The 10 HARDEST Bosses in Superhero Games
Onslaught
“Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes” (1998)
Opening up with the big bad of “Marvel vs. Capcom,” we’ve got Onslaught! This isn’t just one tough fight, it’s two! When you face his first phase, he’s in a heavily armored form that’s incredibly difficult to damage. As you chip away at him and seemingly beat him… the second phase and fight begins! Onslaught transforms into a colossal, flying “super version” of himself. Considering how he flies back and forth, he’s actually pretty hard to hit at this point, and when he attacks, the moves cover nearly the entire screen. He’s pretty much one of the toughest, early fighting game boss fights ever!
Final Boss
“Silver Surfer” (1990)
If you’ve ever played the NES classic “Silver Surfer,” then you know this game is synonymous with brutal difficulty. It’s NOTORIOUSLY hard. The final boss is just the cherry on top of this very painful sundae. Like the rest of the game, if you touch anything… you die. And in this boss fight, it feels like nothing you do even harms him! It’s an excruciatingly long barrage of projectiles and obstacles that you’re just flailing and hoping to accidentally get through. It’s pretty dated game design, but it’s one of the hardest boss fights in a superhero game!
Doctor Octopus
“Spider-Man 2” (2004)
For many, the “Spider-Man 2” game from 2004 is a beloved classic that introduced us to some of the best web-swinging we had ever seen. However, its final encounter with Doc’ Ock is anything but easy! Hope you brought your dodging skills along, because Doctor Octopus’s metal arms hit like trucks. If you get hit, you take massive damage, so if you haven’t mastered the art of smoothly web-swinging out of the way or perfectly timing your dodges, you’re gonna be seeing that game over screen a lot!
Mr. Freeze in NG+
“Batman: Arkham City” (2011)
The rogues gallery of Batman are all for the most part pretty smart, and Mr. Freeze in Arkham City is no exception. While the initial fight with him has a clever gimmick, in New Game+ it ramps up and becomes ridiculous. You can’t use the same environmental takedown twice, so you’ve gotta constantly adapt and find new ways to incapacitate him. In a way, the game is showing its strength with its great environmental puzzle design, but this fight is also just immensely difficult! And now, Mr. Freeze not only requires you to do a different takedown each time, but you’ll have to do a whopping 9 of them instead of 5.
Apocalypse
“X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse” (2005)
“X-Men Legends II” offers a fantastic co-op superhero experience, but the final boss fight against Apocalypse is an extreme marathon. To defeat him, it’s best advised that you find a strong team combination, even though it technically IS possible to solo him, that’s just incredibly difficult for no reason. The fight is already hard doing it normally! And don’t get fooled by his first phase, he immediately goes into a second phase where he grows in both size and power. You’ll have to continuously backtrack to gain “The power of the four” to destroy the devices keeping him alive, since he’ll keep respawning in his second-phase form. Even with a full four-person team, Apocalypse has no problem clobbering all of them!
Brainiac
“Injustice 2: Gods Among Us” (2017)
The final boss of “Injustice 2,” Brainiac, is a powerful and formidable fighting game boss. Thanks to him, hundreds of rage-quitting compilations have been born! As the ‘Collector of Worlds,’ Brainiac brings a unique type of strength to the game. He’s got multiple phases, and each phase demands a different approach. His attacks cover a wide range, so he’s incredibly difficult to lock down. The boss will do entire combos on you, and they HURT! At least they hurt way more than anything YOU can do on him, so in that regard it’s an uphill battle. If you’re trying this out for yourself, good luck!
Thanos
“Marvel Super Heroes” (1995)
Long before he was snapping fingers in the MCU on the big screen, Thanos was snapping away health bars in the 1995 “Marvel Super Heroes” arcade game! This guy is a monster of a boss fight. His attacks come from all over the screen, so it’s really difficult just to find an opening. And in typical boss fashion, he comes with a two round fight, which wasn’t standard for this game! It seems that superhero fighting games have a penchant for making extremely hard boss battles, and Thanos is no exception!
Scream
“Spider-Man 2” (2023)
The sequel to Insomniac’s “Marvel’s Spider-Man” gave us some incredible boss battles, and one that stands out for its sheer difficulty is Scream. First of all there’s the emotional aspect, which, this boss fight is just hard to sit through. But MJ herself is incredibly fast and relentless. Her attacks hit really hard too, and like mentioned she’s so fast that actually landing hits can be a bit of a challenge. If your parries and especially your dodges aren’t on point, she’s gonna chunk you FAST. That’s why Scream is one of the hardest boss fights in “Spider-Man 2.”
Kessler
“inFAMOUS” (2009)
The first “inFAMOUS” game delivered some truly adrenaline-pumping moments, and it's one of the best superhero games out there not originally written by a major comic publisher. The final duel with Kessler at the end of it is iconic! The build-up to the fight is masterfully handled too, so it’s incredibly climactic. Kessler is fast, powerful, and relentless. He teleports, summons duplicates, and seems to have a curiously similar brand of electricity-based powers like you. Of course, we learn that Kessler is us, so it’s no wonder the powers seem so similar. But similarities aside, let’s stress how hard this fight is, because Kessler is absolutely a HARDCORE boss fight to get through!
Final Venom
“Ultimate Spider-Man” (2005)
The final confrontation with Venom in “Ultimate Spider-Man” from 2005 is, without a doubt, one of the most brutally difficult boss battles in superhero video game history. It’s a purely chaotic battle, and we’ve waited for this final showdown after facing off against him at multiple points in the game. Venom is incredibly aggressive, and he ragdolls you with certain attacks, which is pretty detrimental to the difficulty considering you’re slowly surrounded by a fire that deals huge damage. But with that said, it’s one of the most cathartic Spider-Man game moments ever, and it’s awesome to see Venom beat us up with the same moves we used while playing as him.
Which superhero bosses gave you the most trouble?! Let us know in the comments below!
