History Main / LevelInBossClothing

** Any of the bosses of the ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' games, purely by virtue of the fact that it's a racing game. [[TropesAreNotBad This works out]], however, as it doesn't take any wild changes of the mechanics to get the fights to work in the context of the game.

** All three encounters with Scarecrow are this. After a few minutes of horror, you have to navigate a giant, fragmented landscape as a giant Scarecrow tries to spot you. At the end, shining a spotlight on him will dispel the illusion.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', some side character battles can play like this. Folks like Riddler, Deadshot, or Zsasz can't stand go toe-to-toe with the Bat, but have advantages like hostages or powerful guns, so their battles consist of getting close enough to them to perform an instant takedown without alerting them to your approach.

* There are quite a few ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' examples, all full of [[VideoGameSetpiece Setpieces]], such as the giant living statue at the start of the second game.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog 1'' has the Labyrinth Zone boss. While you can hit Robotnik the pre-requisite eight times, it's entirely unnecessary, and the level ends once you reach the top of a vertical shaft filled with obstacles that is slowly flooding with water.

** ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic And Knuckles]]'', Lava Reef Zone, Act 2. The fight with Robotnik begins with a forced-scrolling segment, then the meat of the fight involves dodging mines while leaping between moving platforms in lava. You don't directly damage Robotnik; you just survive until Robotnik destroys the machine with his own mines.

* The boss levels in the first ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' are more-or-less normal levels that happen to have a weak GetBackHereBoss in them that only takes a few hits to defeat. None of them are required to beat the game, the only exist for extra collectables. The only reason to defeat the bosses themselves is because they drop gems. This changed in later games, which made bosses a lot stronger and gave them each a BossOnlyLevel.

* The boss levels for the video game version of ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' are like this, as you have to collect 50 grain, find all the FLIK letters, and kill all the enemies with a gold berry in order to fully complete them, just like any other level. The fights against the Bird and Hopper are particularily good examples, as they take place in level-sized maze/canyon areas that involve a lot of climbing.

* The Xel'naga Temple in the ''Videogame/StarcraftII'' mission "The Dig" is presented in this way, with its own nifty health bar frame. Your objective is solely to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin dig]] your way through the temple's door with a giant mining laser. [[CaptainObvious Because it's a temple]], it can't move or fight you in any way, and the difficulty of the stage lies in its fanatical guardians. Note that in this case, you are encouraged to use [[DeathRay the mining laser]] to help defend your base as well as unlock secondary objectives, which does make tunneling through the door take longer; therefore the mission is slightly shorter if you're confident enough in your base defenses not to need it.

* The first and final bosses in ''[[VideoGame/MeatBoy Super Meat Boy]]'' play out like normal levels with a few extra hazards.

* The [[BigBad Bowser]] battles from ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', every fourth stage in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels The Lost Levels]]'', and the battle at the end of ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' and ''[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 2]]''. This is averted with the first two Bowser battles in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', but played straight in the third as [[spoiler:he transforms into Meowser, and then Double Meowser, at the end of the game. Although the screen is scrolling up and the player ''is'' tasked with keeping up, it's not so much an AdvancingBossOfDoom as Meowser is running around you and attacking at multiple points. However, getting to the end is really all that's needed]].

* The final boss of the Octo Expansion of ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' is like this. [[spoiler: You have to splat an entire statue in ink, before the time runs out. The statue doesn't attack you, and no enemies spawn, so you're only threat is the incredibly tight time limit.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Eschatos}}''[='=]s third stage (Areas 12 through 15) is spent fighting against a space station, and you deplete its health over the course of the stage, occasionally pulling away to fight waves of {{Mook}}s. The boss music doesn't play until the final area, when it's lost two of its three health bars.

* ''VideoGame/{{Eschatos}}''[='=]s third stage (Areas 12 through 15) is spent fighting against a space station, and you deplete its health over the course of the stage. The boss music doesn't play until the final area, when it's lost two of its three health bars.

* Balrog's stage in ''StreetFighterXMegaMan'' has Balrog at the far left side of the screen, occasionally jumping forward to attack. Mega Man can't damage him; he just needs to make his way past all the obstacles until Balrog steps on a shaky bridge and falls.

* The FinalBoss in ''AeroTheAcrobat'': A good half of the battle is spent chasing him upwards and upwards through the floors, tiers, and rafters of his laboratory.

** In ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', Perfect Chaos plays out this way. Mind you,this is fairly similar to how Perfect Chaos worked in the original ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''; despite the fact that [[TookALevelInBadass you don't have Super Sonic for the fight]], the ''Generations'' boost mechanic works in almost the same way, so the only real differences are the addition of 2D sections and the method of scoring the final hit.

* the Cydonia alien base on Mars in ''{{Videogame/X-COM}}: Enemy Unknown'' has a big alien brain that needs to be destroyed in order to beat the game, but it doesn't do anything and thus the level is really more like a standard alien base assault mission.

* The level "The Flood" from ''VideoGame/HaloWars''. There's a giant alien brain on the other side of the level that you're supposed to kill, but it has no direct combat ability (although it is surrounded by Flood turret equivalents) and most of the threat to your units is typical Flood units. There are five Flood bases you can kill to weaken it, which eventually respawn, and if all five go down so does the boss without you even touching it.
* The Scarab Walker from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', which was more of a platform or level segment than an actual boss. They became legitimate bosses in the third game.

** VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD has the Collision Chaos boss, a [[PinballZone pinball machine]]

* The second to last "boss" of ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' is some kind of running Golem in a temple. The emphasis however is on chasing him and dodging obstacles, and even if you do enough damage to kill him, he can't die till you reach the end of the obstacle course.

* In ''SyphonFilter 1'''s third level, you chase Mara Aramov through a a DC Metro [[SinisterSubway subway tunnel]] while [[CorridorCubbyholeRun dodging trains]]. You can either snipe her while she's running, or you can chase her to the end and take her down there.

* The second to last "boss" of ''VideoGame/Starfox64'' is some kind of running Golem in a temple. The emphasis however is on chasing him and dodging obstacles, and even if you do enough damage to kill him, he can't die till you reach the end of the obstacle course.

* The blackout in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''. All the previously lit rooms go dark, there are tons of powerful ghosts in all of them, and the amount of damage dealing fake doors increases.

* The level Aerial Combat from ''{{Bugdom}}''. The level is completed by destroying the beehive at its centre, identical to how Queen Bee and King Ant are completed. The beehive cannot actually attack you, however, and the threats in the level consist of flying bees and various terrain hazards on the ground.