The Super Nintendo was well-known for some of the most difficult games of its era. That often meant boss fights that tested every skill you were supposed to learn as you played through everything leading up to them. However, not all hard fights are actually good. In fact, some of the best boss battles on the Super Nintendo have nothing to do with difficulty; instead, they impress with near-perfect encounter designs, a neat gimmick, or something else. The six games below aren’t all of the great bosses you’ll run into while playing through the SNES catalog, but they are six examples of how phenomenal the selection of boss fights is on the platform.
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Here are six of the best boss fights on the Super Nintendo.
6) K. Rool Duel – Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
It’s hard to make a boss fight that doesn’t stick with you when a David Wise track is playing behind it. That’s not the only reason the K. Rool Duel ranks so highly, but it certainly doesn’t hurt its placement. This three-stage fight is a great mash-up of all the tools you’ve learned along the way.
It starts with a quick shot of a tied-up Donkey Kong waiting for you to save him. Then, K. Rool starts to shoot cannonballs from his blunderbus. You need to toss these back at him while dodging his attacks. Of course, some of the balls have spikes, so you’ll need to pay close attention. In the second stage, you have to dodge a continuous blast of spiked balls until you get a chance to throw one back.
It’s challenging your platforming and timing in a way that feels like the culmination of everything you’ve done before. Things get nearly unfair in the third and final stage, as K. Rool gets the ability to turn invisible. It’ll take some practice, but that makes completing the fight feel even better.
5) Helmasaur King – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Helmasaur King is the perfect Zelda boss, at least during the 2D era. It only has a few attacks, but they all work together to make a challenging foe. Helmasaur’s tail attack is tough to dodge if you’re standing far away, but aren’t a problem if you stand close. However, once you get up in its face, you’ll be at risk of its fireballs.
It’s a deadly dance that takes some work to master. Meanwhile, you can’t deal actual damage to Helmasaur until you knock off its mask using either bombs or the Magic Hammer. Technically, the bombs are quicker, but he might move away before one explodes, rendering them useless.
When you finally do take off the mask, Helmasaur starts to move even quicker. He doesn’t gain any new attacks, but it does make it harder to hit the big guy. It’s challenging, but once you learn to use all the tools in Link’s belt, you’ll take him down with relative ease. That said, getting to that point is a thrill.
4) Lavos – Chrono Trigger
Lavos is a representation of the end of the world. If that’s not an effective boss, I’m not sure what is. Heck, Chrono Trigger doesn’t even bother to give the world-ending monster any real story or motivation. It’s an alien who came to Earth before the ice age and wants to drain the planet of its energy. Lavos is just here to kill and eat. It’s that mystery behind why it’s doing all of this that makes Lavos such an evil presence.
More importantly, you’ll go up against Lavos several times during your Chrono Trigger playthrough, leading to several different endings. In fact, losing to Lavos the first time you come up against the behemoth sets you down a completely different path, making a replay almost required. Thankfully, that’s made a bit easier by New Game Plus mode, but still, Lavos is a fight you’ll take on multiple times, and it never gets less cinematic. That’s a sign of a great boss fight.
3) Ridley – Super Metroid
There’s definitely a case to be made for Mother Brain. Heck, even Draygon and Kraid are worth a shout. That said, there’s a reason you come up against Ridley twice. As Samus’ main nemesis in the early Metroid games, he presents a worthy challenge for our intrepid hero.
You’ll start Super Metroid‘s run of bosses with a fight against Ridley. Nintendo doesn’t make it an easy battle either. Ridley has weird movement patterns and spews fireballs, which can be tough to dodge. Toss in that pesky tail, and Ridley quickly sets the tone for the rest of Super Metroid.
The second time you fight Ridley, Nintendo ups the difficulty by changing the arena layout. This time, the room is much narrower, but has a higher ceiling. That means you have less room to move, but Ridley can take flight to rain down terror from above. It’s a challenging mix of platforming and shooting, making for a fitting battle against Samus’ most important opponent.
2) Giygas – Earthbound
Similar to Lavos, Giygas is more of an existential threat than a villain with motivations our human minds can comprehend. The evil entity is here to conquer Earth, and its true form is appropriately terrifying, especially if you were a youth playing through the wacky RPG in the ’90s.
However, the reason he’s so memorable is the unconventional way you take him down. He has three phases, but you can’t even damage him in the first phase. Instead, you have to take down your former friend Pokey before Giygas becomes vulnerable. Giygas also uses Ness’ strongest attacks against him, constantly hitting your party with PSI Rockin’.
Once Giygas can take damage, you still have to be smart. Many of your attacks (and even some defenses) can reflect onto you, making careful planning a must. When you enter the third stage, the only way to take him down is by using Paula’s Pray command to call upon the people of the world to lend a hand. You have to pray nine times to take him down, making that final push cinematic and harrowing, as you do everything you can to keep Paula alive.
1) Kefka – Final Fantasy VI
The final battle in Final Fantasy VI (called Final Fantasy III in the North American SNES version) takes place over four different fights against Kefka and his forces. However, what makes this fight so memorable is that it finally gives you the chance to use all twelve of your party members at once.
Well, not exactly, but you do get to make three different teams of fighters to help work your way through the end-game trials. Before this point, you might’ve only really been using four characters, but this string of battles lets you use everyone’s skills to their fullest. The spectacle of seeing your whole team working as one is an excellent way to end this massive RPG.
Plus, the actual fight against Kefka can quickly become a challenge. When that evil clown casts Heartless Angel to bring your entire party’s HP to one, you’ll definitely be afraid. Especially when you remember that a few of his attacks can KO you in a hurry, even after you recover. It’s an exceptional battle against one of Final Fantasy‘s best villains. It doesn’t get much better than this.
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