History ThatOneBoss / ShootEmUps

* ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'': Four of them depending on your skill.

** [[HoppingMachine X-Bot]] becomes this in the PC Version. Because your tank moves with your cursor, this makes it very frustrating to move left and right while aiming at him, making the fight in the PC version much harder as he constantly follows the player, where his other attacks such as homing missiles and eye beams can corner the player and let the boss crush your sprite into an oblivion. You'll need to practice a lot more in the PC Version and be aware where he moves, otherwise it's an immediate game over. Also, he also appears at the end of the 9th level that introduces two more [[DemonicSpiders demonic spiders]], ([[KillSat Romanov Attack Satellite]]) and ([[AdvancingBossofDoom Shovak Bulldozer]]), both of which can take away one or two of your lives, and X-Bot can easily finish you off if you're not careful.

** [[HoppingMachine X-Bot]] becomes this in the PC Version. Because your tank moves with your cursor, this makes it very frustrating to move left and right while aiming at him, making the fight in the PC version much harder as he constantly follows the player, where his other attacks such as homing missiles and eye beams can corner the player and crush your sprite into an oblivion. You'll need to practice a lot more in the PC Version and be aware where he moves, otherwise it's an immediate game over. Also, he also appears at the end of the 9th level that introduces two more [[DemonicSpiders demonic spiders]], ([[KillSat Romanov Attack Satellite]]) and ([[AdvancingBossofDoom Shovak Bulldozer]]), both of which can take away one or two of your lives, and X-Bot can easily finish you off if you're not careful.

* ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'':

** [[SandWorm Mechworm]]. Unlike Eyebot whose insta-kill lightning tentacles are destructible, there's no way to greatly ease the difficulty for this one. Touching this dude anywhere is an instant death, the shower of rocks and the bombs its segments drop make it tricky to safely move under its arc (especially in the PC version where you move along with your cursor), and when its health gets low, [[DigAttack it gains the ability to pop up under you]]. Destroy all the segments on its body that drop bombs causes the worm to spam homing missiles instead. On the second fight, it's much longer, the arc it makes is narrower giving you less safe room, it starts popping up under you much earlier and pops out of the ground ''much'' faster, and if you don't move as soon as you see the {{Wormsign}} under you, you die almost immediately.
** [[HoppingMachine X-Bot]] becomes this in the PC Version. Due to the fact that your tank moves with your cursor, this makes it very frustrating to move left and right while aiming at him, making the fight in the PC version much harder as he can easily corner the player and crush your sprite into an oblivion. You'll need to practice a lot more in the PC Version and be aware where he moves, otherwise it's an immediate game over. Also, he also appears at the end of the 9th level that introduces two more [[DemonicSpiders demonic spiders]], ([[KillSat Romanov Attack Satellite]]) and ([[AdvancingBossofDoom Shovak Bulldozer]]) which can eat up one or two of your lives, and X-Bot can easily finish you off if you're not careful.

** X-Bot can be this in the PC Version. Due to the fact that your tank moves with your cursor, this makes it very frustrating to move left and right while aiming at him, making the fight in the PC version much harder as he can easily corner the player and crush your sprite into an oblivion. You'll need to practice a lot more in the PC Version and be aware where he moves, otherwise it's an immediate game over. Also, he also appears at the end of the 9th level that introduces two more [[DemonicSpiders demonic spiders]], ([[KillSat Romanov Attack Satellite]]) and ([[AdvancingBossofDoom Shovak Bulldozer]]) which can eat up one or two of your lives, and X-Bot can easily finish you off if you're not careful.

** After defeating it, it returns in the final stage, rebuilt as N-617 "Black Heart MKII". This reborn stealth fighter serves as the penultimate boss, and is now [[UpToEleven TEN TIMES WORSE]]. Black Heart MKII unleashes harder and denser patterns than any other boss in the game and has a much smaller weak spot that is really hard to hit (unless you're using [[GuestFighter Gain]], [[GameBreaker whose ship fires broadswords that can pierce through enemies]]). It's only fitting that the best scoring trick in the game involves intentionally [[DynamicDifficulty increasing the difficulty rank]] to jack up its aggressiveness and health to insane levels and dumping nearly all your remaining lives and bombs on it.

** ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishmentStarSuccessor'', Stage 6 endboss. AKA: A [[spoiler:FightingGame]] segment in a RailShooter. If it's any comfort, at least it's a CPU-controlled opponent and not [[StreetFighter Daigo Umehara]].

'''NOTE:''' FinalBoss and WakeUpCallBoss cannot be ThatOneBoss without being overly hard by ''their'' standards. Please do not add them as examples. BonusBoss is banned from being ThatOneBoss entirely. It's supposed to be overpowerful by definition and it's completely optional to fight them.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mushihemesama_boss.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Damn, son, how ya dodge that?!"]]

* The Hermit boss of Chapter 3 of ''The VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' is cheap. A GiantSpider with a very small weak point, that starts out just inches from your face, if you miss here, loss of health is inevitable. This phase has prematurely ended many games. Then it retreats further down the tunnel, becoming even harder to hit, and after being hit it turns its weak point away from you to shoot volleys of web balls at you. The longer you take, [[UnstableEquilibrium the more projectiles will be fired per volley]]. In the final phase, it guards its weak point until it gets up close and personal, again you have only a split second to hit it before it hits you.
** Strength in ''House of the Dead 2'', who on top of brandishing his chainsaw wildly, making his head difficult to shoot, will sometimes jump down from above and immediately take a life off.
** Tower in the Sand Area is just as bad, hiding itself in the sand, only coming up for an attack (and, hence, is the ''only'' time you can attack it).
** The Fool in ''House of the Dead III''. You need to shoot one of his limbs (marked with a green targeting sight) in order to stop its advance. This is easy enough with his first limb, but his next two limbs tend to get obstructed by the stairs, and his fourth one is used to swing around making it hard to hit. And then his last phase consists of jumping at you to attack, with the only way to stop him being to shoot 6 bullets while it's in the air (you have 6 bullets per reload, by the way). But if you're playing with a 2nd player every boss will have double defense, meaning if the other player is incompetent, being a JerkAss, or is simply screwing around, you ''will'' lose lives for something that's not your fault.
*** And the reload is so slow on the PC version that it's actually physically impossible to stop yourself being hit.
*** Also, taking down first 3 limbs require you to deplete its attack gauge 3 times. If you did it too slow in 1st or 2nd (or both), it's guaranteed that the boss will hit you.
** Did you enjoy The Magician? Then you'll ''love'' The Star, the boss of Chapter 5 of ''The House of the Dead 4''. He bears many similarities to The Magician; he's a humanoid zombie who flies around the arena, fires [[BeamSpam dozens of energy-based projectiles]] that need to be shot down lest you lose a life and has two charge attacks, one of which involves GOING OFF THE SCREEN for a moment in a completely dick move that will almost guarantee a life lost. Many players find him to be more difficult than The World, the final boss.
*** ''Vampire Night'', another light gun game by the same House of the Dead team, features a winged boss that has attacks that are basically a hybrid of HotD1's Hangedman and Magician, but who stays faaaaar in the background most of the time. You have to be a crack shot to hurt him any substantial amount before he switches phases and starts circling the player and carving away with a laser.
** The Magician's ''The Typing of the Dead'' incarnation. Every boss has some sort of gimmick that makes them stand out from regular enemies; the Magician's in particular requires you to type phrases as usual, but if you miss ''once'', you will take damage as if you typed too slowly.

