What Makes A Good Boss Rush?

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Boss rushes are prone to feeling like filler content in a video game. It’s very easy to slap in some bosses back to back, call it a day, and get an underwhelming segment of a game. Not that that never works, but designing a great boss rush requires a delicate touch to avoid feeling like a game is repeating itself. Let’s talk about how to get the band back together and design a top-tier boss rush.
Featuring:
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Mega Man (all of them, basically)
Okami and Okamiden
Dance Dance Revolution
Pizza Tower
Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5
Cuphead
Breath of the Wild
Kirby (all of the recent ones, basically)
Shadow of the Colossus
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#cuphead #pizzatower #kirby

[@DesignDoc]

The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1-month free trial of Skillshare skl.sh/designdoc05231

[@usernamesarestupid]

I used the Skillshare offer, but I was surprised that they asked for payment information right away. They also set up a £90GBP charge for after the 30-day period ends, and if you cancel early, the free trial ends immediately. Quite concerning!

[@thefinalday5858]

As the video went on my mind went ; Wait how are you going to fit monster hunter in this little time frame . I feel it is a blasphemy not to mention monster hunter in any way shape or form Its grindy but it's one of the best boss rush games out there You only need to fight a couple of monsters to advance from one rank to the next higher rank monsters get new moves , even if you fight the same monster for progress you fight it in a different locale , hunts with multiple targets cut the stats of each monster so that you take roughly the same time as a normal quest , supplies from the guild will not appear immediately in camp in the highest difficulty There is a lot more to talk about

[@frankdartagnan2709]

How can you NOT have a dedicated section talking about how HK does it perfectly? You know something like "well thats all what not to do, so how do you make a good boss rush? Enter stage left, HK"

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Great analysis videos as always Doc!!

[@zacky1010]

The Super Paper Mario boss rush in Sammer's Kingdom. It's literally 100 minibosses, and first time you try it you're interrupted by the literal plot hole swallowing the place whole. It's purely end-game content, and if you flake on one fight, you gotta do the *whole thing over again*.

[@cosmicspacething3474]

The ONE single thing that’s disappointing about King Dice to me is that his last phase only has one attack. It’s definitely a fun one, but I wish they gave him at least two different things to do

[@AdamHPerform06]

I think the reason is because it's to make it less challenging after going through a long trial of a boss rush. If you die to King Dice, you have to start the whole thing over again from the start. It's still a very hard phase if you haven't mastered parries or have less than 3hp.

[@Rainkea-fr]

@@AdamHPerform06 extremely easy with dlc character tho

[@supleh5937]

Also it is so easy to break him

[@cosmicspacething3474]

@@AdamHPerform06 Doesn’t mean any other attacks have to be harder

[@GeoAce51]

​@@AdamHPerform06is it just me or do I always go through every boss in his fight? It's just so fun

[@ZTimeGamingYT]

When done correctly, boss rushes are a good challenge for hard-core fans, testing skill and perseverance. When done incorrectly, they are annoying, tedious, and lacking in creativity.

[@TheOrian34]

The difference between the first 4 pantheons and PoH.

[@legendarymoshko]

A succinct summary; I like it!

[@AshenDust_]

@@TheOrian34skill issue

[@toumabyakuya]

I mean, it doesn't need to be done sorely for the challenge. A reason why I love that every Mega Man game has one is because of how cathartic it can be. Prior these were hard bosses, but now they are very easy to beat one after the other.

[@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon]

​@@toumabyakuyaMaybe in some of the X series on Rookie Hunter Mode in the Legacy Collections.

[@BenjaMage]

I'm glad you brought up the boss rush from Pizza Tower. Even from a story-telling perspective, it's rather genius and debatably kinda meta, given the trope's general reputation. After everything Peppino's been through, he's now forced to partake in an endgame boss rush, and that ends up being his mental breaking point. Shortening each of the repeat bosses really adds to that feeling that Peppino is _done_ and just wants these guys out of the way so he can finally finish off Pizzahead. I'm also quite fond of the boss rushes in Cuphead, DMC3 and DMC5, for the reasons you listed in the video. They're quite creative spins on the trope!

[@UselessAccountt]

I’m so glad I wasn’t spoiled of that final boss, it’s literally amazing, and the sheer happiness I felt seeing Peppino beat thre crap out of Pepperman was like no other I’ve felt in a video game

[@aidansroadams5328]

And the fact that due you not having a gun for Vigilante and instead rely on throwing Gustavo and he is there afterwards as well, helps make the fights different from the original. Except Pepperman, Pepperman just gets his skull caved in.

[@silverrath]

Genuine question, is Pizza Tower's story really all that? I haven't played it myself, but I always got the impression that it was largely focused on gameplay rather than story.

[@off-the-grounder568]

@@silverrathIt’s definitely not story focused, it’s just really good at making the player feel catharsis.

[@supermaro2349]

One thing that also helps give the fight the catharsis it has is Pizzahead. Throughout his phase and in the cutscene before phase 3 he is very clearly shown to not be taking you seriously, spending the entire fight essentially taunting you. So when Peppino snaps and screams, it scares the bosses which really makes the players get excited. And finally at the end when it’s just you and pizzahead that entire section is you making him regret every action he has made, and it is extremely satisfying to see Peppino slam him into the tower after taunting both Peppino and the player by not taking them seriously.

[@Teallen96]

One of the better boss rushes I've played is probably Zant from Zelda Twilight Princess. While it essentially is a single boss, that has many phases, each of those phases takes place in a different boss (or sometimes miniboss) room from throughout the game, and tasks you with attacking him using the items that you would have used in that same room against the regular boss. Much better than just chucking the same boss design at the player and saying fight this same thing again. The attack patterns of Zant are also varied to basically be a more complex version of what you fought the first time, while also fitting into the character of zant and his powers.

[@Mysticuffs]

I was just gonna comment the same thing. It's a really memorable fight for me.

[@matthewjones6786]

They even went through the trouble of Zantifying all the boss themes! Fantastic fight.

[@pinto5012]

This is why Twilight Princess is better than Wind Waker 😤 Wind Waker had a boss rush towards the end too.

[@adv78]

Zant really does hit the Lavos from Chrono Trigger and decides to be all the old bosses in a limited form, it's cool

[@E_Fig05]

@@pinto5012 Bro, Twilight Princess is better than Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom.

[@ravenstales6457]

Boss rushes in kirby games are kinda where the game gets actually challenging, in Star Allies I remember spending days trying to beat soul melter, and later soul melter EX, same for the arenas in forgotten land, that's why I loved the games

[@CiromBreeze]

I actually see the Kirby games as an example of a bad boss rush, if only because it's often the only way to fight NEW bosses, and you don't even get to practice against them. Died to the brand new foe because you literally didn't know that the boss vaguely shuffling to the left was an attack tell? Back to the VERY START of the boss rush with you, that's 15 minutes you gotta redo before you get another try at the boss. Only one I actually enjoyed was Forgotten Land's, because you're given the option to retry and can bring in extra health and a held item to use during the battle, making learning the patterns of the unknown foe far easier.

[@leithaziz2716]

Something you didn't mention about the boss rushes in Kirby games is that they usually offer new lore. And yes, in a Kirby game, that is VERY substantial.

[@クリームソーダ1999]

​​​​​@@CiromBreezeLet's just say that you're either: a)Never uses either Stone, Leaf, Archer that literally makes you invincible, or basic guarding/dodging and just attacks mindlessly b)Star Allies and Forgotten Land are the only games you've played c)Doesn't even cares about the lores d)Just bad at Kirby games or e)All the above I used to be that kind of person who never cared about guarding and only focuses on taking the bosses down as quick as possible, but I have never be like "it must be the game that is bad and not me"

[@peco595]

​@CiromBreeze I like the new bosses in them though, that's the main appeal of a boss rush in those games A boss rush that only has the base bosses and nothing new isn't all that exciting, especially if they don't even use the existing bossesin interesting ways like having mixes of them, varied arenas, or timers before new ones spawn in Having a plain old singular boss to boss mode needs something new in the middle or end to spice it up. Sure it sucks to lose, but come on, do you really expect to do it first try anyway even if it was only old bosses? Isn't it supposed to be a challenge?

