SNK Boss / Namco

Damn it, not again!

Tekken series

• Heihachi in the first Tekken game is much harder and faster than his later incarnations, due to being the final boss of the game. This has been written into canon with Tekken Tag 2 featuring the return of his younger, stronger self.
• Kazuya in Tekken 2 may not have the cheap moves of Jinpachi below, but he does have Perfect Play A.I.. Think you can try to hit him with just about anything, he'll read your inputs and just about always have a counter for it. Rather than his infamous ten-hit combo, he'll simply tear you down with interrupts and grabs while leaving you unable to fight back. And then when you think he's down, Devil comes out (or Angel if you're playing as Devil himself) and is all of Kazuya's cheapness with a monstrous beam on top, breaking the rules established in both games so far altogether. Devil and Angel are especially cheap in this game compared to later entries because in the first two Tekken games, there is no sidestepping or sidewalking, only Virtua Fighter-style moon jumps. This forces you to manually avoid their laser attacks by spacing yourself properly so that their flying lasers miss and ducking their standing lasers. And even this is easier said than done because in this game, the frame data on these laser attacks is significantly faster compared to their later counterparts.
• Tekken 3 has Ogre as its last boss. Using a mish-mash of moves from previous fighters who didn't appear in this game and some Perfect Play A.I., he'll interrupt your attacks with his own, with his most dangerous being his charging dash and slide attacks. By contrast, his One-Winged Angel form, True Ogre, is somewhat more manageable to take down.
• Tekken 5 gives us Jinpachi Mishima, pictured above, who can interrupt any attack you throw at him and possesses a fireball that takes away two-thirds of your health with a single hit (which he can also fire rapidly in case you try to sidestep it). Yes, the final boss of a hand-to-hand fighting game is best known for his nigh-unavoidable magic stun and long-range fireballs. In addition, he can heal himself by stealing your life bar and phase around the stage so not only can he make it impossible to hit him if he so wishes, it is possible you may hit him and still get a "perfect" loss.
  • If you are jumping in the air, the stun will drop you down to the floor and you will reel from it. If you are as far away from Jinpachi as the game will allow, the stun will hit you and you are unable to move. If you are blocking, you are stunned and unable to move. If you are on the floor, the stun will hit you, make you stand, and have you reel. The only counter is to block low, and if you're off by a second you'll still get stunned.
  • Also, there's one thing that gets you no matter what - The stun/fireball combo. Go go, random stun counter followed by avoid-this-or-die fireball. Both mechanics are fine on their own, but when combined, there's nothing you can do.
  • Ask any Tekken player you know how bad would it be if you couldn't move for six seconds, given that Tekken's claim to fame is juggling and combo-ability. Then add to the fact the weakest of Jinpachi's moves will take off a fifth of your lifebar and is combo-able. And you have the equation for a true SNK Boss.
• Tekken 6 brings on the triple threat, with NANCY-MI847J, Jin Kazama and Azazel.
  • NANCY has ten times as much health as most other fighters, cannot be stunned or juggled, attacks with lasers, machine guns, and missiles, and has an Eye Beams attack that cuts holes in the floor, killing you instantly if you're standing there. Thankfully, you don't have to defeat it to go on to face Jin and Azazel. Quite the contrary, if you lose, you don't even get to try again. The sole thing that makes it somewhat manageable is that it's attacks are generally more telegraphed than other opponents.
  • Jin automatically activates Rage Mode at the start of each round, meaning he deals twice the amount of normal damage. Not only that, but his AI suddenly increases to that of an expert player, no matter if you're fighting the CPU or a ghost, and will counter your strategies at every turn.
  • Azazel, the literal Dragon of the game. If you thought Jinpachi was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. Not only does he have True Ogre's size, he's got Devil's Eye Beams, Jinpachi's stun, plus even more ridiculous moves such as raising giant demon claws out of the ground (that deal chip damage, by the way), throwing barrages of ice projectiles, and the ability to regenerate. Not to mention he doesn't even stagger on normal basis, and when it happens, he takes no damage. He's almost as bad as Igniz, and that's saying something. The only good thing is that due to his size, he can be hit with combos that don't work on any other character.
