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* The 2005 electronic handheld game ''Pokemon [=ThinkChip=]+ Battle Trainer'' involves you training Pokemon and battling trainers. But good luck battling Gym Leaders (such as Clair) that have Pokemon with moves with status conditions (which, unlike the main core games, prevented your Pokemon from moving at all and made you unable to throw Pokeballs in wild battles) without the items to cure the status and using only one Pokemon.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary Pokemon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your Pokemon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your Pokemon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary Pokemon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your Pokemon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your Pokemon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
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* The 2005 electronic handheld game ''Pokemon ''Pokémon [=ThinkChip=]+ Battle Trainer'' involves you training Pokemon Pokémon and battling trainers. But good luck battling Gym Leaders (such as Clair) that have Pokemon Pokémon with moves with status conditions (which, unlike the main core games, prevented your Pokemon Pokémon from moving at all and made you unable to throw Pokeballs in wild battles) without the items to cure the status and using only one Pokemon.
Pokémon.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some LegendaryPokemon Pokémon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes yourPokemon Pokémon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze yourPokemon Pokémon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your
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* ''VideoGame/NintendoLand's VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Adventure'' attraction has mostly average boss difficulty... except for the Emperor Pinchipede. For his first phase, he has about 7-9 weak points, some big and some small. When you take out a small weak point, it disappears. But when you take out a big one, it stays on the field, acting as a spinning disc of doom that wanders about and damages you if you touch it (but not the boss). You must take out all weak points to move to the next phase, and it moves too fast to be able to reliably aim at any specific weak point, so you'll most likely hit the big ones and have 4 spinning doom discs on the battlefield while you continue to toss pikmin at the small weak points. [[UpToEleven And that's just the first phase]].
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* ''VideoGame/NintendoLand's VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Adventure'' attraction has mostly average boss difficulty... except for the Emperor Pinchipede. For his first phase, he has about 7-9 weak points, some big and some small. When you take out a small weak point, it disappears. But when you take out a big one, it stays on the field, acting as a spinning disc of doom that wanders about and damages you if you touch it (but not the boss). You must take out all weak points to move to the next phase, and it moves too fast to be able to reliably aim at any specific weak point, so you'll most likely hit the big ones and have 4 spinning doom discs on the battlefield while you continue to toss pikmin Pikmin at the small weak points. [[UpToEleven And that's just the first phase]].phase.
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* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notable in that it was the only boss before version 1.4 was released. It flies out of sword range, likes to knock the player off of things (usually off of the of [[FloatingContinent The]] [[FinalBossNewDimension End]] and into the [[BottomlessPit void]]), and regenerates health whenever it goes near an undestroyed Ender Crystal, located on the tops of ''very'' tall obsidian pillars. 1.9 definitely took it up a notch; the dragon now has the ability to spit magical acid, and becomes immune to arrows when it perches on top of the inactive exit, making it almost invincible at that stage in single player unless it starts [[SkewedPriorities killing the Endermen around it]].
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is an even worse offender. It is capable of ''killing you and all your friends and allies before the fight even begins'' by releasing a massive explosion from its body. The actual fight is no better; it flies around and spits exploding skulls that also gives any target it hits a 'Wither' debuff, with said debuff draining their health bars much like normal poison. However, unlike normal poison, this debuff will kill the target instead of leaving them with 1 HP, and, thanks to the Wither being a three-headed monster, it can spam the skulls as well as attacking multiple targets simultaneously. You can snipe it with arrows in the first part of the fight, but, after half of its health is gone, it gains a shield that makes it immune to said arrows, leaving you with Splash Potions of [[ReviveKillsZombie Health/Healing]] and your swords. And if you try to hide? The Wither will ''eat through blocks you're hiding behind''. Did we mention it has a HealingFactor ''and'' LifeDrain capabilities?
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notable in that it was the only boss before version 1.4 was released. It flies out of sword range, likes to knock the player off of things (usually off of the of [[FloatingContinent The]] [[FinalBossNewDimension End]] and into the [[BottomlessPit void]]), and regenerates health whenever it goes near an undestroyed Ender Crystal, located on the tops of ''very'' tall obsidian pillars. 1.9 definitely took it up a notch; the dragon now has the ability to spit magical acid, and becomes immune to arrows when it perches on top of the inactive exit, making it almost invincible at that stage in single player unless it starts [[SkewedPriorities killing the Endermen around it]].
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is an even worse offender. It is capable of ''killing you and all your friends and allies before the fight even begins'' by releasing a massive explosion from its body. The actual fight is no better; it flies around and spits exploding skulls that also gives any target it hits a 'Wither' debuff, with said debuff draining their health bars much like normal poison. However, unlike normal poison, this debuff will kill the target instead of leaving them with 1 HP, and, thanks to the Wither being a three-headed monster, it can spam the skulls as well as attacking multiple targets simultaneously. You can snipe it with arrows in the first part of the fight, but, after half of its health is gone, it gains a shield that makes it immune to said arrows, leaving you with Splash Potions of [[ReviveKillsZombie Health/Healing]] and your swords. And if you try to hide? The Wither will ''eat through blocks you're hiding behind''. Did we mention it has a HealingFactor ''and'' LifeDrain capabilities?
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* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notableLordess Ludmilla in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagicClashOfHeroes'' is the hardest boss in the game, despite only appearing about halfway through. She has three different moves: she can summon up to two huge obnoxious Bone Dragons who replenish her health when they hit, use a fast-charging, super-damaging death ray that it was the only boss before version 1.4 was released. It flies out replenishes her health for every kill, and send a wave of sword range, likes damaging bomblets to knock the player off of things (usually off chip away at every lane. She uses these while moving around her side of the of [[FloatingContinent The]] [[FinalBossNewDimension End]] and into the [[BottomlessPit void]]), and regenerates health whenever it goes near an undestroyed Ender Crystal, located on the tops of ''very'' tall obsidian pillars. 1.9 definitely took it up a notch; the dragon now has the ability to spit magical acid, and becomes immune to arrows when it perches on top of the inactive exit, making it almost invincible at that stage field unpredictably every few turns, in single player unless it starts [[SkewedPriorities killing the Endermen around it]].
