8 Terrible Games With INCREDIBLE Bosses

After the brilliance of the first two entries in the Ninja Gaiden reboot franchise, what a colossal letdown the third truly was.

Planing away the depth and difficulty of the prior games in a desperate attempt to court more casual players, Ninja Gaiden 3 proved unpopular enough with fans that Team Ninja released a superior updated version, Razor's Edge, barely six months later.

But even in its stinky original iteration, there are small nuggets of quality to be found, especially when battling the game's primary antagonist, the Regent of the Mask.

You'll battle this mask-wearing, sword-totting kahuna numerous times throughout Ninja Gaiden 3, though it's the third fight against him that finally feels like it could be torn straight out of the series' better efforts.

Regent moves hella fast, even for Ninja Gaiden's standards, has a tough-to-discern window of vulnerability, and will slash all but the most prepared of players to ribbons in short order.

Couple all this with the boss' sheer intimidation factor and the gorgeously luminous arena you fight him in, and it makes for the game's one battle truly worthy of its predecessors.