The various challenges that video game bosses and enemies pose to players have an enormous impact on the overall experience a title offers. Even though the enemy design in a video game is often less-scrutinized than character abilities, weaponry, and level design, adversaries dictate how those other elements combine to present players with a challenge. Certain bosses are simply a blast to fight, serving as an epic climax that punctuates the story. Some foes inspire dread with their presence alone, while others push gamers to their breaking point in terms of challenge and mechanical mastery.

This year enjoyed a massive collection of bosses and enemies, with enemy mechanics including bombastic co-op rail-shooting to incredibly tense hide-and-seek, to exacting JRPG tactical mastery. And in terms of visuals, gamers tangled with everything from fresh takes on familiar foes to new horror icons in the making. In no particular order, here is the creme of the crop this year.

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Lady Dimitrescu – Dragon Form (Resident Evil Village)

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Resident Evil Village throws dozens of creative foes at Ethan Winters, from the chainsaw-propeller-headed Sturm to the mutated mad doctor, Moreau. But ultimately, none of them can compete with the final showdown against horror's latest femme fatale, Lady Dimitrescu. After Ethan slays her three daughters and lures her into a final confrontation, the vampire giantess sheds her normally beguiling appearance and unleashes her inner dragon.

The flying monstrosity steadily destroys the tower serving as Ethan's vantage point and begins harrowing player with a mix of aerial strafing and claustrophobic, on-foot encounters. Even though the encounter occurs relatively early in Resident Evil Village's story, the boss fight remains a high point that will stick with players long after the credits roll.

Fury Bowser (Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury)

Fury Bowser Boss Fight

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is an excellent upgrade to one of the best 3D Mario games out there, in no small part thanks to the game's new, semi-open-world expansion set in Lake Lapcat. As Mario explores the lake and collects Cat Shines, the Kaiju-esque Fury Bowser boss will periodically attack with fireblasts and summoned storms.

While usually an impediment to Mario's progress, Fury Bowser's presence is actually required to unlock certain Cat Shines, but the best part about Fury Bowser is the power-up Mario uses to fight him head on. By using the Bowser's Fury-exclusive Giga Bell, Mario can transform into a colossal version of Cat Mario with a golden lion's mane that resembles both Super Saiyans and Super Sonic. The resulting brawls are a blast.

Hyperion (Returnal)

Returnal Hyperion Concept Art

Players who can progress through Returnal's Echoing Ruins level will meet another skill check in the form of the game's fourth boss. Hyperion is arguably the game's second hardest boss and is a malevolent alien musician playing the universe's creepiest organ. The fight includes all of Returnal's staple mechanics, including dazzling bullet-hell projectile patterns and sweeping beam attacks set to a haunting score. But the build-up to the battle is almost as impressive as the fireworks players face in the boss arena, with Selene's dialog suggesting that the alien song is taking an increasing toll on her sanity. The artful shot patterns she must dodge and weave through are visually stunning, resulting in an almost-psychedelic life and death struggle.

Narwa the Allmother (Monster Hunter Rise)

Thunder Serpent Narwa with levitating rocks and lightning from Monster Hunter Rise

Narwa the Allmother—Monster Hunter Rise's final boss—proves that Capcom still has plenty of tricks up its sleeves when it comes to creative monster-slaying encounters, even six installments in. Once Lightning Serpent Narwa absorbs the life force of her mate, Wind Serpent Ibushi, the elder dragon attains a new level of power rivaling godhood. Before that can happen though, players must face both Ibushi and Narwa together simultaneously, using a combination of weapon attacks, ballistae shots, and wirebug slinging. Better still, some of the game's most challenging beasts will gatecrash the final fight. Everything from the music and the Allmother's unique design to the variety of opponents and combat mechanics is carefully calculated to produce an epic showdown.

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Wasp Queen (It Takes Two)

it takes two wasp queen boss

It Takes Two's unique approach to asymmetric, puzzle-platforming, split-screen co-op is a blast throughout, but bosses really highlight the game's surprising capacity for stellar combat. One of the title's best sequences pits Mae and Cody against a giant Wasp Queen mech. In this level, Cody is armed with a flammable sap canon, which May must detonate with her matchstick-rifle, resulting in a synchronized shooting exercise.

