 If there's one thing that stayed consistent through these weird and chaotic times, it's that people still absolutely love to argue about video game difficulty. So at the heck let's get those absurd and utterly meaningless arguments going again by taking a look at the 13 hardest boss fights in any Super Nintendo game. Now I'm sure there may be some boss fights and some unlocalized Super Famicom games that I haven't spent enough time with that I might have missed with this list, so if you know of any let me know in the comments. I do want to throw a quick honorable mention to a few bosses in particular like Shao Khan in Mortal Kombat 2, Solid Arm in Illusion of Gaia, Fighting Your Partner in 7th Saga, and several of the bosses in Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past. Those fights are all really tough, but personally I think these 13 are a bit tougher. Terranigma, the fight against Bloody Mary. My first playthrough of this game I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was cruising through this one eagerly hoping to find out what happens next, and then nope, you are stuck until you beat this beast of a boss. She protects herself with this spinning triangle of orbs that moves ridiculously fast so it's just about impossible to sneak in there to do damage without getting hit, and even if you stand aside and use a spell, she still sends her own head after you. There's a ton of spikes on the floor that limit your range of motion. Oh, and if by chance you get to this point and you think you might be underleveled, Bloody Mary will helpfully let you know very quickly. And if you don't have any magic rings at this point, forget about it. Even if you're a bit overleveled for this fight, it's still a really tough one to get through. 12. Mega Man X, the final boss fight against Sigma. Mega Man X isn't all that difficult in general, especially compared to the NES games, but oh man, Sigma's final form in this game is no joke. First you fight Sigma's cute dog who's not much trouble, then you get to Sigma's first form where he bounces off the walls, and it's definitely manageable once you get the timing down, but this last form that takes up the entire screen, yeah, no, this is pretty dang tough. Even if you know what the quote-unquote correct weapon is, you still have to dodge lightning quick attacks, be precise with your jumps to either scale the walls or jump on these paw platforms, and you still gotta hit a small target at the top middle of the screen. Even if you've got all four sub-tanks filled up, Sigma's still a tough character. 11. The Act Razor Boss Gauntlet, okay, I'm kinda cheating here since this is technically a bunch of bosses, but you have to beat every single boss that you've already beaten in the game on one continue before you can even reach a final boss. This is just one after another after another, no replenishing your magic and no replenishing your health. Well, unless you die, which is a given. Granted, some of these bosses have some pretty easy patterns to recognize, but some are definitely very tricky, and that's not even including the final boss. The game feels sorry for you at that point and gives you a cool projectile that comes from your sword, but that doesn't make this battle any easier either. Ugh, remember when you were just building houses and farming and chilling out with your people and stuff? I'd like to go back to that, please. 10. R-Type 3, the final boss. To be fair, I could put any number of shoot-em-ups on this list because so many of them have such difficult boss fights, everything from UN Squadron, to Gradius, to Space Megaforce. But with R-Type 3, everything moves so quickly and so suddenly that it's tough for any pattern to register in your brain, especially since, you know, it's the final boss of fricking R-Type 3, and even more stressful is this badass music that's pumping through the speakers. The toughest thing about this fight is that it can take forever. It's one of those bosses where you can only do damage to it at a certain time. When you've blown up everything and you gotta get your shots in before the time runs out, or in this case, before whatever this thing regrows its own head. So this fight isn't just hard, it's ridiculously stressful because it takes so fricking long. 9. Axelay, final boss. Yup, I'm putting Axelay ahead of R-Type 3, and while R-Type 3 is a much tougher game in general, I think Axelay has the tougher final boss, and you fight it in several different phases. When you first arrive, it's a stationary wall boss that summons these giant pieces of fried chicken to attack you. You destroy the two nodes and the eye opens up, and you get these projectiles that fire off in all sorts of different directions with the main center beam you have to watch out for. Destroy the eye, and the real monster appears, sending mechs firing weapons at you fast and furious. Survive that, and you think it's over? It's never over. Now this thing is trying to run away from us, and we have to chase it down while the background zips by at 9,000 miles per hour, and dodging these projectiles is way harder than it looks, and you have to do it for a long time as well since this enemy has about a gazillion hit points. Finish this thing off, and you definitely feel like you've earned a drink or two in celebration. Eight. Contra 3 of the Alien Wars, the level 4 boss. Yeah, I'm not going with the final boss in this one, because while that boss is tough, obviously, the level 4 boss can be really tricky to deal with. First of all, it needs to be said that this level remains one of the most insane levels in any game ever. You start out on bikes, then a giant ship hovers over you, then you fight whatever this thing is, then you're hanging out on a missile with one hand fighting another mini-boss, then the missile fires off, and before you know it, you're fighting the boss, and uh-oh, my missile's going to explode soon, ah crap. Yeah, you have to hang out in this spot, bouncing around from missile to missile, all while trying to take down this shield, which is really tough, because you have to either go as far down as you can to shoot straight at it, which is dangerous, or you can stay up high and shoot at a diagonal angle. Also dangerous, because you have to alternate between holding down and right while jumping, and if you hit both down and jump at the same time, you could very easily fall to your death. It