* The entire fourth stage in ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' is fought against the level boss, a floating fortress that spends ten minutes hurling ridiculous amounts of enemies and spirograph-patterns of alternating dots at you. Casual players will most likely lack the coordination to switch their ship's polarity in tune with the incoming fire, the return fire from destroyed enemies, and the few enemies who fire on their own to boot. The actual "boss fight" at the end of the level places the player in a tiny space filled with beam weapons that alternate color ''while firing,'' and the boss itself is only vulnerable at three (moving) points, all of which have three doors that must be shot through first.
** And then there's Tageri's third form in Chapter 5, who fires homing lasers (not unlike yours) at you, alternates polarity, and repeats this process, at an increasingly faster pace. It doesn't help that you whittle his health down, he starts to fire waves of bullets that also alternate in polarity.
* Ikaruga's spiritual predecessor, ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun'', also features a stage (5A) that is ten minutes against a gigantic flying fortress. Whose walls close in on you while girders scroll down and lasers surround you and enemies come from all sides. Ohtrigen the phoenix also deserves mention for the high speed and number of its projectiles in a game that generally focuses on measured action. All of this in a game that's already [[NintendoHard disgustingly difficult even on its easiest setting]].
* The first half of mission 11 in ''VideoGame/ProjectSylpheed''. The difficulty REALLY spikes here, as the Acropolis' armour might as well be paper here, even on easy: first you have to defend against waves of fighters and bombers, and BOTH types can attack the Acropolis. Then, halfway through, the Guilty Roses show up and they're pretty deadly against ANYONE (though if you can pull it off, a well aimed XGS Grav Cannon shot can take all 4 of them out in one shot... but thats only in a second playthrough or later).
** The second mission, especially on normal, is a sudden, jarring [[GuideDangIt difficulty hike.]] Rather than the previous easy mook mashing, you're thrown into a hectic fight with vague orders to shoot things and protect the bigger ships. After about 5 minutes of this, you're required to [[EscortMission protect the flagship]], but as you do, you get calls from other battleships to help. It is extremely hard to prevent the Caliban's destruction, due to the arbitary nature of where the enemies come from and [[FakeDifficulty the "realistic" nature of the controls and the randomness of the targeting system.]]
* Sherudo Garo, the Stage 2 boss and DiscOneFinalBoss of ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis''. He hits quickly with his throwing knives, which have a 100% chance of taking off a life. On top of that, he pops out only momentarily to do this. Most notable in that he's the second boss after Moz, who's a complete pushover. Wild Dog, while certainly a beast, isn't anywhere near a jump over Sherduo as Sherudo is over Moz.
** The DualBoss Tiger and Edgey in the spinoff ''Crisis Zone''. Tiger throws heavy objects and can take a ton of damage, although slow. Edgey, on the other hand, is extremely fast, making him hard to hit before he claws you, and he also throws volleys of knives at you(unlike Sherudo, these can be shot out of the air).
** In fact any McNinja type boss in a lightgun shoot-em-up is probably that one boss.
** The Stage 2 boss of ''Time Crisis 3''. If you thought ninjas weren't horrible enough, this guy is a [[LightningBruiser multi-lifebar ninja]] who often runs around the bridge you're on, making him a faraway target, ''and'' he has two ninja minions with him.
* VideoGame/StarFox1 has one or two for each path. Path 1 features Phantron's OneWingedAngel form. Path 2 features Plasma Hydra. In Path 3, EVERY boss form Monarch Dodora on has the potential to be either this or a BreatherBoss, and the Destructor and Blade Barrier can be this for new players.
** Though in Path 3, THAT One Boss, the one everyone agrees on, is the Great Commander in the Venom Orbit. It has six extremely small hitboxes/turrets that must all be hit and slowly uses stronger attacks as you destroy more of the turrets. It'll get to the point where you have to risk CollisionDamage to hit that last turret, and in this game, CollisionDamage is a big deal. Multiple Lets Plays of the game will at least attempt to beat it fairly, but then use Game Genie codes to get unlimited Nova Bombs, which are the Great Commander's weakness.
* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': Theatre/{{Macbeth}}. [[TheScottishTrope That Scottish Planet]]. Perhaps the only time it has ever actually been ''easier'' to complete the special mission to go on the more difficult route (by shooting the eight switches to reroute the train into the weapons factory) than to ''not'' complete the special mission (forcing you to fight this ridiculous boss). Once you know where all of the switches are, this becomes easy, but if you miss one, prepare for a really challenging boss fight.
** Said boss fight also comes slapped in with a nice time limit on it... that doesn't display. Take too long and the guy in the train says "It's time to finish this!" and then smacks the boss into you for an instant kill.
** Sarumarine, the boss of Zoness kind of counts, too. A boss that actually forces you to use bombs. But carefully, because you don't really want to blow one of the cannon pontoons off while the exhaust pipes are still there. Oh, and if you're low on power (or playing on Expert, where your wings break at the slightest impact), remember to dodge to the side of the screen at the end, or else you'll get hit by [[KaizoTrap the shrapnel from dealing the final blow]].
*** The 3DS remake has far "better" detection for what qualifies as a proper hit, resulting in Smart Bombs being nerfed. Smaller blast radius means that Sarumarine goes from "kind of counts" to "the toughest, or at least most tedious, in the game."
** The Bolse Core, too. You wouldn't think destroying a satellite would be annoying, would you? ''It starts shooting back.'' Add to that the fact that the core rotates, and near the end, you could end up approaching the core only to find that the remaining targets are on the far side and you're getting nothing but a face full of lasers. Also, [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Star Wolf]] shows up on this level if you either didn't beat them all on Fortuna or came from a different route. [[SarcasmMode Yay...]]
** The Gorgon. ''Oh, God, the Gorgon.'' It's a gigantic space station armed to the teeth with robotic CombatTentacles, missiles, [[FlunkyBoss enemy fighters]], [[StealthHiBye teleporting capabilities]], and a massive WaveMotionGun that can tear the crust off a planet's surface. Not only is it the most powerful boss in the game, it's also the longest and most tedious to deal with. Trying to survive the absolute bullet-hell it puts you through, you have to destroy the tentacles, forcing it to open up and repair. You need to destroy the three energy balls generating the shield to the Gorgon's core... three times over. After that, you actually get to [[AttackItsWeakPoint damage its core and destroy it]], but good luck getting there. Andross's Ultimate Space Weapon has felled more than a few new players while they try to destabilize the Gorgon's defenses.