[@StarBeam500]

​@CiromBreeze Kirby is an easy game. The reason the cool hard bosses are hidden behind a boss rush is because it's probably one of the best ways to test your skill. The whole point is that you're low on health and don't know what the boss is gonna do. And besides, they are almost always based on pre-existing bosses, so you should generally know what trick they are gonna pull. Also, the previous bosses are usually hard bosses too, so you still need to learn them just as much. And your not meant to win first try either, because this is the actual hard mode, you should expect it to be hard.

[@stephaniec6307]

Live A Live really deserves a shout out. The boss rush at the end is the classic "you're now way more powerful and can absolutely cream these guys that once caused you problems" style and with the revelations you learned in the final chapter adds a little more catharsis to the battles... but it ALSO has a rare *reverse* boss rush where you can play as those bosses and use all their most powerful abilities and earn the worst ending. And yet again, considering what you learned in the final chapter... even this feels a little cathartic.

[@bengarrett4984]

That boss rush is also interesting because you only fight with the characters you recruit as you explore the final scenario of the game. It's a boss rush that you must earn the right to challenge in its entirety.

[@marcosmiranda2805]

Another thing is that you fight them one on one. In some chapters you have other party members, and in one chapter, if you level up a certain character and they learn a certain spell, they can cheese that chapter's boss. You can't do that again during the boss rush, but it still won't be too hard since you're (very likely) way more powerful by that point. Always nice to see fellow Live A Live enjoyers.

[@darkal9805]

And the best part of the reverse boss rush. When one of Odio's Incarnations reaches low enough health, you can perform the ultimate rage quit by selecting Armageddon, wiping out all existence in a single button press.

[@thomasffrench3639]

This is literally just a Mega Man boss rush put into a form of an RPG.

[@Loner098]

It reminds me of that one other "boss rush" in Chrono Trigger in that regard.

[@lucaslourenco8918]

When you showed footage of Hollow Knight, I thought you were going to mention it in the video. It's linked to the story (you get the best ending if you beat it while fulfilling other conditions) while being fully optional, have at least some plot reason to exist (sure, very cryptic, but so is the rest of the lore) and has many twists. You're fighting previous bosses, but not all in a row, they are separated in different pantheons, and atop of each pantheon you have a new boss, which is a character that appears in the story, but you had never fought, or fought once they're past their best shape. Not all bosses have a twist, but sometimes a simple change in the arena is enough to change your strategy - changing the Gruz Mother from an enclosed box to three small platforms makes you think twice before making any move, to be sure you can land on a platform. And then there's the final pantheon, with all bosses, but some of them have new forms (I remember specifically Nosk and the Mantis Lords), it all culminating on a harder version of the final boss, which is sooo neat. At least it is on the playthroughs I watched, I never reached it myself and I don't hate myself enough to put me through it until I reach the peak. There are a couple resting areas, but they're usually one per pantheon. And you can handicap yourself by reducing strength, life, soul or badges. Damn, this game is brutal!

[@lordpillows762]

Quick correction but the last Pantheon has multiple resting spots btw. The game is brutal but it still wanna see you at least try x) I still dropped it on my first playthrought anyway (But I'm replaying the game now so maybe things will be different this time)

[@Xeamless]

The pantheons are just completely rushed and horribly designed. Each individual pantheon is short enough to be bearable, but p5 is basically 26 minutes of sleeping and 4 minutes is bosses. P5 is more of a patience test than a skill test

[@Teaspoon621]

I just reached AbsRad last night wish me luck

[@Xeamless]

@@Teaspoon621 GL on p5ab

[@DommHavai]

​@@Xeamlessp1-p4 are fine, only p5 is poorly designed.

[@dkpsyhog]

I'm so glad Kirby got the attention he deserves for this subject. The Arena is a test that says "Okay, did you actually learn how to fight the bosses, or did you just spam attack and survive each boss on a sliver of HP?" ...And the True Arena says "Ten phases is a normal amount for a boss to have, right?" *EDIT: NOTICE TO ALL REPLIES* Please do not insult Kirby Star Allies or any other Kirby game here. It makes Kirby sad. Air your complaints elsewhere please, where he can’t hear you.

[@isaiaholaru5013]

In Forgotten Land, I didn't find Dark Elfilis very hard. It was just a matter of timing. Ok, I had the Butterfly blade that gives you a Teleport-esque move instead of a dodge _and_ 2 different swords depending on the charge attack level, but I could have done it with less probably maybe possibly (most likely not)

[@dkpsyhog]

@@isaiaholaru5013 yeah KFL and RTDL have the easiest true arenas, no question. That said, you can always do it without an ability if you want a bigger challenge!

[@lovevictini]

@@dkpsyhog you can even just pay to continue in forgotten land which is 🫠

[@coenx1]

I remember as a kid playing Kirby Superstars Ultra on my DS and in the boss rush, when I finally got good enough to get to True Marx, he absolutely blew my mind.

[@Nmoment-uv6jc]

For me the worst true arena in kirby is the one of return to dreamland deluxe. The last 5 fight are really entertaining and decently challenging for a kirby game (imagine that you dont abuse the magoland gifts), but the previous fights are very boring. You have to do 20 fights, and half of the bosses are the same but a little more difficult, they shouldnt have used the EX bosses, the magolor epilogue bosses were more than enough. Why would i have to fight goriath EX and hydriath in the same boss rush?

[@ksul0014]

Kinda surprised you didn't mention probably the most famous boss rush in gaming, Pokemon's Elite Four + Champion. The original featured 4 brand new bosses, plus an upgraded team from your rival who you've fought all game long. Defeating the Elite 4 and becoming champion was always the end goal, but the twist that you also had to beat your rival who did the same first, was epic.

[@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon]

I... I honestly never considered that a boss rush... Actually, I've never considered any trainers boss fights in general... You may have just flipped some of my thoughts on Pokémon on their head not gonna lie.

[@Knuckx117]

@@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon I mean, you could consider the gyms to be 'dungeons', and the gym leaders to be the bosses of those dungeons. Maybe a few 'side' dungeons(Rocket HQ). Then you have the final dungeon(Victory Road) a resting hub, and then the boss rush(Elite 4 + Champion + Rival). Fail at any of the stages of the boss rush and you get sent back.

[@bbyjohn11]

@@Knuckx117I’d say the caves and syndicate hide out were more dungeons than gyms. If anything gyms were mini dungeons with a major boss.

[@flameblade3]

Part of the criteria that was sorta set for a boss rush in this video was a round of rematches against bosses you’ve fought before. I find that elite four is much more one long final boss with 5 phases rather than a boss rush

[@Scarrobert]

@@flameblade3that is true & makes sense but don’t forget that after the first run the teams of all E4 & Champion get buffed up to add more of a challenge to each one

[@heaven64]

I always loved Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story boss rush. You fight a selection of old bosses in their new and unique EX mode. You have to fight all of them separately before unlocking the final challenge: Beating all EX Bosses + a new secret final boss without breaks, with limited turns and limited items. The only bad point of this boss rush is that the old bosses are not scaled up much. The bosses you fought in the early game gets destroyed even in their EX form after you are high level, making the final boss against the 7 bosses feel like only 2 boss as you delete the 5 others.

[@abloogywoogywoo]

It is brutal though. Even though I got lv50, I've still never beaten Bowser X to this day.

[@Ludovicus444]

Yeah I like the Mario and luck boss rush my only problem is I wished they done one for bowser too because you can only fight them once and that’s it if you want to re-fight them you have to start a new save file

[@dylanattix2765]

@@abloogywoogywoo I never played the remake, but in the original I never had the patience to grind to 50, so I learned how to beat Bowser X at level 40, by getting really good at every special move, really good at dodging, and using the badge combo that grants 4x damage.

[@zememerr2329]

Another issue I have with Inside Story’s boss rush personally is Bowser doesn’t get his own. Luckily, Dream Team fixed this with having both real and dream bosses as apart of the boss rush (plus a giant battle boss rush)

[@nilsonpetrin1882]

About Kirby's arena and true arena: They're not just extra game modes, in the pause menu, each Boss has a different description than their default version of the game and the descriptions help expand the lore.

