A Walk Down Memory Lane: 30 Memorable Nintendo Villains and Boss Fights

by Menashe and CitizenOfVerona

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven\’t came across some of these Nintendo villains yet, then there will obviously be some spoilers. So, if, for example, you don\’t know who the final boss in Skyward Sword is, you should probably avoid the last villain in this article.

Baby Bowser

Everyone already knows about Bowser, so we won\’t speak much about him. If you want to know more about him, pick up almost any Mario game. Instead we\’ll talk about a younger version of Bowser: Baby Bowser.

Baby Bowser was an iconic fight at the end of Yoshi’s Island. The \”little Master\” turned out to be a spoiled brat, being taken care of by his babysitter, Kamek. When you defeat him in his nursery, Kamek does a little magic and turns the little Baby into a towering Godzilla who shoots fireballs and sends massive boulders raining down on you. Of course, baby Bowser proves no match for baby Mario. That recurring dynamic follows both Mario and Bowser throughout the rest of their lives. I guess it started as a childhood rivalry.

Giygas

You cannot grasp what makes Giygas so memorable without actually experiencing it for yourself. Be it the twisted dialogue or the fact he lost of body and sanity because of his heart break, Giygas will forever be in the minds of Earthbound fans for how dark and depressing he really is. But, the most gruesome aspect of Giygas is that in order to beat him you must defeat him while he is still a fetus.

Ganon

The King of Evil needs to be on any list including the best villains. He is a brutal, ruthless leader that will stop at nothing to obtain the sacred triforce. Even being banished to another dimension and transformed into a Pig Monster did not hold this particular badass back.

Mother Brain

We do not know if Mother Brain has been taken over by the Space Pirates or joined them by her own will, but we do know that she controls Metroids using telepathy. While she was a straightforward boss in the NES Metroid, she got an upgrade in Super Metroid making her an unforgettable boss fight to one of the best games ever; this scene had to give you chills.

King Dedede

This boss is mostly carefree and just wants to eat all the food in Dream Land. Greedy for sure, and ever since the first Kirby game he has mostly been on Kirby’s side, but whenever you do fight him you are treated to one of the best tunes in gaming and a quirky fight that is sure to put a smile on your face.

Ridley

While only a final boss in Zero Mission, we here at NE consider him the main villain of the franchise for being Samus’ main rival. Often down but never out, Ridley has taken multiple forms including Meta, Omega and Neo. Plus, he is a dragon, and everyone loves dragons.





Kaptain K Rool

Pirates have not had much of the spotlight in gaming as of late, but they were amazing in the old Donkey Kong Country games. King K Rool is menacing while still being comical at the same time. He has a musket, but shoots out pink and blue clouds; he has the perfect blend of all things right with villains.

Master Hand

Master Hand may not have any characteristics; he is a staple to the Smash Bros series. What I do like about Master Hand is that it is just a kid playing with his Nintendo toys, then promptly gets beaten up by his toys in a Toy Soldiers (look it up) like plot device.

Gary

While not a boss in the traditional sense, the smug rival from Pokemon Blue and Red has to be here. Throughout the game, he is always gloating about how superior he is to you, and nothing is as satisfying as beating him to take the crown as Pokemon Master from him while his very own Uncle says how disappointed he is in him.

Pokey

Going from a secondary villain in Earthbound to headcheese in Mother 3, Pokey is a unique boss in which his motivations are outlandish. He thinks of the world as his personal toybox, mixing nature and technology as he sees fit and shaping the world to his perfect vision.

Agatio and Karst

Throughout Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age, Agatio and Karst are always getting in your way and always achieve the upper hand. You grow to hate them over the course of the game, until the end when you learn their motivations was to simply save their hometown. Sure, their methods were brutal, but they did it to protect their homeland, making the heroes have a change of heart.

Skull Kid

What sets Skull Kid apart is that he is not trying to kidnap Zelda or destroy the world; he simply wants to be loved by his friends. As an outcast who played pranks, his inner depression led him to be consumed by the cursed mask, using him as a puppet to carry out his evil tasks on Termina.

Titan Dweevil

The Pikmin franchise does not focus on who or what the final boss is, but in Pikmin 2 we learn that Louie is missing somewhere on the planet. The player can guess that he is captured by something, but other then that we are left clueless. After venturing through a dangerous cave, we find him surrounded by treasure, which becomes a part of a massive spider looking for blood. With multiple elemental attacks and a fantastic musical score, this boss fight lays on the intense atmosphere thick.

