10 Best Multi-Phase Video Game Boss Fights Ever
7. Mother Brain - Super Metroid
Super Metroid's final boss is Mother Brain, which initially appears to involve the player simply firing away at the glass housing until it breaks and you're able to directly impact the brain itself.
You need to shoot the brain while avoiding incoming projectiles from elsewhere, but once the battle seems to be over, you'll realise that it's in fact only just starting.
Mother Brain will then spawn a massive, dinosaur-like bipedal body for the real fight, where pure, scrappy survival is the name of the game.
If you do manage to deplete Mother Brain's health, she'll launch her devastating Laser Brain attack.
Though this can kill the player, a scripted sequence follows in which a Metroid larva arrives to attack Mother Brain, heal Samus, and also give her Mother Brain's Hyper Beam energy.
This will then allow the player to make short work of the boss once and for all. There are certainly harder multi-phase boss fights out there, but Super Metroid's Mother Brain is a classic that's aged like a fine wine.