Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Kirby’s Boss Fights Are More Badass Than Dark Souls!

Kirby’s Boss Fights Are More Badass Than Dark Souls!

The Dark Souls series is renowned for many reasons. The art direction is the kind of thing that you only see once in a lifetime within a particular artistic medium. Its combat is precise and unforgiving. The lore is hidden from plain sight, and you really have to work to understand your place in the world. As you play through the Souls games, there any many things that will stick with you long after you’ve left them behind. Perhaps the most haunting (and soul-crushing) experiences are the boss battles, which are legendary, terrifying challenges in all of the Souls games – Bloodborne included (you can’t make me type Soulsborne ).

Here’s the thing, though: You’d expect the final boss in the last game of the Dark Souls trilogy to be a kind of grand finale, right? You’d expect the farewell encounter in Dark Souls III to be this huge, unforgettable production. Knowing how Dark Souls boss fights have played up to that point, you’d expect this hulking demonic entity that attacked you with three or four different forms over the course of the battle. That never happened, though. I love Dark Souls III – it’s a 9/10 game to me – but it was criticized for having too many “guy in armor” boss battles. I regret to inform you that, without getting too spoilery about it, the final boss is indeed a guy in armor. The whole show was a pretty underwhelming finish to what is otherwise a masterpiece.

I wasn’t deprived of my ultimate boss battle this year, though. There’s a separate engagement that comes to mind when I think about all of the expectations I had for the final boss in Dark Souls III . I did face an enemy that surprised me, challenged me, engaged me in multiple forms, and ultimately left me dumbfounded. That boss battle came in a game that could not be any more different from Dark Souls . That game is Kirby: Planet Robobot .

The final boss encounter is Planet Robobot was one of the most unexpected and delightful experiences I’ve had in gaming so far this year. What begins as an action-packed showdown between two nimble rivals evolves through six – yes, six – stages. A high-stakes skirmish ends up culminating in a genre-defying encounter that will warp not only space and time, but all of your standards for what a great boss fight can be as well.

Kirby’s Boss Fights Are More Badass Than Dark Souls!

It’s a roaring good time. It’s a stretch of gaming that belongs on the big screen, with all of your friends in the room cheering you on and laughing with amazement as the encounter grows to be grander and more bizarre. I was laying next to my wife in bed – lights out as she slept – during my first run through this boss fight. I could feel the heat from my cheeks as I blushed from all of the stifled laughter and sudden snorts. The final quick time event and following cut-scene left me with the biggest smile on my face. Of course, in true Nintendo fashion, when the credits were done rolling I was left with much more game than I knew what to do with; my time with Planet Robobot isn’t over yet. I suspect there’s a boss form or two that I’ve yet to see.

It’s just so ironic, the fact that all year long I was expecting the craziest boss fight I’d ever attempt to come from the final game of the most challenging trilogy I’ve ever played. As it turned out, everything I was hoping for I found in a Kirby game. The experiences leading up to each respective final boss were completely, philosophically different. Kirby games are meant to be easier; meant to be enjoyed; meant to enable the player to kick back and enjoy the sights and sounds while feeling like an all powerful pink puff. Sure, I expected to enjoy the final boss fight in Planet Robobot , but I certainly didn’t expect to be so thrilled and surprised by it. Miyazaki-san, you have a thing or two you could learn from Kumazaki-san.

To top