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is ana game where even worse offender. It is capable the swiftest undead unit takes two turns to attack. Outside of ''killing you cheesy strategies involving the [[InstakillMook Wraith]], you'll need to both have a good strategy and all your friends and allies before the fight even begins'' by releasing a massive explosion from its body. The actual fight is no better; it flies around and spits exploding skulls that also gives any target it hits a 'Wither' debuff, with said debuff draining their health bars much like normal poison. However, unlike normal poison, this debuff will kill the target instead of leaving them with 1 HP, and, thanks just be lucky to the Wither being a three-headed monster, it can spam the skulls as well as attacking multiple targets simultaneously. You can snipe it with arrows in the first part of the fight, but, after half of its health is gone, it gains a shield that makes it immune to said arrows, leaving you with Splash Potions of [[ReviveKillsZombie Health/Healing]] and your swords. And if you try to hide? The Wither will ''eat through blocks you're hiding behind''. Did we mention it has a HealingFactor ''and'' LifeDrain capabilities?take her down.
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notable
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is an
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* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but the fight ''also'' has a three-minute time limit. This one crucial detail turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
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* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'' has the optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas.Featherbrainz. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but the fight ''also'' has a three-minute time limit. This one crucial detail turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
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* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but there's ''also'' a three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
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* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but there's the fight ''also'' has a three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer time limit. This one crucial detail turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
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* While the final bosses of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series usually take longer to break than other culprits, the final showdown with [[spoiler:Quercus Alba]] in ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' gets special notice for being so long and difficult that there's a save point ''in the middle of the fight''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfENnDvb4UA And here's a song about how difficult it is.]] Amusingly enough, the song in that link is a parody of the Air Man song that is the page quote.
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* While the final bosses of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series usually take longer to break than other culprits, the final showdown with [[spoiler:Quercus Alba]] in ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' gets special notice for being so long and difficult that there's a save point ''in the middle of the fight''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfENnDvb4UA And here's a song about how difficult it is.]] Amusingly enough, the song in that link is There's even a parody of the Air Man song that is the page quote."I Can't Defeat Airman"]] about this particular foe.
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* ''VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice'':
** The normal mode has the Store Manager, who has 8 HP, +3 Attack and +2 Defense, making him a pain in the rear to defeat, as he can easily KO any one at full health if he's lucky enough to roll a 6, or sometimes a 5. Even Marie Poppo, Arthur, and Kiriko, who have the largest HP pools (7 and 8 respectively), aren't safe.
** The 2019 "Minions Of The Masters" Event adds three giant bosses to the new Co-Op mode, but among them, The Star Devourer is arguably the worst. The Star Devourer is basically a giant star-riding Marie Poppo who has 75 HP, +1 Attack and -1 Defense, however, she comes with a passive that deals +1 damage for every 200 stars she has. She can also use cards to give her a boost. She's also accompanied by Big Poppo (Yep, she's back), who will hunt down other players and force them to fight her; Big Poppo doesn't deal damage, but she can steal stars from them depending on the force of her blows, and the stars go to her boss. The Star Devourer can also use cards to give her a boost: sometimes she steals stars from players who are at a certain distance from her or Big Poppo; there is a card that have the players pay stars when they want to use cards for one chapter; another one reduces all stats of the players to -1 for one battle, among other nasty tricks. So, you have to play smart and being lucky enough to dish out enough damage before she gets too strong because, as stated before, she deals +1 additional damage for every 200 stars she has in hand, and if she defeats all players or amasses 1000 stars, you lose.
** The 2019 summer event "Summer Games" adds the Summer Beast, which is basically just a tanned QP in a swimsuit. Her base HP is only 5, which may sound pathetic and easy for Co-op boss standards, but there's a catch. She can revive up to '''10 times''' per KO and has a hype mechanic which when full, allows her to gradually increase her HP by attacking players with [[LimitBreak Rampage]]. She can summon up to four [[DemonicSpiders Seagulls]] to her aid and she has some very nasty [=AoE=] attacks at her disposal with the potential of inflicting a TotalPartyKill if you're unlucky. It's a deceptively difficult battle and one that will test the patience of you and your allies.
* While the final bosses of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series usually take longer to break than other culprits, the final showdown with [[spoiler:Quercus Alba]] in ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' gets special notice for being so long and difficult that there's a save point ''in the middle of the fight''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfENnDvb4UA And here's a song about how difficult it is.]] Amusingly enough, the song in that link is a parody of the Air Man song that is the page quote.
* ''VideoGame/BloonsMonkeyCity'' takes this to Tower Defense genre. Can you take on Bloonarius who can spawn a lot more bloons as it degrades? How about Vortex who stuns Bloons in its radius? Or maybe Dreadbloon who can cover itself in ceramic properties every degrade while also having lead properties? Or something like Blastapopoulos who can shoot stunning lava? Didn't we mention they can get even tougher than a Z.O.M.G.?
* ''Videogame/DwarfFortress'':
** Of the non-procedural megabeasts, Bronze Colossi qualify the most. They're huge, extremely tough, and far faster than one'd think for a statue of that size, meaning that any solid hit or grab on any of your dwarves will result in certain death, and unless you use cage traps, cave-in traps or [[SquareCubeLaw gravity]] only the best of squads, armed with masterful iron or steel, will even survive.
** Of the procedurally generated beasts (Titans and Forgotten Beasts), two things can bring them into this position. One is being made of a hard material, like rock or metals, as they will be just as invulnerable as bronze colossi with the added bonus of unusual anatomy and any extra attack such beasts can get (such as poison secretions or fire-breathing); especially bad if you get a metal BlobMonster, because there ''is'' no anatomy to exploit. The other thing is webbing: While fire breath and deadly dust are dangerous, there are ways to handle them and aren't necessarily instant death (or even death at all, if you have good shields and layout). Webs just mean every last one of your ultra-legendary warriors will get bogged down by web that makes sure they cannot dodge or block, only try to escape and take every blow at full force. And taking a blow at full force from something the size of Godzilla is obviously not an option. The only way to fight them is trap abuse, getting lucky with a dwarf that manages to escape and hit back, or notoriously buggy marksdwarves.
* In Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'', the Craps game comes across as this, as it has a difficult target to shoot, an open-ended number of shots to make, and can only be advanced during single-ball play.
* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has multiple examples, which is very impressive for a gamebook series.
** The Chaos-Master from the 11th book in this series of gamebooks. It's a hideously hard fight if you don't bring the Sommerswerd along. If you do? Chances are you will die horribly. There's a particularly infamous Let's Play of Book 11 that had the players redo the Chaos-Master fight ''twenty-seven'' times before they finally won. It's that hard.
