M.Bison (Street Fighter), Master Hand (Smash Bros) and Cervantes (Soul Calibur)
Remember these three guys? Back in the old gaming days these bosses use to make my blood boil. Total pwnage and I was handed over 20 times before I’d somehow scrape victory. However annoying they were though being such nasty difficulty spikes at the end of the fighting lines, they were still great memorable characters. The kind that you could gossip with your gamer friends and share the hate and admiration of tough encounters. Now I love seeing the good old bosses come back every time as the beat-em-up series continue. Nostalgia hits me right in the heart but I’m also disappointed that they’ve lost their once fearsome presence.
So ok, I can understand that maybe developers are troubled to bring new ideas to the table. Gamers want to see new things or they won’t buy into it. So here we get some fresh faces into the fighting scenes.
Tabuu (Smash Bros), Seth (Street Fighter) and Algol (Soul Calibur)
Why is it that these new bosses have to be some form of super-powered gods? At least the three previous bosses are totally different to each other. M.Bison is the head of a massive crime syndicate called, “Shadow Law”. He’s ill for power and he’s a nutter with his psycho-crusher. Master Hand is just a fantastic concept alone, who’d ever thought about fighting a giant white glove?! And finally an evil swash-buckling pirate never goes amiss amongst the global heroes of swords and shields, so Cervantes makes a great character.
But unfortunately I’m just rather let down by the new boys in town. Algol is just a human skinned version of Necrid from Soul Calibur II. Seth is a combination of Dhalsim, Necro and Urien of the Street Fighter series. Tabuu is a dull static boss who just constantly throws stupid amounts of fireballs and teleports non-stop.
Sorry folks but I don’t see effort and I’m not proud of these characters as a final fight. Tabuu, Seth and Algol are all just over-powered beings. Both Tabuu and Algol can spread giant wings of damage. Is this how we’re to understand what bosses are made of now? Boss = pulling out heavy attacks that govern the combat space. I also don’t like the idea that these guys aren’t really “new”, they’re just a mixture of old characters with crazy stats of 50 plus strength over anyone. I want to be able to recognise a boss and his background story, not to see them as “oh he’s just some god figure hungry for power. Just watch out for his crazy moves that dominate the space”.
I just never play as them, my friends never use them either, why? Because we like using those same moves from the original characters they came from. That’s what makes them, “them” and that’s what makes these bosses rubbish to play.
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