took me freakin' forever to beat this boss when I was a kid, it felt like a final boss to me, I couldn't believe there was even more after this level. But yeah, the level 4 boss is extremely tough, anyway, you slice it. Seven. Final Fantasy V, Neo-X Death's the final boss. This is a bit of a tricky one, because as you know, in most role-playing games, if you're having trouble with an enemy, all you gotta do is just grind and grind and grind until you're massively overpowered. But in this case, Neo-X Death consists of four different parts that are at least 50,000 hit points each, so no matter how you slice it, this boss fight will take forever. Oh, and it also has this massive attack called Vacuum Wave, plus lots of annoying status ailments that it can inflict. And I mean, geez Louise, just look at this thing, it looks like someone squeezed together a few hundred half-eaten starbursts, then threw it in the microwave. How many faces are on this thing, like 14? And yeah, X-Death is just as mean as it looks. Six. Hagane, Amano Ikazuchi. It would only make sense that one of, if not the hardest Super Nintendo game, would also have one of the hardest final bosses as well. This is one of those battles where you constantly have to be moving upward, kind of like that underwater boss in the first Sonic game, only in Hagane's case, you're fighting this gigantic rocket monster thing with like eight different heads, and you gotta defeat it while dodging fire from these enemies, fire from the boss, all while trying to keep up with this thing as it moves upward. And these platforms are spaced just far enough that you have to use the double-jump mechanic to reach them, so you gotta have that practically mastered before you head into this fight. Oh, and there's a time limit, too. So yeah, mastery of dodging, and platforming, and precise attacks all at once. Good luck. Five. Super Mario RPG, the secret Kulix fight. When news first broke that Square would be working with Nintendo on a role-playing game in the Mario universe, I think pretty much everyone was hoping for something like this. And yeah, this is a totally optional battle, but I mean, come on. Who could pass up the chance for such a cool-looking battle set to such great music? Kulix summons four elemental crystals, and you gotta take them out first before you target Kulix. And that is easier said than done, because these are strong and pack a hell of a punch. Kulix has 4,000 hit points, which is the most in the entire game other than Smithy's Final Form, and that's bad enough, but combined with the crystals, and you're looking at 12,000 total hit points, meaning this battle is long, tough, and you better come with a ton of rock candy, and you better be at at least level 25 before you even think of taking this guy on. Four. Street Fighter II Turbo M. Bison. I fancy myself as a decent enough Street Fighter II player. I'm certainly not great, but I'm not a pushover either, but that said, I cannot beat M. Bison at any difficulty higher than five stars. He's just too fast, too quick, and too powerful. I think the key here is just focus on avoiding rather than being aggressive and attacking, but even then, that's so much easier said than done, because he can jump all the way across the screen and do these insane moves that deliver ridiculous damage. Heck, you could even make an argument for both Vega, otherwise known as Balrog, or Sagat to show up on this list too, but M. Bison tops them all. Seriously, beating this dude can feel like you're trying to beat M2K at Smash. It's ridiculous. Three. Super Punch Out, Rick and Nick Bruiser. Oh, dear God, these guys. I've never even beaten Rick, so I can't imagine how much tougher Nick must be, but yeah, they're the final two fighters you face in the special circuit, and your skills and reflexes have to be at 100% and nothing less than that if you wanna get past these guys. I'm talking Mike Tyson level difficulty here. I mean, I'm sure it's possible to learn the pattern just like any other fighter in any Punch Out game, but your timing and inputs have to be so precise that even if you know what's coming, executing what you're supposed to and when is still so difficult. These are boss fights where you can definitely learn the correct approach, but be prepared to sink hours and hours into practice if you wanna get past Rick and Nick Bruiser. Two. Zombies Ate My Neighbor is the final boss. Okay, now we're just getting into silly territory. Seemingly every single boss in this game is ridiculously hard and needs the patience of a saint, but the final boss, Dr. Tongue, is just laughable. I definitely made a mistake not listing Zombies Ate My Neighbors on my hardest Super Nintendo games list because it deserves a spot. Just to even get to the final boss, you gotta fight a vampire, Frankenstein, werewolves, and then Dr. Tongue, which is this giant spider that takes up 40% of the screen and moves so ridiculously quickly in any random direction at any time. It's just ugh. You've also got these annoying zombies popping up and getting in your way as if you don't have enough to worry about and even if you managed to beat the spider, you still gotta beat the floating head that looks like a cross between Bud Melman and Professor Farnsworth. And yeah, it's not as tough, but it just adds to this brutal marathon of a battle. One. Hey, check it out. It's a secret boss I found at Link to the Past and it's Ganon if you were made completely out of chickens found in Kakarika Village. I mean, you can barely do any damage here because attacking just pisses off these chickens and yeah, okay, I just made this up obviously. The real number one is one. Mega Man X3 Sigma. Okay, I just want you to see what you have to do to beat Sigma here. You gotta dodge all this crap. And then this is your target, this teeny tiny little head. Are you freaking serious? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I mean, I can't even, well, I mean, look how tiny, what the hell were they thinking? This is just so freaking absurd. I'm seriously just dumbfounded by this fight. You need to be absolutely perfect to beat Sigma here. Anything less than that won't be enough and I don't even know what else to say. I just can't help but laugh at this tiny little thimble of a head that you need to defeat to beat this game. All right, that's all for now and I wanna thank you for watching and I hope you have a great rest of your day.