When talking about hard bosses, most people think ofMalenia, Promised Consort Radahn,Laxasia, Isshin the Sword Saint, or Slave Knight Gael, to name a few from popularSoulslikes. But while this genre may have gained a lot of popularity in recent years, challenging bosses aren’t something new and can be traced back to 8-bit games.
Back in the day, theNESand Sega Master System had some of the most brutal games. Be it the difficult levels of the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, playing Contra for the first time without the Konami code, getting hit twice while playing Ghosts ‘n Goblins, or simply having to start from the beginning in Black Belt when it was game over.
Dying was super common, and thanks to often limited continues, you would be stuck on a level or a boss for hours.
10 Retro Games That Are Harder Than Elden Ring
Not finding Soulsborne games very challenging? Here are 10 retro games that are harder than Elden Ring that you must play.
Be it irrational attack patterns, having completely broken moves that could take away half your health bar in a single hit, or simply throwing you back at the start of the level, some bosses from these older games are just a massive pain to deal with.
But this is also what makes the taste of victory even sweeter when you finally beat them. So, let us take a quick dive back into the retro era, as here are the 12 hardest bosses from 8-bit games.
12Joker (Batman: The Video Game)
The One Time Batman Killed
Batman: The Video Game
Batman and the Joker are one of the most iconic enemy duos that are as old as time. In Batman: The Video Game, you get to play this rivalry where you fight Jack Nicholson’s version of the Joker.
This game was developed bySunSoft, which also made Journey to Silius, Fester’s Quest, and other recognizable titles. So, if you have played any of its games before, you will have some idea of what you’re able to expect from this one.
Before we can even get to the fight with the Joker, which is at level 5-3, you first need to beat his bodyguard, Firebug. This fight in itself would have been worthy of a spot on this list, but luckily, there is a way to cheese it.
However,by the time you are done with the Firebug, you will be all out of ammo, which means you only have your fists to rely on while fighting the Joker. Now, Batman has 8 hit points, but the problem is, one of Joker’s attacks is a charged shot from his gun that takes away 3 bars from your health.
If that wasn’t challenging enough, for some reason, the Joker stole Zeus’s powers and can summon lightning at Batman. Luckily, with a little bit of practice, and once you learn the jump timings, this fight gets a lot more manageable.
11Armored Tank (Jackal)
It Won’t Go Down Easily
Jackal has a very simple plot; you play as the Jackal unit, a group of elite soldiers who are out in enemy territory to rescue POWs. You control a jeep that can fire a machine gun forward, and launch grenades or missiles in your desired direction.
Throughout the missions, the game constantly throws foot soldiers at you, tanks, helicopters, submarines, and other obstacles as you progress through the different stages.
As soon as you get to the final boss, the real challenge begins as you need to destroy the two turrets while also avoiding getting hit by their projectiles and incoming tank mobs. Their goal isn’t just to kill you, but also to damage the road, which adds to your problems in the second half of the fight.
Once you destroy the base, the giant Armored Tank shows up.It has a huge cannon that shoots a large column of flame. All the while, a secondary turret fires bullets at you.
You need to move quickly and avoid getting hit by the fire and bullets while also making sure you don’t get stuck on the damaged road. Getting hit is not an option, as it destroys your jeep and you lose all your upgrades.
The good news is that this boss changes its color as it takes more damage. This way, you know when you need to hang in there for just a little longer. Once the tank is red, that means you are closer to accomplishing your mission!
10Serpentine Cyborg (Burai Fighter)
Orbiting Chicken Wings Of Doom
Burai Fighter
This is probably the most forgiving game on this list. Burai Fighter is an automaticside-scroller, but what isn’t fun about this game is the tiny weakness of its final boss. This Serpentine cyborg spits rocks that orbit around you, while the beast itself notoriously moves around a lot.
The reason why this is a difficult fight is that this creature has only one hit box, which is on the upper side of its mouth.You can hit it by shooting diagonally. But the problem is, you need to be very precise.
Shoot a little lower, and you hit the monster’s jaw. Shoot a bit to the left, and you hit its fang. Get too close to its mouth, and you are at the risk of getting hit by it or its rocks.
Once you do figure out how to keep the pressure, the fight seems easy. However, you still cannot lose your patience, as this boss has a lot of HP and no life bar to give you any indication about how low it is. The only thing you can do is keep shooting.
