What Makes a Good Platformer Boss? | Boss Battle Breakdown 

Funny you should say this, because these are exactly what I don't like in a platformer boss and was significantly disappointed in all 3 fights when I got to them. I guess that's just my opinion though. I get why you like these, but I'd say they're very much not my cup of tea; It never feels like I'm damaging the boss or doing anything more than playing a standard level with a twist. There's nothing rewarding to me about hitting a switch at the end and winning, regardless of how I got there.

Can we get a video on Kirby bosses and what makes them so much fun? They seem to be the most interesting part of Kirby games + True arena is HARD AF

I wonder if it would be possible to have a blend of the arena and chase sequence styles of boss battle, so that the game could test the player's prowess without removing their agency.

This was quite helpful! I’m working on an idea for a Metroidvainia with platformer style combat and I’m trying to figure out how to make a good boss wit said mechanic

atleast nsmbw's final boss felt new and not the same thing from before plus bowser jr

Hrm... I'm somewhat conflicted on how Mario boss design should be, really. Whilst I agree that Meowser is a great fight and a fantastic capstone to Mario 3D World, I also feel that it suffers greatly insofar as replayability goes. Having the NSMBWii and 3D World encounters essentially be autoscrollers I feel removes a lot of the player's agency. Whilst I don't believe that the Arena approach is an entirely elegant solution either, I do feel that those still serve as challenges of execution and adaptability in most situations where Bowser has more than one hit point. Still, I feel that the best application of Bowser is in Mario 64. It fully encapsulates what it means to have mastered Mario's controls in 3D, and whilst it isn't collection-based or platforming-based, it does show Mario adapting to his new 3D environment and watching as his options become more limited as Bowser carves away at the arena. The tension feels greater in that fight than any other given Bowser battle for me. I mean, besides the master class of game design that is Mario Party 4's final boss, clearly the height of all boss fights for years to come. By far. Unparalleled. I mean, this is still really well done and you make a solid point, just not one I entirely agree with. I feel like titles like A Hat In Time really mastered the arena boss fight in a platformer with just hectic introductions of elements reminiscent of the game prior, and hope those do become the standard, but the Bowser fights listed here are damn good and I hold nothing against anyone who loves them.

Congrats on making the Mark Recommends on GMTK! Keep up the great work my man :)

The final challenge/boss of odyssey is actually the segment after the fight, where you capture Bowser and do a platforming section.

I think it's weird that you called your analysis "What Makes a Good Platformer Boss?" but only showed classic platformers (Jump'n'Runs, 2D and 3D) and never even mentioned action platformers which are famous for their bosses. There's obviously the Megaman series (Classic, X, Zero, ZX), their clones and spiritual successors but also more borderline examples like Shantae or Contra.

Have you checked out Celeste? This was the first platforming game I played with boss fights I would consider to be true platforming boss fights. I've always been disappointed with Mario boss fights due to how easy they are and how most utilize the same jump 3 times on the head tactic. They always feel out of place in a platformer game aside from the Galaxy games which are more centered around exploring stationary locations and don't have the character constantly moving forward to progress. Celeste was the first game where I realized, damn. Now, this is a boss fight for a platforming game. The game wasn't designed with a focus on boss fights so they don't stand out as much as a traditional boss fight. They're more integrated into the game's "episodic" story structure with the boss fight being an additional element added onto the end of a chapter. The final stretch to the end of the level. I think if a game was to take the design philosophies Celeste's boss fights and iterate on it to make more than just a few unique encounters, we could maybe get a platforming game that has multiple worlds with different level designs each with a boss fight that integrates itself into each world's level design and not just be a still screen of jumping on top of a sprite's head.

It's great for a showdown to capture the essence of a game, and these are excellent moments, but I struggle to call them boss fights. I feel like bosses that can get the most out of Marios abilities without making just a more climactic version of a normal level (which is fine) are certainly possible. One of my favorite fights is the Bowser Jr. fight of World 5 of SMG2, which has you using the cloud flower to ascend high enough to get to his cockpit and hit it, avoiding obstacles while making your way from cloud to cloud.

Well, the 3D World boss may be better than others but the autoscrolling kills it. In the rest of the game, you usually don't have autoscrolling (and whenever you have, it's awfully slow - that's a thing Nintendo hasn't understood in 3 decades) so it turns more into a waiting game than a challenge. The 3D Land fight does this so much better. But really, why is Bowser always placing these switches after bridges in his castles? That's just such a dumb idea.