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 does the same, giving us a three-stage Boss Rush featuring the return of young Heihachi and Jinpachi Mishima at Stage 7, True Ogre at Stage 8, and finally fan favorite Jun Kazama for the Final Stage.
  • The first two stages are warm-ups for the battle against the latter. She starts off as a defensive beast, completely at home in blocking most of your attacks. Take into account that she had been spending the game learning your moves and tactics and this is made even worse. She also uses her Attack Reversal every now and then, which is considerably rare for Tekken AI. Since she is a solo fighter, her entire health bar is doubled and must be depleted to knock her out, including her red health. Once you win the first round and defeat Jun, the fun begins...
    • ...and Jun transforms into Unknown, effectively ending the decade-long debate on the character's identity ^note well, sort of; Unknown in the first Tag was originally meant to be Jun's younger sister. Unlike her Tag 1 incarnation, she does not mimic other cast members a la Mokujin. Instead, she retains Jun's moveset as well as gaining a damage output increase and a few boss-exclusive moves that border on downright unfair, including a call back to Jinpachi's infamous stun. There are no guarantees in this fight; if she wants to, she'll either initiate a simple combo that shaves off roughly half of your health or reverse your attacks to death. One of her most dangerous attacks is a Snap Back-esque move where a portal appears on the ground. If you get hit by it, a huge hand surfaces from the stage and splats you, forcing you out of the arena and leaving you with only a pixel of health remaining and a large chunk of recoverable health. Did we mention that she can combo into it? Good luck when she pulls that off. Only plus side is Unknown is not as defensive as Jun, so it's really a toss up on which side of her is worse. It depends on your play-style. More aggressive players will find Unknown to be much easier than Jun, but that's like the difficulty going from impossible down to joystick snapping. This got so bad that Namco actually patched the game to tone them both down.
• An update for the free-to-play Tekken Revolution added a special version of True Ogre that can be fought in Arcade Mode, known as Gold Ogre. This version of True Ogre has had its AI buffed and its moveset modified to make it more boss-like. The computer will read your inputs and counter with the exact move necessary to counter it, which is usually its extremely damaging Invincible Move, now made faster than the regular version of Ogre and also safer when blocked. It can also teleport during a juggle like Azazel and appear on the other side of the screen to ram into you or breathe fire at you.
  • Said update also added Mokujin and its model swaps Tetsujin and Kinjin. However, these versions of Mokujin do not mimic other fighters each round like they usually do. In this game, they have all of the best moves from every character, just like how Combot can be customized in Tag 2 (they even use Combot's stance). Some of these moves have been made much cheaper, like Feng's f+2,1,2 and Bruce's knees now doing many more hits than usual. They can also do stuff like pumping out 4 Electric Wind God Fists in a row to shave off a large chunk of your life. In the Turbo Mode of Mokujin Rush, this gets even worse as they gain access to more ridiculous combos, like being able to do Paul's Demolition Man off of the aforementioned EWGF juggle. They also have access to a buffed version of King's Giant Swing, where they swing you around at lightspeed and for a much longer period of time, shaving off a ridiculously large portion of your lifebar. Woe be to you if they have 200 Power, because then this Super Giant Swing becomes an instant kill.
• Tekken 7 starts off as an aversion with Devil Kazumi, who is just regular Kazumi with Devil lasers and her Fly stance taken from Jinpachi turned into his old T5 boss version's teleporting Fly stance. But after completing story mode you unlock the ability to fight 4 secret bosses in Treasure Battle mode, all based on how the characters appeared in Story Mode, with one exception. To give you and idea of what to expect, most if not all of them have One-Hit Kill Rage Arts.
  • The first secret boss unlocked is Final Heihachi, which is Heihachi as shown in the final chapter with the even more torn-up karate gi. This version of Heihachi has an unblockable ground pound move which has a followup into his Omen Thunder God Fist (OTGF), the Just Frame, blue sparks version of Thunder God Fist. Not only that, but both the ground pound and OTGF itself have super armor so you can't knock him out of it. In addition, he has an armored version of his counter stance which leads into OTGF should you take the bait.
