9 Final Video Game Bosses That Required Incredible Skill

3. Shao Kahn - Mortal Kombat (2011)

Any fighting game boss worth their salt needs to absolutely demolish the player in a few seconds, just to establish that they mean business.

2011 Shao Kahn was an absolute nightmare to fight, coming after a phenomenally innovative campaign where Ed Boon and NetherRealm designed the first fighting game story where bouts loaded in the background; the story confidently re-approaching locations and characters from decades prior.

Because of this relatively easy ramp-up, the fact Shao Kahn was damn-near broken - spamming unblockable attacks, tanking hits, juggling you all the time and taunting afterwards - made him infuriating.

Defeating him came down to memorising everything he could throw at you, down to specific animation frames so you'd know when to actually start a string of moves. Noting which of your own attacks could be spammed and which might stun-lock HIM to give you the upper hand was paramount.

To this day I don't know anyone who fought Shao Kahn fairly - instead lowering themselves to his level just to make it through.