The Hardest SNES Boss Fights

After compiling our list of the hardest boss fights on the NES, it only felt right to move a generation further and tackle some of the hardest boss fights on the SNES. While not nearly as notorious for its games’ difficulty as its 8-bit predecessor, the SNES was still home to some challenging boss fights that threw players for a loop and forced them to rethink their strategy or look up a tip in a gaming magazine. The SNES’ place as a home for some of the greatest RPGs of the era means that there are quite a few genre classics represented in this list, but there are almost as many tough-as-nails action-platformer bosses that stand toe-to-toe against their counterparts on the NES.

• Game — Super Mario RPG
• Release Date — March 9, 1996
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Nintendo

For the most part, Super Mario RPG (both the original and the remake) is a beginner-friendly RPG experience that doesn’t tax the player too much. But when it comes to the game’s optional encounters, especially its hidden super-boss Culex, Super Mario RPG‘s Square pedigree shines through to deliver one of the genre’s most challenging fights on the SNES. The game even goes to great lengths to communicate that Culex is a being pulled from a different kind of game entirely, rendering him in the pixel art style of the SNES Final Fantasy games and giving him 3x the total health pool of Super Mario RPG‘s official final boss. Only attempt Culex if your party is in tip-top shape.

• Game — Chrono Trigger
• Release Date — March 11, 1995
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Square

As far as “official” final boss fights go, the true final battle against Lavos in Chrono Trigger has to take the cake for being the toughest of any SNES RPG. Interestingly, where and when you finally decide to face Lavos has a lot of bearing on not just Chrono Trigger‘s ending, but how difficult the fight is, which adds some strategy to how you may want to approach the encounter. After defeating his first phase, Lavos has two completely separate other phases, turning this final climactic showdown into a battle of attrition that puts the party’s strength to the ultimate test. But man, does it feel good to finally lay a smack down on this planet-eating parasite.

• Game — ActRaiser
• Release Date — December 16, 1990
• Developer — Quintet
• Publisher — Enix

By the time you get to the final boss of ActRaiser, Tanzra, the game flips the script on you and forces you to not just fight the antagonist, but to take on a gauntlet of every single boss you’ve fought in the game thus far, with no breaks or healing in between. If you’re lucky to make it through some seriously tricky encounters (especially the Arctic Wyvern), you then have to face Tanzra himself in a multi-phase boss battle. Thankfully, you do get a pretty slick laser-emitting sword for the final phase, which does a great job of quickly melting Tanzra’s health bar.

• Game — Zombies Ate My Neighbors
• Release Date — September 3, 1993
• Developer — LucasArts
• Publisher — Konami

Another difficult multi-phase final boss encounter is Dr. Tongue from Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which is practically impossible if you come into it unprepared. Even if you know ahead of time and make sure to gather all the best weapons to have in your arsenal, each phase of Dr. Tongue is tough enough in and of itself to derail the entire fight and see you having to start from scratch. From a giant head to a spider and multiple other strange phases and forms, Dr. Tongue is a fitting challenge to cap off the weird and wonderful campy classic that is Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

• Game — Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Release Date — February 28, 1992
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami

The word “impossible” gets thrown around a lot when discussing super difficult parts of games, but Contra III‘s final boss, the Alien Brain, may actually fit the bill. This thing has so many different phases and so many moves that require pinpoint precision and timing to dodge that the fight may genuinely be impossible for all but the best players, forcing most of us to resort to some kind of infinite lives cheat using an emulator or Game Genie. Even with infinite lives, expect to die roughly every few seconds when facing this frantic and deadly alien threat that caps off Contra III‘s already substantial challenge.

• Game — Castlevania: Dracula X
• Release Date — July 21, 1995
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami

If Contra III‘s boss makes it onto a list of the SNES’ hardest boss fights, you have to know that Konami’s Castlevania series isn’t far behind. But rather than any single fight from Super Castlevania IV making it into the top 10, it’s the final battle against Dracula himself from Castlevania: Dracula X that takes the spot for being the franchise’s toughest encounter. His form in Dracula X, “Dracula, Lord of Blood”, is a multi-phase encounter that eventually sees the vampire transform into a full-on demon capable of sending out screen-clearing blasts that are incredibly hard to dodge, meaning Richter’s Cross and Holy Water sub-weapons are your best lines of defense to respond in kind.

• Game — EarthBound
• Release Date — August 27, 1994
• Developer — Ape Inc., HAL Laboratory
• Publisher — Nintendo

The final battle against Giygas in EarthBound is easy once you know the very specific trick to beat him. Beforehand, though, it’s next to impossible to accidentally stumble on the secret for taking this alien devourer out (hint: use “Pray”), meaning you’re likely to run up against the fight like a brick wall multiple times until you figure out how to actually deal damage to him. Without knowing the trick to the fight, Giygas is literally invincible, making him one of the hardest and most frustrating RPG bosses of the era.

• Game — Super Punch-Out!!
• Release Date — October 24, 1994
• Developer — Nintendo R&D3
• Publisher — Nintendo

Like its 8-bit predecessor, Super Punch-Out!! is notorious for having some seriously tough fights, the toughest of which are the back-to-back bouts against brothers Nick and Rick Bruiser. Like Mike Tyson before them, both Nick and Rick are tough-as-nails and faster than lightning in the ring, meaning one false move is all it might take to go from a potential victory to a defeat. The hardest part about these fights is the razor-thin margin for error in each, but once you know the pattern and how to successfully execute it, it’s thrilling to pull off both fights and send Nick and Rick careening down onto the mat.

• Game — Mortal Kombat II
• Release Date — September 9, 1994
• Developer — Midway, Sculptured Software
• Publisher — Acclaim Entertainment

Either Mortal Kombat‘s Goro or Mortal Kombat II‘s Shao Kahn could easily take a spot on a list of hardest SNES bosses, especially on each game’s higher difficulties. Ultimately, though, we felt like Shao Kahn was more deserving of top billing simply because of how aggressive Mortal Kombat II‘s AI is during the fight. Even for a skilled player, fighting Shao Kahn forces you to be on your toes the entire time, constantly defending against his rapid offensive onslaught and then trying to respond with some hits of your own in the small windows of opportunity you’re given. As far as fighting game bosses go, Shao Kahn is probably the king of the hill.

• Game — Mega Man X3
• Release Date — December 1, 1995
• Developer — Minakuchi Engineering
• Publisher — Capcom

Both one of the hardest bosses of any SNES game and the hardest boss of the initial trilogy of Mega Man X titles, Mega Man X3‘s Kaiser Sigma is a brutal fight that makes other battles against this series antagonist seem tame by comparison. Like the other hardest bosses from the Mega Man series, the trick to Kaiser Sigma is having both a little bit of patience and keen observation, learning when to dodge his seemingly undodgeable attacks and then waiting for the precise moments to land a successful hit of your own without wasting precious limited ammo. All of this is, of course, easier said than done, which makes Kaiser Sigma the apex challenge of a series already known for being ridiculously hard.