Zelda: nah Mega man: nah Metroid: get that outa here Mario: yea Ignores every boss fight expect Mario

The early Sonic bosses are designed for a skilled player to beat extremely fast, maintaining the game's emphasis on speedrunning.

Mark sent me, I'm certainly not disapointed

I think this is something Sonic games do pretty well. They're rarely "final exam bosses" like you seem to appreciate in this video, but rather are designed with the same core idea in mind as the rest of the game: going fast. A skilled player can beat your average Sonic boss in under a minute, in much the same way that you can speed through a level if you know all the shortcuts. On the other hand, a first-time player might wait out long cycles until the obvious time to land a hit. Good examples of this kind of fight are the Egg Golem and Biolizard from Sonic Adventure 2, the Egg Dragoon from Sonic Generations, and the Heavy Rider from Sonic Mania.

:o from mark brown

Sonic and crash had all adapt there own ways of boss fights. look at modern sonic. in *sonic unleashed* all his fight were chasing down the boss while avoiding obstacles. in *sonic generations* , same concept but in the chaos boss fight you platformed and made your own way to hit him. (I haven't played sonic colors Wii so I can't have an opinion about it) What do they all have in common? you are always in the move trying to go as fast as possible to catch up the boss and hit him, and that is what sonic is known for, to go fast! Now for crash bandicoot, they were all mostly arena-like boss battles but they mostly tested your timing and jumping and avoiding in particular, (like dingodile's boss fights, crash 3's cortex fight, heck N.tropy's twinsanity boss fight) because crash bandicoot is mostly have timing your jumps and avoiding obstacles There is no way in general of how to make a good platformer boss fight. it all depends how the game handles it's platforming.

Personally, I really enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey's Final Battle. It was a simple, to-the-point Mario vs. Bowser Showdown; Think SMB1, to the extreme. The game throws him at you, with his own punching hat in tow, and says "So, you like capturing stuff? Okay, but can you win _without_ that ability (at least it's fullest potential)?" The player says YES! to this question, and is rewarded with an epic conclusion focused on the most epic capture in the game.

I get what you're saying about New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It does shout back to the original Super Mario Bros. It does test the platforming skills of the player, which is pretty much the whole game. But I preferred the boss battle in New Super Mario Bros. U. A big part of a Mario platformer is also dodging some enemies while jumping on others. In New Super Mario Bros. U, the final boss battle allows Mario to do exactly that. He dodges attacks and jumps on Bowser and Bowser Jr. I prefer that to any other Bowser battle

The original Bowser fight in Super Mario was a good test of skill in the context of the game ! Avoiding the moving obstacles was challenging !

2:18 *BOWSETT-* oh...

So it seems you liked when bosses are just levels? :P Why not do it both? Battle For Bikini Bottom has 3 boss levels and they are amazing because they all take place in some sort of arena but are really about platforming and you switch character from character using all your arsenal of moves to take them down slowly but surely with each phase having an different gameplay than the last. It's surprising but the Spongebob bosses are one of the most memorable ones in gaming history and I played a lot of platformers in my life :P Besides that, I think 3D World & Galaxy games nailed what a 3D platformer boss should be. Simple yet effective and damn that 3D World final boss is probably my fav Bowser boss ever! Outside of Mario, I'd say Rayman 1 & Wario Land 4 bosses are one of the strongest ones. They really feel like great encounter while still being real platformer events & using the game's mechanism in very smart ways and especially, they are super fun to play against and as satisfying as normal platformer levels

Interesting. Can you set on community translation so I can put on subtitles in the future videos?

Boss battle breakdown: Master Hand?

Got here from Mark Brown and I'll definitely follow this channel, your vids are really interesting!

