I'll always remember the end of Star Fox Adventures as the perfect example of how not to end a video game. This 25-hour adventure, lightly sprinkled with that classic Star Fox action we all love, goes against everything the game was about in its final moments with a shoehorned Andross battle. An otherwise lightly enjoyable romp arguably ruined by its final moments. Looking back over the last 28 years that I've been gaming, it's astounding how many final boss battles fail to properly wrap up the adventure.
But some do a damn good job of it and that is the topic of this week's Destructoid Discusses: final boss battles. I was very, very close to going with the all-time classic of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island as it remains one of the best battles ever conceived. So that was going to be my answer and I had a different lede written up for it, but I would be lying to myself and you if I didn’t admit that, even after 23 years, the Mother Brain battle at the end of Super Metroid is the best goddamn boss battle in history.
Super Metroid is an exceptional game, one that is perfect in its original form. That game is reason enough why the franchise should be one of the biggest at Nintendo, but for whatever reason *cough* comparative sales *cough* it isn’t. It’s the one that struggles to continue, that honestly doesn’t feel like it has a direction or a leader guiding its future.
Perhaps that’s because it peaked in 1994. It peaked with an amazing opening through a deserted space station, memorable boss battles that were absolutely gigantic for the time, and an ending that, without any words at all, conveyed an incredible amount of story and emotion that just kept punching. Seeing that baby Metroid, all grown up, nearly kill me earlier on only to come save my life as the monster Mother Brain was about to annihilate me is just as emotional today as when I first experienced it at 10 years old.
It’s not the most difficult battle, but it’s the one I’ll remember until I’m deep in the throes of dementia. And even then, I’m sure the rainbow-colored blasts of Samus’ arm cannon will find a way to sneak into my mind and put a smile on my face.
**The following list obviously contains spoilers for the games mentioned. Most are from the prior console generations and none of them are from games released for the first time this year. However, one of the games (the last one) in an indie title first released in 2015 on PC and again for the PS4 earlier this year. Another title is a GBA classic getting a remake on the 3DS early next month. So, if the title of this article wasn't a big enough warning, then this should be.
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via destructoid
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