[@dockingwater1713]

Eh not really. The new bosses obviously have new stuff to read up on, but for the most part the bosses from the main game and extra/speedrun mode don't have anything new. The only exception to this rule that I can think of is the individual Mage Sister fights in Star Allies' Soul Melter EX, but even then, those fights are also at least a little different from their fights in the main game and Guest Star Allies Go

[@avanelletheclockfriend2515]

@@dockingwater1713At least in RtDDX every instance of a boss has a unique pause screen description. Main story, EX, and True Arena(possibly Arena too but idk I haven’t checked). Considering in the original only Magolor’s fights had them it’s a lot of lore, though not exactly relevant to most parts of the series. (Other than the Lor fights which confirm her sentience which I was very happy about because folks used to give me shit for liking the idea of Lor as a character rather than just an object…)

[@D_YellowMadness]

​@@avanelletheclockfriend2515One of Kirby's darkest moments is in a pause screen description during the Star Dream OS fight. You get to read Haltmann's thoughts as his consciousness is being absorbed & erased by Star Dream. "Why did I reactivate such a terrible machine? Oh, I remember--I wanted to see her just one last time. How foolish! I should have known that no machine could make such a dream come true." In his last moments, he remembers what his goal was, regrets his actions, & accepts that he'll never see his daughter again before being erased completely without ever having realized she's still alive & that Susie is her. He never got to redeem himself & Susie will never know he was himself again for one last moment or that he remembered her in the end. Everyone will remember him as a heartless villain who nearly destroyed the universe in his pursuit of ultimate wealth.

[@SeanLifeFlame]

Bringing up the Arenas and True Arenas of Kirby, something that's always stood out to me when I first heard it is how every Kirby boss is designed to be beatable without power-ups. The games never explicitly force you to, but because the option is always there, people like to make extra challenging "No Ability" runs, which really changes up how people approach Kirby bosses when you have to wait for an attack that gives you an opening rather than being able to attack whenever you want.

[@BiyikFrostDiaz]

No ability runs are fun to do in kirby true arenas Really shows how well you have studied boss patterns and when and where to be

[@theworfer27]

I did the no ability run in Return to Dreamland. One of the hardest challenges I've done. Now I'm making a minecraft map based on it lol

[@_-Lx-_]

Solo Kirby without powerups in Soul Melter EX is probably the hardest challenge Kirby has and ever will offer. The bosses are built in mind with 4 characters working together at all times, but just like you said, it never forces you to have friends helping you out in Arena mode. And Void becomes insanely difficult like that.

[@MasterHeracross]

@@_-Lx-_ Try using only hearts to attack Void if you are a masochist lmao

[@markguyton2868]

As a Kirby fan, I always try to beat the final arena's with no abilities. Always a good challenge. The only one I gave up on was the Star Allies: Soul Melter EX run since those bosses on the final challenge are almost BS levels of difficulty...

[@lynchie2073]

boss rushes are one of those things where you either gotta do it well, or make it optional. boss rushes are by definition difficult and tests of endurance, and a lot of players will never be interested in the idea. if its an optional challenge, you have a lot more wiggle room to be lazy about it, but if its compulsory, you need to make it worth the while of players whod never seek it out themselves too

[@chargeminecraft]

If all the bosses in the same area in the boss Rush, it won’t be a boss rush, and it better be optional (Also make them nerfed or based on storywise, make them much weaker, like they are being injured in the main story) if developers want to do that

[@lordpillows762]

@@chargeminecraft Mostly agreed, altought I personally prefer when Bosses are stronger on the rush instead, I think it's a more fun twist when done right

[@the-angel-of-light-gardevoir8]

Unexpetancy phase 3 (pizza face boss fight) from pizza tower isn’t a true boss rush but what it dose do is allow you to pummel the bosses you had face up to that point in rapid succession which is a really cool idea…

[@ridori7376]

With a bangin anime-esque soundtrack to boot

[@demoney5897]

That is a boss rush though

[@Sleepy_Cabbage]

It's an amazing boss rush, your patient with these clowns up to here! And it's time to kick their ass, it's not like you can't die either, you need to use your prior experience with these bosses to beat them.

[@subtlewhatssubtle]

My favorite detail is that Peppino's scream is actually noticeably different right before the boss rush starts--unlike his other screams, he's not scared anymore, he's *furious* and so completely, utterly sick of the Pizza Tower's shit that his attacks go from merely strong to "oh god, my hit points, he punched out all my hit points."

[@UselessAccountt]

I had an ear to ear laugh of pure joy when Peppino initially did that first attack to Pepperman, got me like Luffy in here

[@crimsonchaos7224]

I’d say the final phase against Asriel in Undertale technically counts as a boss rush, since it’s just a series of mini boss fights who all use attacks from previous boss fights. On paper it’s really simple, but the context of returning your friends’ memories to them makes this final phase SO GOOD.

[@daltonrussell3357]

I always feel weird because I actually LIKE boss rushes, yes even the ones where it’s just the mandatory main story bosses recycled. Adds a nice sense of finality to a final boss I guess.

[@lordpillows762]

Same. I'm just a sucker for bossfights in general, they're my favorite parts of most video-games so a Boss rush on the end is always all I can ask for. Besides, it's always fun having a chance to see how better you got at the game by destroying way more easily the bosses that gave you so much trouble at first

[@isaiaholaru5013]

I _LOVE_ the challenge and the frustration, as it normally feels good afterwards

[@elliottpak]

@@lordpillows762 Bosses are one of the parts of a game that I like most too. Also unrelated but that is the reason why I tend to get disappointed when bosses are a lot easier than the levels. Like, if your'e gonna make the levels difficult might as well make the bosses just as difficult lol

[@lordpillows762]

@@elliottpak heck yeah man, I definitelly relate to this too Nothing dissapoints me more than an anticlimatic Boss fight. A little unrelated as well but that's also a feeling I get when a boss turns out to be just "enemy but bigger", like, in the sense that it has no actual unique attacks or twists, wich happens quite often with generic platformers sadly

[@spencerschmidt-rundell1612]

I think Punch Out!! is a great boss rush series. I don't play a lot of games with boss rushes, so I can't really think of any other choices.

[@snuffysam]

Punch Out is an interesting series because a lot of the tips in this video aren’t followed (for instance, Punch Out has virtually no liminal space between fights, just an occasional jogging cutscene) but the fights are so well designed that it works anyway

[@DesignDoc]

I should talk about Punch Out more often... Someone needs to.

[@GhostHunterDipperPines]

@@DesignDocyou even have the perfect name for it. I at first thought the “Doc” part of your name was a reference to Doc Louis from Punch Out.

[@Dabaugh15]

I was thinking where Punch-Out!! was at in this video, cuz I think it is a boss rush game

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

My favorite boss rush might have to be Rhythm Heaven’s famous Remix 10. Quickly running through everything in a warioware pace is peak sampling boss rush finale vibes. I’d love to see more like that.

[@boltlight1244]

Never thought of RH remixes as boss rushes but I guess they kinda can be. I need a new rhythm heaven game 😢

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

Oh my god I just made a comment about Challenge Land from Megamix possibly counting & I SOMEHOW FORGOT ABOUT REMIXES WHILE MAKING SAID COMMENT WHAT THE FUCK

[@boltlight1244]

@@Triforce_of_Doom The Challenge train is also a great pick. Some of those are so brutal lol

[@winteriris13]

rhythm heaven final remixs are peak

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

@@boltlight1244 *stares at Lockstep Lockdown which is called Lockstep Hell in Japan*

[@eligrabenhorst3016]

Kirby and the forgotten land also has a couple other boss rushes in the main story. "Battle on Blizzard Bridge" is a mini boss rush that follows you throughout the level. The two penultimate levels feature a boss rush, and a sort of enemy rush on the final level, "The Beast Packs Last Stand." The entire level consists of Kirby fighting through every standard enemy and a lot of stage unique enemies in much more difficult and dramatic encounters. Probably one of my favorite ways a game has themed boss/enemy rushes, as unlike before where they were all spread out through the world, Kirby's on their turf now.

[@dysr]

It’s decently common in the series as well. The mid-boss rush is usually in a tower, and the regular bosses have the same lower hp as in the arena. It’s also a fun series tradition to have a level that lets you easily defeat a bunch of mid-bosses before obliterating the tree boss of the game with the game’s gimmick, although unfortunately Forgotten Land only had the mid-bosses.

[@walugusgrudenburg3068]

The Pizza Tower boss rush has gotta be one of my favorite gaming moments as of late.