this is like game makers toolkit and that's really good

7:46 This comment right here really brings home the point for how I feel on these boss "fights", in that is admits they're not fights at all, but rather chase sequences. Now, look, if these were Scooby Doo games, then I could understand just aimlessly running around just hoping you come across an item that will allow you to stop the big bad monster chasing you, but that's not the case. This is Mario we're talking about here, and Mario's games aren't about running away from something chasing you... Typically, there's the rare exception like the flood of Fuzzies in a few 3D World levels and the occasional lava smoke wall in a volcano level, but I digress. And when you make the final boss battle a chase sequence, how does it differentiate in a gameplay sense from a basic Goomba? Sure, I COULD stop and fight the Goomba, or I could just run to the goal where, at that point, the Goomba just poofs away into a point total and I clear the stage. But with these final boss "fights", you don't even have the option to fight the boss; rather, you have to run away until you find a switch at the end to just... Make the boss a point total and clear the stage. Granted, that's not the best example because with these final boss fights, there's a lot more spectacle and importance to them than a regular enemy confrontation (or lack thereof) but my point still stands that a boss fight should feel like an actual confrontation, in my opinion, rather than a chase sequence. Now, that's not to say that these boss fights are bad, far from it. The Meowser fight especially was a great sequence with an amusing concept of Bowser using power ups to combat Mario. But if you ask me, the final boss shouldn't have such a stark contrast to the game's prior bosses, rather, it should feel like the game's biggest and baddest enemy you have to fight, even if it's confined to an arena and doesn't test a player's platforming skills. I personally think the final boss of New Super Mario Bros U is the best of that series primarily because it's an actual confrontation, rather than NSMBWii and 2's "run from a giant Bowser without the player doing anything to affect Bowser and just being lucky Bowser included a collapse floor button in his castle." In retrospect, NSMB itself had a fine final boss, as you had the choice to wait through attacks to find an opening to hit the button OR you could fight Bowser with power-ups and actually defeat him, there was at least an option that allows players to feel like they're actually doing something different than just another level. And that's where I think I disagree the most, these boss fights shouldn't feel like standard levels that act as final exams for the game just because it, well, as I believe I've made quite clear up to this point, leads to the boss feeling like it has less impact rather than more impact when it's just another platforming challenge in a game where there's typically 80 plus platforming challenges. However, I feel like there's a much more elegant compromise to this issue that grants both sides of this "cramped arena vs. chase sequence" debate exactly what they want. Rather than having Bowser waiting for the player at the end of a platforming sequence just to make the player go through more platforming, make the chase sequence the regular portion of the level. Then, once the player has finally seemingly lost Bowser... BAM! Final boss fight in an arena that Bowser led the player to as a trap. It makes sense in universe a lot more than Bowser leading the player to what inevitably beats him in one attack (which, as I haven't mentioned yet, makes Bowser feel sort of cheaper as a threat compared to the Koopalings or other bosses if they require three hits and Bowser just needs an instant win button to be dispatched with). After all, why would Bowser honestly have a button that just destroys the bridge or ground under him and not immediately hit it himself to just get rid of Mario, instead allowing him the opportunity to be foiled by his own poor design choices? It would make a lot more sense for Bowser to lead Mario to an arena where Mario has to fight him off with tricks from the other bosses, to make the level a final exam in both senses. You start with the platforming chase sequence where Bowser is constantly chasing you and you need to use your skills gained over the course of the game to escape and then, when Bowser's cornered the player, fight back like you do with the other bosses... Kind of like New Super Mario Bros U's final level, when I think about it. Just with a greater emphasis on Bowser himself with a cooler sequence leading up to the final battle. But yeah, that's my stance on the matter. You make a good argument for these fights, and again, I do appreciate them for being cool sequences in these levels, but I've always found they really don't feel like fights for being the final boss fight.

I like the bosses in Yoshi's Island even if they use random mechanics that you may or may not have learned on earlier stages, on that game you have to figure out how to beat every boss and I believe that is what makes them good. I get the point on your video, just saying I don't think is the only way to a good platformer boss.

I'd be curious to hear what you think of Ori and the Blind Forest's escape sequences, which take the place of a conventional "boss" encounter at the end of the game's dungeon areas, and how they compare to this design philosophy.

Good video, more pls 🙏

I was watching this going, “New Super Mario Bros Wii is the best final boss fight in the series, so that should be number 1,” and sure enough.

You could've just named this one "thoughts on bowser battles" jeez.

I feel more combat focused platformers like Mega Man and Kirby have more room to design a unique and challenging boss fight than Mario does. And it definitely shows given those two series are much more well known for their bosses than Mario is. Granted I find it really cheap how Kirby games have always lose your ability when a boss hits you. Well I always hated that mechanic in general but it is especially annoying with a boss. It's not so much the difficulty, Kirby games by their nature are fittingly quite easy due to them being designed to be more accessible, but a big part of the fun with them is experimenting with different powers to see which is the most fun. And the game can take the power you have a moment's notice and force you to rely on the basics to beat a boss.

