What Makes A Good Boss Rush?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2023
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Boss rushes are prone to feeling like filler content in a video game. It’s very easy to slap in some bosses back to back, call it a day, and get an underwhelming segment of a game. Not that that never works, but designing a great boss rush requires a delicate touch to avoid feeling like a game is repeating itself. Let’s talk about how to get the band back together and design a top-tier boss rush.
Featuring:
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Mega Man (all of them, basically)
Okami and Okamiden
Dance Dance Revolution
Pizza Tower
Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5
Cuphead
Breath of the Wild
Kirby (all of the recent ones, basically)
Shadow of the Colossus
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The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1-month free trial of Skillshare
When done correctly, boss rushes are a good challenge for hard-core fans, testing skill and perseverance. When done incorrectly, they are annoying, tedious, and lacking in creativity.
Kinda surprised you didn't mention probably the most famous boss rush in gaming, Pokemon's Elite Four + Champion. The original featured 4 brand new bosses, plus an upgraded team from your rival who you've fought all game long. Defeating the Elite 4 and becoming champion was always the end goal, but the twist that you also had to beat your rival who did the same first, was epic.
The ONE single thing that’s disappointing about King Dice to me is that his last phase only has one attack. It’s definitely a fun one, but I wish they gave him at least two different things to do
One of the better boss rushes I've played is probably Zant from Zelda Twilight Princess. While it essentially is a single boss, that has many phases, each of those phases takes place in a different boss (or sometimes miniboss) room from throughout the game, and tasks you with attacking him using the items that you would have used in that same room against the regular boss. Much better than just chucking the same boss design at the player and saying fight this same thing again. The attack patterns of Zant are also varied to basically be a more complex version of what you fought the first time, while also fitting into the character of zant and his powers.
Live A Live really deserves a shout out. The boss rush at the end is the classic "you're now way more powerful and can absolutely cream these guys that once caused you problems" style and with the revelations you learned in the final chapter adds a little more catharsis to the battles... but it ALSO has a rare
Boss rushes in kirby games are kinda where the game gets actually challenging, in Star Allies I remember spending days trying to beat soul melter, and later soul melter EX, same for the arenas in forgotten land, that's why I loved the games
Two words: Pizza tower.
About Kirby's arena and true arena: They're not just extra game modes, in the pause menu, each Boss has a different description than their default version of the game and the descriptions help expand the lore.
boss rushes are one of those things where you either gotta do it well, or make it optional. boss rushes are by definition difficult and tests of endurance, and a lot of players will never be interested in the idea. if its an optional challenge, you have a lot more wiggle room to be lazy about it, but if its compulsory, you need to make it worth the while of players whod never seek it out themselves too
Bringing up the Arenas and True Arenas of Kirby, something that's always stood out to me when I first heard it is how every Kirby boss is designed to be beatable without power-ups. The games never explicitly force you to, but because the option is always there, people like to make extra challenging "No Ability" runs, which really changes up how people approach Kirby bosses when you have to wait for an attack that gives you an opening rather than being able to attack whenever you want.
I'm so glad Kirby got the attention he deserves for this subject. The Arena is a test that says "Okay, did you actually learn how to fight the bosses, or did you just spam attack and survive each boss on a sliver of HP?"
I'm glad you brought up the boss rush from Pizza Tower. Even from a story-telling perspective, it's rather genius and debatably kinda meta, given the trope's general reputation. After everything Peppino's been through, he's now forced to partake in an endgame boss rush, and that ends up being his mental breaking point. Shortening each of the repeat bosses really adds to that feeling that Peppino is
I always loved Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story boss rush.
Unexpetancy phase 3 (pizza face boss fight) from pizza tower isn’t a true boss rush but what it dose do is allow you to pummel the bosses you had face up to that point in rapid succession which is a really cool idea…
When you showed footage of Hollow Knight, I thought you were going to mention it in the video. It's linked to the story (you get the best ending if you beat it while fulfilling other conditions) while being fully optional, have at least some plot reason to exist (sure, very cryptic, but so is the rest of the lore) and has many twists. You're fighting previous bosses, but not all in a row, they are separated in different pantheons, and atop of each pantheon you have a new boss, which is a character that appears in the story, but you had never fought, or fought once they're past their best shape. Not all bosses have a twist, but sometimes a simple change in the arena is enough to change your strategy - changing the Gruz Mother from an enclosed box to three small platforms makes you think twice before making any move, to be sure you can land on a platform.
I’d say the final phase against Asriel in Undertale technically counts as a boss rush, since it’s just a series of mini boss fights who all use attacks from previous boss fights. On paper it’s really simple, but the context of returning your friends’ memories to them makes this final phase SO GOOD.
I'm so glad Pizza Tower got a mention here. When Pizza Head started pulling up the other bosses...I haven't felt that much excitement in a game for a long time. I was SCREAMING.
I think Punch Out!! is a great boss rush series.
My favorite boss rush might have to be Rhythm Heaven’s famous Remix 10. Quickly running through everything in a warioware pace is peak sampling boss rush finale vibes.