  • Next is Devil Kazuya X, the Final Boss of Story Mode. This version of Kazuya is, as the name implies, permanently locked into Devil Transformation, with all of the borderline-broken perks that come with it. This means he has a mid-hitting EWGF and the use of the dreaded Twin Pistons. That's not the worst of it, though. He now takes Jinpachi's fighting stance, and has an upgraded moveset containing all of the best Mishima moves, including Heihachi's Hell Sweeps and Thunder God Fist. The worst part is his Devil lasers, which are now so humongous that you're better off ducking instead of sidestepping.
  • Shin Jin is a bit of an aversion, as he is pretty much the same character like Kazumi except with a few upgraded attacks. He has an armored Mental Alertness stance which allows him to go into 3 EWHFs.
  • The absolute worst of them all, however, is Shin Akuma, the Post-Final Boss of Story Mode. This is, without question, the cheapest boss version of Akuma ever created. In addition to the standard double air fireballs, he can fire 3 Shakunetsu Hadokens in rapid succession, has an armored taunt that completely fills his super meter and can be canceled into an Ashura Warp, which is now twice as fast and also armored, can parry your attacks in addition to Focus Attack, which is also twice as fast and unlockable, and his Messatsu Gohado super now deals double damage. Also, his parry isn't something he has in his movelist, it's something he does automatically when idle, meaning that the only way to even damage him is by punishing his attacks. Also his health recovers automatically. Finally, if the player manages to defeat him, he will use his Shin Shun Goku Satsu rage art, which the player must counter with a rage art of their own which is quite easily done but first time players are unlikely to know what they must do, meaning that they often have to defeat Shin Akuma twice to truly win the fight.
  • And if you think it can't get any worse than that, you'd be wrong. The unlockable 10-star difficulty in Story Mode potentially makes EVERY fight a boss battle. You deal half damage, the opponents deal double damage, and they heal throughout the fight. Their AI patterns are also completely randomized while still reading your inputs and performing the optimal combo for the situation every time they land a hit.
• Continuing the trend set by the previous game, Tekken 8 has 4 bosses, all fought at the end of Arcade Battle.
  • The first, Devil Kazuya, is the default Final Boss of the Arcade Battle. He's effectively Kazuya permanently locked into Devil Transformation from the get-go, granting him access to all of his Heat Attacks without the need to consume the Heat Gauge. While this may sound underwhelming at first, you will soon realize that Kazuya's Heat Moves hurt. A lot.
  • If you manage to get a Perfect in your Arcade run, then instead of fighting Devil Kazuya you'll fight Azazel, and this time he's gotten several upgrades from his original incarnation. He loses the ability to teleport out of juggles and fly in, but gains much more powerful attacks in return, such as a version of his crystalline spikes that stuns you and even bigger Devil lasers. The worst part, however, is the fact that he now has a Rage Art, only usable in Round 2 when he's glowing red, and the Rage Art itself takes cues from Elysium of Soulcalibur V, being a full screen radius of demonic energy that shaves off 70% of your life at a distance and is an instant kill up-close. Not to mention the fact that the majority of his attacks now have super armor attached to them.
  • Get 2 Perfects and you'll end up fighting True Devil Kazuya, the Final Boss of Story Mode. Take regular Devil Kazuya, and add in several of Jinpachi's moves, and as expected of someone who has absorbed the aforementioned Azazel into himself, the absurdity of Azazel's crystal projectiles as well, and you have yourself a nightmare waiting to happen. Not to mention, all of normal Devil Kazuya's moves are now insanely buffed and have armor on them.
  • Finally, if you manage to get 3 Perfects, you will fight Angel Jin, the 11th-Hour Superpower used in Story Mode against the aformentioned True Devil Kazuya, easily one of the cheapest bosses Namco has ever created. Imagine everything about Devil Jin, except amplified about 100x. Angel Jin has armor on virtually all of his moves, and several of his strings are enhanced to grant him access to screen-filling lasers with absurd hitboxes. The worst part however, is his version of the Electric Wind God Fist. If he hits you with it, it automatically leads into an auto-combo into his Thunder God Fist where he lifts you high into the air and slams you down hard onto the ground for massive damage. Oh, and he's also the only character in the game besides Jun who heals himself throughout the fight with several of his attacks, including the aforementioned Electric Wind God Fist as well as a special teleport.

