10 Bosses That Stopped Games Being 5 Stars
6. Bowser - Super Mario Galaxy 2
2010's Super Mario Galaxy 2 accomplished the ostensibly impossible task of improving upon the original Super Mario Galaxy in multiple areas (better music, improved levels, immense experimentation, heightened difficulty, etc.) It even corrected the prior title’s debatably inexcusable error of not allowing Mario to ride Yoshi.
Sadly, the opposite is true when it comes to a handful of the bosses, with the most egregious example being the plumber’s final showdown with Bowser. Whereas the Koopa king provided arguably the duo’s greatest confrontation in any 3D Mario title in Super Mario Galaxy, their ultimate clash in this sequel is much less laudable.
Chiefly, it’s not as multifaceted, tactical, or adventurous, relying too much on overly familiar strategies and setups.
You get a giant hovering Bowser trying to smash and burn Mario as he runs along a planetoid and fires back with glowing meteorites. Once beaten, Bowser runs away before returning even bigger to basically do the same thing. Plus, Mario can refill his health whenever he wants thanks to his excessive amount of coins.
(Yawn)
Granted, doing it all while flying through space is inherently cool, but the setting isn’t enough to compensate for the tedious, simple, and generic rinse-and-repeat formula.