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I’ve spent the morning playing and swearing at my N64, is he going mad? I hear you say, well yes and no, I’ve been fighting the most annoying boss you could ever imagine, the game is Turok 3 the boss is a fat muther of a bug. The amount of times I’ve tried to beat this bsterd is getting stupid now, I really don’t know how the heck I’m going to ever do it, as soon as you get his energy bar right down to the bottom, for some unknown reason he regenerates it all. Then it dawned on me, why do games developers bother with bosses? I’m sorry but only on the rare occasion have I actually enjoyed fighting them, otherwise they’re just a pain in the backside, they always seem to get in the way of the fun game play. You fight your way through a massive level and by the time you get to the end you’re pretty much out of health and ammunition, then you’re forced to fight some 5 storey hard as nails chimp, with enough firepower to start a world war (or in Nintendo’s case a big fluffy Bunny that tries to jump on you) which tends to kill you straight away sending you back to the beginning of the level. There’s no skill involved in fighting most of these 10-ton freaks, it’s usually a case of dodging fire while shooting like a mad man and probably dieing in about 30 seconds. I really really hate them, you get the occasional game that has enjoyable bosses, e.g. Zelda but the only reason they’re enjoyable is because there not too hard to kill, couple of goes and they tend to be dead.
I doubt I’m alone when I say I hate bosses with a passion, I can understand having an end of game boss, but some of these things are just far too damn hard too beat. It seems to me that the only company’s (from a Ninty view don’t know about Sony) that realise that people just don’t enjoy these fights which you have to keep playing over and over again, are Nintendo and Rare. Games like Banjo Tooie and Zelda have good boss fights, they’re not too hard, they’re not too easy, they’re challenging enough, but they’re not so hard that they get annoying. But when you get these bosses that take far too long too kill it really is just annoying, a good example of a very crap and annoying boss is in the original Turok, the level three boss is one of the hardest enemies I’ve ever had to confront. First of all you have to fight a jeep when that eventually blows you think you’ve done it, but no another Jeep starts too attack you, by the time that’s blown up you’ve pretty much used up all your good ammunition, then to your amazement some guy appears from the jeep, with enough energy to ummmm make a Lucozade Drink, what follows is one of the most boring, annoying, repetitive boss fights in gaming history. As you’re low on ammo it’s a case of strafing his fire while moving backwards and trying to shoot the somersaulting gimp with a gun that would be better suited to a Fairground. It’s not clever and it certainly isn’t fun, okay you get a massive feeling of triumph when you eventually kill them, but half the time it annoys me so much that I find myself almost forced to use cheat codes.
From the dawn of gaming time (well at least as far back as I can remember) bosses have always been the most annoying part of games. Games such as Xenon 2 on the Atari ST where good fun, up until the point where you have to confront a massive screen filling alien, what really used to extract the urine on these games was that you had to start the whole game again when you died, at least we don’t have that problem anymore, usually on games like this you would get to the boss with maybe 1 or 2 lives, the first life you would waste straight away cause you're so shocked about the size of the thing and have no idea what to do, the second would be wasted frantically dodging the fire while attempting to work what part of this big alien monkey your supposed to shoot, this would usually follow with a dirty great GAME OVER message,at this point I tended to punch the TV Screen, which kind of hurt. Can anyone honestly say they used to enjoy the bosses on the old skool Shoot em ups? Only a select bunch I bet. Even on cutesy games like Rainbow Islands bosses have always been a pain in the posterior.
I can name most the games with good “fun” bosses in a few minutes, the majority of end of level bosses are just there to be annoying, there should be a warning before half of these gimps saying “warning this enemy will make you swear A LOT”. What really tends to rub it in is on games such as Banjo Kazooie (one Rare boss that I hate) the final boss battle, must take about 50 goes to complete, every time you die you get sent back to the beginning and you have to keep playing the same bits over and over and over again until you’re blue in the face.
