Coming up with a suitable boss to end a game is not an easy thing to do. Intentions of being grand can turn out looking hokey, as critics of Mass Effect 2’s Terminator Reaper might suggest. Or the difficulty of the encounter might not match up to expectations, or might simply be unfair, as was the case with Alpha-152. But what if the boss is an entity representing not a singular plot thread or universe? What if the game in question is something meant to be absurd, as was the case with Super Smash Bros.?

In a game and series that is known more for its eclectic cast of Nintendo characters past and present, what sort of foe would provide a proper match for everyone, from Mario to Captain Falcon? From Pikachu to Samus? The answer, apparently, is to throw a hand at them.

Master Hand has been the final boss of the standard single-player mode in every Smash Bros. game to date. A giant, disembodied hand, it awaits the player at the top of the arcade-style ladder. And if the right criteria are fulfilled, its left-handed (left-bodied?) companion Crazy Hand joins in on the fun. This is one pair that refuses to hold the applause until the end.

But really. Hands? You get to the end of the game, and you’re fighting the Hamburger Helper mascot? Well, yeah. I mean, Master Hand doesn’t endorse any dinner preparation kits, but it’s ready and waiting to slap fools off of the stage and into the stratosphere. And in a way, it makes sense, when you think about it. The Smash Bros. games are all about mixing it up between disparate video game characters for little other reason than the fun of it. Heck, the opening movie of the original Super Smash Bros. plays directly into the idea.

In a way, Master Hand and Crazy Hand are like the appendages of someone playing with their toys. It would be like sitting next to the coffee table and pretending that Cobra Commander, He-Man, Barbie and Leonardo are in a free-for-all, pulling off ridiculous karate moves as they send each other flying. And then, when only one is left, having the victor go up against their own fist.

So really, Master Hand is a child being abusive toward his or her own toys. Toys unwilling to put up with their master’s torment any longer. It’s like if Toy Story were crossed with Small Soldiers. (Man, there’s a reference I didn’t ever think I’d make.)

There’s little reason to doubt that Master and Crazy Hand will come back for the Wii U and 3DS incarnations of Smash Bros. Their slapping, punching, pounding, crushing and laser blasting are a part of what makes the games what they are. There aren’t many disembodied appendages that can say the same thing. Well, if they could say anything at all to begin with.

@Hailinel said:

But really. Hands? You get to the end of the game, and you’re fighting the Hamburger Helper mascot?

God, if only that was true. Get on that, Brawl modding community.

Wasn't there a different last boss at the end of Brawl's "story" mode? I seem to remember a technicolor wire-frame man with butterfly wings.

...and no, I didn't look it up on youtube before writing that. That is pure long-term memory, and I look forward to finding out how inexplicably wrong those memories are.

EDIT: Wow. I was mostly right, though the butterfly wings were pure embellishment. God, that game was crazy.

@Encephalon said:

Wasn't there a different last boss at the end of Brawl's "story" mode? I seem to remember a technicolor wire-frame man with butterfly wings.

...and no, I didn't look it up on youtube before writing that. That is pure long-term memory, and I look forward to finding out how inexplicably wrong those memories are.

EDIT: Wow. I was mostly right, though the butterfly wings were pure embellishment. God, that game was crazy.

Tabuu is the final boss of the Subspace Emissary mode, yes. He's also ridiculously powerful. There's a reason that they let you enter the fight with a fairly deep roster of back-ups.

Tabuu definitely felt like a Kirby boss. Marx, specifically. They had a very similar pattern of attacks too. I haven't actually played a Kirby game to completion since Super Star, so I have no idea if they're all like that now.

Master Hand was an inspired concept though. The idea of the toys rebelling against the inscrutable deity figure that treats them like playthings. Way to get meta, game.

Ahhh, Master Hand. The source of my first wet dream. What?

@Mento said:

Tabuu definitely felt like a Kirby boss. Marx, specifically. They had a very similar pattern of attacks too. I haven't actually played a Kirby game to completion since Super Star, so I have no idea if they're all like that now.

Well, Sakurai created the Kirby series, so it makes sense it would feel like a Kirby boss.

Sometimes I like to pretend my hand is Master Hand to scare my kitten.