[Music]
they are old-school gaming’s greatest
challenges welcome to watchmojo.com and
still be kicking off our series of the
best video game boss battles with our
first list of the top ten video game
boss battles of the 1980s this list will
be looking at the most enjoyable
influential and well-designed boss
battles per decade starting off with the
glory days of the 1980s only one boss
battle per franchise will be allowed for
each list number 10 the mothership
Phoenix not to be confused with space
invaders Phoenix pitted arcade players
against the most dangerous of foes
mechanical birds from outer space
at the end of every round the mothership
would appear armed with missiles a
conveyor belt style shield and several
minions under its wing with each new
level increasing the speed and
difficulty of the oncoming feathered
Menace the mothership provided a fun
challenge for players to test their
speed precision and just how well they
were with a joystick not bad for what is
considered to be one of the first video
game bosses ever
number nine grumble Gromit Bubble Bobble
[Music]
known in Japan as super drunk this final
boss certainly seems like something that
could only be created by someone who is
incredibly inebriated he doesn’t come
complete with a hangover but he does
have an infinite supply of bottles to
throw at you located on the 100th floor
in the cave of Monsters players need to
be swift to avoid this behemoths
projectiles and charge attack luckily
there’s plenty of lightning bubbles
around for ammunition
so stay light on your feet and you just
might be able to save Betty and patty
from getting popped
number 8 red Falcon contra
[Music]
in a game as manly as this you need a
boss battle that lives up to the
standard set by its testosterone-filled
protagonists luckily the red Falcon does
just that clearly taking heavy
inspiration from the Alien franchise
this Ballack alien life-form makes up
the final level as players will not only
have to blast its monstrous head off but
also shoot their way to its heart of
course blasting your way through isn’t
as easy as you might think as there’s a
constant swarm of totally not
facehuggers pouncing at our heroes
number 7 shredder
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade
the heroes in a half-shell exploded onto
the arcade scene about the same time
that the show is blowing up your
afternoon cartoon sessions and they
brought their most fearsome foe along
for the ride
[Music]
this side-scrolling beat-em-up
culminated in a final level with the
shredder and much like his cartoon
counterpart he doesn’t go down easy even
if you’re playing co-op with all four
turtles in tow
shredder will appear with a large number
of clones armed with both swords and
lightning that he can D mutate the
turtles within a single hit we hope
you’ve been keeping your ninja skills
sharp cuz you’re gonna need them number
six CineStar Sinistar his catchphrases
are so hilariously 80s that they have
long since worked their way into gaming
culture where coward run coward a creepy
as hell spacecraft the only chance of
taking Sinistar down is mining various
planetoids and assembling Sinnott bombs
in order to destroy it with each new
zone increasing in difficulty and threat
of Sinistar assembling itself constantly
looming this boss offered a great sense
of tension in the lead-up to the battle
only to provide us with such iconic
dialogue as being where I live and I
hunger
don’t panic too much though one wrong
move and you’ll get sucked into his
terrifying screaming mom
number five Dark Link Zelda 2 The
Adventure of Link
once again taking up the Master Sword to
save the life of fair princess zelda
winx journey all over Hyrule would
eventually lead players to battling all
sorts of creatures in order to earn the
Triforce of courage little did they know
that in order to do so they would have
to defeat Link’s shadowy doppelganger
[Music]
possessing the same moves as you players
need to land eight precise strikes in
order to defeat this dark copy he might
not be Ganon but his surprise appearance
and tendency to block and attack just as
quickly as link made him a welcome
addition to the franchise number four
wart super mario brothers – we’re not
saying bowser isn’t a great villain in
fact he’s right up there with some of
videogames greatest tyrants however you
have to admit that his boss battle in
the original Super Mario Brothers which
was from the 80s can be incredibly easy
as such we have to hand this entry over
to the leader of the 8-bit Mario games
due to the original Super Mario Brothers
– being considered too difficult for
North American audiences the developer
simply imported a game called Doki Doki
Panic and rebranded it as a Mario sequel
regardless wart makes for a tricky final
boss which forces players to avoid his
projectiles and defeat him by of course
launching vegetables at him huh who knew