I remember when he wasn’t just Minecraft fact guy

Ori and the Blind Forrest Ginso Tree... Other than most people I don't think this is that much better than the rest of the Game (which is amazing), but it definitely shows how the developers understood that fighting isn't what the Game is about. (All "boss fights" in the Game are like this really...)

>Bowser fight in Odyssey doesn't use Capture What, you never get far enough in to see that you *capture bowser to escape the moon?*

I Was Playing Super Mario 3D Land While Watching This!

I have to say I expected Celeste to have a mention. It’s fight against badeline in reflection is absolutely genius, as are all the other bosses in the game. They merge with the rest of the gameplay incredibly and force you to use what you have learned in the chapter to your advantage, while learning the boss’s movements and attack patterns as you progress. I LOVE how the first bosses, part of you and Oshiro are basically chase sequences, which up the action and force you to tackle difficult platforming challenges while under pressure to keep moving, and the battle in reflection is completely flipped- you are now the chaser. Actually fighting back feels incredible, and provides a new layer of challenge to an already hard game. I’d say ch.6, pre boss is pretty peaceful and calm, especially when compared to the unsettling mirror temple beforehand, and this is completely flipped by the boss at the end. IMO, Celeste demonstrates a perfect example of how to do boss fights in platformers. It gives you more of what you’re used to, but instead of being free to figure things out slowly and take your time, you’re forced to act fast. It doesn’t fall into the pitfall that I think some of the bosses in this video do- it doesn’t limit the speed of the encounter and turn it into an auto scroller. The boss will move as fast as you do and you don’t have to wait around for anything.

I miss when you were a jack of all grades and not just a minecraft RU-vid....

Its crazy how they find ways to implement boss battles in platformers, stuff like rayman origins

Yeh the superbell is something quite cool and gotta have good defeats LOL but whateves

My favorite Bowser battle is in Super Mario 3D Land. It's an epic chase scene that always keeps you on your toes. You have to platform and dodge at the same time, and the stakes actually feel high. It's more than just a battle, it's the final one, and Bowser is doing everything he can to get you down. and when comparing it to 3D World and NSMBWii, I still like 3D Land better. NSMBWii and 3D World were very climactic, and 3D world was just insane, but I don't find myself enjoying them quite as much. The beginning of the Meowser fight actually starts fairly slow. It's a waiting game while you dodge his attacks and wait for the level to scroll up. It gets better in the end, but the stakes just don't feel as high for some reason. Yeah there are a ton of Meowsers, but they honestly aren't too hard to dodge. It's still a really fun boss though. Then we have NSMBWii. This boss started the trend of NSMB games having a Big bowser battle. This was really well done for the time and I don't think anyone expected it. Bowser chases you down a path and it's really tense. The music is so hopeless feeling, and you have to struggle to survive. But I still like 3D Land's better. I once saw a video where someone hacked NSMBWii and threw a ton of different minions in the boss. The bridge phase was abysmal and seemed like a terrible SMMaker level. But the 2nd phase really struck me. It wasn't just Bowser fighting you... it was all of his minions. They were all working together to kill you... to keep you from getting Peach. That would have been much more climactic than what we got. But when it originally came out, it was a great final boss. I still like 3D Land's better though.

I think you should cover Terraria boss fights if you haven't already.

Ok 3d world was meh but 3d land was the fucking SHIT

how do you only have 4.5k subscribers?

Great analysis! If you take a look at mini-bosses in the future, Reznor is a pretty good fit for a platforming game boss as well.

Bowser fight in Odyssey field generic to me.

Huh. That's a neat channel.

If you've played Celeste (and do, if you haven't) what are your thoughts about the boss sequence in the 2nd to last chapter? Does that even count as a boss fight?

to be honest Mario bosses usually feel like a pointless filler...since they aren't usually hard

I love your videos! My hope for an episode is either how nefarious turns the boss battles around or how the bosses in binding of Isaac were made. Either way, keep up the good work!

EXACTLY. This is the final fight, you should have to use everything you have learned over your journey

Quality like this is something I usually see from much bigger channels. I'm sure you'll keep hitting milestone after milestone if you just keep doing what you're doing.

Eh, I'm not a fan of boss battles where running away like a coward is the only way to defeat them.

The first time I fought the Final Bowser in New Super Mario Bros Wii is one of my favorite moments in gaming. The build-up is similar to SM64 and Galaxy 1.

