10 Deadliest Mini-Bosses That Made Gamers Want To Rage-Quit

When it comes to video games, there are several types of enemies a player might face. The “boss” is the big bad — that’s the enemy players have to take down to end a stage or finish the game, and they can be insanely difficult to beat.

Just beneath the boss is the “mini-boss,” and they are pretty much what you think they are. A mini-boss is a difficult enemy who is harder to defeat than the underlings beneath them, but they are easier to take out than the bosses they protect.

At least, that’s how a mini-boss should be. They shouldn’t be so insanely difficult that a player will want to rage-quit whatever game they are playing to be done with them. If a mini-boss’ power or abilities are too OP, it can be incredibly frustrating.

There are thousands of mini-bosses belonging to just about every game genre out there, but some are harder to defeat than others. Those deadly, dangerous, and dastardly mini-bosses are listed here, though they’re hardly the only ones who made gamers want to break their controllers over the years.

The first Mortal Kombat game introduced the world to the burly four-armed monsters known as Shokan with Goro. That beast was defeated in MK, and by Mortal Kombat II, he was replaced with a far more ferocious Shokan named Kintaro.

The Kintaro fight comes just before the player makes their way to Shao Kahn, making him the penultimate battle in the game. Visually, Kintaro is little more than a re-skinned version of Goro, but he's fundamentally more than that when it comes to his moves.

Defeating him requires a great deal of mastery over whichever character the player chooses to use in the fight. There's no clear strategy to defeating him (unlike his boss), so it takes most players several attempts to score their first win against the Shokan.

One of his most annoying moves is his stomping ability, which consumes 1/3 of the player's health. This is always followed by a taunt animation. When this happens, the player has the advantage for a moment, and it's possible to score a hit. If the player misses out, they've opened themselves up to another attack.

Once he's finally defeated, the player faces off against Shao Kahn, which is relatively easy in comparison.