Boss battles

Video game concept

Includes one or more battles with enemies who are significantly more powerful than anything else thrown at the player prior, usually found at the end of a level.

2377

games

platforms

Alternate names: Boss fights, Raid bosses, End level bosses

Diablo

PS1 1998-03-27

Last Duel: Inter Planet War 2012

ARCD 1988-07

WIN 2018-02-09

PS2 2006-07-13

CPC 1989

CPC 1989

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut

X360 2013-10-22

Ion Assault

WIN 2010-11-17

Wonder Boy in Monster Land

CPC 1989

Metro: Last Light

WIN 2013-05-17

Final Fantasy VIII

WIN 2000

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

NES 1988-12

The first video game about Boss battles was released in 1980.

Sega, Konami and Capcom has published most of these games

Related:
* Elite NPCs

Obviously being literally a boss does not alone qualify for this. These may also exist even if no other battles are fought, though such cases are likely quite rare.

Battles against literal boss characters or other major antagonists that do not differ from other battles fought significantly (equally weak and such) this tag no longer conveys anything useful for them and should not be used for them (you might want to add a note about them why you think they do not deserve this, though).

Raid boss is an MMO variant of the end level boss (raid being a combination of multiple player groups/parties, usually established for the sole purpose of fighting the raid bosses).

Child groups

Bonus bosses, Mini-bosses, Puzzle bosses, Boss meter, Boss arenas, Joke boss, Multi-stage bosses

compare with these groups

Platforms

Windows		408
Linux		334
NES		226
Arcade		131
PC Engine		75
Mac OS X		73
X360		64
Mega Drive		64
Amiga		61
MS-DOS		60
PS3		55
Atari ST		52
C64		49
PS2		42
Amstrad CPC		40
Master System		39
ZX Spectrum		39
Famicom Disk System		39
GB		35
MSX		32
X68000		26
PS4		24
PS		18
MSX2		17
SNES		17
Wii		15
Xbox		15
Android		14
PC Engine		14
Tandy Coco		13

Boss battles

Video game concept

Child groups

Platforms

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