** So hard that pretty much everyone forgot about the series' FIRST killer enemy, the Gnaag Helghast, from ''The Jungle of Horrors''. If you have a decent base Combat Skill, the Sommerswerd, and Psi-screen, it's a fairly challenging fight. If you ''don't'' have a decent basic Combat Skill... well, it's immune to Mindblast, so you're looking at a Combat Ratio of +1 under the best of circumstances. If you ''don't'' have the Sommerswerd, you can't do double damage. If you ''don't'' have Psi-screen you lose 2 Combat Skill points ''every round''.
*** At the end of the same book, the Vordak fight on the skyship deserves special mention. If you don't have the Sommerswerd, you have a grand total of four rounds to win ''two'' fights; fail, and the skyship explodes and you're toast. If your starting Combat Skill is too low, it is [[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE to win this fight]]. It was so bad that Joe Dever gracious extended the time limit to six rounds in the Mongoose Publishing re-release.
** Bested the Gnaag Helghast and those annoying Vordaks? Well done, now get ready for Zakhan Kimah in the next book, ''The Cauldron of Fear''! If you have the Dagger of Vashna, you can settle this with a single do-or-die throw. Otherwise, prepare for a combat ratio of at ''best'' -3, and he has 40 Endurance. Oh, and if you have the Sommerswerd, he's also immune to psychic attacks.
** Then there's Darklord Kraagenskul. Have the [=DoV=] and a reasonable number of Combat Skill boosts? Somewhat tough, but managable. Don't have it? Prepare to fight crypt spawn, then make a do-or-die lunge for his sword (although if you're successful, Kraagenskul isn't extremely tough). Have the Sommerswerd? You have a time limit to beat the crypt spawn and ''then'' have to make a do-or-die sword throw, otherwise you'll get killed even if you defeat Kraagenskul.
** And ''then'' there's Ixiataaga, who comes at you with a Combat Skill of ''60'', and also at the tail end of a number of challenging battles, including Tagazin.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notable in that it was the only boss before version 1.4 was released. It flies out of sword range, likes to knock the player off of things (usually off of the of [[FloatingContinent The]] [[FinalBossNewDimension End]] and into the [[BottomlessPit void]]), and regenerates health whenever it goes near an undestroyed Ender Crystal, located on the tops of ''very'' tall obsidian pillars. 1.9 definitely took it up a notch; the dragon now has the ability to spit magical acid, and becomes immune to arrows when it perches on top of the inactive exit, making it almost invincible at that stage in single player unless it starts [[SkewedPriorities killing the Endermen around it]].
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is an even worse offender. It is capable of ''killing you and all your friends and allies before the fight even begins'' by releasing a massive explosion from its body. The actual fight is no better; it flies around and spits exploding skulls that also gives any target it hits a 'Wither' debuff, with said debuff draining their health bars much like normal poison. However, unlike normal poison, this debuff will kill the target instead of leaving them with 1 HP, and, thanks to the Wither being a three-headed monster, it can spam the skulls as well as attacking multiple targets simultaneously. You can snipe it with arrows in the first part of the fight, but, after half of its health is gone, it gains a shield that makes it immune to said arrows, leaving you with Splash Potions of [[ReviveKillsZombie Health/Healing]] and your swords. And if you try to hide? The Wither will ''eat through blocks you're hiding behind''. Did we mention it has a HealingFactor ''and'' LifeDrain capabilities?
* ''VideoGame/NintendoLand's VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Adventure'' attraction has mostly average boss difficulty... except for the Emperor Pinchipede. For his first phase, he has about 7-9 weak points, some big and some small. When you take out a small weak point, it disappears. But when you take out a big one, it stays on the field, acting as a spinning disc of doom that wanders about and damages you if you touch it (but not the boss). You must take out all weak points to move to the next phase, and it moves too fast to be able to reliably aim at any specific weak point, so you'll most likely hit the big ones and have 4 spinning doom discs on the battlefield while you continue to toss pikmin at the small weak points. [[UpToEleven And that's just the first phase]].
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but there's ''also'' a three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
* The 2005 electronic handheld game ''Pokemon [=ThinkChip=]+ Battle Trainer'' involves you training Pokemon and battling trainers. But good luck battling Gym Leaders (such as Clair) that have Pokemon with moves with status conditions (which, unlike the main core games, prevented your Pokemon from moving at all and made you unable to throw Pokeballs in wild battles) without the items to cure the status and using only one Pokemon.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary Pokemon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your Pokemon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your Pokemon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
*** Groudon, if you bought the initial release of Battle Trainer, which comes with the Pikachu figure only. It carries Earthquake, which means that it can deal a huge amount of damage to Pikachu.
* In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever'', normally you have to deal with Popoi at the end of a story route, who is already fairly challenging. However, if you do well enough on the hardest story route, you run into [[spoiler:Carbuncle]], who will outright BREAK you. Basically, his dropset gives him a ton of large Puyos-more than any other character in the game-making it easier for him to both set up large combos or offset repeatedly to trigger Fever. Couple this with a brutal AI that can set up 5 and 6 chains in the blink of an eye and is prone to immediately going into a [[LimitBreak 30-second Fever mode]] the moment you think you have him threatened and you have one of the nastiest single-player fights in the series.
* ''VideoGame/SDGundamCapsuleFighter'' has three of them.
** The first is the [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Psyco Gundam]] in the "Kill Three Psyco Gundam" mission, due to the fact that, at harder levels, it has infinite special attacks and, thus, it will gladly go into its BeamSpam special to prevent being killed. Even more frustrating when it does so at its last sliver of life with only 10 seconds left in the match.
** The second is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Apsalus II]] from the "Destroy the Apsalus II" mission. Not only does it have a stun beam weapon and an ability that reverses your controls temporarily, it's flanked by two [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Acguy]] [[TheMedic Repair]]s meaning that if you don't kill them off ASAP, it'll just keep regenerating its HP while it keeps hitting you with beam weaponry.
*** What makes the Acguy Repairs even more of a pain is that they're one of the few units with Auto Lock-On Jammer (which disables Auto Lock-On when the unit reaches 30%), thus you're resorting to the old Eyeball Mk I to shoot these guys down!
** The third is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Aile Strike Gundam]] from the "Test Factory" mission. It spends 9/10ths of its time boosting around the boss room in the air and, as you're trying to shoot him down, you're attacked by [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Balls]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Hizacks]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Astrays]], as well as missiles that will outright stun you in your tracks.
* ''Videogame/Splatoon2'' gives us the ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign, which alongside some of its NintendoHard levels are revamped boss rematches from the main game's Octo Canyon single-player campaign.