What I’m trying to say is game developers if you have to have bosses in your games, don’t make them so damn hard, no one likes fighting the same boss over and over again, take a leaf out of Rare or Nintendo’s book, make them challenging but not the kind of thing that’s going to take hours to beat.
Anyway enough of my moaning i'm off to swear at Turok 3 a bit more.
Tiltawhirl :hating bosses with a passion
I doubt I’m alone when I say I hate bosses with a passion, I can understand having an end of game boss, but some of these things are just far too damn hard too beat. It seems to me that the only company’s (from a Ninty view don’t know about Sony) that realise that people just don’t enjoy these fights which you have to keep playing over and over again, are Nintendo and Rare. Games like Banjo Tooie and Zelda have good boss fights, they’re not too hard, they’re not too easy, they’re challenging enough, but they’re not so hard that they get annoying. But when you get these bosses that take far too long too kill it really is just annoying, a good example of a very crap and annoying boss is in the original Turok, the level three boss is one of the hardest enemies I’ve ever had to confront. First of all you have to fight a jeep when that eventually blows you think you’ve done it, but no another Jeep starts too attack you, by the time that’s blown up you’ve pretty much used up all your good ammunition, then to your amazement some guy appears from the jeep, with enough energy to ummmm make a Lucozade Drink, what follows is one of the most boring, annoying, repetitive boss fights in gaming history. As you’re low on ammo it’s a case of strafing his fire while moving backwards and trying to shoot the somersaulting gimp with a gun that would be better suited to a Fairground. It’s not clever and it certainly isn’t fun, okay you get a massive feeling of triumph when you eventually kill them, but half the time it annoys me so much that I find myself almost forced to use cheat codes.
From the dawn of gaming time (well at least as far back as I can remember) bosses have always been the most annoying part of games. Games such as Xenon 2 on the Atari ST where good fun, up until the point where you have to confront a massive screen filling alien, what really used to extract the urine on these games was that you had to start the whole game again when you died, at least we don’t have that problem anymore, usually on games like this you would get to the boss with maybe 1 or 2 lives, the first life you would waste straight away cause you're so shocked about the size of the thing and have no idea what to do, the second would be wasted frantically dodging the fire while attempting to work what part of this big alien monkey your supposed to shoot, this would usually follow with a dirty great GAME OVER message,at this point I tended to punch the TV Screen, which kind of hurt. Can anyone honestly say they used to enjoy the bosses on the old skool Shoot em ups? Only a select bunch I bet. Even on cutesy games like Rainbow Islands bosses have always been a pain in the posterior.
I can name most the games with good “fun” bosses in a few minutes, the majority of end of level bosses are just there to be annoying, there should be a warning before half of these gimps saying “warning this enemy will make you swear A LOT”. What really tends to rub it in is on games such as Banjo Kazooie (one Rare boss that I hate) the final boss battle, must take about 50 goes to complete, every time you die you get sent back to the beginning and you have to keep playing the same bits over and over and over again until you’re blue in the face.
What I’m trying to say is game developers if you have to have bosses in your games, don’t make them so damn hard, no one likes fighting the same boss over and over again, take a leaf out of Rare or Nintendo’s book, make them challenging but not the kind of thing that’s going to take hours to beat.
Anyway enough of my moaning i'm off to swear at Turok 3 a bit more.
Tiltawhirl :hating bosses with a passion
Page:
I’ve spent the morning playing and swearing at my N64, is he going mad? I hear you say, well yes and no, I’ve been fighting the most annoying boss you could ever imagine, the game is Turok 3 the boss is a fat muther of a bug. The amount of times I’ve tried to beat this bsterd is getting stupid now, I really don’t know how the heck I’m going to ever do it, as soon as you get his energy bar right down to the bottom, for some unknown reason he regenerates it all. Then it dawned on me, why do games developers bother with bosses? I’m sorry but only on the rare occasion have I actually enjoyed fighting them, otherwise they’re just a pain in the backside, they always seem to get in the way of the fun game play. You fight your way through a massive level and by the time you get to the end you’re pretty much out of health and ammunition, then you’re forced to fight some 5 storey hard as nails chimp, with enough firepower to start a world war (or in Nintendo’s case a big fluffy Bunny that tries to jump on you) which tends to kill you straight away sending you back to the beginning of the level. There’s no skill involved in fighting most of these 10-ton freaks, it’s usually a case of dodging fire while shooting like a mad man and probably dieing in about 30 seconds. I really really hate them, you get the occasional game that has enjoyable bosses, e.g. Zelda but the only reason they’re enjoyable is because there not too hard to kill, couple of goes and they tend to be dead.
