10 Best Video Game Boss Battles Of The Decade

The big bad boss fights that defined the 2010s.

Batman Arkham City Mr Freeze
Rocksteady

Like all decades, the 2010s had its ups and downs - arguably more of the latter these last few years, but at least we have plenty to talk about. In the world of video games, however, it's just as much of a mixed bag.

Trends have come and gone, eras of gaming have had their heyday, and once-great developers and titans of the industry have been shaved down to husks of what they once were, or destroyed altogether (RIP Visceral and Telltale).

In short, one of the more interesting decades in gaming's very short but also very dynamic history. One can only wonder what the next ten years and (assuming we live that long) the decades after that have in store for us, but one thing will remain constant in the world of gaming.

Boss battles will always be awesome.

This decade gave us some of the best in gaming history, so this is gonna be a list of the best to come out this decade. From certain Gotham-based superhero duels to ashen kingdoms lorded over by flamesword-wielding spectres, the last 10 years have given us some monumentally fun battles.

10. Cyber Demon (Doom 2016)

Batman Arkham City Mr Freeze
iD Software

This is the big boss you see in every promotion for Doom 2016 when it was set to launch. The demon that rips open the obligatory video game elevator you were just about to take to the next level to say "Hahaha, yeah no, you ain't done, get the hell back out here," and proceeds to fling you out to beat you into putty.

Naturally, such an insult cannot stand.

This boss fight is pretty much everything you've been going through up to this point, but against a demon who actually takes a few more punches than usual to go down. Which is perfectly fine with us, given that Doom 2016 is one of the best games of the decade, so more of the same, but with a larger boss, is just fine, thank you.

But more than that, it's challenging without being crushing, the boss fight moves at a steady pace, and when you take it down, you feel like the top dog, and that feeling is earned. Sometimes simplicity is best, and this is the boss fight that exemplifies that.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?