** Octo Samurai's Revenge has the titular boss be much faster than its predecessor. And you aren't fighting him with a standard weapon; you have to face him with the Baller special, which has a pretty slow detonation speed. Thankfully, you can't take damage while using the Baller. Unfortunately, this is balanced out by you becoming incredibly susceptible to knockback. This can already be frustrating in multiplayer, but when fighting 1-on-1 on a tiny arena with minimal fencing to prevent you from flying off? It can be a nightmare, and the AI is more than aware that this is the only way it can kill you.
** The penultimate boss fight, [[spoiler:a BrainwashedAndCrazy Agent 3]], is a MirrorBoss with scarily good AI, a very small arena, multiple phases, and [[SNKBoss the ability to cheat by changing and spamming specials]] (most notably, using Splashdown ''four times in a row'' at one point). It is not uncommon for players to just take the [[MercyMode skip offer]] due to losing five times, and is regarded as harder than the FinalBoss (which just has you finding and destroying a bunch of stationary and defenseless targets). And this is the ''easier'' version of the fight against this character; a much, ''much'' more difficult version awaits as the TrueFinalBoss for those trying to get HundredPercentCompletion.
* ''VideoGame/StreetPassMiiPlaza'': The final boss of ''Warrior's Way'', Emperor Fynalle. Every other battle up to him was a mix of properly dividing an army and TacticalRockPaperScissors. Fynalle, on the other hand, is a straight out five round game of Rock Paper Scissors against an army that starts out eight times your size. There's no strategy; it's a LuckBasedMission that requires either grinding for Play Coins or extreme luck in telling what he will do.
* A particular Mario fangame, [[http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1673.html ''Super Mario Adventure'']], has a sadistically hard one that's part of a boss gauntlet in the final area that many people have just resorted to outright cheating. The gauntlet starts up. A fiery version of [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland Hookbill the Koopa]] is the first boss, and he is considered rather easy, as all you have to do is jump on his head a couple of times while avoiding a fire shield that spins around him (but worry about the game's awkward hitbox). The next boss however is possibly harder than most bosses on this list. It's [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Fry Guy]] -- a boss that in his own game, could be defeated by Mushroom Blocks. Those aren't here. Instead, you have to wait for some Fly Guys to fly in and jump on top of them for them to fall on Fry Guy. [[GuideDangIt The game has no indication whatsoever on this, and no other fight has worked like this]]. You're going to have to pray to the RandomNumberGod, because his flames and direction are completely random and unpredictable. The Fly Guys thankfully don't hurt you, but you're going to have to rely on the Fly Guys being above Fry Guy before jumping on one. [[HitboxDissonance Fry Guy's hitbox is also abnormally big here, meaning you're likely to get hurt trying to jump on those Fly Guys too]]. The game expects you to [[DamageSpongeBoss land 15 hits on Fry Guy with this, making it a huge chore as well]]. Expect a LuckBasedMission with this, because unless if you happen to cheat with this one, you're going to be here for a while. If you happen to defeat Fry Guy, you're not done yet - the game has two more bosses to throw on you. [[BigBad The following one is]] [[TheChewToy Luigi]], [[GoddamnedBoss who fires out Bullet Bills you have to bounce back at him -- while he's spamming fireballs, but is still rather manageable]]. [[HijackedByGanon The last one is]] [[spoiler:Bowser]], who follows a simple pattern, but is very hard to land a hit without getting hurt due to a fire shield similar to Hookbill before. But the painful part is what happens if you lose to those following two? You have to go all the way back and fight Hookbill and Fry Guy all over again. How fun.
* In the ThirdPersonShooter game ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'', the first dungeon boss is randomized each time the level is played through on Campaign or Adventure (like most bosses in this game). It could be Shroud, it could be Brabus. Or, it could be Gorefist. He has some pretty powerful sword attacks that sometimes inflict Bleed. Sounds like something you can get used to dodging, right? Well, the real threat of the battle isn't him, but the Rot Warts that spawn occasionally and can swarm you from either side or if you're trapped in a corner. If they explode on you, they deal as much damage as Gorefist can with one swing of his sword, not to mention inflicting Root Rot, assuming a whole gang of them doesn't explode on you at once and kill you right away. It is very difficult to solo this boss, especially if it's your first time playing, since one would have to shoot Gorefist, dodge his attacks, and keep an eye open for the Rot Wart, either shooting them or dodging their explosions, all at once, with very little time to heal or use Oilskin Tonics. He's not unbeatable even solo, but still pretty tough for a first boss of the game, especially since on your first playthrough, you won't have Root Mother at Ward 13 yet and thus will only have the minimum of three Dragon Hearts (the most effective method of healing). To put it in perspective, one of the two potential world bosses, the Ent, summons Rot Warts as well, ''but he's much easier''. (Although, an update did decrease the amount of Rot Warts to make it a little easier)
** Or, you could get Riphide at Leto's Lab. Throughout the battle he multiplies, eventually having eight of himself throwing projectiles and unleashing shockwave-like blasts that are easy to dodge if there's only one or two of him, but difficult with eight of him, at the same time trying not to get too close to them because of their physical attacks. In addition, occasionally one of him will start healing them. Hitting the ones doing the healing twice will stop the process, but it's difficult to do so if they happen to do this at the same time as the shockwave, especially when there are eight, in which two will cast the healing spell at once. They share the same health meter, too, so you can't just eliminate some of them to make the fight easier. And like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts before this.
** Raze, one of the four possible dungeon bosses of Rhom, can be very difficult solo. (You will get two dungeon bosses at random, the first of which must be beaten to progress to the world boss and the Undying King) He breathes fire which you cannot dodge and which inflicts Burn, and he summons many skulls and exploding enemies that inflict Radiation.