[@DrEcho]

I'm glad you included Devil May Cry 3 mission 18. One other thing that makes it good design is they purposefully made the smaller rings generally comprised of tougher fights so there's an element of strategy to pick the route that plays to your strengths/experiencen (after you deduce the objective).

[@leithaziz2716]

The nice thing about DMC3 boss rush is that with the right routing, you only have to do a few bosses, and that gives room for strategy and speedrunning. Compare this to the boardgame in DMC4 where it can feel like the game is wasting your time if you run into bad luck.

[@Gnidel]

​@@leithaziz2716What luck? You choose what number you get. If it's 6 up, you'll get 6. It's not random at all.

[@incandescence5547]

I'm kind of surprised that Monster Hunter wasn't mentioned. The boss rush as a game format, but with 100+ different bosses, and 3 or 4 or even more different forms for each boss with new moves and abilities, not to mention 14+ different types of weapons, each with completely different playstyles and abilities akin to a complex fighting game character, and different sets of equipment for every form of every monster. The perfect formula to keep you playing one game for 500 hours, or perhaps thousands, while still seeing new stuff all the time as you go

[@thefinalday5858]

I legit though he was going to leave it for last But no

[@beserkmaster]

I'm so glad Pizza Tower got a mention here. When Pizza Head started pulling up the other bosses...I haven't felt that much excitement in a game for a long time. I was SCREAMING.

[@IanFraser420]

I think Metroid Dread’s boss rush mode is interesting, as it strips your abilities back when fighting earlier bosses, rather than being fully equipped for each battle. Considering how many bosses have integrated sequence breaks, it would have been more fun to have all your abilities in each fight, rather than slog through them the “way you’re supposed to”. At the very least, the game could provide you with the option to keep your abilities.

[@Meandmyshadowclones]

X Challenge from the Megaman X Legacy Collection is a really neat take on the boss rush mode. You fight 2 previous bosses from different games at once in a series of 3 battles for a total of 6 bosses. You begin the mode with a list of 9 special weapons, from which you can pick 3 to take into battle, so no matter what, you can't rock-paper-scissors your way through each boss. It forces you to prioritize which weapons will be the most useful and which threats need to be dealt with immediately.

[@usernamesarestupid]

Redeemed the Skillshare offer but WOW, payment info required straight away and sets up a plan to charge £90GBP after the 30 days - and cancelling early immediately ends the free trial? Yikes

[@surytrap]

i heard its hard to cancel subscription too have to mail them like 3 times

[@usernamesarestupid]

​@@surytrapI was able to cancel but they did everything possible to try and make me stay, offering an extra free month, 65% off a year's subscription, then after that I got a support message appearing offering an additional 30% off "my next upcoming charge". I made sure everything was pulled properly but I've never felt so clawed at to stay signed up like that before. And as warned, I cannot use the Skillshare site at all without re-entering my payment information.

[@LittleParade_]

Would the Elite 4 in Pokemon be considered a boss rush? 4 strong trainers, back to back, sometimes you get to pick the order you fight in and have a rest in-between each of them? I know XY is knocked for being way too easy, which it is in some regards, but as a kid I did like the ability to approach the Elite 4 in whatever order I wanted! It felt intuitive at the time and stopped me to make me think about what order I should prioritize and why.

[@ChRiAn0815]

Elite 4 definitely count as a boss rush. And I am kinda disappointed that there wasn't any strategy game boss rush mentioned in the video. Seems like a big missed topic, as a strategy boss rush has a different flavor entirely. All the boss rushes mentioned are mostly skill based. Strategy boss rushes have more of a preparation aspect to me, as your preparation for strategy bosses can vary widely, and a strategy boss rush challenges you to find the right set up to win against all, without the usual singular optimization.

[@kay_faraday]

the choice of which to fight first was added in Black and White, just wanted to throw that there. This old lady's been around the series for a long time.

[@LittleParade_]

@@kay_faraday you're so right, I haven't played bw since it came out so it totally slipped my mind 💀

[@steveh1474]

the e4 is a fantastic boss rush because you have to go into it with a team that can handle everything theyre gonna throw at you. while DMC or Megaman boss rushes certainly require a bit of preparation and planning, theres not a lot of options you have. you cant pick and choose which weapons youre bringing with you in Megaman, you bring all of them.

[@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon]

Did... Did everyone else already know trainers could be bosses??? I feel really stupid right now for having not considered the idea before.

[@alexismercado3944]

One of my favorite examples is Chrono trigger. The first phase of the final boss mimics the fight of other bosses (same stats, attacks, etc), and since you can fight him at almost any point in the story (like Ganon in BOTW), you can have a pretty tough part at the start or absolutely destroy the "bosses" at the end of the game. But you get the option of skip that phace later so you don't have to do it if you really don't want to. In top of that, this make sense in the context of the story because the game is about time travel and the final boss have te power to create time portals to bring characters from other eras.

[@morethanpichusgaming]

One can even make this boss rush harder by going to the Black Omen without clearing the boss rush, which will add 3 additional harder bosses to the mix. Luckily, you can heal after boss 3...but it can go as far as the final boss's final form. For a game praised for being tight, I never understood why the boss rush existed for the final boss. You can even bypass it entirely if you don't want the Epoch (game's airship) around for the ending.

[@decipheredvoid9938]

Honestly the thing about Bosh rushes I love is because I always love Boss ‘rematches’ in games (basically when you kick a boss’s ass and they show up again later with some new moves), so it’s basically just a bunch of rematches back to back.

[@derby3334]

I think my favorite boss rush might be the second to last cave from Pikmin 2. The environmental changes really change the strategy to defeat the bosses. There is also normal sublevels and rest sublevels so it's pretty long but really enjoyable

[@Olivertheolive]

Hole of heroes! 🕳️

[@jasonreed7522]

I think hole of heroes is the longest cave in pikmin 2. But I definitely love the pikmin style of multiple hard floors followed by a rest floor, and the rest floor may help but can't make up for catastrophic losses. A little known feature of the pikmin 2 final bosses is that their treasures change weight to be either the base weight, or the total number of pikmin on the field if its less than the base weight. Essentially you can always carry your final treasure even if you only have 1 red leaf left.

[@SonicMaster519]

I like Pikmin 4’s final cave for the same reason. The bosses aren’t all that different but the small changes in the environment can make a lot of difference. I wasn’t thinking straight and almost got screwed by the Empress Bulblax.

[@jasonreed7522]

@@SonicMaster519 when i first saw the Empress Bulblax in that cave my reaction was: "Does the game want me to do what i think it wants me to do?" I never expected to play jump rope in a pikmin game, and i definitely restarted a couple times as i learned the timing needed to not get steamrolled by her. The Arctic Canon Beatle in that cave is another example of using the level geometry to make a normally non-threatening boss into an actual challenge capable of killing your pikmin. (By knocking them off oatchi and into the void)

[@thebigchungus4515]

I like how both TWEWY games handled their boss rushes, with it being a separate mode in the post-game and explicitly noted to be a time attack so that you can try and get the fastest time possible for those high rankings. They’re also great for racking up tons of PP (experience) for your pins as well as getting high drop rates but on the flip side, they become progressively stronger as the rounds go on due for the game’s chain encounter system, with the boss placements even reflecting this with lower tier bosses being placed in the beginning and more challenging bosses being more placed towards the end. NEO also deserves points for allowing you to change your equipment and pins in-between each fight so that you can better prepare for them.

[@Froggy_Wig]

A TWEWY FAN LET'S GOO

[@Rislear]

that feel when you need to beat the boss rush in hard mode to get enough drop rate multiplier so that a boss will drop the pin you need to beat the boss rush in hard.

[@sanfransiscon]

Not sure if it counts as a boss rush, but I love when a (usually final) boss can briefly summon or mimic the bosses you've faced up to that point.

[@aurachanneler8396]

I recently played through Gravity Circuit, and it had a boss rush near the end that I really enjoyed. It alternates between a phase of attacks based on a boss followed by the second phase of that boss, so it's not entirely repeated content, and there's a health drop after each boss and checkpoints every other boss to make it not too frustrating to get through the massive health pool compared to the regular bosses. It's also all set up as a single boss fight with the boss refights as simulations which is a fun way of contextualizing it in the story.

[@akesan2374]

Yeah, Gravity Circuit did it so well. It even has an achievment for you if you clear it all in one go without dying, so you have extra incentive to push through and do it in one go instead of relying on checkpoints.

