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Best and/or most visually impressive boss fights in a 2D game
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
For sure. That was an interesting time, when it was just Sega and Hudson vying for the 16-bit lead (yeah yeah PCE 8 bit). Ultimately though, the Mega Drive won out because it produced more faithful arcade ports. Also a 1989 release, Ghouls n' Ghosts featured an even bigger final boss that took up the entire screen.
Full screen bosses you say...
https://youtu.be/KtKUeSeXIOA?t=23m52s
https://youtu.be/KtKUeSeXIOA?t=8m32s
That's 2 examples from one game, there are literally a TON of full screen ships/bosses on the PCE
Not gonna post screens, but the 8-bit Mega Man games had impressive bosses inside the fortresses/Wily castles. Giant robot baddies that took up a large portion of the screen. For 8-bit, it was pretty damn cool.
Also, Totally Rad had some cool bosses as well.
Hell yeah Totally Rad. Someone knows! *turns into a bird guy and flies to the top of the screen*
SatanicNemesis2K
Banned
Kefkas tower from FFIII/VI comes to mind. If that counts?
nkarafo
Member
I second Mischief Makers, especially the final boss.
Ill add Gunforce 2 first Boss. Skip to 4:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KP4rjACXQ
Ill add Gunforce 2 first Boss. Skip to 4:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KP4rjACXQ
PassiveObserver
Member
I was commenting on the early years of that generation, '87-'89 when both systems were making their early impressions. But you're right, screen-filling bosses was the thing magazines raved about during that time, with the amount of colors/sprites or background scaling being the eye-grabbers. I always get a kick out of how magazines wrote about graphics in those days.
I had the Genesis version and loved it to bits, so I doubted your statement initially. Imagine my surprise when I found out how good the Super Grafx version is!
Here's an interesting comparison video
Most ports of it are actually really good. I have the terrific C64 and Amiga ports as well. The best version is the Capcom Generations version on the saturn, but man the Super Grafx version is right there with it. Really, really solid port.
EDIT: That vide only concentrates on level 1. Level 2 has enormous differences, the genesis version seems really gimped when comparing that level.
Ganondorfo
Junior Member
Nobody posted Demons Crest yet from Capcom? The Dark Souls from the Snes generation
Pegosaurus
Banned
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
No it wasn't. The Super grafx has a minor revision to the HuC6280 CPU from the PC Engine, but it's still the same poor 8-bit CPU as before, with the exact same limiting opcode set (as an example, the 6280 lacks a division opcode).
The main difference between the Super Grafx and the PC Engine is that the Super Grafx has one additional background layer (giving it a total of two, compared to the one for the PC Engine). This lets it do parallax scrolling without resorting to inturrupt polling (and all the obvious downsides that brings), but it still has less hardware layers than the genesis (2 background layers, plus a window layer).
The Genesis is still, overall, a much more capable machine than the Super Grafx. It's just that the Super Grafx had a better port of Ghouls n Ghosts, due mainly to the rom size for the Super Grafx port being nearly twice that of the Genesis port.
Yeah it is, actually. There's a little bit of jank with regard to control over your character sometimes, but the visual spectacle and interesting boss encounters make it well worth it IMO.
IronicSonic
Member
Ganondorfo
Junior Member
Imagine an Alien Soldier game done by Platinumgames, or the people who made Vanquish.
...why? It's already made by treasure, the king of action games.
and vanquish was made by platinum games.
Vanquish is actually kind of like a 3D third-person Alien Solider, come to think of it.
Treasure are basically the 2D Platinum
Bornstellar
Member
Can we count Ori and the blind forest escape sequences? Because of so, it's that.
Pegosaurus
Banned
Holy shit, that looks incredible. Fantastic design.I expect to see a lot of Metal Slug 3 bosses in this thread. All of them were the pinnacle of pixel-art animation.
capitalCORN
Member
Noitu Love 2 kills it:
Still images don't do it justice. The animation work is varied and all so incredible.
Still images don't do it justice. The animation work is varied and all so incredible.
I hear ya, pal.
Actually, turrican 2 did get a huge graphical update when it came to the PC. Every sprite and tile in the game was completely redrawn.
not as awesome as the picture above, however. But the ground in the pic above and the ground in the PC remake look very similar.
redmetal86
Member
Contra Hard Corps
wanderingprostheyltite
Member
^Let's get this party started.
IronicSonic
Member
Gunstar Heroes has some greats bosses too
Imagine an Alien Soldier game done by Treasure, or the people who made Alien Soldier.
Awesome thread.
I may have read this wrong, but this seems to imply that Gunstar Heroes uses an add-on chip to help it display it's wonderful graphics. I always thought that was stock hardware being used, or isn't it?
