That One Boss/Action Game/Super Mario (franchise)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of That One Boss in Super Mario (franchise) include:


  • Super Mario Bros. 2 has Fryguy, the flaming entity fought in World 4. At first, it seems like you simply have to hit it with the mushrooms three times, and technically that's the idea. After that, however, it splits into four living fireballs that hop here and there, trying to hurt you. And the more fireballs you kill, the faster the remaining ones will move. Granted, it's possible to kill them all in one hit, but good luck with the timing. To make matters worse, the game had a glitch where if you touched the last fireball before it died, the door to the next world might not appear. (You could escape having to reset by using a code that killed you, but that just meant you had to try and beat this boss from the beginning.)
    • Clawgrip is no pushover either. The rocks he tosses at you are awkward to grab, and he can toss them in hard to dodge volleys that make fighting him as someone other than Peach hell on earth. Though even she is far from a safe bet, since he can still bonk her with a rock during her long picking-up cycle.
  • Wendy Koopa in Super Mario Bros 3 is way worse than her brothers. While the others' attacks will fly offscreen, the rings of energy she fires will bounce round the room endlessly, and she'll keep adding more. If you can't stop her before there are more than three or so, you're not going to.
    • Roy and Ludwig are also tough, mainly for their nasty gimmick: these guys are so heavy that they cause the ground to shake when they land after a jump. If you're on the ground when they land, you're briefly stunned and helpless against any attacks they'd follow up with. And since the elevation in their boss arenas is really uneven, you're constantly having to carefully time your jumps to dodge their own quake jumps, while also dodging the wand blasts they fire at you. And if that wasn't enough, their airships are among the hardest in the game meaning that you'll likely be fighting them after being reduced to your One-Hit-Point Wonder form.
  • Give Wendy a shot in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, too. Essentially the exact same fight as SMB3, but underwater. If you don't have a Fire Flower on hand, you're going to have to wait it out when the rising water prevents you from jumping on her.
  • Luigi's Mansion has Boolossus, the game's third boss who seems simple enough on paper: you pull the enormous Boo to a unicorn statue to pop him, freeze the fifteen Boos that split up, and suck them up to win the battle. However, vacuuming up the smaller Boos is incredibly tricky because they get harder to hit with your ice attack the more you suck them up, and they attack by dashing into you at high speeds which are incredibly tough to dodge. Collecting the final few Boos is a chore to do because of this, and getting a gold rank on him (which means not taking any damage) is a nightmare.
  • Super Mario Sunshine has Sirena Beach's Phantamanta, a giant manta ray that leaves behind electric goo and divides every time you hit him, up to a maximum of 64 little mantas that you'll have to vanquish. Even worse, when there are only tiny mantas left, they will start chasing you. Be careful not to step in any goop when going to refill FLUDD!
    • You can make the battle slightly easier by first dividing the manta into roughly four, then focus on dividing and killing one part at a time. You can also hide under the cabana roofs to prevent it from reaching you, since the "mantas" are actually ghostly silhouettes that float on top of whatever terrain they encounter. Once they float over huts or trees those parts of their silhouette will therefore appear on top of the object.
    • Cleaning Eely Mouth's teeth is annoying, as you're underwater with HORRIBLE controls, and you have to be dead on when firing at his teeth to clean them. Also, your life is slowly going down, and it's not obvious that you can use the bubbles to regain your health until it happens by fluke, and it takes a looong time to get low enough to hit him properly. Even if it is dead on, you have to be low enough for the water to hit his teeth to actually count.
  • Hookbill the Koopa from level 4-8 of Yoshi's Island. Easy like everything else when you play it normally. But when you want the 100 Points, you're not allowed to take damage even once. And this boss has really bad attacks, heavy collision damage, and don't forget that you have to wait 30 seconds when you get damaged! Prepare yourself to repeat this boss over and over again for 100% completion.
