Iconic Final Bosses From NES Games

It’s no secret that NES games are notoriously hard, which made getting to see each title’s final boss fight feel like a monumental achievement in and of itself, whether you could actually win or not. While most of these battles boil down to some fairly simplistic pattern recognition or rely on predetermined strategies that, once you figure them out, make the fight a breeze, that doesn’t stop these final bosses and their encounters from being burned into the minds of the NES players who grew up facing these climactic baddies. And in many cases, once you do manage to beat these challenging foes and reach the end of their respective games, you’re treated to an ending sequence that caps off the experience and feels like a suitably epic reward for a job well done.

• Game — Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
• Release Date — December 1, 1988
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 4
• Publisher — Nintendo

For all that Zelda II arguably does wrong, there’s also a good bit that the game does right, including its surprise twist of a final boss encounter. After making your way through the game’s different dungeons and expecting to see a large monstrosity like the first game’s Ganon at the end, you’re instead greeted with a dark, twisted version of Link, turning the final boss encounter of one of the NES’ most misunderstood games into a metaphorical battle against the self that also happens to be one of the most challenging fights on this list. Years before we had the extended lore and backstory behind Link, Zelda, and Ganon, Zelda II‘s battle against Shadow Link hinted at more going on beneath the surface.

• Game — Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
• Release Date — November 21, 1987
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 3
• Publisher — Nintendo

Both one of the hardest bosses in the NES library and one of the most iconic, simply making it to fight “Iron” Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was worthy of bragging rights. Which is good, considering that most players didn’t have the slightest chance of beating him with his incredibly lightning-fast move set that creates a razor-thin margin for error. One slip-up is all it takes to derail an otherwise successful run through the rest of Punch-Out!!‘s fights, but finally getting the fight’s pattern down and besting Mike in a 1v1 bout is about as satisfying a victory as any in gaming.

• Game — Contra
• Release Date — February 12, 1988
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami

Konami’s Contra was an already great game that got even better in its NES port, thanks to the advantageous Konami Code granting 30 lives and some heavy-handed influence from 1980s sci-fi and action cinema. Nowhere is that influence more present than in the new final boss encounter in Contra‘s 8th stage, where at the end of the level, players destroy a large alien queen a la James Cameron’s Aliens and then proceed to shoot her still-beating heart while dodging her Facehugger-like offspring. The whole experience is etched into the minds of thousands of players who got there thanks to playing in co-op with a sibling or friend and the Konami Code, and it’s arguably one of the most recognizable pop culture images of the 1980s.

• Game — Ninja Gaiden
• Release Date — December 9, 1988
• Developer — Tecmo
• Publisher — Tecmo

Despite being one of the most iconic final bosses in the NES library, chances are that far fewer players have ever actually seen or fought the Demon Sculpture from Ninja Gaiden thanks to how tough it is just to get there. Before you can take on Ninja Gaiden‘s true final boss, you first have to beat Jaquio, which is almost impossible without using the trick to get stuck on the level’s geometry so you can attack him from a safe distance. Once you do get to the Demon Sculpture, though, you’re treated to one of the coolest boss fights of any NES game, with the encounter itself incorporating a surprising amount of shoot ’em up influence in how many projectiles you need to dodge while occasionally getting in a hit.

• Game — Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
• Release Date — September 19, 1990
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami

Out of the three Castlevania games on the NES, Castlevania III has an appropriately epic and climactic showdown against Dracula that ranks as not just the best on the console, but one of the best in the entire Castlevania franchise. It’s the first Dracula battle in the series in which we see the evil vampire lord transform beyond his humanoid form and into a host of other creatures, each of which introduces a new layer of challenge and mechanical complexity into the fight. To have any chance of survival, you’ll need to know how to use Simon and his allies to deal with Dracula’s different phases, making it an appropriate test of everything the player has learned up to that point and a suitable endgame challenge.

• Game — Mega Man 2
• Release Date — December 24, 1988
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom

Like Dracula and Castlevania, every Mega Man game on NES features Dr. Wily as an antagonist. But to assume that all Wily fights are created equal is a mistake. Like any great series with a recurring antagonist, some of Dr. Wily’s fortresses and final boss encounters are greater than others, and Mega Man 2‘s holds a special place among longtime series fans. Everything about this fight is iconic, from its multiple phases culminating in a battle against a hologram alien to the different sub-weapon weaknesses you’ll need to cycle through to emerge victorious. To top it off, you’ve got some of the series’ greatest music as an accompaniment, which is saying something for a Mega Man game.

• Game — Super Mario Bros. 3
• Release Date — February 12, 1990
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 4
• Publisher — Nintendo

Whether you reach him by actually completing all the prerequisite levels or just use a Warp Whistle to get there, the battle against Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3 is one of the best in the entire Mario series. Mechanically, it plays out similarly to the fight against the series’ big bad from the original Super Mario Bros. But the enhancements to visuals and the finely-tuned controls make Bowser’s appearance in Super Mario Bros. 3 a series highlight that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the character’s other great encounters in the franchise.

• Game — Final Fantasy
• Release Date — December 18, 1987
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Square

There are a few great “twist” reveals that lead into some great final bosses on the NES, but none of them are as iconic as Final Fantasy‘s. After initially defeating the disgraced knight Garland at the beginning of the game, the Warriors of Light come to learn that their fateful battle against him set a chain of events in motion that have trapped the kingdom in a 2,000-year time loop. To break it, they must face Garland 2,000 years in the past upon his transformation into Chaos incarnate, and boy, what a challenging fight it is. You’re lucky if you can make it through the fight without Chaos wiping the entire party with a single attack, even if you’ve leveled all four of your heroes to the max.

• Game — Metroid
• Release Date — August 15, 1987
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 1, Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo

Nintendo’s Metroid is all kinds of weird, both for its high-concept sci-fi and for its non-linear approach to exploration and combat that helped establish its own genre. But nothing in the game is as weird as the reveal of Metroid‘s final boss, with the Space Pirates’ “Mother Brain” being an actual factual brain in a jar that operates an AI supercomputer. Compared to her appearance in Super Metroid, the fight against Mother Brain isn’t all that difficult (assuming you’ve collected all the Missile upgrades), but for its imagery alone, it earns a place as one of the most iconic final bosses in the NES library.

• Game — The Legend of Zelda
• Release Date — August 22, 1987
• Developer — Nintendo R&D 4
• Publisher — Nintendo

Who else would it be? The most iconic fight in the NES library, and one of the most iconic final bosses of all time, is Ganon from the original Legend of Zelda. Before reaching the heart of Ganon’s Death Mountain fortress, we already know he’s the evil behind the kidnapping of Princess Zelda and covets the Triforce for its ultimate power, but seeing how those diabolical desires have twisted him into a foul, pig-like form only serves to hammer home his villainy and steel Link’s resolve. The fight isn’t all that complicated, but few endings are as satisfying as watching Ganon dissolve into a pile of dust as Link victoriously hoists the Triforce up into the air.