Yeah... that name's not sounding any better in my head. Plus, a top ten list is kind of a crutch for dudes who can't think of proper blog articles to write. Pro-Tip: It's always a great idea to start a blog on a severely negative note.
Chase bosses! I once stated in a prior blog that I hated those unbeatable bosses that trounce your ass for dramatic emphasis, generally because of how badly handled those unwinnable battles tend to be. But this particular vein of unbeatable boss, where they will chase you across a certain distance and creep the hell out of you with music stings whenever they show up, tend to be a very effective narrative tool for a game to drop into their world. They're anathema to taking your time to explore, which I generally prefer doing, but I still love how the designers play around the concept regardless. I checked GB and we don't really have a specific concept page here for it that I can find, but there's one over on TVTropesif you want more examples.
10. The Executioner (Alice: Madness Returns)
Once again, this is a blog that was inspired by something I've played recently, in this case Alice: Madness Returns. As you're making your way across the creepy dilapidated castle of the previous game's antagonist (and generally the antagonist of any adaptation of Alice in Wonderland) the Queen of Hearts, you're frequently beset by what I can only describe as playing card zombies. The worst of which being the imposing Executioner, who towers over Alice and is completely invulnerable. This usually leads to a chase before Alice is able to escape his grasp. Of course, she does eventually get the upper hand...
While the execution (so to speak) is nothing new, this is pretty much the archetype of what I'm talking about with this kind of boss. I'm introducing the article still!
9. Linda the Lungfish (Psychonauts)
Psychonauts starts out slow, as you gradually learn the ropes of psychonautin' with a few tutorial levels set in the minds of your camp counselors Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello and explore the environs of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. The game really picks up when you start following the disappearances and subsequent brainless reappearances of fellow campers and bump into this large, scaly customer above. Linda is, of course, a misunderstood and unwilling accomplice to the true masterminds, but that doesn't stop the sequence where she chases you across the seabed (with her perspective no less) sort of thrilling. If only it was the scariest thing waiting in the deep waters for Raz.
8. SA-X (Metroid Fusion)
When Samus Aran is overcome by a new creature, an airborne virus known as the X Parasite found on the Metroid's home planet, she almost dies on the operating table of the space station who kindly answers her distress call. She gets cut out of her old power armor and with a last second discovery is given Metroid DNA to fight the X Parasite's influence. However, the virus has taken over her old suit, killed everyone on board and goes after her when she awakes. Thus begins the terror of Metroid Fusion's SA-X. While Fusion is often maligned for whatever reason (I kind of think it can be forgiven for the Adam narration shit considering how much worse Other M messed that up), the SA-X is an awesome concept, as an unknown alien creature walks around in your suit, with all your strengths (especially the ice beam, which is now deadly to the Metroid-fied Samus). If you're going to throw out the old "Samus loses all her abilities" trope, it's a wonderful twist to have all those abilities stolen by an enemy that then comes after your weakened ass. Sure beats dopey old Dark Samus.
7. Kusabi (Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly)
Fatal Frame is the king of this kind of scenario. While most ghosts politely submit to the ghost-busting powers of the mystical Camera Obscura, there are a rude few that simply ignore its effects and make a beeline for your throat (they're big on throttling, Japanese ghosts.) While this is true for every major antagonist of the series, who traditionally can only be defeated towards the end of the game, it's also applicable to the "Kusabi" or Rope Ghost who shows up in Fatal Frame 2. This is a guy, an outsider usually, who had been tortured for days and thrown into a pit that leads directly to hell in order to quiet the malevolence down there. His ghost is, let's say, rather displeased with how shit went down. It's the only ghost that can instantly kill you if it gets close and it's the only one that has ceased to resemble a human being because it got cut up so badly before dying. The game doesn't even need to tell you to run like the dickens when you see this thing.
6. X-ATM092 (Final Fantasy VIII)
An early sequence of Final Fantasy 8 has the SeeD mercenaries-in-training complete their final exam, which is apparently to re-enact the Normandy landings where the Nazis are replaced with giant metal spider robots, like the X-ATM092 seen here. Because you're on the clock, when you finally complete the objective and the goonish recurring bosses set this giant bugbot on your tail, you need to intelligently consider your options: Fighting it is not a good option. Running is better. However, the reason this guy on the list is because of those options. You could fight the thing, but it's incredibly difficult to overcome its rapid regeneration unless you've overleveled yourself. You could hide and let it pass you by, but you'd be downgraded on the exam for cowardice. You can also scare a stray dog away so it won't get trampled for bonus compassion points. If you're able to make it back to the beach for extraction, you get a neat and slightly fetishistic cutscene of the hot librarian character gunning it down for you with the extraction ship's huge chaingun. It's just a fun early sequence all round, in a game that gets progressively dumber and harder to follow as it goes on.