Soul series

• The first game in the Soul series, Soul Edge/Blade has Soul Edge, who would later become Inferno. He is a much tougher version of Cervantes who is able to teleport and use flying unblockable attacks, seemingly from anywhere on screen. His difficulty is so great that the original arcade version of the game had to have its difficulty lowered for a rerelease, because him and Cervantes (who you face before him) were considered impossible to beat. It can still take several retries to defeat him and that's only if you're lucky, as he's utterly unpredictable. And note that "lucky" here means you happened to not be in the way when he used one of those flying attacks and he launched himself clear out of the ring.
  • If you did beat Cervantes and Soul Edge using Mitsurugi, you'd find yourself up against Tanegashima, who starts the fight with a matchlock rifle, fully loaded, primed, cocked and pointed at your face. You have a split second (1 or 2 frames, at most) to dive to one side or his bullet will result in an unblockable One-Hit Kill. Of course, if you manage to do that, you've got plenty of time to run up to him and hack him apart while he reloads, but occasionally he does manage to block your attacks (which somehow doesn't interfere with his reloading) long enough to get off another shot.
• Soulcalibur II makes use of this trope with Inferno, a final boss who uses random move sets of other characters. This final fight carries the deceptive appearance of a single-KO battle, but Inferno's life bar is in fact 3 times normal size. He also receives a damage bonus, a special throw that knocks off more than half of your life gauge, and changes move sets when he hits 2/3rds and 1/3rd of his total life (and if you deal extra damage, it always truncates it, so Inferno starts each "round" with that amount of life). Additionally, flames blanket the stage and cover Inferno's body, making it harder and harder to discern his movements. Definitely a joystick-snapper.
  • Fortunately, Inferno is surprisingly susceptible to throws.
• Soulcalibur III utilizes this to a degree even with non-boss characters, although there are certain moves that can be used to circumvent the seemingly precogniscent AI. But the secret boss, Night Terror, is absolutely batshit insane in this regard, with Eye Beams and a stance which renders him immune to damage; unless you're using one of the aforementioned AI-killing attacks (or a few more that take advantage of Night Terror's absurd size) it appears that you can only beat him if the CPU decides that you can. Oh, yeah... you can't beat him by "ring out", either, because he'll just fly back in. Thanks God he isn't playable, at least if you're not using a cheating device.
  • The story mode only character, Keres, has a unique effect that makes him Immune to Flinching, which also renders him immune to all kinds of throws and knockback. While he still takes damage from attacks that he doesn't block, the effect lets him wail on you with impunity since you can't interrupt him. Fortunately, he also deals fairly low damage, so defeating him becomes a matter of attrition. Furthermore, he's an optional boss that doesn't unlock anything if you defeat him usually, but is required to fight Night Terror in some characters' stories. Have fun.
  • Another story opponent, Colossus, also fits the bill. On the one hand, he can't block (because he's a giant statue and you're hacking away at his shin). On the other hand, half of his attacks are Guard Breaks and the other half are unblockable, and all of them have a stupidly large range and can easily cause a Ring Out even if you're not standing anywhere near the edge, including a throw that can't be avoided (again, because he's a giant statue). Oh, and once you get his health down to 0, you die instantly if he falls on you and it counts as a loss since he's not considered "defeated" until he's face-down in the dirt.
• Soulcalibur IV actually averts this, believe it or not, with its final boss, Algol. While he's fast and strong, he never feels impossible, and his projectiles are not only blockable but they can be parried to reflect them back against him. In the Tower of Lost Souls Mode, he actually does appear to fight like an SNK Boss, until you figure out the bug in his AI. In the right circumstances, he'll ring himself out, every time those circumstances are presented to him.
  • In Tower of Lost Souls mode he has a 50% chance each SECOND of "unblockability" - which includes being impossible to parry - being granted to his next attack, takes 30% normal damage, does double normal damage, has two health bars, and drains life with every attack? Essentially, if he hits you the battle is probably lost.
  • He also boasts some stupidly broken infinites, although the A.I. never seems to make good use of them.
