20 Best Video Game Boss Battles Of The Decade (So Far)

Five whole years of reloading your save.

By Adam Clery /

Quantic Dream

Since time immemorial, the boss fight has been as intrinsic a part of video gaming as sore thumbs and your parents asserting that you'll give yourself square eyes. But, things change, and just as fewer and fewer people can remember blowing on a cartridge to try and make it work, so to is the humble boss battle slowly fading from common practice. That's not a bad thing though.

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Such are the leaps in both technology and storytelling that developers no longer need to drop in an overpowered nasty to make sure that you're a) totally abreast of where you are in the narrative, and b) getting suitably familiar with all the different controls. An increasingly endangered species they may be, but that only makes the sight of them all that more exciting, and since 2010 there have been some truly brutal, truly exhilarating, and truly ingenious bosses for gamers to pit their skills against.

From the classic end-of-level gatekeepers, to optional gladiators that must be sought out, the challenges they've provided have proven that the boss fight is not only alive and well, but still one of the most enjoyable elements of gaming when put in the right hands. So, counting up from 2010, here are the biggest, smartest, meanest, cruelest, scariest and most innovative boss battles out there. Call yourself a true gamer? Then see how many you've overcome.

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