5 Worst Boss Fights In Fighting Games That Still Feel Cheap Today

Few genres have bosses that generate as much frustration as fighting games, as some final opponents demand technical mastery for players to beat them. Originally meant to steal away your coins in arcades, fighting game bosses are well-known for breaking the rules of their game, sometimes to an absurd degree. However, a few go even beyond that, creating some infamous fights that fans look back on as a test of patience, resilience, and tolerance for truly cheap encounters.

While there are plenty of overpowered fighting game characters players can control, bosses tend to take things to another level. This can be through small features exclusive to them, such as the ability to use a resource infinitely while it is limited to their opponent. These factors create almost insurmountable challenges, with the toughest fighting game bosses even punishing you for trying to play fair.

5. Shao Khan (Mortal Kombat 9)

Mortal Kombat has been notorious for having unfair bosses, with the shapeshifting Shang Tsung to the four-armed Goro being prime examples. However, none of the other bosses in the series come close to Shao Khan, especially his iteration in Mortal Kombat 9. Despite this boss leaving openings when he taunts you, his overwhelming abilities are enough to make plenty of players throw their controllers in disgust.

MK9‘s Shao Khan had hyper armor on nearly all of their special moves, preventing players from retaliating or disrupting the boss whenever they took the offensive. Furthermore, Shao Khan had projectiles that could stun you or hit you with their large strike zones, preventing you from approaching him easily as well. With massive damage and the ability to take reduced damage from your own attacks, Shao Khan is easily a frustrating boss who forces you to resort to cheap tactics of your own to win.

4. Alpha-152 (Dead Or Alive 4 & 5)

Appearing as a clone of series protagonist Kasumi, Alpha-152 is both a boss in Dead or Alive 4 and 5, with both examples breaking what players are used to in both titles. Like you might expect, Alpha-152 hits far harder than any other character, dealing extraordinary amounts of damage that can leave you knocked out in seconds. Alpha-152 is notorious for lengthy juggle combos with moves that are empowered more than an rival player would be able to ever take advantage of.

Alpha-152 also tends to punish techniques in the game that bring you success against other bosses, including traditional blocking or reliance on aggressive tactics. With counters and teleportation moves, Alpha-152 has few openings, with little time for you to fight back unless you’ve learned how the boss operates. Given the unique nature of Dead or Alive‘s roster, some characters will struggle more than others against Alpha-152, forcing you to unlearn how the game works to find the “correct” strategy needed to beat this boss.

3. Night Terror (Soul Calibur 3)

Soul Calibur has a variety of infamously cheap characters, such as Star Wars guest fighter Yoda from Soul Calibur 4. However, Soul Calibur 3‘s Night Terror is something else entirely, only accessible by not losing a match in a character’s story in the “Tales of Souls” single-player mode in the game. Night Terror is a manifestation of the Soul Calibur and Sword Edge swords’ powers combined, transforming Nightmare into a winged monstrosity that’s nearly impossible to take down.

For starters, Night Terror is fought in an incredibly small arena, threatening to knock you off a tiny platform to your doom at any moment. Meanwhile, Night Terror cannot be beaten through a ring out themselves, simply flying back into the fight instead. Like Shao Khan, your damage to Night Terror is pitiful by comparison, with each of Night Terror’s massive attacks taking out your health in a few hits. With unreactable lows, flight, and unblockable moves too, Night Terror lives up to his name.

2. Gill (Street Fighter 3)

Seth, M. Bison, and hidden foes like Akuma have been iconic final bosses in Street Fighter titles, but there are none as well remembered as Gill from Street Fighter 3. Games like New Generation, 2nd Impact, and eventually Third Strike all included Gill as their final boss, with the character’s unique moves shattering what players thought would be a fair fight. Despite being one of the best fighting games of its generation, even SF 3: Third Strike wasn’t immune to Gill’s ridiculous abuse of the game’s systems.

The most infamous example of Gill’s cruelty was through his super move, Resurrection. When you defeat Gill, the character will revive themselves at full health if you don’t interrupt Resurrection while the fighter has super meter. This alone makes fighting Gill an uphill battle, as he’ll often gain some health through Resurrection even if you do disrupt it. Gill can also spend super meter on other devastating moves, including a hailstorm of projectiles or a shockwave of damage that’s nearly impossible to avoid.

Gill’s long-reaching attacks do plenty of damage, with large projectiles of ice and fire being hard to parry or dodge as well. If Gill manages to land blows on you, his strikes have a high chance to freeze or stun you, leaving you vulnerable for an easy defeat. Every arcade run of a Street Fighter 3 game has an inevitably frustrating confrontation with Gill, even for the most hardened veterans of the series.

1. Omega Rugal

“SNK boss syndrome” is a phrase for a reason, and honestly, this whole list could be comprised of bosses from SNK’s fighting game library. That being said, no one comes close to Omega Rugal from The King of Fighters series in terms of cheapness or cheating the boss does to punish you for even dreaming of fighting him at all. In some iterations, Omega Rugal has the capacity to read your inputs at impossibly small levels, countering your moves in a microsecond before you can even realize what’s happening.

This combines with invulnerable attacks, such as Omega Rugal’s Genocide Cutter, which can not only bypass your normal attacks, but any super move or powerful technique your character(s) are able to muster. With incredible damage, nearly doubled movement speed, projectiles that can barely be dodged, and the input reading, Omega Rugal is mainly beaten through sheer luck rather than skill. This boss was hated so vehemently that his presence was banned from some arcades, marking one of the only times a boss’ unfair qualities bled into a game’s collective consciousness.

While toned down from his initial The King of Fighters ’95 introduction, Omega Rugal still is the blueprint for brutally cheap fighting game bosses, setting a standard for future SNK characters. This would later include himself as the hidden God Rugal in Capcom vs SNK 2, which also creates a cheap fighting game boss that players would complain about for years to come.

Which fighting game bosses have you struggled against the most? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!