We bring you a definitive list of the greatest boss battles in videogaming history

BERIAL
GAME: DEVIL MAY CRY 4
PLATFORM: XBOX 360
YEAR: 2008
When your opponent’s sword is six times the length of your own character’s body, you know you’re in for a good boss fight, and Berial doesn’t disappoint. He’s a big, flaming hulk of an emo-centaur, hell-bent on avenging the deaths of his compatriots thousands of years ago, presumably at the hands of Sparda. Berial crops up twice during the events of Devil May Cry 4.

Nero is the first to lock swords with the fiery beast, after which he is sent packing to the demonic realm where – wouldn’t you know it – he bumps in Dante. Both encounters are typically epic. One strike of Berial’s sword onto the ground can set off a cataclysmic chain reaction capable of destroying almost everything around it, and if that wasn’t enough, he can also conjure pillars of fire at will. However, he’s a big guy, and that simply means there’s more of him to stab – get yourself close to his face and you can do a lot of damage, very quickly.

T-REX
GAME: TOMB RAIDER
PLATFORM: PC
YEAR: 1996
Perhaps not objectively one of the best boss fights ever, but in the context of 1996, a time when gaming was just starting to fill out properly into three dimensions, this represented the gaming experience of your dreams. Well, that is if you dream about being trampled to death by a TRex with a severe attitude problem (not to mention halitosis). Lending credulity to the delusions that our 133MHz-clocked PC was more powerful than God was the scarily realistic intelligence of our scaly assailant. That is to say, he was as dumb as sack of doorknobs that has just purchased a Princess Diana commemorative plate from the back cover of the National Enquirer. Dive gracefully out of the way as he charges, pump him full of lead, leg it across to the other side of the clearing, wash and repeat.

… continued

Elvis, God Hand, 2006