10 All Time Greatest Boss Battles From Metal Gear Franchise

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is absolutely chock full of memorable moments. From first seeing Solid Snake in Shadow Moses, to the bait and switch of Raiden in MGS2 to the mad elements like 'Fission Mailed' or Johnny Sasaki and his toilet breaks, there's so much about MGS that makes an impact on you.

Some of the most memorable moments come from Metal Gear Solid's huge range of boss fights. The series is well renowned for its bosses, and for very good reason. While other bosses are paint-by-the-numbers with big hulking bits and health bars to sap away, Metal Gear Solid redefined exactly what a boss can actually be.

This is a series where a boss can be anything from a man who is in control of swarms of hornets, to a lonely sniper in a beautiful snowy field. The sheer diversity of the bosses, coupled with the creativity of Hideo Kojima and his development team, means there's been so many incredible bosses over the years.

But which across the mainline games are the very best?

Where other games might have you up against an enemy, whittling down its health bar, MGS prides itself on mixing up the formula. An amazing example of this is the boss fight against The End during Metal Gear Solid 3.

The whole boss fight is a game of cat-and-mouse between two expert combatants. On one hand, you've got Naked Snake, expert in CQC and firearms combat, and then you've got The End, a master of camouflage and sniping.

Taking place over a huge, sprawling area with multiple connecting sections, the game cleverly brings stealth and camouflage to the forefront, tasking the player with locating The End in this massive environment and attacking him before he can scurry away (or blow your head off with his sniper rifle).

It's a multi-layered, dynamic fight which is different pretty much every time you play it. It's full of nuances too; you can, for example, capture the end's pet parrot and use it to locate his position. Alternatively, you can even set your game clock to several years ahead of the current date. When you next boot up MGS3, The End will have died of old age!

This boss fight doesn't have to take place, either. After an earlier cutscene, there's a tiny window where The End can be sniped from afar. He'll explode and when you get to his boss area, he won't show up at all.