Found you through /r/VideoGameAnalysis/, and it made my day. Your quality of content is excellent - I'm sure this channel will blow up very soon.

That... That's a good thumbnail.

An honorable mention would definitely be NSMB 2’s final bowser battle since you have to you have to quickly move up a vertical area using bone platforms that start to fall when you land on them with rising lava NSMB2 was bad we can all agree but they got their final bowser battle right

Me: *reading comment section of a king dedede vid* also me: *remembers the Kirby anime* Next vid (this one) Me, instantly: *******ITS DA SUPA MARIO SUPA SHOW!*******

rules for a great boss Battle: Rule #1 : be Bowser Rule #2: if you arent Bowser, you better hire him for your boss Battle. -the rules of a great boss, Written by Kamek ,Pulbished by KoopaINC

I know you already got told about A Hat in Time, and I'm wondering about your thoughts there, but for 2d platformers, Shovel Kinght has bosses better than anything Mario ever put out, even if thats thanks to its Megaman inspirations. And for another 3d Platformer, have you looked into Astrobot? Each boss gives you some form of platforming to do in the fight, and makes use of one of the Controller Gadgets that you have, on top of fantastic presentation with their scale. Seriously, on the PSVR, a lot of games that try to have a realistic scale end up feeling a bit smaller than they should, like RE:7, but every boss in Astrobot feels like a proper titan towering over you.

I disagree with your take on Meowser. It's a great fight and a good way to conclude the game, but it's severely held back by the auto-scrolling stage. You're not besting Bowser by outrunning him and using the cat powers better, you're dodging a pre-decided string of attacks while going at a slow pace decided by the game. I think the worst thing a platformer can make you do is wait, and that boss is full of waiting. To an extent, NSMB Wii is also like this. Both bosses are awesome spectacles, but they're not very fun to replay because they play out the same way each time and involve a lot of patience. You're very dismissive of the other bosses in 3D World, but the big snake and the jester do a much better job at using the Cat Suit and Double Cherry respectively. The former gives you more options to climb the smaller snakes to beat the boss quickly, and the latter gives you a higher chance of hitting the boss among its clones if you accumulate more clones yourself. Both bosses can be defeated without power ups, but the player is able to beat the bosses far more quickly if they're able to master the power ups. I think this is far more satisfying than a glorified auto-scroll stage. No complaints about 3D Land's final boss though. That fight is dope

3d World: You thought you knew our mechanics? Well why not give 'em to Bowser? 3d Land: You thought it would be that easy? Chase sequence! NSMBW: Expecting Princess Peach? Too bad, giant Bowser time!

IMO I feel like the final LEVELS should be a test of everything you know, while bosses are more of a change of pace from the usual platforming. I do see what you're going for, though, and I would recommend keeping autoscrolling out of these "platforming" bosses at all costs. I do love when Bowser used the powerups, and think that should be used more with other bosses.

See I don’t like the “level/boss hybrid levels” because A. I don’t feel like I’m actually fighting the boss, but instead just running away. B. Boss Battles to me are about a break in traditional horizontal/vertical play forming, and about effectively using the jump in a combat scenario. Galaxy and Odyssey’s bowser fights do that in spades, really encouraging use of Mario’s full range of jumps. I much prefer the strategy of building a level before and or after the final boss that brings back to platforming and core mechanics, as Odyssey did with its final sequence.

While I find 3D World really bland overall and just a generally boring and lame game, Meowser is a fantastic final boss encounter. Although, if I had to say one of my favorite Mario boss fights, it'd definitely be Bowser in Mario Galaxy. I mean, it not only plays with the games mechanics in a fun way, it also makes you feel like you're actually damaging Bowser and you're truly FIGHTING him, not just outrunning/avoiding him.

When i was a kid i remember how crappy bowser was in Mario 64. The i fought Gruntilda. Best 3d platformer boss ever. It was awesome!

