Boss (video games)

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Bowser (right), a recurring boss in the Mario series of games, as seen in Super Mario Bros. (1985)

A boss is an enemy-based challenge found in computer and video games.^[1] The appearance of a boss halts the game's progression until the player is able to surmount the enemy. A fight with a boss character is referred to as a boss battle.^[2]

1 Overview
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Overview

A boss is a computer-controlled opponent whose purpose is to tax skills that the player has accumulated over the course of the game.^[3] A common characteristic of boss battles is that they cannot be won without some semblance of a strategy. Bosses have appeared in some shape or form within nearly every genre of video games, with the exceptions of sports and simulation games. The concept first originated in role-playing games and continues to play a dominant role in them. Beginning with the fourth generation of video games, bosses have been increasingly given larger roles within narrative-driven games, usually as archetypal villains.

The concept of a boss battle is a very malleable one. It may involve fighting multiple enemies, or a series of obstacles which function collectively as the 'boss'. Single-player fighting games consist entirely of one-on-one duels against opponents of increasing difficulty, culminating in a battle against the ultimate fighter. Other bosses are unique in that they appear multiple times before they can be defeated. An example is Resident Evil's Nemesis, a character who repeatedly stalks the player throughout the game, yet can never be permanently 'killed' until the end of the game. The action-adventure game Shadow of the Colossus consists of little more than a series of boss battles, with sixteen giant enemies to defeat.^[4]^[5] The creator, Fumito Ueda, attributed this design to his own enjoyment of boss battles and his desire to reach them quickly.^[6]

Despite being an optional boss, Final Fantasy VII's Omega Weapon is more difficult to defeat than the game's final boss.

Given the limitations of console role-playing games, it is often possible for players to triumph over each boss by simply engaging in repetitive level grinding. For this reason, an optional boss (commonly known as "superboss") is frequently hidden within role-playing games. These enemies are not necessary to encounter or defeat, yet can easily justify as bosses in their own right; many are deadlier than their requisite counterparts. The intent of such an unbalanced level of difficulty is to challenge players who have mastered the battle system. In several games of the Final Fantasy series (V, VIII, and X), the player earns a congratulatory certificate for defeating the reigning superboss. These items have no practical use above serving as bragging rights.^[7]

[edit] History

The mothership from the video game Phoenix

The first interactive game to feature a boss was dnd, a 1975 computer role-playing game for the PLATO system.^[8]^[9] One of the earliest dungeon crawls, dnd implemented many of the core concepts behind Dungeons & Dragons.^[9] The player took on the role of a lone knight, whose objective is to retrieve an orb from the bottommost dungeon.^[10] The orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy called the Gold Dragon. Only by defeating the Dragon could the player claim the orb, complete the game, and be eligible to appear on the high score list.^[8]^[11]

The first arcade game to feature a boss was Phoenix, a fixed shooter developed by Taito in 1980.^[12] Phoenix has five levels in which the player must survive against swarms of extraterrestrial birds. During the first two Rounds, the player is assaulted by the pigeon-like "Scouts", whereas Rounds three and four pits them against the more formidable "Soldiers". Upon disposing of these enemies, a giant mothership appears in the fifth and final Round.^[13]