10 Exact Moments That Saved Terrible Video Game Bosses

Though Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance's bosses largely can't hold a candle to the ingenious boss fights in the mainline titles, one of them nevertheless proves how a single line can elevate an otherwise frustrating, infuriating final boss.

Revengeance concludes with Raiden taking on the hilariously buff politician Senator Armstrong, in a half-hour slog of a fight that's deeply challenging due to both the strength of Armstrong's attacks and his huge defensive capabilities.

Your windows to deal major damage are maddeningly short, and unless you've mastered the game's dodge and parry mechanics, you're likely going to find yourself thoroughly bodied by this steroid-pumped stuffed shirt.

And yet, as inconceivable as it seems, there's a single moment in the fight that somehow makes all of this OK.

Roughly half-way through the fight, a frustrated Raiden asks Armstrong, "Why don't you die?", prompting Armstrong to rip his shirt off and reveal his nanomachine upgrades, before delivering the mic-drop quip, "Nanomachines, son."

For anyone who was losing their mind - or will to live - with the fight at this point, it was a perfectly placed moment of punctuating comic relief, giving players the resolve to keep pushing forward.

Almost a decade later, Armstrong's iconic, perhaps infamous quip endures as a Hall of Fame gaming meme. Without it, it'd be so much easier to dismiss the fight as a textbook example of throw-everything-at-the-player cheapness.