Kirby Triple Deluxe's final boss focuses on pure fighting using the abilities you're given throughout the game, it's simple, but a fight in that way is good, and the fight ESPECIALLY takes advantage of the new 3D capabilities and hypernova ability. Both are good ways to end the game! Kirby Planet Robobot, though it has an interesting twist for a final boss fight, gameplay wise, it's treated as a starfox shooter, and has a clear disconnect from the rest of the game's gameplay or main mechanics. In Kirby Star Allies however, during the final boss, not only do you get to have an interesting new gameplay style introduced, similar to the shooting stars you can ride with your Allies throughout the game, only with a more 3D environment to fight in, but you also constantly go back and forth between that style of gameplay and traditionally fighting with your abilities. It tries to keep in mind that, although it can be fun to break formula, it's also important to remember not to forget the core mechanics, which I think is a good blend of what Kirby Triple Deluxe and Robobot were going for.

Personally, I feel like the final battle of 3D World WOULD be great.... if it were faster. IT'S TOO BLOODY SLOW!

Here's something that really annoys me in games: Predictable bosses. Essentially, bosses that have pre-prepared attack orders instead of random attack orders. I know it's sometimes necessary, but it can really ruin the fun of a boss battle, especially on second playthroughs. That 3D World Bowser battle is one of those, and all Kirby bosses follow this same example. The a major aspect of a boss is being unable to predict what they will do next, and reacting accordingly. This style of boss design sort of ruins that whole experience. When done right, or when it's necessary, I can accept it, but the Kirby franchise has just taken it way too far.

Hey, you probably won't see this, but Bowser in Oddysey isn't what I would call the final boss, I'd say the final boss/culimination of the game is Darker side. It has you using basically everything you'd learned in your adventure, and really serves as a final exam. I feel like they'd have even used that as the final level had it not been so difficult. And after you clear Darker Side, you're treated to a direct thank you from nintendo. The triple moon you recieve is even called "Long Journey's End". Darker side is the true final level of Super Mario Odyssey, and the final test of everything you'd learned in the game. The reason nintendo didn't make it the final level in the story campaign is probably because they realized younger and more casual players wouldn't struggle to beat it after the first few failures, or something similar.

I don't think the 3D World boss fight really works for 3 major reasons: 1: With stored power-ups you have 5 hits AND you get an extra bells as you ascend. This lets you take plenty of hits as you climb and if you get to the top with one extra hit you can damage boost all 4 pow block hits. This combination makes the final part where you actually get to fight back boring and not at all threatening. 2: You're locked in an auto-scroller. This makes speed and good use of the cat suit both unrewarding as all you get for outrunning Bowser is more difficulty seeing where you need to go next and it's harder to see threats until the screen catches up. For your best chance the average player is best off staying in the middle of the screen where you can best see the threats around you. 3: The battle doesn't work well atmospherically or provide much satisfaction. The battle doubling down on game-specific gimmicks makes the battle hard to take seriously. By splitting up Bowser into clones, the game makes the final showdown even less personal. As the attacks are always in the same places regardless of where the player is, it further diminishes the feeling that Bowser is fighting you. You leave the fight feeling like you completed a vertical auto-scroller, not a climactic battle. But Wii and 3D Land do a better job. For point 1: they are less both generous with power-ups and they put more emphasis on dodging attacks . For point 2: they both progress at the speed you can get through them. Wii does have a similar format to an auto-scroller, but the screen still centers on you, letting you platform as fast as you want when there aren't physical walls in your path. For point 3: Bowser targets you, making it feel more like a genuine fight. Both also do extra to make Bowser more intimidating. Wii has him tall enough to fill the screen as he chases you while 3D Land has his fireballs upgraded and gives him a whole new arsenal of attacks. A boss battle should still be a battle, not just another level with a boss slapped on it as an extra hazard.

I'd say that I would like a little bot of both types. For example, you could have bowser jump down, have him eat a super star, then have some sort of running sequence with obstacles. Or as a throwback to all of your progress, you could even replay the first level of the game with bowser chasing you. Afterwards, the super star runs out. Then you could have bowser jump into a staduim filled with minions and you would have a final showdown in there, but to switch it up, you would have to use the staduim's different parts (lights, the koopa shells from the audience, etc.) to hit bowser and knock him out after 3 hits. A button would fall down from the sky, you would hit it, the stadium would shake, you would quickly run into the back room, grab peach, and jump out the window as the stadium collapses on top of bowser. Just an idea to combine both types, and even make the box type battle interesting by using other means of defeating bowser.

