characters are playable on the roster, but oftentimes, their defeat signals the end of single-player modes in the games they’re in. For longer fighting game series, their most iconic bosses tend to show up more than once, haunting the narratives of their games relentlessly.

Many of the best bosses in gaming come from the earlier titles in a particular series. Newer boss characters very rarely take hold of their audience’s attention, as they can’t live up to the quarter devouring foes players remember from days in an arcade. For example, despite Street Fighter 4‘s Seth being a complex boss with many moves stolen from iconic fighters, it’s hard to compare him to Akuma, the secret boss of Street Fighter 2 who was widely banned from tournaments due to his strength.

5. Dural (Virtua Fighter)

Some fighting game series like to have a new boss character in every game, but Virtua Fighter has never subscribed to that idea. The silver, almost chrome appearance of Dural is one seared into the minds of all Virtua Fighter players, as the character has been the boss of each game in the franchise. Even spin-offs feature Dural, making her one of the longest-lasting opponents players can expect in each title. Even the newest Virtua Fighter project being worked on right now carries an assumption that Dural will show up again.

Dural uses an amalgamation of moves comprised of almost every Virtua Fighter character, using stolen techniques to attack opponents. However, Dural’s attacks deal significantly more damage, or add augmented properties to the moves she steals. Because of this, each time the silver or gold cyborg appears, she instantly becomes a force to be reckoned with at the end of each Virtua Fighter arcade run. Dural has rarely been playable throughout the series, solidifying her boss status permanently.

4. Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)

One might think that a character dying in a fighting game’s story would mean they stay off the roster for the rest of the series. Yet, Heihachi Mishima proves this theory wrong at every turn, returning game after game despite his multiple demises. “Heichachi Mishima is dead” was even a tagline for Tekken 5, only for the character to still be playable in Tekken 6, and return to life for the story of Tekken 7. Heihachi has been thrown off a cliff (twice), dropped into a volcano, and survived explosions to constantly come back.

That being said, Heihachi has only been a “boss” for the first Tekken, representing a character who stood in the way of Kazuya Mishima’s revenge. As Kazuya became a boss in Tekken too, the devil gene of his son made Heihachi less of a final challenger over time. This hasn’t stopped Heihachi from doing villainous acts, as his arcade endings are full of his usual boss-like behavior throughout the Tekken series. With Heihachi’s return in Tekken 8‘s expanded story, though, it seems like the character is returning to their roots as he improbably comes back again.

3. Shao Khan (Mortal Kombat)

The overlord of Outworld, Shao Khan, has been an intimidating prescene in Mortal Kombat at nearly every turn the franchise has took. Shao Khan originally was the boss of both Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 3, already showing a persistent personality when his attempt to assimilate Earthrealm through the Mortal Kombat tournament in his first appearance was thwarted. His invasion in Mortal Kombat 3 ended with his defeat, but as with most fighting games, this was only the beginning of his crusade.

To his credit, Shao Khan remained absent as a boss from the series until Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, where he merged with Darkseid to become Dark Khan. Since then, Shao Khan re-emerged as the primary antagonist of 2011’s Mortal Kombat, the reboot that created a new timeline for the series. Timeline shenanigans have kept Shao Khan around ever since, showing the character appear in both Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat 1, with a conquering attitude that always puts him against the heroes of each story.

2. M. Bison (Street Fighter)

Street Fighter 2 is infamous for having several iterations, adding new characters and changing up gameplay of the title that started the fighting game genre in earnest. Throughout all the version of Street Fighter 2, M. Bison, or “Dictator,” has always been the final boss, even as he became part of the main roster. M. Bison is the textbook definition of a fighting game boss, representing an evil organization called Shadaloo and returning every game to constantly harass the growing list of World Warriors who take to the streets.

M. Bison was the final boss of all three Street Fighter Alpha games, the last opponent of Street Fighter 5, and a significant figure in the arcade mode of Street Fighter 4 as well. The only game that didn’t feature M. Bison in Street Fighter was Street Fighter 3 and its iterations, which were criticized for not having series regulars like him. With M. Bison’s return in Street Fighter 6 as DLC, it’s impossible not to have the Psycho Power-wielding combatant, no matter how many times he is defeated, killed, or destroyed by various characters.

1. Geese Howard (Fatal Fury/King of Fighters)

The crime lord of Southtown, Geese Howard, is a character who shouldn’t keep coming back. Infamously, Geese’s demise comes at the hands of Terry Bogard, who knocks him off his skyscraper tower at the end of the first Fatal Fury. Knocking away a helping hand, Geese’s fall is a exclamation point throughout this fighting game series, yet without fail, Geese keeps returning. Geese is seen in Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury 3, Real Bout: Fatal Fury, Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2, Art of Fighting, and multiple The King of Fighters games as a playable character.

Even newer games like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves have Geese as a secret boss, returning the character to his original status as a foe haunting various stories. Nightmare Geese is a literal ghost in that game, showing just how often this character keeps coming back. The continuous arrivals of Geese prove not only that he is the most tenacious boss ever to be included in a fighting game, but that fans will adore his return every time.

What fighting game final boss do you think comes back the most? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!

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