The Legend Of Zelda: 10 Most Disappointing Boss Battles

The strategy to beat the Head Thwomp in Oracle of Ages is easy in theory but nightmarish in practice. You have to climb a platform and hurl a bomb onto Thwomp while avoiding his attacks. If the developers left it at that, Thwomp would have been a reasonably tough boss.

But there is one more thing about Thwomp that makes him far trickier. This snarling block has four faces that rotate but is only vulnerable if he is blasted when his red face is visible.

Also, his faces spin faster every time you hit him. By the end of the battle, his faces whirls around so quickly, hitting the correct one at the opportune time relies more on luck than skill.

First-time players will likely die multiple times since he's only the second boss in the game so you won't have many hearts. But if you perish, you don't restart just before the fight. You have to redo 25% of the whole dungeon before fighting Head Thwomp again.

Interestingly, Nintendo reused this mechanic in Ocarina of Time, when the player has to obtain a Heart Piece by hurling a bomb in a Goron jar while it is displaying the correct face.