* ''Solar Striker'' starts off as a pretty easy shooter [[DifficultySpike until you get to the fourth boss]], which is probably the closest the UsefulNotes/GameBoy has ever gotten to BulletHell. Be prepared to dodge like crazy as it constantly fires out of the sixteen turrets that surround it (half of them are uncomfortably close to you). There is a [[http://666kb.com/i/anil4vvcqwihmj5pe.jpg safe spot]], but you're dead if you're even one pixel off.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Einhander}}'', almost ''every'' boss can be ThatOneBoss if you don't know what you're doing, but even experienced players have trouble with Schwarzgeist [[spoiler:and Hyperion]]. The first loves BeamSpam and MacrossMissileMassacre (though you can destroy the missile spawners) and has a small, hard-to-hit weak point. The second has [[AttackItsWeakPoint a small weakpoint]], spawns LOADS of {{Attack Drone}}s and {{Homing Projectile}}s, and [[TimeLimitBoss if you run out of time when fighting it]], [[OneHitKill it instakills you]] in an unavoidable [[WaveMotionGun huge laser]].
* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga'':
** G-616 "Black Heart" is a prototype stealth fighter encountered after the BossRush in Stage 5. Unlike the first four bosses (MD-113 "Nose Lavagghin", SF-5418 "Mad Ball", ST-22 "Earth Crisis", and PS-50 "Satanic Surfer") which can be picked apart to disable some of their attacks, Black Heart has ''no'' parts that can be chipped off and thus you're forced to bear the full force of its attacks from start to finish. One of its most brutal attacks is a duo of five-way bullet streams that fans back and forth, which requires absolute precision to slip through. As [[http://battlegareg.ga/ this tribute]] to ''Garegga'' puts it:
---> ''Black Heart represents the negation of all of Garegga’s tirelessly-established principles. Instead of a collection of armaments to pick apart, you have a core and two wings. The wings are invulnerable too, just to rub it in. Instead of phases determined by parts destroyed, you now have phases determined by core health—with them only switching after the previous attack completes. Everything about Black Heart is ruthlessly prescriptive, and comes as a shock in this game which up until now has never told you what you ought to do.''
** After defeating it, it returns in the final stage, rebuilt as N-617 "Black Heart MKII". This reborn stealth fighter serves as the penultimate boss, and is now [[UpToEleven TEN TIMES WORSE]]. Black Heart MKII unleashes harder and denser patterns than any other boss in the game and has a much smaller weak spot that is really hard to hit (unless you're using [[GuestFighter Gain]], [[GameBreaker whose ship fires broadswords that can pierce through enemies]]). It's only fitting that the best scoring trick in the game involves intentionally [[DynamicDifficulty increasing the difficulty rank]] to jack up its aggressiveness and health to insane levels and dumping nearly all your remaining lives and bombs on it.
* ''VideoGame/DonPachi''
** Ryuukou, the Stage 6 Boss of ''[=DoDonPachi=]'', is a shining example of how drastic a penultimate boss encounter can be in a CAVE game. This large, towering battleship is the reason why most players forfeit a No Miss, No Bomb run upon reaching it in the second loop, as its attacks are that annoying. And it has been known to ''end'' runs. Ryuukou moves erratically, firing spirals of pink bullets along with blue bullets meant to trap you in, and also firing indistinct spreads of blue bullets while zipping around the top of the screen, causing the bullets to come from unpredictable angles whenever they come at you. Not to mention its final attack, which consists of firing sweeping waves of fast, narrow pink bullets with small windows to dodge through. Oh, and Ryuukou fires blue streams of bullets at your ship while you're trying to deal with precise dodging through the pink waves.
** Byakko, the boss of Stage 2 in ''[=DoDonPachi DaiOuJou=]'', is much worse. This awkward-appearing, tower-like hovercraft is easily considered more annoying than any other boss in the game besides [[TrueFinalBoss Hibachi]] itself, maybe even more than Kouryuu, Hibachi's container, which is fairly difficult itself! Most of the bosses in the game have set patterns to their attacks. Not Byakko, though. It does what it wants to, whenever it wants to, and sometimes for however long it wants to. And if you're unlucky, some of its attacks will mix together into an undodgeable bullet soup that'll wall you in. And this is supposed to be ''early in the game!'' Like with Ryuukou, it's worse in the 2nd Loop, where you are possibly guaranteed to be trapped by inescapable clusters of blue and pink bullets.
* ''VideoGame/RaidenFighters Jet'''s penultimate boss, a large HoverTank, is a prime example of this sort of boss in a non-danmaku game that uses only bullets for enemy attacks. Every form has absurd amounts of health, it has an attack that leaves very slow bullets on the screen to trap you, and it spews undodgeable (unless you choose a [[GameBreaker certain tiny ship]]) attacks should you destroy forms at the wrong time. Did we also mention that if you lose all your lives and use a continue here, you get the DownerEnding?
* ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment''[='=]s Birth Model. A gross name for a gross enemy. It's basically an enormous pile of eggs, which can shoot at you. Specifically, every individual egg can shoot at you. Good luck!
** The final boss, which has you defending the ENTIRE Earth from an imitation Earth, which shoots a truly obscene amount of projectiles that you have to shoot right back at it. Fortunately, you're pretty much guaranteed unlimited continues for this fight, since said obscene amount of projectiles are the perfect opportunity to rack up gigantic combos, combined with the fact that said combos will never break, as the projectiles hit the Earth instead of you.
** ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishmentStarSuccessor'', Stage 6 endboss. AKA: A [[spoiler:FightingGame]] segment in a RailShooter. If it's any comfort, at least it's a CPU-controlled opponent and not [[StreetFighter Daigo Umehara]].
*** Stage 4 brings us Swamp Keeper, the third midboss. It's a pain in the ass primarily due to its [[ThatOneAttack leech-spawning attack]]. Said leeches hop all over the place and grab on to you, restricting your movement (and potentially getting you caught up in the boss's WaveMotionGun or exploding torch attacks) and firing and eventually exploding for damage if you don't cut them off. And if you hit the boss with a ChargedAttack or by [[PlayingTennisWithTheBoss bouncing its homing shots back]]? It will spawn MORE leeches. In fact, some could argue that [[SchizophrenicDifficulty it's more annoying than the endboss Ariana]].
* In some versions of VideoGame/{{Parodius}} Da!, stage nine (the zombie level) has a mid-boss that IS impossible without powerups. The boss is a series of umbrellas that circle the screen once, before homing it on you. The health they have makes an unpowered shot kill each enemy closer to you than the previous one was, up until one gets you. In the arcade version of the game, there is a space you can use in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
** That boss is based off of Gradius 3's stage 3 mid-boss. And since the boss after that is That One Boss (At least in the arcade verson), if you get killed by that boss (And you will) you have to fight the mid boss again, and since THAT boss is That One Boss without powerups you have to face TWO That One Bosses in a row.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles'' has William Birkin, who wasn't exactly easy to beat in the original games. The second last chapter of the "Memory of a Lost City" stages has you first fighting your way through a level crawling with Giant Moths, [[DemonicSpiders Evolved Lickers]], and Ivies, the latter two usually coming in packs of 2 or 3, and then facing off against Birkin -- not just in his second form, oh no, you're gonna fight forms 2, 3 '''and''' 4! And did I mention that this is a ''sequential'' fight? As in, you need to face down each form, one after the other, in a single battle? The one mercy is that there's a checkpoint engaged between forms 3 and 4, which doesn't do you much good if you've already run out of ammo for your better guns on forms 2 and 3. The next level has Combat Mode Mr. X and then Birkin 5. Good luck.
** You will come to ''hate'' Alexia Ashford, for more reasons than one. Her first form is easy, but once she evolves, prepare for hell. If her throwing fireballs that need to be shot out of the air isn't enough of a chore, how about tentacles that ''won't go the [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] away!'' Oh, she's easy because she's ''stationary'', huh? Well, say hello to form 3; now she can fly, and unless you go through the [[PressXToNotDie button prompts]], you can't get high enough to use the [[{{BFG}} Linear Launcher]] without missing her constantly. And did I mention that you need the Linear Launcher to land the final blow on both forms 2 '''''and''''' 3?
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheUmbrellaChronicles'' has the Ivans: twin T-103 Tyrants clad in protective kevlar coats that leave only their heads exposed. You ''have'' to shoot them in the head, which becomes exponentially harder with the two of them double-teaming you. Worse yet, the game's most accurate weapons don't do enough damage to really make a difference, while the powerful shotguns and rapid-fire [=SMGs=] aren't accurate enough to hit the target consistently. To top it all off, dodging is nearly impossible; to stop them from hitting you, you have to shoot them in the head. Fun, huh?