9Oni (Black Belt)
Time To Trade Punches
While the majority of the games on this list consist of NES titles, the Sega Master System is another console that is home to several beloved 8-bit games, which, arguably at times, are even harder than the ones the NES has to offer.
Black Belt is the best example of such a title. Right from the first boss battle, you will find that the game is not going to pull its punches, and once you lose all your lives, you have to start all over.
But the most annoying and difficult fight in this game has to be the fourth boss, Oni. He is completely merciless and has counters to your every move.
Planning to hit him with a punch? He will crouch and punch at you. Thinking of using a jump kick? He will anti-air you. How about a sweep kick? He will hit you with a jump kick of his own.
So,how do you beat this demon? Well, the trick is to let him attack first.In Black Belt, when you reach 0 HP, you’re able to still take another hit, which works in your favor, as it isn’t the same for this boss.
As such, the best way to defeat him is to move back and forth along with him until he stops and hits you with a punch. Take the hit and throw a punch right back at him.
While this sounds easy, you still need to manage your position; there are times when he creates a gap before punching you. This way, his punch will land on you, but you will miss yours. Luckily, with a little bit of practice and a few hundred tries later, you should be able to defeat Oni.
8Princess Noiram (Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones)
Are We Fighting DIO?
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
After taking down the shadow warriors, a year later, Billy and Jimmy are up against a new mysterious organization that has kidnapped their friend Marion. Hiruko, a fortune-teller, “helps” our heroes in finding the 3 sacred stones that the enemy is after.
Double Dragon III is aBeat ‘em upthat has a very simple plot, but what isn’t exactly simple is the attack pattern of the final boss, Princess Noiram. For starters, this fight happens in stage 5 Egypt, which has a very awkward platforming section that doesn’t match the rest of the gameplay.
So, one wrong jump, and you fall down the pit or on spikes to lose your life. Next, if you somehow make it to the final boss, you first need to kill 3 mummies in order to bring out Princess Noiram.
When you start fighting her,the most annoying move that you need to deal with is her telepathic force push. She chokes and throws you at the wall behind you. If that wasn’t enough, she can also fly and shoot projectiles, send underground homing attacks on you, or simply attack you with a firebird.
She also turns into a snake, which goes underground and spawns after a few seconds. Both attacking it and getting hit by it hurt you, and you lose health. Considering there is no way to heal, it is best if you prepare yourself to replay this level a lot, as Princess Noiram isn’t someone who will go down easily.
7Technodrome (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
No Donatello, No Win
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may not be very famous now, but they had a lot of hype back in the ’90s. As such, it only makes sense that when a game for this series was made for the NES, it would be popular.
However, what the players couldn’t have predicted back then is just how difficult this game would be. Even using the Konami code gave you only two extra continues.
As you progress, you feel the difficulty rising, which brings us to the Technodrome or Technodrome Guardian. This tank is the boss that you fight at the end of Area 5.
It requires you to react very quickly throughout the battle. As soon as the Technodrome appears, within a few seconds, it starts leaking electricity from both sides. So, if you weren’t crouching near the tank when it arrived,just coming in contact with the electricity would make you lose one and a half bars of your health.
Next, when you do get on the tank, you need to destroy two turrets for the boss to reveal its weakness: the giant eye. Make sure you have Donatello for this section, as his staff is your best bet against it.
The fight still isn’t over; it regularly spawns minions that attack you with shurikens or jump at you. All this is going on while the tank keeps moving back and forth. If you ever want to test your reflexes, this fight has got you covered.
6Yellow Devil (Mega Man)
Major Test Of Patience
There is a reason why it has a devil in its name. The Yellow Devil is a boss that has appeared in several Mega Man games and has even gotten upgraded twice. However, the first-ever Yellow Devil from the original Mega Man takes the cake for being the most obnoxious boss out of all its iterations. And there are several reasons why this fight was so tough.
To begin with,since this was the first game in the series, it was possible to get softlocked. The Yellow Devil is the stage 1 boss in Dr. Wily’s castle. But to get to it, you need the Magnet beam to progress a section in this stage.
You get this power-up on the Elec Man’s stage, so if you happen to miss it, jump on the spikes, go to the select stage, replay Elec Man’s level, and come back with the power.
12 Hardest Final Bosses of All Time
Notoriously hellish and oh-so annoying.