  • Bouldergeist from Super Mario Galaxy doesn't appear to be this trope at first. In fact, he easily qualifies for Best Boss Ever status thanks to the complexity of his battle and the satisfaction that comes from slamming Bomb Boos into him. And then the Daredevil Comet comes into play, and he's suddenly a lot less fun. The stone spikes that can cut off your mobility are a pain in the tail when you're trying to dodge his rock barrages or giant fists, and when you can't take a single hit due to the mandatory 1 HP in daredevil challenges, saying "fuck it" and tanking an attack is no longer an option. Said fists can also eat up attacks meant for his body, and as far as that goes, he's sturdier than just about every non-Bowser boss and takes six hits at the minimum to bring down.
    • Fiery Dino Piranha is also really bad. If you thought you were due for an easy time since he's a reskin of the first boss, you are VERY wrong: unlike the original Dino Piranha whose tail you could whack whenever you felt like, F.D.'s tail is constantly igniting and burning out, meaning that without proper timing you'll hurt yourself instead of him. And if that wasn't already annoying, he's a lot faster than his weaker cousin meaning that even if you have the timing down, you can still be thrown off by trying to keep up with him. And then, there's the trails of fire he leaves behind which gives you another threat to worry about... and that's before the fireballs he spews during the final phase come into play. And on top of that, his tendency to suddenly turn around right when you try to attack his tail means you can do everything right and still get punished for it. The devs were likely aware of how aggravating he is to fight, because the Melty Molten Galaxy's Daredevil comet is the only one of its kind that doesn't make you fight the boss with one health.
    • None of the fights against Kamella Koopa are particularly bad... save, of course, for the Deep Dark Galaxy Daredevil run. When she moves up to the ship's crow's nest, you have to fight her in a very cramped arena where she and her Magikoopa minions are all pelting you with fire spells. Her massive size also makes it easy for her to Tele Frag you up there.
    • The Toy Time Galaxy's Undergrunt Gunner fight is a far cry from his usual easy battles, because his cannon fires lightning balls that home in on you, and you're forced to fight him while playing as the unwieldly and awkward Spring Mario. Do the math, and the results aren't pretty.
  • Fire Gobblegut from Super Mario Galaxy 2. He's annoying enough in his regular form, but his fire version takes it to the extreme. You can't touch his body without taking damage, making it very hard to take out his belly bulges during the short window you have open to you, and whenever he dive bombs the planet, he leaves lava pools. After the first three hits, it starts raining fireballs.
    • Also from Super Mario Galaxy 2, Squizzard. Fought in the middle of a sand whirlpool that constantly sucks you towards him unless you're standing on one of many tiny rock platforms. Throws giant rocks (and after you damage him once, spiky balls) at you, which STAY THERE after they land until you destroy them. His weak point is his mouth, which he opens for half a second BEFORE throwing his last projectile (so by the time you've dodged it, he's closed his mouth again - you have to shoot at him and THEN dodge). You can only damage him using the (temporary) Fire Flower powerup, and you have to hit him five times (in quick succession, or he'll close his mouth and you'll have to start again) in order for one damage point to register on him. And when he's down to one damage point left, he gets these turret things on either side of him, that shoot balls at you EVEN WHILE HE'S STUNNED. Not to mention the balls get in the way of your fireballs. And - like the Bouldergeist example mentioned above - you have to do a perfect run on him if you want 100% Completion.
    • Surprisingly, Peewee Piranha becomes this in his associated Speedy Comet mission. It's not that he's a powerful combatant, but his fight is a Race Against the Clock where you're pitted against a foe who's very good at wasting what little time you have. His mobility makes it hard to land a hit on him, and he's prone to leaping away from you or turning around right when you're about to hit his weak spot. This gets truly ridiculous when he's on his last legs, because he'll sprint around the planetoid arena like Usain Bolt and make it nearly impossible to finish him off before you time out and die.
    • Bouldergeist and Fiery Dino Piranha both make a comeback in the Boss Blitz Galaxy, and are even fought back to back! They're the last bosses you have to fight, and retain everything that made them annoying to fight in the first game. Thankfully there's no Daredevil comet involved... but there is a Speedrun challenge that gives you five minutes to defeat every boss in a row, these two included. And whether it's Bouldergeist's hands shielding his body from harm or FDP's... everything, you bet that every death will happen because you timed out on one of these bastards.