* ''VideoGame/SigmaStarSaga'' features the Chapter 5 boss, The Ghost of Iot. Although touching him will not damage you (unlike every other enemy in the game... he is a ghost after all), he has a very small hitbox, tons of health, and his attacks come at you from the background. ''From. The. Background.'' The most frustrating part is that he knows how to lead his shots, meaning that you have to be ''constantly'' weaving around in bizarre patterns to avoid getting killed. The only mercy in this fight is that, unlike most shmups, you are not a OneHitPointWonder, and can take a few hits before dying.
* Cobra is the bane of ''VideoGame/SilentScope'' players. In one path in the first game, he runs around a stadium with the president's daughter on his shoulder. Failing to defeat cobra here[[note]]Cobra escapes after a while, forcing you to pursue him down the highway[[/note]] will cause the other encounter to occur, in which he is riding in a constantly-weaving car using the president's daughter as a HumanShield, and throwing grenades at you, after which he hijacks a semi and tries to ram you, here you only have a small window to get a headshot[[note]][[FakeDifficulty or an extremely well-timed body shot]][[/note]] before you lose a life. In the second game, he is on a grounded plane swaying back and forth, hiding behind a hanging hostage, and in addition to scrap metal and grenades, [[GrievousHarmWithABody throwing hostages at you]]; the only way to avoid damage here is to get a precise hit while he's picking them up.
* ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'': Level 5 skyscraper boss is one of these. If you have not done a pricey upgrade to a more durable plane yet, you have 3 hits against a boss who makes it impossible not to take damage. You likely will need some other pricey upgrades to survive this as well. On the lower right of the screen is a stationary target who fires both low and high bouncing balls off the ground. Along the ceiling is a wrecking ball type apparatus that slides across the top, finds you and drops straight down on you. It can stretch about half the length of the screen downward. There is virtually no space for you to consistently avoid both the wrecking ball and the little bouncing balls long enough to get back to the lower left of the screen where you can land shots on the boss. If you can hit the wrecking ball enough times, it can be destroyed, giving you more space to avoid the bouncing balls. However it is not made clear this can be done, and it still takes many hits to the wrecking ball. It is possible to win this fight without destroying the wrecking ball but it is an absolute exercise in frustration to try.
* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'': The original version of the 6-degrees-of-freedom first-person shooter has one of these bosses. The Level 7 boss is in the Shareware version of the game, too, which was always available to download for free. This guy is freakishly hard to beat, even by level 7 which requires a great deal of skill development to get to in the first place. By this time you don't have any really powerful weapons - the best you have are homing missiles (the 2nd weakest secondary weapon) and level 4 dual lasers (powerful, but slow moving, primary weapons). He, on the other hand, has rapid-fire smart missiles which are super-fast homers AND launch homing plasma charges upon impact with an inert object. He also happens to have the ability to teleport when he's in danger, and does so every time you hit him with something. You end up flying around, trying to dodge in and out of the caves in the middle, like a madman. Or cowering and hiding until he randomly teleports to you, firing, and ducking back in to a safe area. Ugh.
** This is more of a [[WakeUpCallBoss Wake Up Boss]]. Not that you'll fight many more bosses like him (only one more in the full version in the final level) but a relatively simple tactic renders this boss an easy victory every time. The secret? [[spoiler:You can fly as fast as homing missiles do. Just keep flying and you can't be hit.]]
* [[UnexpectedGameplayChange The zero-gravity level]] in ''Air Buster / Aero Blasters'' has a nasty MiniBoss that has halted many games due to the difficulty of dodging its attacks with the floaty controls.
* ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}} IV'''s third boss. Three phases, the first two of which are already quite difficult, then it TurnsRed and all BulletHell breaks loose.
** The third boss in the original too. After you destroy the cannons on the deck of the boat, it [[TurnsRed explodes to reveal five spreadfire cannons]], and the "[[CoresAndTurretsBoss core]]" also starts firing bullets. It takes [[MarathonBoss a long time]] to destroy this part, and you have gunboats and tanks sniping you all the way. If you lose your powerups here, [[ContinuingIsPainful you don't stand a snowball's chance]] in the next level. The lack of HitboxDissonance doesn't help.
* In the ''Videogame/XWing'' games, Super Star Destroyers tend to be this. Not for the ships themselves, but more for the fact that they tend to be stocked with [[DemonicSpider TIE Defenders]]!
* In ''VideoGame/BioShipPaladin'', pretty much every even stage's boss is ThatOneBoss, if only at the first time you fight it.
** The second boss is unpredictable until after you've fought it a few times, and is sure to get off a few cheap kills. In addition, its shots are fast and it rarely exposes its weak point.
** The fourth boss pops in from the top of the screen and spews a ridiculous shower of lasers downwards, which is much faster than most of the weapons in the game and is very likely to hit you at least once even if you know it's coming. In addition, it moves in a pattern that will pretty much crush you if you don't have enough speed ups.
** The sixth boss has two forms, and switching to its second form launches a shower of debris that's incredibly difficult to deal with. In addition, it has a pair of arms which make it extremely difficult to maneuver. The worst part? The best weapon to destroy them with is the defensive fire, but if you end up in front of the it only way to stay alive is to be in offensive mode (where you can actually move). Add on a difficult stage and you have a really nasty foe.
* ''[[VideoGame/SpyHunter Super Spy Hunter]]'' features the boss of [[ScrappyLevel level 4]]: A long level that features a single narrow road, with patches of [[FrictionlessIce frictionless glass]] and long jumps that are easy to miss in less than 30 second intervals. They throw a boss, which is a moderate size cube only two vilnerable spots, which are two lasers that can one-shot your car even with full health. Once you destroy the lasers, it chases you aggressively, continuously shoots its spread shot at you and can only be hit from exactly straight ahead or behind. Any little deflection of angle and your shots harmlessly impact his invincible spots.
** The Stage 5 boss is worse. It spams [[BulletHell tons of bullets]] [[MacrossMissileMassacre and homing missiles]], takes a long time to reveal its weak point, generates WeaponizedExhaust that blocks your shots unless you're really close (and probably getting damaged), and once it moves down the screen, attacks with a pair of instant-kill [[EpicFlail ball-n-chains]].

* ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Extreme 2'' features a branching path system, but only five bosses, though each boss gets tougher on a harder path. The FinalBoss of the hardest path is RIDICULOUS, becoming the ''Space Invaders'' equivalent of BulletHell. The final boss is [[spoiler: the final boss from the first game, but MUCH larger.]] The boss has five different phases. The first is a long introductory attack, firing diagonal angling shots and bombs with a blast radius that can also stick onto the floor. The second and third phases alternate afterwards. Here is where you have to start attacking the weak points, which have a TON of health. The second phase is [[spoiler: the first attack it used in the first game]], but fires even quicker and for a longer period. The third phase spawns giant {{Mooks}} with a TON of health. Said Mooks spawn the game's GoddamnedBats to help them out: the enemies with Deflector Shields, which is a pretty good defense. Oh, and while this is happening, the boss and Mooks are firing. Once you beat the first two weak points, the final weak point will arrive and the fourth phase will start. the boss will summon a much smaller version of itself that fires shots that take up quite a bit of your movable area at a time while the main boss fires the angling shots that deflect off of the sides of the screen and the bombs. Once you destroy the small one, the final boss will TurnRed and go COMPLETELY berserk, firing a UFO that leaves behind energy balls that splits into three shots and lasers. While this is going on, you also have to fire at the weak point while doing so. Upon FINALLY defeating it, you can relax... but know that if you lose your all of your lives, you start over at the introductory attack if you're playing the main mode. If you select the level to play by itself, you have to do the whole level over. [[SarcasmMode Have fun.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{RefleX}}''[='=]s Area 7 boss and [[FinalBoss Area 8 bosses]] don't have particularly fierce attacks compared to the rest of the game's, but what makes them stand out is that [[spoiler:while the rest of the game allows you 6 hits and refills your health twice along the way, these two boss battles have [[OneHitPointWonder NO room for error]] due to storyline events that give you boosted firepower and an infinite shield at the cost of all spare armor. You must complete the last bosses without getting hit AT ALL; if a single missile reaches you (you can shoot missiles but you can't shield against them) or your shield isn't up when a bullet hits you, '''[[GameOver GAME OVER.]]''']]
* ''Lightning Fighters/Trigon'':
** The Stage 5 boss fires [[ShockAndAwe electrical beams]] that confine you along with [[BulletHell dense waves of bullets]] that are very difficult to dodge due to the lack of HitboxDissonance.
** The penultimate boss, with its dual flamethrowers that rapidly change direction, has caused many a player to give up their dream of 1cc-ing the game.

