The 10 CRAZIEST Bosses from Hideo Kojima Games

Solidus Snake

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)

The narrative of Metal Gear Solid 2 is already leaps and bounds more complicated and over-the-top than its predecessor, and absolutely STACKED with memorable and weird bosses, but for our money, it doesnt get much weirder than fighting the President of the United States on top of the US Treasury Building after crashing a massive Metal Gear into New York. Solidus also comes equipped with his own Doc Ock-style body armor, complete with additional arms that can fire missiles. And yet, even with this clear advantage over Raiden, he insists on using a katana as his main weapon during the encounter. Honor and all that, I guess. The entire encounter is surprisingly challenging as Solidus isnt above cheap tactics, is absolutely insane and could have only been envisioned by someone just as crazy. Never change, Kojima. Never change.

The Pain

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)

Unless youre allergic, bees are more of an annoyance than a real threat, but in the mind of Hideo Kojima, bees are as deadly as bullets in a gun. The Pains main weapon is exactly that: he can shoot bees just as easily as a gun and can send swarms of the insects at Snake should he start to gain the upper hand. With over-the-top moves that would make the Ginyu Force blush with embarrassment, The Pain can also use his bee friends to shield him from damage, and halfway through the fight hell even start spitting hornet-sized bees and even Bee Grenades at Snake just for added weirdness. The entire encounter could have been much deadlier had he not picked the most inopportune arena to fight in, in which Snake can avoid many of his attacks by jumping into the water, the only true weakness of bees.

Sahelanthropus

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)

For sheer scale and spectacle, almost nothing tops the numerous Metal Gear battles throughout the series, but if we had to pick one, it would be Sahelanthropus in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The enormous bi-pedal nuke machine is as daunting as seeing a Colossus for the first time and realizing how small you are compared to this mechanized menace puts all other Metal Gear encounters to shame. Given MGSVs open-ended nature, thankfully you have a myriad of options available to you during the fight, and given the cinematic scale of the encounter, this feels like how Kojima always envisioned these battles as he waited for technology to catch up to his vision. Just dont think too hard about how much more advanced Sahelanthropus is than the many more modern Metal Gears or youll create a time paradox.

Crow Witch

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010)

Kojima might only have a producing credit on Lords of Shadow, but his input undeniably made it one of not only the best Castlevania games in years, but also one of the few 3D outings that actually worked. Born from a symbiotic relationship with the crows who fed on her mangled corpse, the Crow Witch at the top of her castle is almost constantly surrounded by her murder of crows that also help her fly around the arena. Her main attacks involve vomiting eggs that can hatch into Witch Children and attack Gabriel. Once Gabriel has broken through her crow barrier, her mutated crow form is a twisted humanoid figure with crow-like wings and appendages including a giant crow skull. By Castlevania standards, this was pretty grotesque. By Kojima, it was Tuesday.

Psycho Mantis

Metal Gear Solid (1998)

Its almost impossible to explain how mind blowing the boss fight against Psycho Mantis was back when Metal Gear Solid released. Kojima had already broken the fourth wall with Meryls Codec frequency, but with the Psycho Mantis encounter, he shattered it. Not only did Psycho Mantis mind control Meryl against you, but he also read your memory card and vibrated your controller which was unprecedented for the time. The fact that you couldnt even properly fight Psycho Mantis without swapping the controller ports was so unbelievable that most players needed to wait for Colonel Campbell to suggest it before they would have even considered that was the only option. Psycho Mantis gave players a glimpse into the mad genius of Hideo Kojima and gave them an idea of the insanity and creative ideas that lay ahead of them as the series progressed.

Vanargand

Boktai 3: Sabatas Counterattack (2005)

Naturally, any creature that also bears the title Beast of Destruction is going to be intimidating, but for Kojimas experimental vampire hunting handheld adventure, Vanargand is the stuff of nightmares. Sealed within the moon, Vanargand is a heaping mound of bloody flesh and teeth with countless swords sticking out of its back from previous attempts to kill it. Its massive claws are built from the bones of previous hunters and its single unblinking eye dead center in its skull stares you down with unending hatred. Given this is a Kojima boss, the battle will routinely be interrupted by Vanargand monologuing, using Sabata to constantly taunt Django throughout their entire encounter. Boktai doesnt get the recognition it deserved with its inventive use of a solar sensor requiring players to go outside into the sun to charge and use it as a weapon, which could have only come from the mind of Kojima himself.

Senator Armstrong

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)

Raiden might have had an uphill battle with fans when he debuted in Metal Gear Solid 2, but Kojimas creative writing more than redeemed him in MGS4 and even crafted his own standalone outing that cemented his badass character. With Raidens final confrontation with the nefarious Senator Armstrong, Armstrong showed he was just as much of a threat on the battlefield as he was in the Senate. The mastermind behind the events of Revengeance, Armstrong became iconic for his speeches and particularly his overzealous delivery, not to mention his enormous guns which he used to great effect against the cybernetically enhanced Raiden. Armstrong represents the best of Kojimas strange creativeness: an infinitely quotable baddie with monologues to spare and just enough over-the-top insanity to make his few appearances more memorable than the rest of the game.

Liquid Ocelot

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

Kojima is known for making incredibly detailed backstories for his characters, but with Liquid Ocelot, making it so that Liquid Snakes severed hand would periodically possess Ocelots body was a bit too out there even for him. Retconning the whole idea, Ocelot was instead hypnotized into releasing a mentally perfect version of Liquid to combat Snake. Weird, but within the world of Metal Gear, not the craziest thing thats ever happened. However, watching the two aging rivals duke it out on top of a Metal Gear Ray brings all the crazy history between them to its dramatic conclusion and is everything fans of the series could have hoped for. As the two old men struggle to stand after repeated blows, headbutts and other CQC attacks, the slow-mo hits and sweeping camera angles are accompanied by a ballad worthy of the encounter and is just pure Kojima cinematic gold.

Higgs

Death Stranding (2019)

For the entire length of your journey through the world of Death Stranding, Higgs was a constant nuisance, routinely antagonizing the player and Sam, but towards the games conclusion, players finally get to face Higgs one on one and put an end to his world-ending antics. Naturally, because this is a full Hideo Kojima-controlled masterpiece, this encounter is anything but straightforward boss fight. At the start, the player needs to play a teleporting game of hide and seek, tracking down Higgs on the Beach and throwing whatever package you can get your hands on to stun him long enough to attack him. The final confrontation is a more in-depth version of Snakes final confrontation with Liquid Ocelot with Higgs and Sam squaring off in the murky waters of the Beach, complete with fighting game health bars and a cinematic finisher on Higgs thats sure to leave a mark.

The Beauty & The Beast Unit

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

The Metal Gear series is renowned for its memorable bosses and with the culmination of Snakes adventures ending with Guns of the Patriots, Kojima included an entire squad directly calling back to some of the series most important bosses. The Beauty and the Beast Unit is composed of multiple female soldiers suffering from PTSD who have been outfitted with cybernetic armors designed to enhance their already impressive skills. Beautiful and deadly, Screaming Mantis, Laughing Octopus, Crying Wolf, and Raging Raven all hunt Snake throughout the fourth entry and are some of the series most inventive boss fights, with each being a direct callback to fan favorite boss encounters from MGS1 and MGS2. If were being honest, he might have created the entire unit just so he could hang out with the units real-life models, and really, who could blame him?

Who was the craziest Hideo Kojima boss you ever encountered? Share your favorites in the comments.