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a very easy game, but Ludwig can be tricky. He'll dangle from a chain hanging from the ceiling, and to hit him, you have to launch yourself at him from a cannon. And at first, it's easy to hit him. But after the second time you hit him, he'll start wildly swinging around on whatever chain he's latched onto, and all of a sudden it's frustratingly hard to hit him. Not only does it eat up time, but he casts a wall of spells that you're almost guaranteed to hit on your way back down. And that's just in the vanilla game, good fucking luck if you're playing Coin Rush where you're starting off with a 100 second time limit in one of the longest stages in the game.
  • The closest thing to this in New Super Mario Bros is probably Monty Tank, the boss of world six. His Bullet Bills and Bob-ombs aren't overtly deadly, but in the last phase he becomes a bit tricky: The tank grows so high that you have to Goomba Springboard off a Bullet Bill to hit him. Which isn't easy without getting hurt, as he likes shooting two or three Bullet Bills directly above each other. Add the time trouble you get when you started the level from the beginning (it's one of the longest castles of the game), and you'll really get some challenge, especially when you're a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
    • Want to defeat Dry Bowser without taking damage? He's significantly faster than Bowser of World 1, and he'll barely give you enough time to run under him when he jumps. If you couldn't just run through him and take a hit, he would clearly qualify as That One Boss.
  • While the Koopaling fights in New Super Mario Bros. U are easy to stunlock to death if you jump on them the second they pop out of their shells between hits, a few of them prove to be surprisingly tough if you opt to fight them normally.
    • Iggy's fight is full of Confusion Fu, and sees him running around like a maniac from the floors up to the ceilings where he can't be hit. While the magic blasts that he fires and the Magmaarghs he summons aren't hard to dodge by themselves, if you aren't careful you'll find yourself sandwiched between two Magmaarghs that will converge on your location with their weird movement pattern while Iggy may or may not try to crush you from above as well. Oh, and when you stomp on him his shell's movement is downright weird, and tends to double back and try to flatten you immediately after you dodge it. Sometimes though, it'll stop short and reverse, causing you to crash right into it when you try to dodge.
    • Roy's toting a double-sided Bullet Bill cannon, and leaps around a bunch of flying platforms while taking potshots at you and occasionally trying to flatten you with a ground pound. Later in the fight he starts adding Missile Bills, which home in on you, into the mix. Oh, and every time he fires his cannon, he scoots backwards due to the recoil, which can throw off your aim when you try to jump on him and even lead to you crashing right into him.
    • Ludwig takes the simple, but effective approach of flooding the crow's nest you fight him on with a ton of wand blasts from both himself and his illusory doubles. It's practically Bullet Hell in a Mario game (albeit Bullet Hell Lite), especially since you're fighting him in a somewhat small arena.
  • The Dual Boss fight against the Hisstocrats in Super Mario 3D World is a nightmare, which is a jarring change from how their separate boss fights normally are. Said Dual Boss fight is in the middle of World Flower's brutal Boss Rush, where you'll eat through a huge chunk of the surprisingly strict 500 second time limit just from fighting them. The best way to beat them in a timely manner is by hitting the other Hisstocrat immediately after stomping on the first, which is hard to do without having a storm of fireballs and several other bosses to worry about. If you don't, you're likely to die just shy of beating the level provided the other bosses or the Hisstocrats themselves don't do you in.
  • Super Mario Odyssey doesn't really have any hard boss fights while you're playing through the story. But once the postgame opens up, the initially easy bosses really start to bring their A-game.