5. Galcian (Skies of Arcadia)
Galcian is the military commander of the Valuan Fleet and the main antagonist of Skies of Arcadia. While the player does eventually get to face him in a regular boss battle, there are two instances where you're simply told he's too powerful and must make a break for it. The first of these is a sequence that perfectly highlights how scarily determined this man is: He calmly and silently stalks you on top of a moving train while you desperately run to the end to escape. The second has a major character sacrifice himself to give you a moment to escape; though this character is clearly no slouch in combat, it's a forlorn hope that he'll have any chance against Galcian and indeed is depicted dead in the very next scene, with Galcian admiring his courage. Similar to how overwhelming the mythos of Sephiroth becomes (who I feel is generally overrated at this point, but a definite contender for Badass of the Month back then), the game effectively builds a scary reputation - based on observations the player is both privy to and ignorant of - around this character and what they're capable of. Ramirez, in comparison, is just some punk who kills you a few times in those annoying unwinnable boss battles. Screw that guy.
4. ...Something (Silent Hill 3)
Silent Hill 3 treads familiar ground for most of its run. Though not as absurdly formulaic as future non-numerical entries would become, most of the scares and thrills in Heather Mason's journey to find her connection to Silent Hill had been covered by those taken by James Sunderland and her foster father Harry Mason (who perhaps began the whole Mason surname trend for video game protagonists) in the two previous games. Silent Hill 3 does have a few surprises in store though: One being the infamous "mirror" room and the scenes in the otherwise harmless Borley Haunted Mansion attraction in Silent Hill's theme park. Upon exiting the attraction, Heather is relentlessly pursued through a gauntlet of narrow corridors by the most enigmatic danger the town has ever presented: A fast-moving red mist that leaves footprints, an industrial whining and the distant echoed laughter of children. Silent Hill has been creepier and bloodier, but rarely has it matched this level of sheer what-the-fuck terror.
3. The Dahaka (Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within)
The Dahaka, like the Executioner, is a device used by the game (in this case, Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within) to occasionally test the acrobatic platforming prowess of both the protagonist and the player controlling them; An inability to stay one step ahead of this unbeatable menace would mean your death. So while this hardly elevates most chase bosses from, say, an ever-advancing wall of spikes or lava or thousands of spiders, the Dahaka is a special exception for being such a terrifying prospect for a player to deal with: It's no mere demon or sand monster but an incorporeal entity created by the space-time continuum to sort out uppity princes that decide to disrupt said continuum to save themselves. It is nothing short of a force of nature, and thus utterly unstoppable... at least until the game decides it's allergic to water for some reason. Because that plot development certainly made for a satisfying conclusion to Signs didn't it? The water thing does allow a temporary reprieve whenever a chase starts, but it's still such a disappointing cop-out. Still, the Dahaka is not to be trifled with - It already murdered a tiny dog with glasses, two weirdos in a Delorean and a couple of surfers in a phone booth long before it ever met the prince.
2. The Waterwraith (Pikmin 2)
I might just be letting my love of Pikmin 2 cloud my judgement putting this guy so high up on the list, but the Waterwraith created an interesting persistent puzzle for the Submerged Castle dungeon. Should Olimar and the Pikmin spend too long on any one floor of this oddly bathroom-tiled underground labyrinth this crazy music would start playing, the Waterwraith would drop out of the sky somewhere close and then start rolling towards you, with the intent to squish Olimar flat. While you could avoid him to an extent by keeping to the smaller niches and passageways, this omnipresent threat would stay with you until you were finally able to defeat him once and for all on the final floor after procuring a handful of Purple Pikmin. Most chase bosses are simply there to test your reflexes, or build some mystique around the character or world in which they appear, but the Waterwraith was a game-changer that forced you to reconsider your exploration strategy from "find garbage" to "stay the hell alive."
1. Baron Von Blubba (Bubble Bobble)
Blame nostalgia for this one if you'd like, as the Baron certainly doesn't look as visually impressive as the others on this list. But speaking for everyone who played Bubble Bobble as a tyke on the home consoles of the day, this little guy creeped the hell out of us. His very presence is the result of spending too long on any one stage; dawdling when there should be bubble bursting to be done. The invincible Baron von Blubba will simply chase you across the screen and kill you as soon as he appears out of the ether, with little recourse for the player than to hurry the fuck up and beat the stage. He's the ghost of a whale if you were wondering. He even has his ominous little tune, which goes to show how sophisticated games were back then: A little tune plays, everyone is eaten by ghost whales. No messing around.
Really, I could've also gone for the caged duck in Chuckie Egg for this slot. That thing was fierce.
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