** Then there's the Root Mother. Well, actually you're not fighting her, you're protecting her from a horde, so it's more of a horde battle than a true boss battle, but it is harder than any other horde battle (aside from The Risen) due to the fact that if they kill the Root Mother, you lose, so it's not just your health you have to worry about. Aside from the fact that you can get two archers and a Root Brute at once, all of whom can inflict Bleed, this is also the second "boss" you will encounter in the game (and one of few that will always be encountered on every campaign), and like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts yet since Root Mother herself is the one who upgrades them for you after this battle is over. Not to mention likely not having a lot of weapon mods unless you've beaten a lot of bosses on Adventure, with only three Dragon Hearts.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawkProSkater Tony Hawk's Underground]]'', it's the final skate-off with Eric Sparrow. He challenges you to a race across your hometown to regain a tape that had your ultimate stunt on it. To win it, you pretty much have to play Follow The Leader, hitting every marker while Eric drops... some sort of flames to mess you up. Oh, and you only have 3 minutes to do this. Thankfully, the game decides that once is enough and subsequent plays use a version which gives you a ''very'' satisfying TakeThatScrappy.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'':
** The dual boss fight with Captain Vor and Lieutenant Lech Kril on Phobos isn't that hard, as the bosses don't do much damage, but it is NOTORIOUS for glitching out and being impossible to beat. Have fun farming the Miter, Twin Gremlins, and Trinity!
** General Sargas Ruk can be a pain in the ass for new players. The first phase of the fight is pretty easy, all he does is spray fire at you, and you have to blow off his arm. The 2nd phase he gets a room clearing Supernova that's next to impossible to dodge and knocks you down, doing a huge chunk of damage, he also gains a missle attack in this form that will absolutely WRECK you if you get hit by it, and you WILL get hit by it. His 3rd phase cuts the bullshit and he gains an attack that launches Fire Pillars out of the ground underneath you similar to Ember's World on Fire, with the appropriate damage, standing still for more than 3 seconds with kill you unless you're playing as Rhino or another beefy frame.
* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'':
** In ''Warioware Inc.'', there is a boss stage called "Punch Out", whose third level contains an opponent that is fast, demands quick reflexes and has a OneHitKill move that is spammed. Unlike the other level up boss stages, which are optional, it must be completed to clear Remix 2.
** Dribble and Spitz's boss stage from ''Warioware Twisted''. You need to outrun a boulder and jump over holes, by violently shaking the GBA, which makes it hard to see the holes.
** Ashley's boss microgame from ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'' features borderline BulletHell patterns of projectiles to dodge and an end boss that has three separate pieces shooting things at you.
** Jimmy P.'s stage in ''Smooth Moves'' is level 2 of "Produce Stand-Off",in which you must defeat the Strawberry Bandit in a sword fight. Unlike the easy version of the minigame, the guide doesn't appear, and the opponent is much more unpredictable.
** ''Warioware DIY'' has Orbulon's boss stage, a slider puzzle that comes in two versions. Both require multiple moves to complete under a rather strict time limit, making it the most complex boss in the game.
** ''Warioware Gold'':
*** The Ultra League has a boss stage from an earlier stage set to level 3 that always appears on the first playthrough, and in the case of the Dancing Team, it's the boss microgame Punch Out. This means your opponent is "Red Typhoon" Gaz Puncho. Despite having the exact same starting health as you unlike the third opponent in ''Inc.'', he still moves quickly, and he is free to use his uppercut at any point during the fight, and the uppercut is an instant KO. The Ultra League is hard so chances are you might reach this point with 2 or 1 life left.
*** Ashley's boss microgame in ''Gold'' is a harder version of ''Crossing Guard'' from ''Twisted!''. You have to use the system's gyro controls to move suspended bridges and help kids and ostriches safely cross to the other side. Level 2 introduces even faster horseback riders, while level 3 has bombs that must be dropped.
** ''[=WarioWare=]: Get It Together!''
*** Continuing with ''Gold''’s example, Ashley’s boss game, “Great Juice”, always appears in the first playthrough of Remix 2.0 on the third difficulty level, and it must be completed as 5-Volt, which is easier said than done. Because 5-Volt’s main movement is teleporting, you’ll land on the grapes with no jars underneath more times than not (and if the meter fills up, you lose), especially since the jars occasionally move, and the clunky movements make it difficult to correct that mistake (as well as the fact that if the timer on one of the jars runs out, you also lose). In addition, you’ll need to contend with the wasps, which must be hit so that they don’t reach the spill meter, but 5-Volt will instantly be knocked out if she touches the stingers, resulting in you instantly failing the microgame.
%% Needs more context** In ''Warioware Twisted'', all you need to know are these six words to know you're in trouble: "Ladies and gentlemen: Wario de Mambo!"
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** The normal mode has the Store Manager, who has 8 HP, +3 Attack and +2 Defense, making him a pain in the rear to defeat, as he can easily KO any one at full health if he's lucky enough to roll a 6, or sometimes a 5. Even Marie Poppo, Arthur, and Kiriko, who have the largest HP pools (7 and 8 respectively), aren't safe.
** The 2019 "Minions Of The Masters" Event adds three giant bosses to the new Co-Op mode, but among them, The Star Devourer is arguably the worst. The Star Devourer is basically a giant star-riding Marie Poppo who has 75 HP, +1 Attack and -1 Defense, however, she comes with a passive that deals +1 damage for every 200 stars she has. She can also use cards to give her a boost. She's also accompanied by Big Poppo (Yep, she's back), who will hunt down other players and force them to fight her; Big Poppo doesn't deal damage, but she can steal stars from them depending on the force of her blows, and the stars go to her boss. The Star Devourer can also use cards to give her a boost: sometimes she steals stars from players who are at a certain distance from her or Big Poppo; there is a card that have the players pay stars when they want to use cards for one chapter; another one reduces all stats of the players to -1 for one battle, among other nasty tricks. So, you have to play smart and being lucky enough to dish out enough damage before she gets too strong because, as stated before, she deals +1 additional damage for every 200 stars she has in hand, and if she defeats all players or amasses 1000 stars, you lose.
** The 2019 summer event "Summer Games" adds the Summer Beast, which is basically just a tanned QP in a swimsuit. Her base HP is only 5, which may sound pathetic and easy for Co-op boss standards, but there's a catch. She can revive up to '''10 times''' per KO and has a hype mechanic which when full, allows her to gradually increase her HP by attacking players with [[LimitBreak Rampage]]. She can summon up to four [[DemonicSpiders Seagulls]] to her aid and she has some very nasty [=AoE=] attacks at her disposal with the potential of inflicting a TotalPartyKill if you're unlucky. It's a deceptively difficult battle and one that will test the patience of you and your allies.
* While the final bosses of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series usually take longer to break than other culprits, the final showdown with [[spoiler:Quercus Alba]] in ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' gets special notice for being so long and difficult that there's a save point ''in the middle of the fight''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfENnDvb4UA And here's a song about how difficult it is.]] Amusingly enough, the song in that link is a parody of the Air Man song that is the page quote.
