In the days of the Sega Genesis, there was no autosave feature in a game and rarely was there even a save feature at all. Players often had to grind their way through tricky levels by learning the exact layout by the pixel and executing a flawless run unless they wanted to start the whole thing over from the beginning. And the funny part is that sometimes it wasn’t the level itself that was the biggest challenge. It was the boss that awaited them at the end.
There’s a special kind of adrenaline rush that hits when a player reaches the end of that harrowing stage when suddenly the music stops and a health meter appears on the screen. Even the easiest boss can feel challenging with the knowledge that a few false moves can mean a Game Over, but some Sega Genesis bosses offered a whole different level of challenge than that.
8 Death Egg Robot – Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Sonic 2 is a platforming masterpiece that many argue is the best Blue Blur game ever made. Part of what makes it special is the incredibly well-balanced difficulty it offers. With each new level the heat gets turned up a notch or two, and by the final boss fight it reaches critical mass.
First defeating Mecha Sonic with no rings is a challenge unto itself, and that’s not even the final fight. Robotnik’s gigantic Death Egg Robot is simple enough to figure out, but there is zero margin for error, which not only increases the difficulty, it inspires sweaty palms, shaky fingers, and a fair amount of brain fog. Defeating it means beating one of Sega's finest.
7 Scar – The Lion King
Disney is probably the most internationally renowned kid-friendly company there is, but many of their 90s platformers did not take it easy on young and inexperienced gamers. The Lion King didn’t take it easy on anyone at all.
The final fight against Scar is not just a boss battle, but a super tricky platforming course full of pesky hyenas to swat away. By the time the player has reached the showdown against their backstabbing uncle, they’re lucky to have enough health left to withstand a few blows from him. It’s a beautifully executed level, but it is hard.
6 Warhead – Vectorman
It’s a shame that Vectorman disappeared from the gaming world because both of his Sega Genesis titles were excellent platformers with a distinctive art style, awesome graphics, and some clever tweaks to the standard formula. However, they likely turned off a few gamers who just couldn’t seem to get much further than their first few levels due to the considerable difficulty.
Those gamers who did persevere all the way to the original entry’s final boss were punished for their efforts with one of the toughest boss battles the Genesis had to offer. Players must take on Warhead while bouncing around from moving platform to moving platform and simultaneously dodging his projectiles. It’s not only difficult, but it’s also dizzying.
5 Robo-Chicken – Earthworm Jim
Both of the Earthworm Jim titles for the Sega Genesis were exceedingly difficult, thanks in part to the way each new level seemed to throw something totally different at players. While the first few stages of the original entry were somewhat manageable, things really started to get cruel and unusual by the aptly named fifth level, Level 5.
Simply making it to the boss fight against Robo-Chicken is a brutal task, but having to navigate around him, dodge and redirect his attacks, and land ample hits on him, all while in total free fall, is both a fever dream and a nightmare.
4 Super Power Robot Yokozuna – Contra: Hard Corps
The sole Sega Genesis Contra entry is one of the best ever made. As anyone who has ever played any title in this classic Konami series knows, it is also viciously challenging. From the jump, this game is anything but easy, but it only gets more difficult as the player progresses through each explosion-packed, enemy-infested stage.
The battle against Super Power Robot Yokozuna sends players out on top of a speeding train as they vie with a gigantic running robot who refuses to sit still for even one second. It can seem like there isn’t even a pattern at first, but with plenty of perseverance, players can lock in on what it’s trying to do. Still, that doesn’t make things all that much easier.
3 Hydra – Shinobi 3: Return Of The Ninja Master
The Shinobi series is renowned for its intense difficulty, and there are more than a few boss battles that might rank as the toughest, but there’s something particularly cruel about the Hydra fight in Shinobi 3 that helps it stand out.
Some of the trickiness of this boss battle is in overcoming just how creepy and hideous the monster is, but most of it is in timing out the perfect moment to jump over his ever-encroaching hand and his gigantic laser blasts. And there’s nothing more deflating than flawlessly executing those jumps only to miss the brief shot at his tiny hitbox.
2 Death – Chakan: The Forever Man
For some games, extreme difficulty is a feature rather than a bug, and for others, it’s the exact opposite. For Chakan: The Forever Man, it seems that both are true. This title demands absolute precision, perfect recall, a lightspeed trigger finger, and frankly, a fair amount of luck.
While it can easily be argued that the levels are made far more difficult by clunky controls and awkward platforming, the torturous nature of the final boss fight seems entirely intentional. Constant movement, difficult dodging, and a microscopic hit box make for a brutal end to a legendarily brutal game.
1 M. Bison – Street Fighter 2
While platformers and other similar genres have a bit more wiggle room when it comes to making a final boss fight creatively challenging, fighting games are a bit more confined in that regard. In general, the only option is to make the boss incredibly powerful, nearly impossible to dodge, and comically difficult to hit. That’s Street Fighter 2’s M.Bison.
It may be one of Capcom’s 16-bit finest, but the final fight in this iconic title is enough to bring just about any gamer to tears. Learning his patterns is a start, but even after they’re committed to memory it still requires some excellent execution just to stand a chance.