10 Impossible Video Game Boss Battles That Totally Broke You

5. Shao Kahn (Mortal Kombat 2011)

What was that about fighting game bosses and godawful final fights? Yeah... nothing beats Shao Kahn, NetherRealm's king of pad-smashing, lord of teeth-grinding gutteral noises and the supreme emperor of making you wish you'd never bothered.

Now, even though Mr. Kahn has always been a sh*t, 2011's soft reboot of the franchise clearly saw NetherRealm wanting to reintroduce him to an entire new generation in the most brain-breaking way possible. They coded a Shao Kahn whose animations continued despite being attacked, also favouring stun cancels and launchers, meaning if you weren't being tossed across the sky, your attack wasn't registering, or it was interrupted anyway.

Simply put: There was nothing remotely fun or worth overcoming about fighting this incarnation. The only way through was to find which of your own attacks could be spammed as fast as possible, purposefully boxing Shao Kahn into repeating animations so you could turn the tables in the cheapest way possible.

Not exactly good game design, and that's if you even had the gumption to stick it out.