* ''VideoGame/GingaForce'':
** Genzo, the boss of Chapter 5. Aside from spending most of the stage as a GetBackHereBoss and can sometimes surprise you every once in a while, fighting him isn't a walk in the park. His fighter can drill into the wall and can even launch debris at you. They can be shot down, but it's very hard to dodge. And when his health is down, he'll lure you into rocks for you to crash into.
** Natsuki, the Chapter 7 boss. She spends most of the fight [[ChasingYourTail attacking you from behind]], occasionally jumping up and attacking before going back down, making her very hard to hit. The best way to defeat her first phase is to have homing missiles equipped, then use it to attack her. And finally, when she does start attacking in front of you, she'll launch shields at you which can't be shot and can be very hard to dodge.
** The FinalBoss, Viridian. His fighter is basically an upgraded version of Tini's fighter, which fires much more bullets and lasers than Tini's. When half of his health is depleted, he starts bombing the entire screen and launches even more lasers, making him the hardest boss in the entire game.
* The FinalBoss of the original arcade version of ''VideoGame/GuerrillaWar'' is plain unfair. Your target is not the enemy leader running back and forth on the palace rooftop, but rather, the six turrets lined up alongside him. These turrets [[MacrossMissileMassacre dish out missiles at an absurd rate]], and are only vulnerable to your finite supply of grenades, which is made worse by the fact that the limited range of the grenades forces you to get right next to the building and thus putting you in dangerous range of the trigger-happy turrets. Even if you do manage to find a strategy to retreat back for the turrets to briefly stop firing, safely run in and quickly throw a grenade at a turret and then retreat back, you'll eventually either run out of them or drag the battle out long enough for the [[StalkedByTheBell 'you-took-too-long' airstrike to trigger and kill you anyway]]. The fact that the final stage [[DroughtLevelOfDoom also has no item pickups at all]] certainly does not help matters either. The NES version alleviates the difficulty of the fight by reducing the rate-of-fire on the turrets and giving you infinite ammo and grenades in general, but makes up for it by adding in a brand new [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking second phase]].
* Indie BulletHell Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a really balanced game, until you get to the stage 4 boss. What makes the stage 4 boss special is it introduces yellow barriers that you must move around to avoid getting hit. The final phase is a right ass as it launches the yellow barriers out (and yes running into them blows up your ship) that YOU MUST hide behind, as it spams lasers that cut through everything besides the barriers ''on top of'' more bullets being fired that ignore the barriers. Bombs or activating Trance mode won't help much. There is absolutely ''zero'' room for error.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}} II'', at the end of Stage 5 if you have not lost any lives (and, if this is vanilla ''Espgaluda II'' rather than ''Espgaluda II: Black Label'', you have also increased Ascension Over to level 3) you fight [[spoiler:True Seseri]], becoming ''much'' more powerful than her standard counterpart and gaining patterns that are ''comparable to other CAVE games' {{True Final Boss}}es''. And no, she isn't even the FinalBoss, as there's a whole additonal stage afterwards (as opposed to the CAVE convention of 5 stages). So unless you're a superplayer, and if you're not playing Novice Normal or Novice ''Black Label'' mode, [[DoWellButNotPerfect make sure to take at least 1 damage before the end of Stage 5]][[note]]and it's easy to unlock [[spoiler:True Seseri]] by mistake since ''Black Label'' in particular has several features to ease survival, such as a bullet-stalling shield and enemies will cancel bullets if you defeat them[[/note]], otherwise you will '''die'''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}} II'', at the end of Stage 5 if you have not lost any lives (and, if this is vanilla ''Espgaluda II'' rather than ''Espgaluda II: Black Label'', you have also increased Ascension Over to level 3) you fight [[spoiler:True Seseri]], becoming ''much'' more powerful than her standard counterpart and gaining patterns that are ''comparable to other CAVE games' {{True Final Boss}}es''. And no, she isn't even the FinalBoss, as there's a whole additonal stage afterwards (as opposed to the CAVE convention of 5 stages). So unless you're a superplayer, and if you're not playing Novice Normal or Novice ''Black Label'' mode, [[DoWellButNotPerfect make sure to take at least 1 damage before the end of Stage 5]][[note]]and it's easy to unlock [[spoiler:True Seseri]] by mistake since ''Black Label'' in particular has several features to ease survival, such as a bullet-stalling shield[[/note]], otherwise you will '''die'''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}} II'', at the end of Stage 5 if you have not lost any lives (and, if this is vanilla ''Espgaluda II'' rathern than ''Black Label'', you have also increased Ascension Over to level 3) you fight [[spoiler:True Seseri]], becoming ''much'' more powerful than her standard counterpart and gaining patterns that are ''comparable to other CAVE games' {{True Final Boss}}es''. And no, she isn't even the FinalBoss, as there's a whole additonal stage afterwards (as opposed to the CAVE convention of 5 stages). So unless you're a superplayer, and if you're not playing Novice Normal or Novice ''Black Label'' mode, [[DoWellButNotPerfect make sure to take at least 1 damage before the end of Stage 5]][[note]]and it's easy to unlock [[spoiler:True Seseri]] by mistake since ''Black Label'' in particular has several features to ease survival, such as a bullet-stalling shield[[/note]], otherwise you will '''die'''.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1578853323042270200