In addition to the standard, broad boss arena where players must dodge attacks and shoot the boss head-on, players must also use a grinding rail to land shots on the bot's weak points. Other elements include shockwaves, swords, scissors, and biplanes comprised of wasp swarms. The boss's true identity and the final getaway sequence are also brilliant fun.

Corrupt Woodsmith (Kena: Bridge of Spirits)

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Kena: Bridge of Spirits' bosses have some serious bite that test every trick the player has at their disposal. The wonderfully imposing-looking Corrupt Woodsmith, for example, has an invulnerability mechanic that serves as a skill check for the player's newly-acquired Spirit Bombs. Corrupt Woodsmith will also frequently use stage-sweeping rings of fire and summon adds to aid her against Kena. Once her invulnerability engine is destroyed, the Woodsmith will go into a frenzied, second phase of the fight which plays more like a conventional boss duel. As with many other epic battles on this list, the music is a major highlight of the fight, and a standout in Kena's magical soundtrack.

Lahmu (Shin Megami Tensei 5)

Lahmu Shin Megami Tensei SMT V

An ancient entity from Mesopotamian mythology, Shin Megami Tensei 5 players will fight Lahmu on two separate occasions. The first fight is a fairly simple affair—as long as the player's party doesn't feature demons vulnerable to Dark attacks, since Lahmu can instantly kill them with Mudo. The second battle is considerably harder, however. The first phase features a distributed vulnerability mechanic that forces players to destroy Lahmu's tentacles before they can attack the creature's main body.

During the final phase of the fight, Lahmu is only weak to Fire and capable of casting the Babylon Curse spell which deals Almighty damage. Players will need to carefully select the right team of the best demons in Shin Megami Tensei 5 and arm their heroes with the right Miracles in order to prevail.

Fing Fang Foom (Guardians of the Galaxy)

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It must be acknowledged that Fin Fang Foom is one of Marvel Comics' strangest villains: a shapeshifting alien whose resting state resembles a Chinese dragon, which led to him being incorporated into the 616-universe's Chinese mythology. This somewhat-silly source material makes Guardians of the Galaxy's take on the character all the more impressive.

Even though Fing Fang Foom is typically one of Iron Man's rogues, his alien origins dovetail naturally with Guardians' emotional and hilarious narrative. In the fight, Star-Lord must first strip away Foom's ice armor while dodging claw sweeps and explosive fireballs amidst fun banter with the game's stellar voice acting. Foom's attacks grow increasingly hectic throughout the fight, and the cut scene that follows feels straight out of a comic.

EMMI (Metroid Dread)

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After a long hiatus, Metroid Dread marked the triumphant return of Samus Aran. The bounty hunter squares off with monsters, robots, and aliens, but EMMI units stand out as the game's poster-antagonist. The sleek, acrobatic robots that stalk Samus throughout the various zones of planet ZDR are a strong modernization of the Metroid series' classic aesthetic.

Mechanically, EMMI units have some problems, occasionally transforming desperate games of life-and-death hide-and-seek into severe frustration, but there is no denying the titular dread they inspire in players. By giving players a glimmer of hope in the form of a difficult counter ability, every encounter with an instant-death-dealing EMMI unit is guaranteed to get players' hearts racing.

The Lord of Doors (Death's Door)

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While the indie RPG-adventure RPG Death's Door offers a milder, more accessible take on a Souls-style game, it saves its most brutal encounter for last. The game's arch antagonist, the Lord of Doors, boasts a seven-phase boss fight that would feel right at home in the genre that inspired it. Intervals of pattern-recognition-based arena combat are interspersed with corridor sections where the player must dodge charging bull enemies and use the game's hook shot-like spell to advance.

Death's Door is generous with checkpoints, however, and it even fully restores the Crow's health and magic prior to the final phase, where the boss refers to himself as the Last Lord. During this final blitz, the boss can use every attack from the preceding phases at random intervals.

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