I doubt I’m alone when I say I hate bosses with a passion, I can understand having an end of game boss, but some of these things are just far too damn hard too beat. It seems to me that the only company’s (from a Ninty view don’t know about Sony) that realise that people just don’t enjoy these fights which you have to keep playing over and over again, are Nintendo and Rare. Games like Banjo Tooie and Zelda have good boss fights, they’re not too hard, they’re not too easy, they’re challenging enough, but they’re not so hard that they get annoying. But when you get these bosses that take far too long too kill it really is just annoying, a good example of a very crap and annoying boss is in the original Turok, the level three boss is one of the hardest enemies I’ve ever had to confront. First of all you have to fight a jeep when that eventually blows you think you’ve done it, but no another Jeep starts too attack you, by the time that’s blown up you’ve pretty much used up all your good ammunition, then to your amazement some guy appears from the jeep, with enough energy to ummmm make a Lucozade Drink, what follows is one of the most boring, annoying, repetitive boss fights in gaming history. As you’re low on ammo it’s a case of strafing his fire while moving backwards and trying to shoot the somersaulting gimp with a gun that would be better suited to a Fairground. It’s not clever and it certainly isn’t fun, okay you get a massive feeling of triumph when you eventually kill them, but half the time it annoys me so much that I find myself almost forced to use cheat codes.
From the dawn of gaming time (well at least as far back as I can remember) bosses have always been the most annoying part of games. Games such as Xenon 2 on the Atari ST where good fun, up until the point where you have to confront a massive screen filling alien, what really used to extract the urine on these games was that you had to start the whole game again when you died, at least we don’t have that problem anymore, usually on games like this you would get to the boss with maybe 1 or 2 lives, the first life you would waste straight away cause you're so shocked about the size of the thing and have no idea what to do, the second would be wasted frantically dodging the fire while attempting to work what part of this big alien monkey your supposed to shoot, this would usually follow with a dirty great GAME OVER message,at this point I tended to punch the TV Screen, which kind of hurt. Can anyone honestly say they used to enjoy the bosses on the old skool Shoot em ups? Only a select bunch I bet. Even on cutesy games like Rainbow Islands bosses have always been a pain in the posterior.
I can name most the games with good “fun” bosses in a few minutes, the majority of end of level bosses are just there to be annoying, there should be a warning before half of these gimps saying “warning this enemy will make you swear A LOT”. What really tends to rub it in is on games such as Banjo Kazooie (one Rare boss that I hate) the final boss battle, must take about 50 goes to complete, every time you die you get sent back to the beginning and you have to keep playing the same bits over and over and over again until you’re blue in the face.
What I’m trying to say is game developers if you have to have bosses in your games, don’t make them so damn hard, no one likes fighting the same boss over and over again, take a leaf out of Rare or Nintendo’s book, make them challenging but not the kind of thing that’s going to take hours to beat.
Anyway enough of my moaning i'm off to swear at Turok 3 a bit more.
