15 Most Influential Video Game Boss Battles Of All Time

13. Murai - Ninja Gaiden

What It Did First: Opened a game with a brutally hard encounter.

Not since Dragon's Lair have we had a game open and be so openly disparaging about your time. "You can't figure this out immediately? Fine, away with you, come back when you've got the guts."

You have to admire that level of arrogance at some point, with no boss standing out as being such a stupidly tough first hurdle to get over than Murai.

Coming at you in a blur of twizzling nunchuck animations, life-depleting grapples and counter-attacks, if you didn't have a solid history of Devil May Cry and God of War under your belt - so as to at least be familiar with NG's brand of lightning-fast third-person action - he'd cut through you faster than you could say "I thought I knew what I was doing!"