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gradius_v_blaster_cannon_core_thatoneboss.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Asteroids destroy bullets... AND YOU!]]

%% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the Caption Repair thread:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
%%

[[AC:Shmup games with their own pages:]]

[[AC:Other games]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' series
* ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' series

----
-> ''You need some practice. \\
'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6E6jv-dHM Game Over]]''' ''

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series

* ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Series:''
** ''Gradius V'' has a return appearance of Beacon, a boss from ''Gradius III'' SNES, as a MiniBoss, but in this case it happens to be That One MiniBoss, said by some to be the hardest enemy in the game (Keeper's Core, a Gun Wall midboss, is considered by others to be ''even'' harder). It now [[BeamSpam spams]] randomly directed bouncing blue laser beams, in addition to having a containment laser like Big Core [=MkIII=], and on higher difficulties it has ''two'' sets of containment lasers, making it nigh-impossible to dodge the blue bouncing beams, unless you know a certain trick. [[note]]Which involves the Vic Viper sitting on the bottom right corner of the screen while the Options are vertically lined-up and the Vic-Viper's nose is parallel to Beacon's abdomen[[/note]] It also spams bullet and drops fire bombs, in addition to the tunnel narrowing at points.
*** Speaking of Keeper's Core, the path to this MiniBoss is filled with TONS of homing mines and [[GoddamnedBats Duckers]] before the gun wall finally shows itself. The battle has [[SequentialBoss two phases]]: the first phase requires the Vic Viper to destroy the three plasma guns while dealing with small replaceable turrets, and in higher loops or difficulties, the floor and ceiling have gravity fields that pull the Vic Viper towards them. After this phase, the gun wall suddenly moves and fires its turrets willy-nilly while rolling balls bounce from behind, and in higher difficulties or loops, they must be used to protect the Vic Viper from the laser pods. This gun wall even has the audacity to ram itself against the Vic Viper to the point where the fighter must fly into its empty core slots to survive.
*** Three words: [[BulletHell Blaster Cannon Core]], who serves as the page image for good reason. This ass-hat of a core battleship starts off the battle by snaking through the AsteroidThicket while leaving mines that explode into ''two layers'' of bullets (destroying the mines prevents the bullets but they explode before you can attack them) and being invincible for the duration. After the mine parade, this battleship opens up its wings and fires a maelstrom of bullets that can only be blocked with the massive asteroid wave from the left-side of the screen, which is easier said than done. You can tell this boss is a pain in the ass if its vulnerable state involves ''[[BeamSpam firing a volley]] of {{Wave Motion Gun}}s out of its wings'', and the same asteroids you rely on for defense will also try to ram against you. [[note]]The best way to attack this boss is to destroy its barriers and fly into its "mouth" to protect yourself from the asteroids and lasers while [[AttackItsWeakPoint laying waste on its core]]. It's recommended that you should reduce your speed to level one so that you can safely move inside of the "mouth" since the battleship bobs up and down.[[/note]]
** ''Gradius III'' Arcade usually has easy bosses at the end of its NintendoHard levels, but not the bosses of stages 3, 5, and 7. Stage 3's boss, Big Core Mk III, has much faster bouncing lasers than in the SNES version, and [[TurnsRed once its first two cores are destroyed]], it starts spamming you with walls of [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] which you can just barely ease your ship through the gaps of. Stage 5's boss is Vaif, a series of six [[EenieMeenieMinyMoai Moai heads]], which are very hard to maneuver your options around to destroy, and addition spit out Mini-Moais that float around inflate as they are shot until they explode, restricting your maneuvering space. In other words, a boss that has nearly impossible to hit weak points and attacks by [[MookMaker spawning]] DemonicSpiders. Stage 7's boss, a three-headed [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]] called [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent Wyvern]], seems easy, but its second form is a tricky LightningBruiser called Vulture Dragon, a fiery SegmentedSerpent with AHeadAtEachEnd. It moves quickly and warps across the screen, fires clusters of fireballs all over the place, and its heads are durable and blocked by its long body, which also reduces your maneuvering space. Its [=SNES=] counterpart [[KaizoTrap can kill you with its segments upon defeat]].
** ''Gradius'' spinoff ''VideoGame/{{Otomedius}}'' introduces us to Big Core DX, a Big Core with ''[[OhCrap Options]]''. Not as crazy as [[NoKillLikeOverkill Blaster Cannon Core]], but definately ThatOneBoss for Otomedius Gorgeous.
** ''Gradius Gaiden'' has the last boss of loop 2+ stage 8, Heaven's Gate, who will give you trouble if you're planning on a 2-loop clear. Lots of tightly-packed BeamSpam, a containment laser attack that it activates during one of its rounds of lasers to throw you off, ''and'' it [[KaizoTrap fires suicide bullets upon its defeat]]. Also in Loop 2+ is Deltatry, which fires invincible blue flaks alongside with the normal red flaks (unless you're playing as Lord British with the [[ArmorPiercingAttack Disruptor]]), and its [[AttackAnimal fire dragons]] fire suicide bullets whenever they're killed.
** Any gunwall in the series except for Gradius II's (Which has a rather pathetic safespot). Salamander/Lifeforce's gunwall spams indestructible cores that bounce about the area and are hard to dodge (and to add insult to injury, the boss is worth ''zero points''), and Gradius III's gunwall spams large amounts of enemies and bullets at you, plus the arcade version is equipped with SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom. Thankfully, most ports of Salamander and the SNES port of Gradius III tone down the gunwalls.
** Normally, ''Salamander 2'' FinalBoss Doom wouldn't count as he's as hard as the average shmup final boss, but he is very much this if you're a series veteran as he averts the series' tradition of [[ZeroEffortBoss Zero-Effort Final Boss]].
** Venom, from ''Nemesis 2'', is also a non-pushover FinalBoss. His LightningGun attack is hard to predict and dodge, unless the player knows about the safe spot, which is somewhere in the middle.
** ''Gradius IV'':
*** Belial, the WombLevel boss, is a souped-up version of Brain Golem. Its arms aim at the Vic Viper's vertical position and fire [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] all over the place, thanks to its own AttackDrones. Upon defeat, a Zelos Force comes out of Belial and [[BeamSpam fires lasers all over the screen]] while reducing your maneuvering space with its massive size.
*** Rolling Core, the game's 7th stage boss, already ThatOneLevel in itself due to being a high speed stage. The developers have the nerve to throw a boss with small laser guns filling all the empty space down the flat side facing you, the "donut hole" core aims independantly of the outer shell, so it fires around 10 lasers in one direction and another 4-6 in another... and every time you think you've got its pattern figured out...it throws something new at you, like turning the core sideways and blasting you with a no "other" warning laser blast. And then Treasure has the gall to bring this boss back for a rematch in a BossRush in ''Gradius V''.
** Covered Core from ''II'' [[MacrossMissileMassacre fires missiles willy-nilly]] while covering (hence its name) its core with 3 layers of fast-moving shells. While this boss doesn't actually comes back in ''V'', it has an even stronger variant that not only has multiple spinning cores, but also fires lasers whenever it spins its shields and guns to go along with the missiles, some of which will explode and create a spreadshot.
** ''Gradius NEO'':
*** Ogre Shield of Stage 4. It fires extremely huge [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] and you have hard time to avoid them.
*** Central Server, the final boss. While the main console is a ZeroEffortBoss, it launches the diamonds to warp around, trying to attack the player. Beat it correctly and it can become BreatherBoss.
** ''Gradius Galaxies/Generations/Advance'' has [[DualBoss Bolboros]], which looks suspiciously similar to Rolling Core. The smaller ship attacks like Big Core MK 1, and the larger ship simply fires two long lasers. However, destroying either ships will [[KillOneOthersGetStronger make the other ship]] [[TurnsRed more aggressive]]. The smaller ship fires streams of bubbles, while the larger ship moves closer to your fighter.