I always thought of "chase boss battles" as less "boss battles" and more "glorified auto-scrolling with hazards stage". A perfect combination of chasing, platforming and boss battle to be would be, well... your very first Boss Battle Breakdown. The problem with many Mario games is the disconnection between the platforming and the battling. Most of the abilities for both tend to not mesh well... With the exception of Odyssey, but that game didn't utilize those abilities that much with a lot of it's bosses. This is why I want a platformer where *Bowser* is the protagonist. Utilizing his abilities for one final battle would *require* a straight battle... Though some platforming could be involved...with the chaser of the battle being *you* as Bowser chases the final boss across the stage after each big hit. Kind of like what the original Spyro game did with it's bosses, but with a combination of chasing and fighting that is a bit more even.

Hhey sk!p since you mentioned sonic and its bosses, have you played sonic advance 2? In that one you never literally stop moving(or going fast), even in boss battles.

In the final Bowser fight in Odyssey, yes the first part uses unrelated mechanic the 2nd and 3rd phase feel actually use the game staple mechanic by capturing Bowser. They even used the pixel sections from before.

Your bit at about 2:28 reminds me of Super Mario Land 2's final boss, Wario. He does the exact same thing, using your powerups himself.

if I was two years old when new super Mario bros wii game came out, and the game came out in 2009, how old will I be the year 2019?

The absolute best final boss of a platformer that I've played in terms of it being a final exam on all the mechanics was donkey Kong 64. And it's hilarious to boot!

Shoutout to the entire Super Mario Galaxy series. Practically all of the bosses use the mechanics of the game - usually mechanics that'd been focused on during the past few missions

Super Mario 3D World is the best bowser fight in my opinion. I like how u believe Wii is the best because it is basically New Super Mario Bros with a Bowser fight twist.

I think an arena styled platformer boss fight that is perfect has to be Gruntilda in Banjo Kazooie. The game makes you use everything you’ve learned and you had the whole game to master the moves.

I'm late but want to give my 2 cents. One platformer boss battle that is great is in Celeste where you have to chase after Badaline through the bottom of the mountain. Challenging you with platforming segments throughout testing the players skill up to the end. Also, other comments say that a battle like the given Mario examples don't feel fulfilling as you are just running to push a button not really damaging the opponent, the Badaline boss has this aspect as you have to run into her to progress the level and feel like you are "dealing damage". there is also the narrative aspect of the boss that gives the battle even greater meaning making it objectively one of the best platforming bosses giving all aspects of players a fulfilled battle.

0:30 have you ever played sonic advance? MMM great sonic boss fights. also the studiopolice boss from Mania is pretty good.

I like how the Order of No Quarter fights in Shovel Knight tend to feature a gimmick from their respective stages, such as dark rooms, air currents, moving underwater, or digging enemies out of the ground.

This is great, I had never played these 3, so just automatically dismissed a Mario boss fight to be impossible to make well: touch the axe or spin him around 3 times.

yeah I’ve been thinking this too. A final level should test what you learned in the game. Mario is a platforming game not even an action platformer, so it makes no sense that the test should be a boss battle. That would basically be like going through a year of history class, but the final exam is a science test.

So essentially what you're saying is that Final Boss battles in Mario platformers are at their best when you're running away instead of actually fighting. I guess that makes sense since Mario games are more focused on the platforming rather action but I'm hoping that the next game has a nice mix between the two.

When I'd put a Boss in a Platformer game, I wouldn't stray too far from the format that the rest of the Levels have. Boss Levels in Platformers should still be obstacle courses with platform, that feel similar to the normal platformer levels, just a little more intense.

Still love Motley Bossblob even if he's just a minor character. I do hopes he comes back someday

I still don't know Bowser is defeated by a switch. In nearly every Bowser fight, the fight is won by an oversight in Bowser's own domain.

Oh, you mean what makes a good MARIO boss This isn’t the only platformer man

Clicked on this video just to say that the version of bowser in the thumbnail isnt from a platformer, the mario and luigi games are rpgs smh

I'd love if in the boss battle you took control of those rabbit people to take down Bowser, with giving Bowser a health bar (hats on his head)

...was the addition of the Super Bell, an item that, when collected, allowed Mario and friends to put on a cat suit and become furries

Super mario 3d land was my childhood game im happy someone actually meantions it in a youtube video i feel like its such an underrated game

mario boss tier list: s:mario world bowser a:mario 64 final bowser, mario 3 bowser b:wario c: d: f: literally anyone else

My favorite platformer Bowser fight has got to be the one in Super Mario Galaxy.

I would love to know what you think of the bosses in A Hat in Time! Will you ever make a video on A Hat in Time?