But even if you did manage to get to this boss on your first try, it has more things to frustrate you. This boss breaks itself into 19 blocks that you need to dodge or jump over just so that you’re able to attack it once.
If you accidentally get hit by a block, you lose 4 bars of your health. Next, it opens its eyes for a very brief moment and shoots at you. So, not only do you need to dodge the incoming projectiles, you also need to attack at the eye before it starts its teleport attack.
To make things worse, unlike Mega Man 3 or 11, you don’t have the ability to slide down or slow time. That means you only have the option to jump to avoid getting hit by the Yellow Devil blocks. Additionally, you also need to move toward the center, or else you won’t be able to move away in time to prepare your next attack.
This fight does have a saving grace, which is that the Yellow Devil is weak to Thunder Beam. Since this beam also wiggles as it flies across, you don’t have to worry about where the boss’s eye will spawn and can safely defeat it.
5Mandara (Shinobi)
Don’t Bring Statues To A Shuriken Fight
We all know ninjas have to go through intense training to hone their reflexes and master their tools. But nothing drives home this idea better than games like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi.
If you have played Shinobi before, then you might be wondering why Mandara is on this list instead of the Masked Ninja. The answer is simple: Wall of Boddhisatvas.
The Wall of Boddhisatvas consists of 16 statues.Behind you is a wall of electricity that instantly kills you if you touch it.You start on the left side of the screen and watch the ominous statues approach you. Each one takes 4 hits to be destroyed.
But the problem is, each time you land a hit, it spins, and your shots don’t count as damage if they hit them while the statue is in its mid-spin animation. So, you need to land 64 precise shots with very little to almost no room for error. And you cannot jump over them; getting hit by a statue pushes you back.
The only reason that this boss isn’t ranked any higher on this list is because the second half of the fight feels like a complete joke after what you’ve just been through.
In the second phase, you face Mandara Master, a mask that moves up and down while shooting fireballs at you. These are way easier to dodge, and you can attack the boss at your leisure, unlike when you had to deal with the frustrating statues.
4Dark Link (Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link)
Sometimes Our Real Enemy Is Ourselves
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Dark Link is a recurring boss inThe Legend of Zeldaseries, and its main characteristic is that it mirrors Link.While he may not get all of your items, this boss shares the same life and moves as you.At least that is what Dark Link is supposed to do, but clearly, something is wrong with him in this game.
There are three ways you can beat him. The first is the most popular corner cheese strategy, which is an almost guaranteed win, and if it weren’t for this method, it is safe to say most players wouldn’t even have seen the ending of this game.
The other trick is somewhere between cheesing the fight and fighting him normally; this is using a controller that has turbo buttons. This doesn’t make the fight any easier, but since you are constantly swinging your sword, it will be hard for Dark Link to land an attack on you.
Finally, we have the usual method, which many like to call the “proper” way. Here, you rely on timing your attacks perfectly.
For what it’s worth, this boss fight takes place right after you defeat Thunderbird. So, there is no shame in using the corner trick, as fighting Dark Link can easily feel like banging your head on a wall, especially when you are unable to land a single hit.
3Dracula (Castlevania)
Time To Bring Out The Holy Water
Castlevania
Many people like to say the Grim Reaper or Death is the hardest boss in the original Castlevania. But I thinkDraculadeserves this spot better.
Comparing the two bosses, the hardest thing about the Grim Reaper is the scythes that spawn randomly around the stage, and they home in on you. Now, if you have the holy water, this fight is very easy to cheese and becomes a joke. But even without it, if you have the cross, you can defeat Death by simply throwing the cross and waiting for it to hit the boss while you focus on the scythes.
Now, when it comes to Dracula, things aren’t so simple. Firstly, the only way you can damage him is by hitting him on his head. Next, it shoots three fireballs at you that spread, and they often change trajectory depending on whether you are jumping, crouching, standing normally, and how far you are from the boss.
To add to your problems,the attack window is so small that you need to time your attacks so that you hit his head firstand attack the fireballs almost immediately.
Things get worse because while both Dracula and you get 16 bars of HP. Attacking Dracula chips away only one bar, but if you take a hit, you lose 4. So, there is very little room for error.
Finally, there is a second phase, but this boss room has holy water. You simply need to throw holy water regularly to freeze its second form while you hit the boss with your whip.
Both these phases are polar opposites of each other. Although after the struggle you go through in the first phase, having the second phase be easy doesn’t feel all that bad.