[@codenatex2690]

YES.

[@SlegiarDryke]

Furi. That's one of my GO TO's when i want a great boss rush. Things don't change between the fights, but each one gets so much lead up, the stories that get told, the voice acting of the bunny who just wants to get out the same as you. The Jailor is the key......KILL THEM....and you'll be freeee. And that sound track.....*chefs kiss*

[@tpon651]

So happy Kirby was brought up because in my opinion it’s one of the FACES of the boss rush challenge, it’s so damn good and fulfilling! Especially since Kirby usually has a ton of bosses!

[@SuperGameBruh]

Don't cuss

[@pokecraftjohnson2598]

One that I like is the style The Binding of Isaac has. If you defeat Mom within 20 minutes of starting the run, then you can enter a room where there are 4 options of an extra item to pick up. If you do decide that you want an item, then 4 random bosses appear in the room at once and you have to defeat all 4. The Chest floor is another example. It's the last floor of the game the player can get to and each room is a boss fight. The difference here is that you're so overpowered that if you come across the first boss you fought on the run you can more than likely one-shot them.

[@NachoAdventurer]

Is not really a boss rush, but i really liked when they implemented the Battle Rush in Sonic Frontiers, fighting again all the types of enemies, guardians and of course the titans was really interesting. The fact that you have to use a save file for your stats makes it even better, you can use your Max Level save file to get some really fast times or use your Lvl 1 Stats save file to prove yourself and how fast you could do the enemies without any upgrade.

[@Mr.Feather130]

Yeah and I try the battle rush at lvl 1 and it's challenging but fun

[@TheAlternateDoctor]

Another good Boss Rush I feel is The Binding of Isaac's: Not only is it locked behind a 20mn timer, forcing you to rush through the game and potentially missing items, it also forces you to beat 2 bosses at once, which isn't done anywhere else in the game (apart from the very rare Double Trouble uh, event?), which makes for bosses who seemingly team up with each other (or fight each other, as some attacks hit the other boss). Also due to Isaac's nature as a roguelike, most of the bosses you encounter there are bosses you haven't met in the stages before, although you probably *did* defeat them in other runs. All in all it's a challenge that presents fights in a new way, forcing you to deal with prioritizing bosses and surviving 15 waves with 2 bosses each.

[@Bucketman117]

Binding of isaac really took that part of “rush” of boss rush way to seriously lol

[@E_Fig05]

Enter the Gungeon has a pretty solid boss rush Mode. It makes sense thematically, It's fun and it's a way of fighting all the bosses (except the secret ones) in the same run which is impossible otherwise. There's also Wizard of Legend, another Roguelike dungeon crawler with a solid boss rush.

[@ThatsJustLikeYourOpinionMan]

And if memory serves you have to unlock the boss rush mode in Enter the Gungeon, and it's quite difficult to do. So it feels like you earned a secret challenge mode most people won't find.

[@DeanyKong]

As soon as I saw the title I knew Pizza Tower was gonna get talked about.

[@azenar1894]

Gravity Circuit had a pretty good implementation of a boss rush. The boss rush was another boss that had the other bosses moves and then took you to fight the respective boss when you did enough damage to the main boss

[@Dragonthunder230]

you played it as well? i liked it being a lot more fast paced, in that there is no pause in between

[@azenar1894]

@Dragonthunder230 yea and that made it more difficult than a normal boss. But it still felt fair by giving you some health after every phase

[@pikastudios2850]

I like both super hard optional boss rushes and easier nonoptional bossrushes. Boss rushes are a good way to show what you’ve learned and the abilities you’ve collected, I think a good amount of bosses is 3-5, too many and it’s boring and slow, too little and it’s not even a boss rush. Kirby kinda gets around this problem by making it optional, and is basically extra content with new bosses, and it’s not that boring despite the huge amount of bosses. While I personally don’t mind ridiculously hard bosses and love the challenge, I’m not everyone so some people may disagree with what I think.

[@crabulon2472]

I absolutely love how hollow knight does boss rushes. Each pantheon getting more and more difficult until p5. Then you can complete old pantheons with bindings to help you out for p5.

[@leithaziz2716]

I'm not a fan of locking an ending behind the last pantheon, even if I acknowledge that the player probably should be rewarded with something for beating it. It makes people who can't get through all of it (which is most of the playerbase) feel like they're missing out on something important, and it makes their playthrough feel incomplete. (For context, I've beaten Pantheon 4 and reached Absolute Radiance in P5, but I know others who couldn't make it past the 1st Pantheon, and I understand their frustration. I also know that you can unlock other endings which are just as legitimate.)

[@d_mon9631]

@@leithaziz2716well in the words of hornet git gud

[@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon]

​@@leithaziz2716I mean there are 3 other endings to the game and Team Cherry said they're all equally canon somehow, plus you can get over 100% completion without touching Pantheons, so I personally feel like my playthroufh is complete even if I can't personally beat the Pantheons(I've almost beat P1, but once Oro AND Mato happens I always lose.) However, I do understand what you're saying and that not everyone will view it that way. It would be better to keep only optional content behind such things, especially in a game without an actual difficulty mode selection.

[@fianchetto5954]

​@@leithaziz2716I mean hey if you want an ending where your character becomes an unstoppable God you gotta become an unstoppable God

[@MossMothMyBeloved]

⁠@@leithaziz2716Honestly I kind of love it. Team Cherry not being afraid of the player missing out on content is what makes the world feel so vast and unique to me. I’m always discovering something new each play through. Spoilers for the godmaster ending below What I don’t love is that the reward you get for pantheon 5 is essentially a reskin of Dream No More, despite most players who beat the pantheon already beating the regular Radiance.

[@jadetuin9086]

I like how you weaved in small explanations of what every game was - it helped me figure out the games I didn't know, and didn't feel tedious when you covered games that I'd played or seen before.

[@dangangalaxy9759]

I’m surprised you didn’t talk about Monster Hunter. The entire series’ concept essentially boils down to one long, infinite boss rush, but that’s exactly what you come for.

[@PokaDoht]

I think that The Binding of Isaac did a good boss rush, it may be mandatory for completion and has 30 bosses, but it rewards you with items at the start and end of it

[@appelofdoom8211]

I like the decision making process the boss rush gives you to consider for your run because of that 20 minute time limit you have to beat mom in order to access it. Do you play it safe and collect as many resources as you can while forfeiting a potentially game breaking item from the boss rush? Is your run to slow and is making a mad dash for the boss rush just the sunk cost fallacy setting in? Is your build strong enough to handle the boss rush? If so do you bring a rune that rerolls the item pedestals just to give you another chance incase nothing you find tickles your fancy or do you take the guaranteed fool card that spawns in the depths as insurance incase you overestimated yourself? Do you have time to search for the skull that contains said fool card? It does allows you to get the first items pedestal for free after all so is the second item even worth fighting for? Do you leave early because you want to fight Hush who requires you to beat another two floors before the 30 minute timer (whom you get even more items from and gives you the only fully guaranteed opportunity to fight the hardest boss in the game)? After all 15 waves is a lot and it will take at least some time to beat them even with the most OP build around It's a lot to think about beyond even the boss rush itself and I respect that.

[@thewizardslime6764]

Also doesnt The Void/Delirums count as a bossrush too? Thats two whole different bossrushes in one game

[@davidbrickey8733]

@@thewizardslime6764 For that matter, the Chest is also a boss rush since the majority of rooms consist of bosses or minibosses--often several in the same room to make up for your power.

[@thewizardslime6764]

@@davidbrickey8733 Isaac more like Bossrushsaac at this point

[@darkshot4424]

One of my favorite is from live a live, which heavy spoilers has 2 different versions of the boss rush, and both have strong significance, with one you learn how strong your heros have become before taking on the final boss, or the other more interesting one where you go full evil and play the bosses using them to taie down the heroes.

