Games - Boss

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	Games - Boss

In video games, a boss (sometimes called a guardian or master) is a particularly large or difficult computer-controlled character that must be defeated at the end of a segment of a game, whether it be for a level, an episode, or the very end of the game itself (final boss). Bosses appear in many video games, particularly story or level-based first and third-person shooters, platform games, CRPGs, and most shoot 'em ups. Most games feature multiple bosses, each often more difficult than the last.

Bosses in game structure

Many single-player games feature a level/episode structure, the game becoming progressively harder as the player advances. Bosses are a consequence of this structure, appearing at or near the end of a level or episode and being the hardest enemies to defeat. Other games have a storyline instead of a level-based structure, but they still feature boss-like enemies at various points in the story or at the end of the storyline.

The boss battle generally marks the climax of a dramatic buildup resulting from the player's anticipation and anxiousness. Game designers often add design elements, such as suspenseful music, that enhance this effect. For example, in Metal Gear Solid 2, the penultimate battle has been heavily foreshadowed in dialogue, and the threat represented by the boss enhanced by an attempt to disable or destroy it before it is mobile, and by scenes of it causing carnage to demonstrate how deadly it is to the player.

A boss fest is a game with radical emphasis on boss battles. Examples of this style are Milestone's Chaos Field for Dreamcast and Gamecube, Treasure's Alien Soldier for Genesis, and Taito's extremely rare Darius Alpha for the PC Engine. Final Fantasy VII, for the Sony PlayStation, is also a prime example of this, and has often been derided for its habit of throwing bosses at the player with little or no regard to how they fit in the story. This has sometimes been known as Random Boss Syndrome.

An interesting variation on a boss fest game can be seen in Freakout (Called Stretch Panic in North America) for the Sony PlayStation2. This game has only four "normal" levels in which the character gains points. These points are then used to gain access to the twelve different boss arenas that make up the rest of the game. Shadow of the Colossus takes this one step further, as the game features no enemies except the 16 giant monsters the player must hunt down and slay. It is very rare for a game to be comprised mostly of what would normally be bosses.

Some games also include a special mode, or Boss Gauntlet, in which the goal is to defeat a number of bosses one after the other. Famous games with this kind of features are the Megaman series and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Some modes challenge the player with some kind of twist, such as in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, where Kirby couldn't use his copy powers. Often, modes like this are unlockables that are earned after beating the game to test a player's skill.

Bosses are traditionally used as choke-points in RPGs, used to ensure a player has taken the time to level-up (raise their abilities through fighting anonymous easier foes) before progressing to a new section of the game. A player may find that they have not increased in level sufficiently to weather a boss's attacks, and must spend time gaining experience points by fighting lowlier creatures (often a very repetitive process) before attempting the battle again. This can be viewed as an effort to ensure the player has the level the designer expects before they progress, however it is one of the more common frustrations with the genre. A well-designed RPG will have the player level up enough to defeat bosses during normal play, and may provide bonuses if they have grown strong enough to defeat certain opponents beforehand.

In modern MMORPGs, where the game has no true "end", the boss structure is often used within game "dungeons" or "instances". For example, in World of Warcraft, the instance Uldaman has a number of small boss encounters, many of which are skippable if the players don't want or need to do them, and a huge, highly dramatic "end boss" encounter which finishes the instance: Archaedas, the Ancient Stone Watcher.

Types of bosses

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Games - Boss

Bosses in game structure

Types of bosses

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