* Talespin: Level 5 skyscraper boss is one of these. If you have not done a pricey upgrade to a more durable plane yet, you have 3 hits against a boss who makes it impossible not to take damage. You likely will need some other pricey upgrades to survive this as well. On the lower right of the screen is a stationary target who fires both low and high bouncing balls off the ground. Along the ceiling is a wrecking ball type apparatus that slides across the top, finds you and drops straight down on you. It can stretch about half the length of the screen downward. There is virtually no space for you to consistently avoid both the wrecking ball and the little bouncing balls long enough to get back to the lower left of the screen where you can land shots on the boss. If you can hit the wrecking ball enough times, it can be destroyed, giving you more space to avoid the bouncing balls. However it is not made clear this can be done, and it still takes many hits to the wrecking ball. It is possible to win this fight without destroying the wrecking ball but it is an absolute exercise in frustration to try.
* Descent: The original version of the 6-degrees-of-freedom first-person shooter has one of these bosses. The Level 7 boss is in the Shareware version of the game, too, which was always available to download for free. This guy is freakishly hard to beat, even by level 7 which requires a great deal of skill development to get to in the first place. By this time you don't have any really powerful weapons - the best you have are homing missiles (the 2nd weakest secondary weapon) and level 4 dual lasers (powerful, but slow moving, primary weapons). He, on the other hand, has rapid-fire smart missiles which are super-fast homers AND launch homing plasma charges upon impact with an inert object. He also happens to have the ability to teleport when he's in danger, and does so every time you hit him with something. You end up flying around, trying to dodge in and out of the caves in the middle, like a madman. Or cowering and hiding until he randomly teleports to you, firing, and ducking back in to a safe area. Ugh.

** ''Gradius III'' Arcade usually has easy bosses at the end of its NintendoHard levels, but not the bosses of stages 3, 5, and 7. Stage 3's boss, Big Core Mk III, has much faster bouncing lasers than in the SNES version, and [[TurnsRed once its first two cores are destroyed]], it starts spamming you with walls of FrickinLaserBeams which you can just barely ease your ship through the gaps of. Stage 5's boss is Vaif, a series of six [[EenieMeenieMinyMoai Moai heads]], which are very hard to maneuver your options around to destroy, and addition spit out Mini-Moais that float around inflate as they are shot until they explode, restricting your maneuvering space. In other words, a boss that has nearly impossible to hit weak points and attacks by [[MookMaker spawning]] DemonicSpiders. Stage 7's boss, a three-headed [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]] called [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent Wyvern]], seems easy, but its second form is a tricky LightningBruiser called Vulture Dragon, a fiery SegmentedSerpent with AHeadAtEachEnd. It moves quickly and warps across the screen, fires clusters of fireballs all over the place, and its heads are durable and blocked by its long body, which also reduces your maneuvering space. Its [=SNES=] counterpart [[KaizoTrap can kill you with its segments upon defeat]].

*** Belial, the WombLevel boss, is a souped-up version of Brain Golem. Its arms aim at the Vic Viper's vertical position and fire FrickinLaserBeams all over the place, thanks to its own AttackDrones. Upon defeat, a Zelos Force comes out of Belial and [[BeamSpam fires lasers all over the screen]] while reducing your maneuvering space with its massive size.

*** Ogre Shield of Stage 4. It fires extremely huge FrickinLaserBeams and you have hard time to avoid them.

** ''Gradius III'' Arcade usually has easy bosses at the end of its NintendoHard levels, but not the bosses of stages 3 and 5. Stage 3's boss, Big Core Mk III, has much faster bouncing lasers than in the SNES version, and [[TurnsRed once its first two cores are destroyed]], it starts spamming you with walls of FrickinLaserBeams which you can just barely ease your ship through the gaps of. Stage 5's boss is six Moai heads, which are very hard to maneuver your options around to destroy, and addition spit out Mini-Moais that float around inflate as they are shot until they explode, restricting your maneuvering space. In other words, a boss that has nearly impossible to hit weak points and attacks by [[MookMaker spawning]] DemonicSpiders.

** ''Gradius Gaiden'' has the last boss of loop 2 stage 8, Heaven's Gate, who will give you trouble if you're planning on a 2-loop clear. Lots of tightly-packed BeamSpam, a containment laser attack that it activates during one of its rounds of lasers to throw you off, ''and'' it [[KaizoTrap fires suicide bullets upon its defeat]].

** The Stage 2 boss of ''Time Crisis 3''. If you thought ninjas weren't horrible enough, this guy is a multi-lifebar ninja who often runs around the bridge you're on, making him a faraway target, ''and'' he has two ninja minions with him.

--> --'''[[http://whatistheexcel.com/eri/hugedb/Bosses/TLance.html This page]]''' on the ''VideoGame/{{Darius}} Gaiden'' boss Titanic Lance

** ''Gradius V'' has a return appearance of Beacon, a boss from ''Gradius III'' SNES, as a MiniBoss, but in this case it happens to be That One MiniBoss, said by some to be the hardest enemy in the game (the Keeper's Core or Gun Wall midboss is considered by others to be harder). It now [[BeamSpam spams]] randomly directed bouncing blue laser beams, in addition to having a containment laser like Big Core [=MkIII=], and on higher difficulties it has ''two'' sets of containment lasers, making it nigh-impossible to dodge the blue bouncing beams, unless you know a certain trick. [[note]]Which involves the Vic Viper sitting on the bottom right corner of the screen while the Options are vertically lined-up and the Vic-Viper's nose is parallel to Beacon's abdomen[[/note]] It also spams bullet and drops fire bombs, in addition to the tunnel narrowing at points.

*** Three words: [[BulletHell Blaster Cannon Core]], who serves as the page image for good reason. This ass-hat of a core battleship starts off the battle by snaking through the AsteroidThicket while leaving mines that explode into ''two layers'' of bullets (destroying the mines prevents the bullets but they explode before you can attack them) and being invincible for the duration. After the mine parade, this battleship opens up its wings and fires a maelstrom of bullets that can only be blocked with the massive asteroid wave from the left-side of the screen, which is easier said than done. You can tell this boss is a pain in the ass if its vulnerable state involves ''[[BeamSpam firing a volley]] of {{Wave Motion Gun}}s out of its wings'', and the same asteroids you rely on for defense will also try to ram against you. [[note]]The best way to attack this boss is to destroy its barriers and fly into its "mouth" to protect yourself from the asteroids and lasers while [[AttackItsWeakPoint laying waste on its core]]. It's recommended that you should reduce your speed to level one so that you can safely move inside of the "mouth" while the battleship bobs up and down.[[/note]]