[@ChipDrewPog]

The boss rushes in ultrakill is an interesting take. In ultrakill, boss enemies eventually become regular enemies. At the very start of the game the Swordsmachine and the Cerberus have a whole level basically dedicated to each of them but once you defeat them, they start regularly reappearing in the later levels. It's a really fun experience because at the start of your playthrough you'll struggle to fight them alone but later once you've mastered their attack patterns you'll be demolishing multiple of them along with a whole gauntlet of enemies with ease. So later, about midway through the campaign, you're about to have a rematch with Gabriel, the final boss, you fight him 3 times total, and the final encounter isn't out yet, but just before the second one, all these boss enemies turned regular enemies spawn in a room all at once, and it along with the music makes this such a great moment as you easily tear through a bunch of bosses that gave you so much trouble before. And if you were looking for a challenging boss rush, look no further than the second Prime Sanctum, a secret level where you face an absurdly difficult boss, but to even get to him, you have to get through a hellish gauntlet of just everything spammed at you at once. It's so fun, and I'm so excited for the third Prime Sanctum and boss rush.

[@EpicGamer10075]

I’ve seen in Mario Odyssey’s Dark Side that there’s a rush of all four Broodal bosses, followed by a powered up Mecha-Broodal. That’s pretty cool, but Skelux’s Superstar mod for the game shoves all four Broodals in one arena, and then an even more amped up Mecha.

[@zubat2391]

The thing that’s good abt the dark side boss rush is that despite the fact that you’ve fought all the broodals twice by this point, the low gravity adds a new challenge and twist to the fights

[@TheLastCurryRice]

The realization fights from Library of Ruina hits a lot of marks for a well-done boss rush. As a game with deck-building, returning to an old fight already has a big difference in both strategy and power levels to make the experience different. The battle design themselves are also slightly different. Even if the gimmicks play out the same, because you’re fighting a character using the powers of the bosses you’ve faced up til then, there’s one different unit every fight that uses new moves. Having a banger soundtrack also adds a whole ton on top of the big character development tied to each of these long fights.

[@Immortal_NB]

I think a majority of library of ruina can be considered a boss rush game if you have a very loose definition of what a boss is. But yeah the realizations are probably the best example for a good boss rush

[@dreww1459]

You showed the boss rush from Octopath Traveler 1. THAT is the reason I never beat OT 1. Get defeated by the Final Boss and you have to redo the entire rush again. All 8 bosses. Traveler 2 did not have this (thankfully) and I got all the way through the game, loving every minute.

[@LittleParade_]

I definitely appreciate a well thought out boss rush, especially if it fits within the narrative of the game. I am someone who can be a bit critical of games when it's blatant that they're dragging things out with little to no new content, so it's imperative to me that a boss rush feels right!

[@KTSpeedruns]

I’m a bit surprised you didn’t talk about the boss rush from Final Fantasy VIII. Specifically, I’m talking about going through Ultimecia’s castle. It’s a unique boss rush that doesn’t require you to do it all in rapid succession, locks your abilities, and gradually gives them back, and uses all new bosses instead of using old ones. In my opinion, it Hass to be one of if not the most unique boss rush in gaming history.

[@milesdamascus9400]

I feel like it takes a lot of work but I like when two bosses you fought before are fought together. Though I think more thought can be put into how to make those bosses mesh better

[@mysteriousmog51]

I don't play much games with boss rushes (only 2) but I like how Pikmin 2's boss rushes aren't just filled with bosses but just normal challenging enemies as well also every few sub levels you get some time to re-group getting duplicate candy pop buds to increase your army and some times Bulbmin and then at the end your introduced to a new never seen before enemy! also its good how the final final boss uses all hazards make sure that you use all of your Pikmin (or just spam yellows).

[@jasonreed7522]

The pikmin series does boss rushes very well, although only 2 and 4 make them part of the main story. Its probably because the devs know that at its core pikmin is part optimization and puzzle game, so they don't repeat bosses in exactly the same way twice. When i got to the final Empress Bulblax in Pikmin 4 i took a screenshot and sent it to my brother asking if the game wanted me to do what i thought it did. (Play "jump rope" with her, definitely a new spin on the first boss of pikmin 2) I think that's the core of why pikmin games are always gems, the devs know exactly what kind of game they are making.

[@mysteriousmog51]

@@jasonreed7522 that empress fight is really good though really really risky! I think another good example is the floor with 2 emperor Bulbaxs submerged in water you can either go in with blues and take them down or lure the Bulbaxs to you and make them eat the bombs but you risk having them not paying attention to you and going to your base to where you left your Pikmin the manat legs in the water is quite difficult and a bit annoying though...

[@jasonreed7522]

@@mysteriousmog51 i definitely approved of that empress fight, and while i saw the solution i was not looking forward to execution. I had to reset a couple times. (First time was a test to see if i could 1shot it) But that hole of heroes floor with the 3 bulblaxes is one where I normally just fed them bombs. Although i think the intended solution is to feed one a bomb then throw blues or purples on its face depending on how you positioned it. Man at legs is probably still my most feared boss, its a spider with a minigun, and when they put it in water they made it much harder to cheese with purples. I think pikmin 4 has made me overall less fearful of certain bosses after being forced to fight them multiple times. (Granted Oatchi is very overpowered, mainly because by riding him your squad is kept consolidated and with the captain. It definitely takes the teeth out of some bosses that are normally dependent on picking off stragglers.)

[@curiousardor]

Wish you'd gone a bit more into Furi, specifically, but this is one of your strongest videos thus far. I recommend you put sections in your videos, as you already organize your thoughts in "sections" as it were and it'd make great videos like this even better.

[@lukiauriga]

Personally, I love how Octopath Traveler does its boss rush; to access the final boss dungeon you have to complete all 8 stories for the main characters and do a specific sidequest chain to unlock it. Before the entrance you have a savepoint and once you enter, there's no going back. Inside, there are 8 altars, each of which leads you to a shadow version of a boss from a given character's story (often not even their final boss) with a larger health bar and updated moveset. It's a nice challenge (though I can see how for some it may seem like a lot since the entire gauntlet before the already lengthy final boss is a substantial time commitment) but my favorite part is that after each fight you get access to some crucial lore bits (diaries of important characters, internal thoughts of some antagonists) that fill in the blanks of the overarching story of the game at which the individual stories hinted at and it is immensly satisfying. Not to mention the absolutely stellar atmosphere the entire area has, from its visuals to the music.

[@GreetingsMortal]

The pinnacle example of Dice Game in the middle of a boss rush is absolutely Gunstar Heroes! Weird there’s 3 examples minimum of this lmao

[@jerielc709]

punch out is probably my favorite boss rush, mostly because the mechanics are super straight forward and instead the game relies purely on reaction time and observational skills. ive only played the nes one but i like how in that game previous bosses come back with new moves or different weaknesses, it keeps you on your toes.

[@italicmuscle4786]

I am currently designing a game and am including a boss rush to get to the final weapon, this is a very useful video.

[@brythkaltaris]

To readdress Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom is a perfect example of how to do a long boss rush right. They go back to back, and make it a tough challenge, but is very fun once your a seasoned player that can do with great but fun challenge

[@brockmckelvey7327]

Shadow of the Colossus was my introduction to Boss Rushes. I loved that you could just wander (heh, pun) around the world if you didn't want to fight (or if you were a kid who sometimes got lost). I also liked that you were rewarded for exploring with Lizard Tails & Fruits to increase your stats (Health & Stamina, respectively).

[@squirtle0528]

I love that you mentioned DDR courses as a boss rush. There's a lot of history behind older courses like Legend Road from Extreme. But it should be noted that Dan courses have been added to the latest installments in the series. The highest rank you can obtain is from the Kaiden Dan course and if you search it, know it's not the the faint of heart.

[@acesamm]

Rez has a boss rush and is, in my opinion, one of the best boss rushes I’ve played through. I’m not joking. Before the game is over, there is *one* more mission you have to do before you can attempt to free Eden. You gotta refight the firewalls after the entire thought-provoking journey in the 20 minute level. Not only is the music unique and AWESOME (with slight variations for the subsequent bosses), the boss fights have less health and use different attacks with most coming from their respective stages, which are now advanced as well. One of the bosses use the room you’re in in a unique way due to how its boss worked, which is mostly a chase. That one being URANUS. It can run around the circular wall, and pretty fast too, so you gotta have a good aim to shoot it. Rez may not be one of my favorite games, but it is an absolute gem of a game.

[@RidireOiche]

There was one boss rush that I initially detested but later learned to appreciate after I beat it. I think it was one of the later dweebie/edgier Crash Bandicoot games. It was definitely a mascot platformer. This was back in the 2000s when those titles were 10 a penny and struggling to remain relevant. The boss rush began normally before the boss arena began to introduce challenges that weren't present in the initial battle, such as flying lazers, spike pits, and other hazards complicating the fight and limiting the safe floor space. I swear the bosses also got faster towards the end. I wish I could recall the name of the game.

