Lamenting the Boss Battle

I just finished Batman: Arkham Asylum a little while ago, and after a couple of gloriously immersive weeks as the Dark Knight, gliding around thugs like a black-suited ballerina while simultaneously demolishing their brain-cases... I'm left rather disappointed.

The game gets almost everything right - the story, the atmosphere, the combat, the stealth, the voice acting, the flow and pace of action. And yet, the final boss fight, which should have been the culmination of Batman's long, arduous night at Arkham? A huge disappointment. Even the first "boss" of the game was more enjoyable.

At this point I'm going to begin discussing some of the details of this game's final boss sequence. So, uh, from here on, SPOILER ALERT, okay? Fair warning? Good.

At the end of Arkham Asylum, the Joker has managed to get his hands on a compound called "Titan", a more advanced version of "Venom" - a powerful steroid-like drug that transforms users into hulking, strength-enhanced brute version of themselves. The Joker, with Batman bearing down on him, unleashes a dose into his own jaw, and essentially becomes a giant Joker-monster, who just happens to be the final boss. This seemed like the obvious direction for the game's plot, but it was not the lack of surprise at this outcome that disappointed me. It was the fight itself.

Taking place in a small, makeshift Joker arena (ostensibly constructed while Batman was stopping the rest of the rogue's gallery on the loose at Arkham), Titan-Joker leaps up on a platform and addresses Gotham City in the spotlight of a news helicopter, while 8-10 thugs come at you. Once you've dispatched them all, you use powered up Bat-Claw to haul Joker down from his "stage" and then give him a one-two punch in the jaw. He comes at you for a second with giant claws, and then jumps back up to his platform. What then? You repeat the process, with a couple more advanced guards (with knives and tasers) thrown into the mix. Three shots to the jaw and the Clown Prince of Crime goes through the floor and, incapacitated, is picked up by the cops. Cue credits.

What a (ahem) joke! After some pretty awesome set pieces with Killer Croc and Scarecrow, you barely even fight the Joker directly! I understand the use of the guards to make things a little interesting; it worked to comparatively better effect during the Poison Ivy fight. But that's the only real challenge of the fight - if you are stumped at how to strike at Joker directly, the game instructs you to use the Bat-Claw to pull him down. Dodging Joker's attacks is a breeze, and he doesn't put up a fight at all when you first topple him from his platform.

END SPOILERS!

This is just another example in a trend of final boss battles that are anti-climactic and rather uninspired. Off the top of my head, BioShock's final boss was a similar sort of "repeat-the-pattern" fight with a supercharged main villain (keeping that one unspoiled - if you haven't played BioShock, do not delay any longer). This isn't quite a new trope, either; if I'm recalling correctly, all of the Bowser fights, including the very last, in Super Mario 64 require you to grab Bowser's tail and throw him into little spike-bombs lining the sides of his giant platform. This happens three, maybe four times in the game. Ooooh, the last Bowser is rainbow coloured. Innovative!

There are exceptions to this rule, however. Sometimes boss battles can set your heart racing and adrenaline pumping. A very early, but fond memory I have from my gaming past was when I fought and defeated Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I remember the giant hole in the roof of the Dark World Hyrule Castle - I remember falling into it, and my little pulse starting to pound in my neck as I read through Ganon's menacing rhetoric about destroying me and making the Triforce his own personal plaything. Ganon threw all kinds of tricks at me, that required more than just hacking and slashing: agility, quick thinking, and skill.

Standard RPG final bosses are usually just nothing more than a drawn out combat sequence with a giant monster, world-destroying demon, or something of that ilk. I don't really consider that to be problematic, because that's exactly what's expected in that style of game. While it may be repetative, it is forgivably so, because it is usually the challenge of the RPG final boss that separates it from the usual enemies or mini-bosses. One notable exception would be Giygas in EarthBound, which is actually one of the weirdest and most innovative boss fights in gaming history. While the battle mechanic is the same as in every other enemy or boss fight in the game, the presentation, and the way you must defeat him is unique and definitely in keeping with the quirky yet powerful storyline.

It is unfortunate that truly great final boss battles are rare, even in games that are better than the average. While it's not enough to completely ruin a game (both BioShock and Arkham Asylum are arguably modern classics), it's enough to leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth when your last bit of input at the end of a great experience is a repetitive or boring anti-climax.

The ideal boss battle, as I see it, satisfies most or all of the following conditions: 1.) you know you're at the end of the game and that everything that's come before has led you to this point; 2.) your heart begins to race as a result of the setting, atmosphere, music, and/or challenge of the fight; 3.) it requires the use of most of or all of the skills you've learned throughout the experience, or enough that it's not cumbersome; and 4.) it is notably different than anything you've faced up to that point in one or more ways.

These criteria might seem a little vague, especially the second and fourth, but I think that they all lend themselves to a more satisfying conclusion to an action/adventure game than what I'm used to seeing. I'm sure the process is more complicated than I'm aware of, in terms of keeping the game balanced, fun, etc. That said, though, I don't think I'm alone when I say that the concept of a "final boss" needs a bit of an overhaul.

What do you think? What are some of your own personal favourite boss battles? What made them stand out?