* ''VideoGame/BloonsMonkeyCity'' takes this to Tower Defense genre. Can you take on Bloonarius who can spawn a lot more bloons as it degrades? How about Vortex who stuns Bloons in its radius? Or maybe Dreadbloon who can cover itself in ceramic properties every degrade while also having lead properties? Or something like Blastapopoulos who can shoot stunning lava? Didn't we mention they can get even tougher than a Z.O.M.G.?
* ''Videogame/DwarfFortress'':
** Of the non-procedural megabeasts, Bronze Colossi qualify the most. They're huge, extremely tough, and far faster than one'd think for a statue of that size, meaning that any solid hit or grab on any of your dwarves will result in certain death, and unless you use cage traps, cave-in traps or [[SquareCubeLaw gravity]] only the best of squads, armed with masterful iron or steel, will even survive.
** Of the procedurally generated beasts (Titans and Forgotten Beasts), two things can bring them into this position. One is being made of a hard material, like rock or metals, as they will be just as invulnerable as bronze colossi with the added bonus of unusual anatomy and any extra attack such beasts can get (such as poison secretions or fire-breathing); especially bad if you get a metal BlobMonster, because there ''is'' no anatomy to exploit. The other thing is webbing: While fire breath and deadly dust are dangerous, there are ways to handle them and aren't necessarily instant death (or even death at all, if you have good shields and layout). Webs just mean every last one of your ultra-legendary warriors will get bogged down by web that makes sure they cannot dodge or block, only try to escape and take every blow at full force. And taking a blow at full force from something the size of Godzilla is obviously not an option. The only way to fight them is trap abuse, getting lucky with a dwarf that manages to escape and hit back, or notoriously buggy marksdwarves.
* In Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'', the Craps game comes across as this, as it has a difficult target to shoot, an open-ended number of shots to make, and can only be advanced during single-ball play.
* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has multiple examples, which is very impressive for a gamebook series.
** The Chaos-Master from the 11th book in this series of gamebooks. It's a hideously hard fight if you don't bring the Sommerswerd along. If you do? Chances are you will die horribly. There's a particularly infamous Let's Play of Book 11 that had the players redo the Chaos-Master fight ''twenty-seven'' times before they finally won. It's that hard.
** So hard that pretty much everyone forgot about the series' FIRST killer enemy, the Gnaag Helghast, from ''The Jungle of Horrors''. If you have a decent base Combat Skill, the Sommerswerd, and Psi-screen, it's a fairly challenging fight. If you ''don't'' have a decent basic Combat Skill... well, it's immune to Mindblast, so you're looking at a Combat Ratio of +1 under the best of circumstances. If you ''don't'' have the Sommerswerd, you can't do double damage. If you ''don't'' have Psi-screen you lose 2 Combat Skill points ''every round''.
*** At the end of the same book, the Vordak fight on the skyship deserves special mention. If you don't have the Sommerswerd, you have a grand total of four rounds to win ''two'' fights; fail, and the skyship explodes and you're toast. If your starting Combat Skill is too low, it is [[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE to win this fight]]. It was so bad that Joe Dever gracious extended the time limit to six rounds in the Mongoose Publishing re-release.
** Bested the Gnaag Helghast and those annoying Vordaks? Well done, now get ready for Zakhan Kimah in the next book, ''The Cauldron of Fear''! If you have the Dagger of Vashna, you can settle this with a single do-or-die throw. Otherwise, prepare for a combat ratio of at ''best'' -3, and he has 40 Endurance. Oh, and if you have the Sommerswerd, he's also immune to psychic attacks.
** Then there's Darklord Kraagenskul. Have the [=DoV=] and a reasonable number of Combat Skill boosts? Somewhat tough, but managable. Don't have it? Prepare to fight crypt spawn, then make a do-or-die lunge for his sword (although if you're successful, Kraagenskul isn't extremely tough). Have the Sommerswerd? You have a time limit to beat the crypt spawn and ''then'' have to make a do-or-die sword throw, otherwise you'll get killed even if you defeat Kraagenskul.
** And ''then'' there's Ixiataaga, who comes at you with a Combat Skill of ''60'', and also at the tail end of a number of challenging battles, including Tagazin.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
** The [[FinalBoss Ender Dragon]] falls into this category, especially notable in that it was the only boss before version 1.4 was released. It flies out of sword range, likes to knock the player off of things (usually off of the of [[FloatingContinent The]] [[FinalBossNewDimension End]] and into the [[BottomlessPit void]]), and regenerates health whenever it goes near an undestroyed Ender Crystal, located on the tops of ''very'' tall obsidian pillars. 1.9 definitely took it up a notch; the dragon now has the ability to spit magical acid, and becomes immune to arrows when it perches on top of the inactive exit, making it almost invincible at that stage in single player unless it starts [[SkewedPriorities killing the Endermen around it]].
** The [[EldritchAbomination Wither]] is an even worse offender. It is capable of ''killing you and all your friends and allies before the fight even begins'' by releasing a massive explosion from its body. The actual fight is no better; it flies around and spits exploding skulls that also gives any target it hits a 'Wither' debuff, with said debuff draining their health bars much like normal poison. However, unlike normal poison, this debuff will kill the target instead of leaving them with 1 HP, and, thanks to the Wither being a three-headed monster, it can spam the skulls as well as attacking multiple targets simultaneously. You can snipe it with arrows in the first part of the fight, but, after half of its health is gone, it gains a shield that makes it immune to said arrows, leaving you with Splash Potions of [[ReviveKillsZombie Health/Healing]] and your swords. And if you try to hide? The Wither will ''eat through blocks you're hiding behind''. Did we mention it has a HealingFactor ''and'' LifeDrain capabilities?
* ''VideoGame/NintendoLand's VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Adventure'' attraction has mostly average boss difficulty... except for the Emperor Pinchipede. For his first phase, he has about 7-9 weak points, some big and some small. When you take out a small weak point, it disappears. But when you take out a big one, it stays on the field, acting as a spinning disc of doom that wanders about and damages you if you touch it (but not the boss). You must take out all weak points to move to the next phase, and it moves too fast to be able to reliably aim at any specific weak point, so you'll most likely hit the big ones and have 4 spinning doom discs on the battlefield while you continue to toss pikmin at the small weak points. [[UpToEleven And that's just the first phase]].
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out -- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but there's ''also'' a three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.