Queen Metroid

Metroid 2 was partially inspired by the classic Aliens, where Samus goes to the home world of these extra terrestrials to wipe them out for good. Also like Aliens, the climax is a confrontation with the Queen. The arena is claustrophobic and her attacks are brutal, making it an achievement when you triumph this final challenge.

Andross

Star Fox on SNES made use of polygons, including on the face its villain, Andross. Star Fox 64 is a classic gem that started a plethora of internet memes including barrel rolls and Star Wolf. Andross is once again the villain, and his presence is constantly felt, with characters constantly mentioning him, plus the fact that he killed Fox’s father. Depending on which route you take throughout the galaxy will change his final form, ranging from easy to insanely difficult, unless you are a champion like me. 😉

Emperor Ing

Metroid Prime 2 features some of the most spectacular boss fights in any game, but Emperor Ing takes the cake. He resides deep within the alternate dimension and is isolated from the rest of the world, which makes this one of the most atmospheric bosses in any Metroid game, which is an accomplishment in itself. With multiple forms and a stiff challenge, the sense of accomplishment you get from this boss fight is off the charts.

Koopalings

Bowser’s eccentric gaggle of kids prove that even dysfunctional homes can produce loyal kids. And these seven are loyal to a tee. Larry likes sports, Morton is the fat one, Wendy is the spoiled brat with a bad temper, Iggy is the demented, mechanical genius, Roy is the bully, Lemmy is the clown, and Ludwig is the most similar to his father in cruelty and intelligence.

Fawful

Fawful is a villain in the Mario & Luigi series, and he’s considered to be on the funniest in the entire Mario universe. Some of his quirks are his weird usage of the English language and his constant obscure food metaphors. Some of his classic quotes are:

– \”Fawful is on the cozy couch, sipping tea that laughs at you!\”

– \”All who resist will be beat like naughty little eggs!\”

– \”You inhaled like a hungry syrup pig at the free pancake buffet.\”

– \”And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!\”

Smithy

Smithy looks like a diabolical Santa Claus. He hails from another dimension, a dimension that is accessible only by the gateway Exor. In his dimension, he resides in his Factory where, day and night, Smithy creates mechanical monsters to be unleashed against the peaceful people of other worlds. In Super Mario RPG, he leads his evil organization, The Smithy Gang, in an attempt to rule over the Mushroom World.

Metroid Prime

Metroids aren\’t easy to deal with in the first place. That difficulty is amplified tenfold when it’s a highly-mutated Metroid, infused with huge quantities of phazon. Even after Samus defeats the Metroid Prime’s exoskeleton and its core essence, it still manages to recreate itself as Dark Samus using some of Samus\’ DNA and phazon.

Wario

Nintendo often takes their villains and turns them into protagonists of their own games. It happened to Donkey Kong. It happened to Bowser. And it happened to Wario. Wario started off as Mario’s nemesis in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. As the instruction manual says, Wario is an overgrown man-child who has been jealous of Mario since they were children. Although Wario stars in the sequel, Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, he retains his greed and selfishness, which actually becomes a recurring plot and gameplay theme for the rest of the series.

Deathborn

Samurai Goroh is the nuisance, trouble-maker of the F-Zero series. Black Shadow is the evil emperor. But Black Shadow is a mere pawn who shudders in fear of his master, Deathborn, the ultimate villain of the F-Zero franchise. Deathborn has died three times, but was brought back to life each time by sacrificing his real body parts for mechanical ones. Through these \”procedures\” he has become essentially immortal. One of the devices \”installed\” within his body allows him to travel freely through space, making it possible for him to mysteriously appear anywhere at any time. He banishes those he dislikes to the outer limits of space, where they become drifting vagabonds for all eternity. So, how does Captain Falcon defeat him? Through racing, of course. (He should have used his Falcon Punch!)

Medusa

Medusa certainly has changed appearances drastically from the original game to the recent Kid Icarus Uprising. But don\’t blame Medusa for the way she looks. Palutena, in a fit of anger, changed Medusa into a cyclopic, snake-haired monster and banished her to the Underworld. It’s no wonder Medusa decided to gather an army from the Underworld and take revenge on Palutena. Lucky for Palutena, she had locked up her old personal assistant, Pit, in the Underworld. Pit is in the perfect position to take on Medusa and her army.

The only issue we had with the original Medusa fight was that if you knew how to do it correctly, you could remain hovering in one spot and never get hit.