Tiltawhirl :hating bosses with a passion
I doubt I’m alone when I say I hate bosses with a passion, I can understand having an end of game boss, but some of these things are just far too damn hard too beat. It seems to me that the only company’s (from a Ninty view don’t know about Sony) that realise that people just don’t enjoy these fights which you have to keep playing over and over again, are Nintendo and Rare. Games like Banjo Tooie and Zelda have good boss fights, they’re not too hard, they’re not too easy, they’re challenging enough, but they’re not so hard that they get annoying. But when you get these bosses that take far too long too kill it really is just annoying, a good example of a very crap and annoying boss is in the original Turok, the level three boss is one of the hardest enemies I’ve ever had to confront. First of all you have to fight a jeep when that eventually blows you think you’ve done it, but no another Jeep starts too attack you, by the time that’s blown up you’ve pretty much used up all your good ammunition, then to your amazement some guy appears from the jeep, with enough energy to ummmm make a Lucozade Drink, what follows is one of the most boring, annoying, repetitive boss fights in gaming history. As you’re low on ammo it’s a case of strafing his fire while moving backwards and trying to shoot the somersaulting gimp with a gun that would be better suited to a Fairground. It’s not clever and it certainly isn’t fun, okay you get a massive feeling of triumph when you eventually kill them, but half the time it annoys me so much that I find myself almost forced to use cheat codes.
From the dawn of gaming time (well at least as far back as I can remember) bosses have always been the most annoying part of games. Games such as Xenon 2 on the Atari ST where good fun, up until the point where you have to confront a massive screen filling alien, what really used to extract the urine on these games was that you had to start the whole game again when you died, at least we don’t have that problem anymore, usually on games like this you would get to the boss with maybe 1 or 2 lives, the first life you would waste straight away cause you're so shocked about the size of the thing and have no idea what to do, the second would be wasted frantically dodging the fire while attempting to work what part of this big alien monkey your supposed to shoot, this would usually follow with a dirty great GAME OVER message,at this point I tended to punch the TV Screen, which kind of hurt. Can anyone honestly say they used to enjoy the bosses on the old skool Shoot em ups? Only a select bunch I bet. Even on cutesy games like Rainbow Islands bosses have always been a pain in the posterior.
I can name most the games with good “fun” bosses in a few minutes, the majority of end of level bosses are just there to be annoying, there should be a warning before half of these gimps saying “warning this enemy will make you swear A LOT”. What really tends to rub it in is on games such as Banjo Kazooie (one Rare boss that I hate) the final boss battle, must take about 50 goes to complete, every time you die you get sent back to the beginning and you have to keep playing the same bits over and over and over again until you’re blue in the face.
What I’m trying to say is game developers if you have to have bosses in your games, don’t make them so damn hard, no one likes fighting the same boss over and over again, take a leaf out of Rare or Nintendo’s book, make them challenging but not the kind of thing that’s going to take hours to beat.
Anyway enough of my moaning i'm off to swear at Turok 3 a bit more.
Tiltawhirl :hating bosses with a passion
Ummmmmmm Pop
I probably should use biactol on this acne, hmmm
I probably should use biactol on this acne, hmmm
You make a good point, but without bosses the fun and the thrill of beating them would be taken away. Imagine finishing Zelda without having to fight Gannon. Imagine playing Mario without having to fight Bowser...
Bosses should just be used for "dramatic effect". When they are too hard, all they do is disrupt the flow of the game - as you attempt to beat the son of a gun 50 odd times.
Bosses should be easy and dramatic, helping to bring a section of a game to a climatic yet enjoyable end.
You mention Turok 3, one of my favourite games on the N64 was Turok 2, but for me it was totally tainted by the incredibly difficult last boss. I tried to beat that mother god knows how many times. Needless to say I never saw the final cutscene. Even with the "BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND" cheat I couldn't defeat it.
Difficult bosses should be banned. Just what purpose do they serve? All they do is annoy.
Bosses should be easy and dramatic, helping to bring a section of a game to a climatic yet enjoyable end.
You mention Turok 3, one of my favourite games on the N64 was Turok 2, but for me it was totally tainted by the incredibly difficult last boss. I tried to beat that mother god knows how many times. Needless to say I never saw the final cutscene. Even with the "BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND" cheat I couldn't defeat it.