[@jknifgijdfui]

Do you remember any notable mechanics this game had

[@RidireOiche]

@@jknifgijdfui I wish I could, but since we played so many of those mascot games during that time, I couldn't be sure. I think it was on the PlayStation. Mascot platformers were the kids' favourite genre, and ever since flayed Lara in Tomb Raider on the PlayStation 1, the cutscenes in Pandemonium, Medievil, and Ape Escape in general gave them nightmares. Before giving any games to the kids, my better half and I started secretly buying the games a week early, whoever had time playing through them during school hours or after bedtime with the sound off checking for nightmare fuel. Memories of a whole host of 10-20 hour mascot games floating around in here.

[@acridcesium_9971]

Lobotomy Corp's day 47/48/49 are neat boss rushes because they separate out the "bosses" of the game into three groups which you fight all at once. Where the earlier ones have more bosses at the same time while the last day just has two. The groups also make each day a more focused challenge overall, day 47 messes with your control and UI while lowering the stats of your units and preventing healing, day 48 multiplies a damage type you take while a single strong enemy shows up, and day 49 locks the game speed and kills units if you pause while making you fight another strong single enemy but this one is more focused on disrupting the management side of the game.

[@jamesapplesword7846]

I like terraria calamity’s boss rush mode, since its post/endgame content that also makes you fight buffed versions of the bosses and is only accessable with the deepest treasure of the abyss, a very mysterious area

[@leecole7266]

i love boss medley. they’re the best of both worlds. They let you experience the whole thing again at full power, but also are brief

[@shadowvincent8718]

My personal favorite boss rush are the Data Organization XIII fights in Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind. For me those fights are the prime examples of how to do a boss rush right. You fight against the same opponents but this time they are far harder and more aggressive and have completely different attack patterns to the point where it practically feels like a new boss as well as continuing the story and lore. Alongside the secret bosses the Data Organization XIII are a true test of skill of everything you learned through out the game.

[@E_Fig05]

I'd love another Boss Battle Design Video. I think there are still some great bosses to talk about.

[@JezElectro13]

Hi. Can you do "What Makes A Good Final Level?" video?

[@DoubleDownsArchivesForSillies]

One form of boss rush I think is interesting is... Unusual, to say the least. Just Shapes and Beats is "a variation of SHMUP genre where you dodge the shapes and move to the kick-ass beats". After beating the story mode, you have two options: go through online Challenge runs to unlock all of the bonus tracks for a different mode, and the different mode, and one that's closer to a boss rush, the Playlist. The Playlist allows you to set up any sequence of the game's many tracks. It's not a traditional boss rush, and there's only nine true bosses, but it's really cool, and allows you to practice certain tracks. It's a fully custom boss rush. And the addition of Hardcore mode in Update 1.2 makes that even more apparent. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[@ripscort1896]

A kinda boss rush i love is the battle against Delirium on The Binding of Isaac, while you don't fight previous bosses, he transforms on some of the bosses you have encountered In contrast, the Mega Satan battle brings back the horsemen of Apocalypse and the Seven Deadly Sins, who were previous bosses-mini bosses you may have fought

[@sebastiantorres6915]

I really liked the Boss Rush in Gravity Circuit. A new boss would randomly mimic a previous boss' behavior, and then put you in that boss fight with the boss at half health. However when you beat one of the old bosses they would be removed from the random pool of bosses, even if you die. Would be cool if there was an option to fight it all in one go, however.

[@TKG785]

Not sure if this is too unrelated, but I ADORE when a video game has bosses do different things and behave differently when the player ups the difficulty.

[@platypusfox73]

I think the most interesting boss rush I did recently was the one in KH3s Re:Mind DLC agianist the data organization. In the main game as well as the first part of the DLC you face off agianist Organization XIII in groups with the only solo fights being agianist Xehanort and Terr Xehanort (don't ask) The Data Scape is where you get to face off against them individually, and there are more or less brand new fights. It also counts as the only Super Boss Rush that I know of as there the games greatest challenge with an even more powerful 14th boss waiting at the very end after you defeat them.

[@epicgamerzfail4575]

Perfect timing, as I was just playing through pikmin 4 recently and enjoyed the boss rush that game had to offer. I think in general boss rushes can be a neat gimmick if done correctly

[@MoaiGaming1]

Can you do escape sequences next please? Games like ori and pizza tower are among my favorites.

[@lyuanfranco7842]

(sorry for my bad english)A type of boss rush that was never touch again was the "continuous boss rush" introduced by alien soldier(1995) where the game is played thought it's entirely without any interruption (menus, stages selects and cutscenes) literally the same life bar that you started at the game will be with you in the end(if you don t die of course) no refill after level,(you can parry enemy bullets for heath), this styles mix soo well with a boss rush, like tearing boss after boss(oh look a boss(walk a little bit) oh look another boss) and the best part is that the game don't have the problem of becoming stale or the "main bosses" don't fell impactful thanks of the different treatment they have(the "main bosses" have their onw theme or a intro to them make them special above the other normal bosses) highly recomendation it's a underrated masterpiece

[@michaelcheng9987]

The fights against the Lost SOULs in Undertale might not be your typical idea of a boss rush, but there are many ways it qualifies. You fight every single major boss of the game (except Mettaton who is replaced by Alphys), in the "edited/sampled" style of boss fight. They bring back the different SOUL mechanics from the previous fights, as well as the attack patterns of the boss you faced. The bosses in this game are long fights, so the rush uses significantly shortened and simplified versions so they can function well as one phase of a larger final boss fight. This is because Undertale's FIGHTs are very puzzle-oriented, consisting of performing specific actions until a monster no longer wants to fight you, dodging their attacks in the meantime. These are not the exact same bosses you fight though. Instead, there are all new ACTs that represent what you did *outside* of FIGHTs that led you to befriending the bosses, both before and after their respective fights. This is woven into the story _behind_ the boss rush: The final boss has reset everyone's memories, so that they all revert back to the way the player met each of them in the story. Helping them regain their memories not only recaps the player's journey, but also how they've been able to impact the lives of these bosses, and the character development they all underwent over the course of the game. It also furthers the game's themes of growing from the past and how showing a little bit of kindness and understanding can change the world.

[@Knuckx117]

Y'know, I'd be willing to count that. You DO fight against the bosses in one form or another, and it DOES have the same mechanics from the first time you fought them.

[@fianchetto5954]

It's impossible to die in that part tho

[@cremeriie]

you showed a bit of footage from it in the video, but i really like the octopath traveler boss rush. the atmosphere is great, the bosses are harder to compensate for how op your team inevitably will be while still feeling satisfying to defeat, and there's a lot of room for strategizing the best combination to tackle them in.

[@dondashall]

My gripe with boss rushes is accessibility. If it's kept as optional content, I don't care do what you want, it's not for me, but when it's something required in the main story, ESPECIALLY if I can't save in-between that becomes a problem. About the only game I've seen do this well that I can remember off the top of my head is Shovel Knight. A bad example of this is Death's Gambit: Afterlife. A fantastic souls-like/metroidvania hybrid, but in order to get on the route for the true ending (and it's one of my favourite true endings EVER) you have to do 5 refights of previous bosses. They don't all happen in the same space and you do get to save in-between, but it's not like you have anything else to do so it's basically a boss rush. These refights are souped-up versions of the originals and can be quite inaccessible. There are people who have not been able to beat 5. For me, I did, but it took a long time and it would have sucked had I not been able to do 5.

[@turbo8628]

Haven't played shovel knight yet, but i agree on the other points; boss rushes should be optional in most cases.

[@just-a-fnf-fan]

Pizza tower. It allows you to beat the fuckinf shit out of the bosses, and let me tell you, it is SATISFYING.

[@dondashall]

@@just-a-fnf-fan it's on my list.