  • The Apprentice in Arcade. While not quite SNK level, he does seem to have an uncanny knack for sidestepping verticals, vert-jabbing horizontals, air-juggling and... to cap it all off... a truly ridiculous frequency of Just Impacts. If you hadn't yet learned how to play defensively before you face The Apprentice, you'll certainly have the hang of it by the time you finally defeat him, because you're not winning this fight otherwise.
• Soulcalibur V has the honored privilege of granting us not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not even six, but seven SNK Bosses, all fought in a row, in Legendary Souls mode. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Score Attack. The AI becomes demonically possessed, reads your inputs and reacts with unbelievable timing, and does not let you so much as breathe when it goes on the offensive. It can also perform any move requiring a Just Frame perfectly, resulting in combos which are completely impossible unless you have close to exact timing.
  • First up is Kilik. Despite being a mimic character normally, in Legendary Souls he is stuck using Xiba's style, which was originally his own from previous games. The second you let him get momentum, he starts comboing you like a maniac with ambiguous mixups, and doesn't stop. In addition, Kilik has special properties when using Xiba's style - he gains some of his original moves from past games back. And those moves just so happen to be a few of his signatures.
  • Next is Nightmare, who uses an exclusive costume just for this mode, his Soulcalibur IV outfit. With his immense range, he will constantly knock you down and take away about 50-70% of your health bar using his Brave Edges and comboing into his Down+A+B attack while you're on the ground, resulting in a special command throw.
  • Your third opponent is Siegfried, who also uses his Soulcalibur IV outfit exclusive to this mode. While he doesn't have the damage output of Nightmare, he does have the momentum and mixup game of Kilik, and is also a massive block-whore. Be prepared for ring outs several times over, and good luck trying to break his defenses.
  • Contestant #4 is Cervantes, decked out in his Inferno costume from the very first game. While he's a bit easier than the first three opponents, your jaw is guaranteed to drop as he juggles you with Instant Geo Da Rays/Psycho Crushers for insane damage.
  • After Cervantes, you fight Edge Master. Just like Kilik, in this mode he gets stuck with one set style - Alpha Patroklos', who in turn uses Setsuka's style. If the AI blocks you even once you will be punished with either a combo into his Critical Edge which can be done off of pretty much anything due to how fast it comes out, or a Just Frame Sakura Twister, which is so fast it can be done twice in a row and deals amazing damage for a combo ender. For many, this is the breaking point, but there's something even worse after him.
  • That "something worse" is the 6th battle against Elysium. Again, she uses a set style - Pyrrha Omega's, to be exact. And this just so happens to be Sophitia's style, who Elysium takes the form of. Unfortunately, this version of Sophitia's style is faster, and about 10 times cheaper, making Elysium a total bitch to fight against. She spams Angel Strike (her signature stab) like it's going out of style, and will always end it with the Just Frame ender. In addition, just like Kilik, Pyrrha Omega's moveset gets new attacks and special proeprties when used by Elysium. Now her moveset and animations become those of Sophitia from IV, meaning she gets all the top tier attributes she used to have from that game. She will also use her exclusive Critical Edge, which is a 20-hit full-screen attack, at the worst possible moments. Have fun.
  • Your last opponent is a familiar face - Algol from Soulcalibur IV, who seems to now be taking fashion advice from Gill. This time he's gotten smarter and doesn't ring himself out on accident anymore, which is bad news for you. Luckily, he's easier than the first 6 opponents put together, making this an Anti-Climax Boss.
    • The catch is that, while manageable compared to the other six, Algol is still a force to be reckoned with, even after losing the infinites that banned him from Tournament Play in IV. If he builds up his meter, Algol will use his Brave Edges and Critical Edge with sadistic glee, all of which puts you in position for more combo madness like rebounding you off of his levitating throne for an untechable juggle and then using his projectiles to pop you off of the ground, air controlling your position as a setup for combo finishers that allow him to further press the assault on wake-up. And if Algol is feeling especially malicious, he'll store up his meter and use all of it at once. Nothing quite says frustration like a 10+-hit, touch of death combo. Or Algol using his complete Critical Edge at full meter, which is among the most-damaging single-hit moves in the entire game. Moral of the story: never let Algol gain momentum. Never.