I may have read this wrong, but this seems to imply that Gunstar Heroes uses an add-on chip to help it display it's wonderful graphics. I always thought that was stock hardware being used, or isn't it?
pizzapizza64
Member
What's the best version of Alien Soldier? I think I have the virtual console one as well as the steam version.
They're not redrawn is the point. Metal slug is still full of amazing animation and art design though. Animation of the Metal Slug tank is itself extremely memorable and a great example of the game's inventive animation.
Mad Hatter in The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Genesis. Screenshots don't do it justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTuQMdG1vKs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTuQMdG1vKs
I'm almost ashamed that no one has mentioned Super Metroid. Almost any random boss fight from the game fits the bill.
Kraid was a huge sprite for the time. He's a little easy for an experienced player, but his fight is still pretty fun.
Ridley was in his best form in the game- he looked like a demonic cross between a dragon and with Ridley Scott's alien. The verticality in his fight completely shifts the playing field towards the boss, not the player, and really tests your wall jumping abilities.
What's great is that Samus' huge range of abilities means that you often have alternate ways to attack. Draygon offers 3 totally different ways to take him down (this being the coolest):
Every boss from that game is a classic.
Kraid was a huge sprite for the time. He's a little easy for an experienced player, but his fight is still pretty fun.
Ridley was in his best form in the game- he looked like a demonic cross between a dragon and with Ridley Scott's alien. The verticality in his fight completely shifts the playing field towards the boss, not the player, and really tests your wall jumping abilities.
What's great is that Samus' huge range of abilities means that you often have alternate ways to attack. Draygon offers 3 totally different ways to take him down (this being the coolest):
Every boss from that game is a classic.
Arcana Wiz
Member
Odin Sphere
I think all of the batch of final bosses on Odin Sphere can be included on this thread, but my entry will be leventhan, not the best image, but this boss is so big that you must climb him to reach his head...
Chrono Trigger
Chono trigger for me it´s the pinnacle of snes and sprite games, so i'll just post these two examples
Illusion of Gaia
Playing Quintet games for the first time made me stumble on this very interesting and weird game, and the final boss didnt dissapoint.
I dont think a still image translate well why this boss was so impressive so here is a link
Super Metroid
Another favorite of mine, one of my favorite things in the game was the suspense of when entering a boss room, and you trying to figure what it would be like from the enviroment... Combining that it's a gorgeous 2d game and the alien influences....
I think all of the batch of final bosses on Odin Sphere can be included on this thread, but my entry will be leventhan, not the best image, but this boss is so big that you must climb him to reach his head...
Chrono Trigger
Chono trigger for me it´s the pinnacle of snes and sprite games, so i'll just post these two examples
Illusion of Gaia
Playing Quintet games for the first time made me stumble on this very interesting and weird game, and the final boss didnt dissapoint.
I dont think a still image translate well why this boss was so impressive so here is a link
Super Metroid
Another favorite of mine, one of my favorite things in the game was the suspense of when entering a boss room, and you trying to figure what it would be like from the enviroment... Combining that it's a gorgeous 2d game and the alien influences....
HyperZone<3
Member
I always loved Psikyo's multi-part bosses in their shooters. Visually cool as heck.
miss those guys.
miss those guys.
Nah, I just worded it poorly. I just meant that both games used advanced sprite manipulation techniques like scaling, stretching, segmenting... etc. for their time. Gunstar Heroes did not use any extra hardware embedded in the cartridge.
Its 2015, bud we're all too busy living Alien Soldier
mattwhite924
Member
The game wasn't great, but the Metal Sonic fight at the end of Knuckles Chaotix impressed the heck out of me as a kid.
Conkerkid11
Member
Omg, wait, does Cuphead have co-op?
Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.
Also, boss fights, pffffff who likes those?
Local, yes.
Wait, are you one of the devs?
More_Badass
Member
Thread needs more Intrusion 2
magicalsoundshower
Member
I'm pretty sure the "wobble" effect on that boss is not Mode 7. The SNES supported a "Mosaic" effect for background layers for a "zoom in" look. Early games in particular used this for screen transitions and such (think Super Mario World), it's also used if you're trying to use a spell in Final Fantasy IV's menu and it's not possible for whatever reason.
This thing from Contra III was fairly cool for its time. I think it uses multiple sprites and a background layer Mode 7'nd.
It showed up less in games released later in the SNES's life cycle, I suspect developers felt it was overused.
This is what popped into my mind.Contra Hard Corps
um, party hard...
Oh..OH! I don't think I ever heard of this game before, and I certainly didn't know they made it.
This thread made me realize that I actually have the steam version. I think I'll give it a try later today.
Huh, that's interesting, thanks.
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