eating your greens could be so deadly
[Music]
number three yellow devil Mega Man
[Music]
and you thought the robot masters were
all you had to worry about this fortress
boss is the ultimate test for players in
terms jumping and accuracy its weak
point might be fairly obvious but
managing to land a hit on it is a whole
other thing entirely able to dismantle
its goo like body into smaller
projectiles this gigantic robot will
quite literally throw itself at you as
it scatters across the stage before
reassembling itself and repeating the
process all over again with a highly
irregular attack pattern the only hope
players have is to keep that Thunder
beam charged and pray that they can
survive the onslaught
[Music]
number two Dracula Castlevania
every villain has his beginning and
while his later appearances in the
franchise arguably packed more of a
punch
Dracula’s first clash with Simon Belmont
in the original Castlevania is still a
classic boss battle worthy of praise
able to teleport across the screen and
continuously cast Hellfire players would
find themselves frantically using the
whip like there was no tomorrow
later assuming a more demonic form
Dracula would rain down fire from above
and try to pin players in a corner
[Music]
his greatest moments as a boss can be
debated but no one can deny that this
was definitely a great place to start
[Music]
before we reveal our number one pick
here a few honorable mentions
[Music]
number one Mike Tyson Mike Tyson’s
punch-out have you ever wanted to knock
out a former heavyweight champion well
in this surreal gaming experience you
got your chance as little Mac’s final
opponent Mike Tyson is dead set on a
brutal fist exchange the first 90
seconds of this fight aren’t infamous
due to tyson launching a series of
uppercuts that can immediately knock you
onto the canvas
survive that and you’ll be able to
navigate your way through a series of
lightning jabs and unpredictable blows
until you eventually connect with the
head of your own
[Music]
despite the ridiculousness of actually
fighting Mike Tyson there’s no doubt it
made for the 80s most rewarding boss
battle alright
he’s a BB ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba get up here
you grew up there you go fight come on
back in do you agree with our list what
was your favorite boss battle from the
1980s with new top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
[Music]
you
they are old-school gaming’s greatest
challenges welcome to watchmojo.com and
still be kicking off our series of the
best video game boss battles with our
first list of the top ten video game
boss battles of the 1980s this list will
be looking at the most enjoyable
influential and well-designed boss
battles per decade starting off with the
glory days of the 1980s only one boss
battle per franchise will be allowed for
each list number 10 the mothership
Phoenix not to be confused with space
invaders Phoenix pitted arcade players
against the most dangerous of foes
mechanical birds from outer space
at the end of every round the mothership
would appear armed with missiles a
conveyor belt style shield and several
minions under its wing with each new
level increasing the speed and
difficulty of the oncoming feathered
Menace the mothership provided a fun
challenge for players to test their
speed precision and just how well they
were with a joystick not bad for what is
considered to be one of the first video
game bosses ever
number nine grumble Gromit Bubble Bobble
[Music]
known in Japan as super drunk this final
boss certainly seems like something that
could only be created by someone who is
incredibly inebriated he doesn’t come
complete with a hangover but he does
have an infinite supply of bottles to
throw at you located on the 100th floor
in the cave of Monsters players need to
be swift to avoid this behemoths
projectiles and charge attack luckily
there’s plenty of lightning bubbles
around for ammunition
so stay light on your feet and you just
might be able to save Betty and patty
from getting popped
number 8 red Falcon contra
[Music]
in a game as manly as this you need a
boss battle that lives up to the
standard set by its testosterone-filled
protagonists luckily the red Falcon does
just that clearly taking heavy
inspiration from the Alien franchise
this Ballack alien life-form makes up
the final level as players will not only
have to blast its monstrous head off but
also shoot their way to its heart of
course blasting your way through isn’t
as easy as you might think as there’s a
constant swarm of totally not
facehuggers pouncing at our heroes
number 7 shredder
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade
the heroes in a half-shell exploded onto
the arcade scene about the same time
that the show is blowing up your
afternoon cartoon sessions and they
brought their most fearsome foe along
for the ride
[Music]