• Soulcalibur VI brings back Inferno as the Final Boss of the Soul Chronicle mode, though instead of copying his opponents' abilities he now uses a souped-up version of Nightmare's moveset that has all his Soul Charge abilities available to him by default as well as teleportation, flight and laser beams (you know, the ones that Night Terror had?). In addition to all that, his Soul Charge lets him use his original exclusive moves from I and II which allow him to spin around in the air with a moving hitbox and transition into many painful attacks that are nigh impossible to defend against. It's especially telling that he's banned from online play because of how overpowered he is.
  • Legendary Souls returns once again, this time as the Legendary difficulty in Arcade Mode. This time, though, you're not dealing with just 7 souped-up opponents. Now you have to deal with 8 of them, all on a significantly higher difficulty level than what's labeled the hardest. And to top it all off? You have to face the aforementioned Inferno at the end, who is more than happy to show you exactly how broken he is with his absurd damage output and increased pushback compared to other characters. Be very afraid if he breaks the wall on his stage, because now one combo from Inferno will result in a Ring Out.

Other Games

• The Final Boss of Dragon Ball Fighter Z in the Androids arc of the Story Mode is the Superpowered Evil Side of Android 21 who has absorbed Cell and a host of cloned fighters. The boss has a maxed-out ability list to start, has a healing factor stronger than anything the player can get, and if their health gets too low, they use an unblockable screen-clearing super move that does a lot of damage while allowing said healing factor to recover a lot of health. The character can't use this move anywhere else after you unlock them, it can't be interrupted, and it takes a few seconds to charge. The last battle which takes place immediately after that is just Android 21 against an even stronger version of the boss, while Android 21 has no abilities (although there, the player only has to survive for 45 seconds).
• Fighting Layer has Vold Ignitio, the final boss. The first round is no big deal, even if he's tougher than most of the previous fights. If you win a round against him, he goes Limp and Livid, and the difficulty skyrockets. When you attack him and he's not trying to get up or in the middle of an attack, he will swap places with you and counterattack with your own move. He also has an unblockable diving attack that is guaranteed to hit if you can't get out of the way. Finally, his gun super is fast, unblockable, and heavy hitting.
• Ridge Racer had quite a handful of SNK Bosses, the most well-known of which is the original game's hidden car, the 13th Racing, later known as the Rivelta/Soldat Crinale. Not only its position is not shown on the racetrack's map, but is also way, way faster than the player vehicle. Even when using the game's best default car for this duel, the RT Ryukyu, defeating the Crinale is still easier said than done. Unlike most SNK Bosses though, the Crinale is unlocked after winning against it, and maintains almost all of the SNK Boss-like quirks for the player to use, which is justified, given its title as the game's local Game-Breaker alongside the aforementioned RT Ryukyu.
• Strike Freedom in the bonus stage at the end of branching routes in Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus. Has the same functions as the playable version but has a health gauge way longer than any of the bosses you fight in the game, at least as long as Devil/Dark Gundam's. He also has an exclusive attack involving a rushing attack with his Wings of Light and Super DRAGOONs. After he's sustained a good amount of damage, he'll immediately strap on METEOR and then shit gets real; dual plasma cannons that can knock you down in one hit, plus missile spam and his strongest attack brings both Beam Spam and Macross Missile Massacre together for a speeding wall of death on top of uber beam sabers. And to top it all off, his Assist is a METEOR-equipped Infinite Justice who will do the exact same thing when called on. If you've managed to hit him hard enough, he'll ditch the trashed METEOR and start fighting like "normal", except he'll have infinite SEED factor, giving him insane boost dashes, reduced boost usage and Full Burst Mode. Making this all significantly worse is whatever you have to fight before and during the battle with SF which are usually powerful suits like Wing Zero and 00 Raiser and if you followed a particular route to get to this stage, you have to fight all alone.
• Almost every king/top player ghosts in Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 and onwards. It basically a replay of that player's run down to every turn, braking, and collision made. When playing against it (i.e. "Going for the crown"), it will try to stay true to its recorded course to the point of easily pushing away traffic cars (whereas you tend to get mucked up trying the same thing), and if you and it collide, it will most certainly get away scot free while you are left in the dust (unless you are in front of it).