    • Remember how Topper was the game's Warmup Boss and didn't get much stronger for the rematch at Bowser's Castle? Well, he kicks off the Broodal Boss Rush on the Dark Side of the Moon where he's gotten so tough that he can single-handedly ruin your run. He's now packing a massive amount of hats that he can send spinning all across the floor at random. And since Cappy can only destroy one at a time, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the ruthless onslaught of hats. Fittingly, his massive amount of hats translate into a huge column when he slams them onto you, and unlike past fights you likely won't be able to escape the range of his super fast spinning attack, meaning that you'll have to ride out the storm with several precise jumps. Thankfully the other Broodal rematches aren't too tough, but if Topper doesn't defeat you outright, you'll likely be unable to take another hit. A scary prospect, when you have four other bosses and floaty moon physics to worry about.
    • Knucklotec doesn't change up his strategy, but he doesn't need to: his rematch has hordes of Chinchos constantly spawning and chasing after you. They're tricky, persistent, and hard to hit without damaging yourself. And when you aren't trying and failing to thin the herd between attacks on Knucklotec himself, they're corralling you directly into the path of his own attacks.
    • The Ruined Dragon is infamous for being a little too easy for being such an imposing, terrifying opponent. But his easily dodged electric buzzsaws and onslaught of ground-based lightning attacks are obnoxiously hard to dodge in the rematch thanks to his arena's icy floor. Not only is it slippery and hard to move around on, but you also take a speed penalty before you really get moving, which is a very bad thing when you're being assaulted by tons of electric attacks with very little room to dodge.
  • In Bowser's Fury, the first boss fight against Fury Bowser in the Ruins is a huge step up from the preceding fight thanks to one deadly new attack: he'll use his shell as a wheel and try to run Mario over, leaving trails of ink behind that will mess with your speed. He's fast as hell, and spends a lot of time offscreen which makes keeping track of him a real bitch to do, even with the cursor giving you a rough approximation of where he is. And if you try to hide from him on top of the various structures on Lake Lapcat's islands, he'll leap up towards you. In later fights, he'll always shoot a bunch of spikes that you can throw at him to instantly knock him out of wheel mode, but you get no such luxury here, and there's a very real risk of being comboed to death in seconds if you're having a real bad day.
    • The 100% version of the final battle is also really tough: not the Fury Bowser portion, but the Giga Bowser part. If you thought the storm of projectiles he fired at you was bad enough in the original fight, that's nothing compared to the Bullet Hell that awaits you in this battle.
  • The very first boss in Wario Land is one of these, being the hardest boss in the game. One hit makes attacking him nearly impossible, he's pretty quick in attacking and attacks from land, the ceiling and underground in various phases. Also a rather harsh "Wake-Up Call" Boss.
    • There's also Bloomsday/Scumflower in Wario Land Shake It, who is probably the one boss in the game who takes the longest to defeat (three different attack patterns), can cause earthquakes and hurricanes to mess you up, and has to be very slowly knocked backwards off the edge by throwing enemies and then quickly attacking him a few times.
    • In Wario World, my god, Red Brief J. Not only were his attack patterns extremely hard to avoid and dealt you even 5 hearts of damage in one hit, to add insult to injury it's a muscular bull in a speedo.
    • From Wario Land 4, you have Aerodent, a giant teddy bear balloon being piloted by a rat...thing. Aerodent floats overhead, throwing down Spikebutts, which you have to flip over and throw into a patch (with wonky collision detection) to deflate Aerodent. Then, when it drifts downward a bit, you hit the feet with Wario's barge attack to flip it over, then FINALLY you can hit the rat a couple times before it reinflates the bear and floats back up. And as you repeat this process, it throws down fireballs, which turn you into Fire Wario, which just wastes time. The only way to get a perfect score for this boss is to grind medals and get the Large Lips to take its health down to two hearts, and even then it's still a difficult fight.
    • The Sorcerer Fox in Wario Land 3, mostly because hitting him involves bouncing an enemy off the walls, and because his projectiles are extremely difficult to avoid on the last hit.
  • Ashley's boss microgame from WarioWare: Touched! features borderline Bullet Hell patterns of projectiles to dodge and an end boss that has three separate pieces shooting things at you.


Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/That_One_Boss/Action_Game/Super_Mario_(franchise)?oldid=2046756"