Difficult bosses should be banned. Just what purpose do they serve? All they do is annoy.
Bosses are cool...usually.
My favourites are on Wolfenstein 3D, in which I used to get really scared when I came to a boss. Especially when I finished Episode 5 and had to defeat the 'Madman.'
He had a really evil laugh, and I couldn't see him...
My favourites are on Wolfenstein 3D, in which I used to get really scared when I came to a boss. Especially when I finished Episode 5 and had to defeat the 'Madman.'
He had a really evil laugh, and I couldn't see him...
I have the problem where I will defeat a boss either on the first go or within a few goes and then never be able to replicate the feat again (mostly on dk64).
Wizzig was a pain until I learned the green boost, and even then on the space race against wizzpig it is still extremely difficult.
In lylat wars on expert mode the hard route boss is a lot easier to beat than the easy route boss because you only have to take down the starwolf team as opposed to the hundreds of ships that go for you on easy route before getting to andross.
Wizzig was a pain until I learned the green boost, and even then on the space race against wizzpig it is still extremely difficult.
In lylat wars on expert mode the hard route boss is a lot easier to beat than the easy route boss because you only have to take down the starwolf team as opposed to the hundreds of ships that go for you on easy route before getting to andross.
Emmmmmm. Can't think of anything to say.
Oh yeah. POP!
Oh yeah. POP!
Bosses have a whole atmoshere about them! The first time I was REALLY playing Doom on the Snes, I got to the last level of Chapt. 2 and you had to fight two (I think) of those demons that are half demon, half cyborg thingy and it was the whole atmosphere of them. I had relatively beefy weapons, but now I was being tested. Was I ready for the next chapter? The adrenaline rush you get when you see a good screen filling boss appear in front of you and think to yourself- This is gonna be good! The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you smile the knowing grin.
The best example of this I can think of at the moment is Lylatwars, the boss in Area 6 (the best level, no arguing!), you have just fought through the games most spectacular level, you have racked up over 200 kills, have destroyed huge ships, and squadrons of enemies, you are low on health, and bombs, and maybe a wing or two has been taken off. And then this... The boss warps in. You know you're in for a fight. At first it's not so bad, just a fair few missiles to dodge, but then a screen filling laser is pumped your way! Much barrel rolling ensues, but then you get at the enemies heart and destroy it once and for all.
That level of Lylatwars was built for the adrenaline rush. Other levels, Katina with its Independance Day invasion, Macbeth with its train track and tank shenanigans, and sector Z with its missile attacks all were made great by the set-piece, yet still arcadey game style. This level was one huge set piece- a massive adrenaline rush, no holds barred. Like the rest of the game was just a training ground for this moment. Get the glory or die trying, and without a huge screen filling boss at the end it'd be an anti-climax. It is NEEDED in this case, one final obstacle to defeat in your struggle for glory.
But in other games too bosses are needed. In lylatwars the bosses (mostly) aren't really too hard, even on the first go, but they serve as giving a climax to each level. But even in games like Jet Force Gemini where some of the bosses are incredibly hard, it is a good thing. The whole game was a kind of nod to old style shoot em ups with their screen filling bosses, frantic fighting, and arcade roots. But it added an adventure element and strategy. But the bosses acted as providing a barrier between each characters levels and them reaching their destination. The final boss was just to be climatic, and to reward those ultra hardcore gamers who continued into the wee hours (as I did on many occasions) trying to beat him. I still have only beat him once and had the game almost since its release. Sure it was a bit frustrating, but each time I got that tiny bit closer I felt like YES THIS TIME IT'LL HAPPEN! The adrenaline gets going, the excitement level is cranked up and its that kind of feeling you get like you have total control of the game, but it seems to be flashing past your eyes twice as fast as normal! That's the feeling I'm talking about!
If developers can create bosses and just games in general that create that special feeling, then I don't care how hard, annoying, easy, screen-filling, or stupidly tooled up they are, I will keep going back for that feeling, that is so addictive!