* The 2005 electronic handheld game ''Pokemon [=ThinkChip=]+ Battle Trainer'' involves you training Pokemon and battling trainers. But good luck battling Gym Leaders (such as Clair) that have Pokemon with moves with status conditions (which, unlike the main core games, prevented your Pokemon from moving at all and made you unable to throw Pokeballs in wild battles) without the items to cure the status and using only one Pokemon.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary Pokemon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your Pokemon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your Pokemon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
*** Groudon, if you bought the initial release of Battle Trainer, which comes with the Pikachu figure only. It carries Earthquake, which means that it can deal a huge amount of damage to Pikachu.
* In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever'', normally you have to deal with Popoi at the end of a story route, who is already fairly challenging. However, if you do well enough on the hardest story route, you run into [[spoiler:Carbuncle]], who will outright BREAK you. Basically, his dropset gives him a ton of large Puyos-more than any other character in the game-making it easier for him to both set up large combos or offset repeatedly to trigger Fever. Couple this with a brutal AI that can set up 5 and 6 chains in the blink of an eye and is prone to immediately going into a [[LimitBreak 30-second Fever mode]] the moment you think you have him threatened and you have one of the nastiest single-player fights in the series.
* ''VideoGame/SDGundamCapsuleFighter'' has three of them.
** The first is the [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Psyco Gundam]] in the "Kill Three Psyco Gundam" mission, due to the fact that, at harder levels, it has infinite special attacks and, thus, it will gladly go into its BeamSpam special to prevent being killed. Even more frustrating when it does so at its last sliver of life with only 10 seconds left in the match.
** The second is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Apsalus II]] from the "Destroy the Apsalus II" mission. Not only does it have a stun beam weapon and an ability that reverses your controls temporarily, it's flanked by two [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Acguy]] [[TheMedic Repair]]s meaning that if you don't kill them off ASAP, it'll just keep regenerating its HP while it keeps hitting you with beam weaponry.
*** What makes the Acguy Repairs even more of a pain is that they're one of the few units with Auto Lock-On Jammer (which disables Auto Lock-On when the unit reaches 30%), thus you're resorting to the old Eyeball Mk I to shoot these guys down!
** The third is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Aile Strike Gundam]] from the "Test Factory" mission. It spends 9/10ths of its time boosting around the boss room in the air and, as you're trying to shoot him down, you're attacked by [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Balls]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Hizacks]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Astrays]], as well as missiles that will outright stun you in your tracks.
* ''Videogame/Splatoon2'' gives us the ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign, which alongside some of its NintendoHard levels are revamped boss rematches from the main game's Octo Canyon single-player campaign.
** Octo Samurai's Revenge has the titular boss be much faster than its predecessor. And you aren't fighting him with a standard weapon; you have to face him with the Baller special, which has a pretty slow detonation speed. Thankfully, you can't take damage while using the Baller. Unfortunately, this is balanced out by you becoming incredibly susceptible to knockback. This can already be frustrating in multiplayer, but when fighting 1-on-1 on a tiny arena with minimal fencing to prevent you from flying off? It can be a nightmare, and the AI is more than aware that this is the only way it can kill you.
** The penultimate boss fight, [[spoiler:a BrainwashedAndCrazy Agent 3]], is a MirrorBoss with scarily good AI, a very small arena, multiple phases, and [[SNKBoss the ability to cheat by changing and spamming specials]] (most notably, using Splashdown ''four times in a row'' at one point). It is not uncommon for players to just take the [[MercyMode skip offer]] due to losing five times, and is regarded as harder than the FinalBoss (which just has you finding and destroying a bunch of stationary and defenseless targets). And this is the ''easier'' version of the fight against this character; a much, ''much'' more difficult version awaits as the TrueFinalBoss for those trying to get HundredPercentCompletion.
* ''VideoGame/StreetPassMiiPlaza'': The final boss of ''Warrior's Way'', Emperor Fynalle. Every other battle up to him was a mix of properly dividing an army and TacticalRockPaperScissors. Fynalle, on the other hand, is a straight out five round game of Rock Paper Scissors against an army that starts out eight times your size. There's no strategy; it's a LuckBasedMission that requires either grinding for Play Coins or extreme luck in telling what he will do.
* A particular Mario fangame, [[http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1673.html ''Super Mario Adventure'']], has a sadistically hard one that's part of a boss gauntlet in the final area that many people have just resorted to outright cheating. The gauntlet starts up. A fiery version of [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland Hookbill the Koopa]] is the first boss, and he is considered rather easy, as all you have to do is jump on his head a couple of times while avoiding a fire shield that spins around him (but worry about the game's awkward hitbox). The next boss however is possibly harder than most bosses on this list. It's [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Fry Guy]] -- a boss that in his own game, could be defeated by Mushroom Blocks. Those aren't here. Instead, you have to wait for some Fly Guys to fly in and jump on top of them for them to fall on Fry Guy. [[GuideDangIt The game has no indication whatsoever on this, and no other fight has worked like this]]. You're going to have to pray to the RandomNumberGod, because his flames and direction are completely random and unpredictable. The Fly Guys thankfully don't hurt you, but you're going to have to rely on the Fly Guys being above Fry Guy before jumping on one. [[HitboxDissonance Fry Guy's hitbox is also abnormally big here, meaning you're likely to get hurt trying to jump on those Fly Guys too]]. The game expects you to [[DamageSpongeBoss land 15 hits on Fry Guy with this, making it a huge chore as well]]. Expect a LuckBasedMission with this, because unless if you happen to cheat with this one, you're going to be here for a while. If you happen to defeat Fry Guy, you're not done yet - the game has two more bosses to throw on you. [[BigBad The following one is]] [[TheChewToy Luigi]], [[GoddamnedBoss who fires out Bullet Bills you have to bounce back at him -- while he's spamming fireballs, but is still rather manageable]]. [[HijackedByGanon The last one is]] [[spoiler:Bowser]], who follows a simple pattern, but is very hard to land a hit without getting hurt due to a fire shield similar to Hookbill before. But the painful part is what happens if you lose to those following two? You have to go all the way back and fight Hookbill and Fry Guy all over again. How fun.