this side-scrolling beat-em-up
culminated in a final level with the
shredder and much like his cartoon
counterpart he doesn’t go down easy even
if you’re playing co-op with all four
turtles in tow
shredder will appear with a large number
of clones armed with both swords and
lightning that he can D mutate the
turtles within a single hit we hope
you’ve been keeping your ninja skills
sharp cuz you’re gonna need them number
six CineStar Sinistar his catchphrases
are so hilariously 80s that they have
long since worked their way into gaming
culture where coward run coward a creepy
as hell spacecraft the only chance of
taking Sinistar down is mining various
planetoids and assembling Sinnott bombs
in order to destroy it with each new
zone increasing in difficulty and threat
of Sinistar assembling itself constantly
looming this boss offered a great sense
of tension in the lead-up to the battle
only to provide us with such iconic
dialogue as being where I live and I
hunger
don’t panic too much though one wrong
move and you’ll get sucked into his
terrifying screaming mom
number five Dark Link Zelda 2 The
Adventure of Link
once again taking up the Master Sword to
save the life of fair princess zelda
winx journey all over Hyrule would
eventually lead players to battling all
sorts of creatures in order to earn the
Triforce of courage little did they know
that in order to do so they would have
to defeat Link’s shadowy doppelganger
[Music]
possessing the same moves as you players
need to land eight precise strikes in
order to defeat this dark copy he might
not be Ganon but his surprise appearance
and tendency to block and attack just as
quickly as link made him a welcome
addition to the franchise number four
wart super mario brothers – we’re not
saying bowser isn’t a great villain in
fact he’s right up there with some of
videogames greatest tyrants however you
have to admit that his boss battle in
the original Super Mario Brothers which
was from the 80s can be incredibly easy
as such we have to hand this entry over
to the leader of the 8-bit Mario games
due to the original Super Mario Brothers
– being considered too difficult for
North American audiences the developer
simply imported a game called Doki Doki
Panic and rebranded it as a Mario sequel
regardless wart makes for a tricky final
boss which forces players to avoid his
projectiles and defeat him by of course
launching vegetables at him huh who knew
eating your greens could be so deadly
[Music]
number three yellow devil Mega Man
[Music]
and you thought the robot masters were
all you had to worry about this fortress
boss is the ultimate test for players in
terms jumping and accuracy its weak
point might be fairly obvious but
managing to land a hit on it is a whole
other thing entirely able to dismantle
its goo like body into smaller
projectiles this gigantic robot will
quite literally throw itself at you as
it scatters across the stage before
reassembling itself and repeating the
process all over again with a highly
irregular attack pattern the only hope
players have is to keep that Thunder
beam charged and pray that they can
survive the onslaught
[Music]
number two Dracula Castlevania
every villain has his beginning and
while his later appearances in the
franchise arguably packed more of a
punch
Dracula’s first clash with Simon Belmont
in the original Castlevania is still a
classic boss battle worthy of praise
able to teleport across the screen and
continuously cast Hellfire players would
find themselves frantically using the
whip like there was no tomorrow
later assuming a more demonic form
Dracula would rain down fire from above
and try to pin players in a corner
[Music]
his greatest moments as a boss can be
debated but no one can deny that this
was definitely a great place to start
[Music]
before we reveal our number one pick
here a few honorable mentions
[Music]
number one Mike Tyson Mike Tyson’s
punch-out have you ever wanted to knock
out a former heavyweight champion well
in this surreal gaming experience you
got your chance as little Mac’s final
opponent Mike Tyson is dead set on a
brutal fist exchange the first 90
seconds of this fight aren’t infamous
due to tyson launching a series of
uppercuts that can immediately knock you
onto the canvas
survive that and you’ll be able to
navigate your way through a series of
lightning jabs and unpredictable blows
until you eventually connect with the
head of your own
[Music]
despite the ridiculousness of actually
fighting Mike Tyson there’s no doubt it
made for the 80s most rewarding boss
battle alright
he’s a BB ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba get up here
you grew up there you go fight come on
back in do you agree with our list what
was your favorite boss battle from the
1980s with new top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
[Music]
you
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