The best example of this I can think of at the moment is Lylatwars, the boss in Area 6 (the best level, no arguing!), you have just fought through the games most spectacular level, you have racked up over 200 kills, have destroyed huge ships, and squadrons of enemies, you are low on health, and bombs, and maybe a wing or two has been taken off. And then this... The boss warps in. You know you're in for a fight. At first it's not so bad, just a fair few missiles to dodge, but then a screen filling laser is pumped your way! Much barrel rolling ensues, but then you get at the enemies heart and destroy it once and for all.
That level of Lylatwars was built for the adrenaline rush. Other levels, Katina with its Independance Day invasion, Macbeth with its train track and tank shenanigans, and sector Z with its missile attacks all were made great by the set-piece, yet still arcadey game style. This level was one huge set piece- a massive adrenaline rush, no holds barred. Like the rest of the game was just a training ground for this moment. Get the glory or die trying, and without a huge screen filling boss at the end it'd be an anti-climax. It is NEEDED in this case, one final obstacle to defeat in your struggle for glory.
But in other games too bosses are needed. In lylatwars the bosses (mostly) aren't really too hard, even on the first go, but they serve as giving a climax to each level. But even in games like Jet Force Gemini where some of the bosses are incredibly hard, it is a good thing. The whole game was a kind of nod to old style shoot em ups with their screen filling bosses, frantic fighting, and arcade roots. But it added an adventure element and strategy. But the bosses acted as providing a barrier between each characters levels and them reaching their destination. The final boss was just to be climatic, and to reward those ultra hardcore gamers who continued into the wee hours (as I did on many occasions) trying to beat him. I still have only beat him once and had the game almost since its release. Sure it was a bit frustrating, but each time I got that tiny bit closer I felt like YES THIS TIME IT'LL HAPPEN! The adrenaline gets going, the excitement level is cranked up and its that kind of feeling you get like you have total control of the game, but it seems to be flashing past your eyes twice as fast as normal! That's the feeling I'm talking about!
If developers can create bosses and just games in general that create that special feeling, then I don't care how hard, annoying, easy, screen-filling, or stupidly tooled up they are, I will keep going back for that feeling, that is so addictive!
HA HA HA!
Can't believe you still haven't beaten that boss yet!
Even with my EXPERT help!
It took me a load of goes but I managed to defeat him, by getting his energy to just below half and then when he was waiting in the middle doing something odd, I went up to him a mullered him in the mouth with the Razor Wind, and he was down n out!
GUESS WHAT????
He's not even the final boss in the game!
MWAHAHAHAAH!
By the way, I think you do need bosses in games. Then make the end hard. I don't like it when I complete a game, because then your've completed it, move on. I like a good old struggle at the end. I know how you feel though. It can be really frustrating when you can't beat the final boss. I still haven't beaten the boss on DK 64 yet! In Turok 3 mind, all the bosses throughout the game were well easy, until that one your at now. Even the very last boss is well easy! But hey, that's life! Can't make all the game easy now can they!?!
l8rz m8
:)
Can't believe you still haven't beaten that boss yet!
Even with my EXPERT help!
It took me a load of goes but I managed to defeat him, by getting his energy to just below half and then when he was waiting in the middle doing something odd, I went up to him a mullered him in the mouth with the Razor Wind, and he was down n out!
GUESS WHAT????
He's not even the final boss in the game!
MWAHAHAHAAH!
By the way, I think you do need bosses in games. Then make the end hard. I don't like it when I complete a game, because then your've completed it, move on. I like a good old struggle at the end. I know how you feel though. It can be really frustrating when you can't beat the final boss. I still haven't beaten the boss on DK 64 yet! In Turok 3 mind, all the bosses throughout the game were well easy, until that one your at now. Even the very last boss is well easy! But hey, that's life! Can't make all the game easy now can they!?!
l8rz m8
:)
Cooky....u are sooo Evil....
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