[@greykamasz656]

To this day, Pantheon of Hallownest from Hollow Knight is my favorite boss rush. Each pantheon before has you fight bosses from specific parts of the game, plus pantheon-exclusive bosses. You can frutehr challenge yourself by using bindings, which goes toward giving you extra health in the final pantheon. Then P5 puts it all together, puts a spin on existing bosses, like fighting all three of the Mantis Lords, before ending with a very difficult fight against The Radiance. A true Ky epic boss rush

[@louis559]

Hollow Knights boss rush really is so so good. Team Cherry put a lot of thought and work into how they implemented the hall of gods. From a gameplay perspective, the way they split up is really clean, but my favorite thing is the above-and-beyond work they did with the whole easthetic of it. A whole new large area just for this side content with tons of new music and artwork. Every boss in the game has an arena that mirrors where you originally fight them, but with all new artwork making their placement in the hall of gods cohesive. They also have remixed music to fit with the hall of gods. Also Hollow Knight is the only game I can think of where the best boss in the game is hidden in the midst of an >hour long boss rush. The Sisters of Battle fight justifies everything you have to do to get to that point imo.

[@Reinoiro]

I have a godseeker save file with over 100 hours on it alone. No other bossrush mode and boss design in general resonated with me as much as in hollow knight. Might just be the best ever bossrush

[@Delta-et3hx]

The cuphead King dice boss fight and the mechanics with the dice remind me of gunstar heroes last stage! Where you literally throw a dice and move round a board with each square representing a previously fought boss! Im not sure if it would be considered a boss rush but thats the game that sprung to mind to me! I loved gunstar heroes!

[@Icemann336]

Racing games can have a boss rush too, in Need For Speed Carbon, the last races have you facing all 3 previous bosses before moving onto Darius, the game's final boss. Even though its 4 races and 4 bosses, just 2 races have the old bosses and once you beat them, Darius is all yours. It maybe a stretch to call it a boss rush, but all 4 bosses are technically all there. Think of it as you will, but make sure you bring a maxed out Corvette for it because its tough

[@phorchybug3286]

Optional Boss Rushes are my most favorite. Feels like a nice reward for all that work or a little something to do if you're bored.

[@Shanderson716]

While it uses the same style as the Kirby games, the All-Star Mode (not including the one in SSBU) is a fun take on the boss rush idea. Like Kirby, between each round, you have the rest spot with healing items. What makes the one in Smash for WiiU/3DS (and Ultimate's All-Star Mode too) interesting is the fact that they're kind of customizable, though take actual money to do so. As DLC characters were added, the "boss rush" would update and extend based on which characters you added.

[@Sheim-b4k]

Thank you so much for this video. I needed this.

[@playbossthebest936]

Megaman boss rushes know no middle measures, you either get the traditional endgame boss rush or Lumine from X8. It's fascinating really

[@dracmeister]

False example, X8 does have a basic boss rush. Megaman for the Game Gear has no boss rush... it just ends with Quickman's stage... The Megaman Legends Games don't have boss rushes. But that's about the examples of Megaman games without boss rushes. The Megaman World games, the gameboy titles dance around having one or not, Megaman World 2 had a boss rush but it wasn't a refight, it was fighting 4 different bosses. While World 1 and 3 don't have one. World 5 has 2 boss rushes, first with the Megaman Killers and the stage after the Stardroids.

[@playbossthebest936]

@@dracmeister the first phase of Lumine uses attacks from all of the mavericks from the game, Zant style. That's what I was referring to

[@dracmeister]

@@playbossthebest936 but I myself wouldn't consider that a boss rush. Since Lumine is only using the attacks of the Mavericks and not mimicking their attack patterns/how they fight. It's like saying some singular JRPG boss that uses attacks that are generic to previous encounters a boss rush, no they simply know these attacks. If anything it's more of a "final test" boss to see if you've learnt anything across the game on how to deal with these attacks.

[@playbossthebest936]

@@dracmeister Zant from twilight princess was used as an example in the video, so I don't think Lumine is too far gone for a comparison. With that being said, I think it was a great concept

[@dracmeister]

@@playbossthebest936 just because it's featured in this video, doesn't mean it's a good example. I've plenty-observed this channel myself and while the content is informative the examples they present are sometimes not great or a bit obfuscated for the sake of "here's a game everyone's played that relates to the current topic." This isn't to be mean to the channel runners I just felt like there coulda been better examples from more out there and obscure titles, and I mean OBSCURE titles not like those "hidden gems" everyone talks about but those that aren't in the current cultural zeitgeist. No. I don't consider a boss that copies moves from other bosses a boss rush. From my eyes, these are consecutive fights thrown at you. If this one boss when through different phases mimicking past encounters down to the T, then I'd consider it but the player needs to advance the phases themselves. A semi-example of this the Bydo Cell(?) from R-Type 3 Third Lightning. One of the bosses is a singular organism that transforms into previous bosses from the first title, you don't fight this thing head on you defeat the forms it takes. This is a boss rush. Since you advance by destroying the forms, Lumine and Zant simply say "hey do you know how to deal with these types of attacks?" There not so much more their own instances but rather a final exam of sorts, it contains all of the concepts you've/you'll come across the length of the game all in one instance rather than a retread or a gauntlet to see if you can manage yourself. While I'm aware the concepts closely interwine with each other, the presentation is what makes the difference to me.

[@le_chef-Klown]

I know it was shown twice but shovel knight deserves the roses in terms of the boss rush, not only is it a complete surprise on your first playthrough, but also it puts your skills on the edge!

[@le_chef-Klown]

Also need to mention that since you already beat the 8 members of the order of no quarter so you think that "this is the final level!" Then after the auto scroll section, you fall down a hole and ... Boss rush ahoy!

[@baconator_x4098]

I wanna bring up Hollow Knight's Pantheon 5. Is it good? IDK I have never beaten it, but my brother has and he says he won't wish Pantheon 5 on anybody. It is extremely difficult with the hardest fights at the end. You have to get through several bosses before the real trial can begin.

[@Road_to_Dawn]

Link’s Awakening had a bit of a boss rush during the final boss, mostly taking cues from bosses from other Zelda games. Loved the way they did it there. No one form took too long to take down, and it was all positioned as really just different phases of the same fight.

[@just-a-fnf-fan]

Two words: Pizza tower.

[@ERICBALYBERDIN-h2z]

*HOW IS THIS TOP COMMENT*

[@doopshanoop]

⁠yo chill out bro… he’s just a fnf fan

[@PillowEgg]

I like the boss rush mode component integrated into the story as the case with Tales of Arise. It shows so much growth to challenge the bosses you fought before to represent how much you have grown throughout the journey and creates a benchmark. Tackling multiple challenges continuously is quite a feat.

[@skootus]

if you have a true final postgame boss in a game, I think a boss rush should happen at the halfway point of the fight as a way to show the player how far they have come

[@xaviersavard6343]

No. You do not simply interrupt a climactic final fight. Spoiler for hollow knight -Imagine fighting gruz mother and false knight after the hollow knight and before radiance-

[@greenbean501]

Smash Ultimate does that in World of Light. You first have to do a platforming section and occasionally fight some clone fighters. Then, you have to fight six of the previous bosses from earlier in the campaign, though you get to choose the order. After that, you can finally fight Galeem and Dharkon for real. I think it works pretty well in the context of their war

[@skootus]

@@xaviersavard6343 I think it would be about halfway through radiance, but I hadn’t really though about hollow knight when I commented

[@PokeMario-pk4ot]

I love the boss rush in Skyward Sword. You get better rewards the further you go, and the game times how long each fight takes you and saves your best time, so it can also act as a time trial for the boss fights

[@Torterror1]

FFXIV's ultimate raids are a fantastic boss rush. They're portrayed as retellings of parts of the story with dramatic exaggeration from the wandering minstrel, meaning while the bosses are largely ones you've fought before, they play out much differently and it ends up being a 15-20 minute gauntlet with you and 7 other people.

[@deficit06]

They are also BRUTALLLY hard fights, with only the most dedicated raiders even bothering to complete them.

[@Knuckx117]

@@deficit06 And, with one exception, there's no checkpoints. 1% enrage on the final phase? Back to the start for you.

[@mrprince911]

Chroma squad has an interesting pair of boss rushes. The first boss of the grand finale is the bosses you've fought of that season. The main boss gets stat boosts when the other bosses are alive so it behooves you to take them down first. The next boss actually summons previous bosses as his minions and they themselves can summon their own lesser minions and the final boss....doesn't do that. He summons minions to bring him powerful weapons and if you kill them before they get to him he has to summon more and can't attack.