* In the ThirdPersonShooter game ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'', the first dungeon boss is randomized each time the level is played through on Campaign or Adventure (like most bosses in this game). It could be Shroud, it could be Brabus. Or, it could be Gorefist. He has some pretty powerful sword attacks that sometimes inflict Bleed. Sounds like something you can get used to dodging, right? Well, the real threat of the battle isn't him, but the Rot Warts that spawn occasionally and can swarm you from either side or if you're trapped in a corner. If they explode on you, they deal as much damage as Gorefist can with one swing of his sword, not to mention inflicting Root Rot, assuming a whole gang of them doesn't explode on you at once and kill you right away. It is very difficult to solo this boss, especially if it's your first time playing, since one would have to shoot Gorefist, dodge his attacks, and keep an eye open for the Rot Wart, either shooting them or dodging their explosions, all at once, with very little time to heal or use Oilskin Tonics. He's not unbeatable even solo, but still pretty tough for a first boss of the game, especially since on your first playthrough, you won't have Root Mother at Ward 13 yet and thus will only have the minimum of three Dragon Hearts (the most effective method of healing). To put it in perspective, one of the two potential world bosses, the Ent, summons Rot Warts as well, ''but he's much easier''. (Although, an update did decrease the amount of Rot Warts to make it a little easier)
** Or, you could get Riphide at Leto's Lab. Throughout the battle he multiplies, eventually having eight of himself throwing projectiles and unleashing shockwave-like blasts that are easy to dodge if there's only one or two of him, but difficult with eight of him, at the same time trying not to get too close to them because of their physical attacks. In addition, occasionally one of him will start healing them. Hitting the ones doing the healing twice will stop the process, but it's difficult to do so if they happen to do this at the same time as the shockwave, especially when there are eight, in which two will cast the healing spell at once. They share the same health meter, too, so you can't just eliminate some of them to make the fight easier. And like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts before this.
** Raze, one of the four possible dungeon bosses of Rhom, can be very difficult solo. (You will get two dungeon bosses at random, the first of which must be beaten to progress to the world boss and the Undying King) He breathes fire which you cannot dodge and which inflicts Burn, and he summons many skulls and exploding enemies that inflict Radiation.
** Then there's the Root Mother. Well, actually you're not fighting her, you're protecting her from a horde, so it's more of a horde battle than a true boss battle, but it is harder than any other horde battle (aside from The Risen) due to the fact that if they kill the Root Mother, you lose, so it's not just your health you have to worry about. Aside from the fact that you can get two archers and a Root Brute at once, all of whom can inflict Bleed, this is also the second "boss" you will encounter in the game (and one of few that will always be encountered on every campaign), and like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts yet since Root Mother herself is the one who upgrades them for you after this battle is over. Not to mention likely not having a lot of weapon mods unless you've beaten a lot of bosses on Adventure, with only three Dragon Hearts.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawkProSkater Tony Hawk's Underground]]'', it's the final skate-off with Eric Sparrow. He challenges you to a race across your hometown to regain a tape that had your ultimate stunt on it. To win it, you pretty much have to play Follow The Leader, hitting every marker while Eric drops... some sort of flames to mess you up. Oh, and you only have 3 minutes to do this. Thankfully, the game decides that once is enough and subsequent plays use a version which gives you a ''very'' satisfying TakeThatScrappy.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'':
** The dual boss fight with Captain Vor and Lieutenant Lech Kril on Phobos isn't that hard, as the bosses don't do much damage, but it is NOTORIOUS for glitching out and being impossible to beat. Have fun farming the Miter, Twin Gremlins, and Trinity!
** General Sargas Ruk can be a pain in the ass for new players. The first phase of the fight is pretty easy, all he does is spray fire at you, and you have to blow off his arm. The 2nd phase he gets a room clearing Supernova that's next to impossible to dodge and knocks you down, doing a huge chunk of damage, he also gains a missle attack in this form that will absolutely WRECK you if you get hit by it, and you WILL get hit by it. His 3rd phase cuts the bullshit and he gains an attack that launches Fire Pillars out of the ground underneath you similar to Ember's World on Fire, with the appropriate damage, standing still for more than 3 seconds with kill you unless you're playing as Rhino or another beefy frame.
* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'':
** In ''Warioware Inc.'', there is a boss stage called "Punch Out", whose third level contains an opponent that is fast, demands quick reflexes and has a OneHitKill move that is spammed. Unlike the other level up boss stages, which are optional, it must be completed to clear Remix 2.
** Dribble and Spitz's boss stage from ''Warioware Twisted''. You need to outrun a boulder and jump over holes, by violently shaking the GBA, which makes it hard to see the holes.
** Ashley's boss microgame from ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'' features borderline BulletHell patterns of projectiles to dodge and an end boss that has three separate pieces shooting things at you.
** Jimmy P.'s stage in ''Smooth Moves'' is level 2 of "Produce Stand-Off",in which you must defeat the Strawberry Bandit in a sword fight. Unlike the easy version of the minigame, the guide doesn't appear, and the opponent is much more unpredictable.
** ''Warioware DIY'' has Orbulon's boss stage, a slider puzzle that comes in two versions. Both require multiple moves to complete under a rather strict time limit, making it the most complex boss in the game.
** ''Warioware Gold'':
*** The Ultra League has a boss stage from an earlier stage set to level 3 that always appears on the first playthrough, and in the case of the Dancing Team, it's the boss microgame Punch Out. This means your opponent is "Red Typhoon" Gaz Puncho. Despite having the exact same starting health as you unlike the third opponent in ''Inc.'', he still moves quickly, and he is free to use his uppercut at any point during the fight, and the uppercut is an instant KO. The Ultra League is hard so chances are you might reach this point with 2 or 1 life left.
*** Ashley's boss microgame in ''Gold'' is a harder version of ''Crossing Guard'' from ''Twisted!''. You have to use the system's gyro controls to move suspended bridges and help kids and ostriches safely cross to the other side. Level 2 introduces even faster horseback riders, while level 3 has bombs that must be dropped.
** ''[=WarioWare=]: Get It Together!''
*** Continuing with ''Gold''’s example, Ashley’s boss game, “Great Juice”, always appears in the first playthrough of Remix 2.0 on the third difficulty level, and it must be completed as 5-Volt, which is easier said than done. Because 5-Volt’s main movement is teleporting, you’ll land on the grapes with no jars underneath more times than not (and if the meter fills up, you lose), especially since the jars occasionally move, and the clunky movements make it difficult to correct that mistake (as well as the fact that if the timer on one of the jars runs out, you also lose). In addition, you’ll need to contend with the wasps, which must be hit so that they don’t reach the spill meter, but 5-Volt will instantly be knocked out if she touches the stingers, resulting in you instantly failing the microgame.
%% Needs more context** In ''Warioware Twisted'', all you need to know are these six words to know you're in trouble: "Ladies and gentlemen: Wario de Mambo!"
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