Superhero video games are filled with powered-up characters, so it’s no surprise that a few of them are trying battles that will test your mettle and patience. Sure, you’re likely playing as your own ridiculously powerful protagonist, but developers will still find ways to challenge you, no matter how strong you become. A few of these bosses can feel downright broken, given how strong they are. That said, with enough practice, you can come out on top. It’s just going to take a lot of work for these bosses.
Here are the seven hardest bosses in superhero games.
7) Fin Fang Foom – Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Fin Fang Foom is a massive dragon with a few gnarly powers. When you come up against him in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, it essentially turns into a raid encounter in World of Warcraft. You have to balance keeping your team alive, dealing damage, and staying away from Foom’s many attacks. This slog of a fight can be thrilling, but more often than not, you’ll just be stressed with trying to manage so much.
6) Mr. Freeze – Batman: Arkham City (New Game+)
The fight against Mr. Freeze in the standard Batman: Arkham City campaign isn’t too challenging. In fact, Batman has such a strong toolkit that most of his rogues’ gallery don’t prove too difficult. That changes when you enter New Game+. In this mode, you’ll need to take Mr. Freeze down nine times. That doesn’t sound too tough, but you cannot use the same tactics to earn a takedown more than once. You’ll need to dig deep into Batman’s toolkit to get through this one, showing that you’ve truly mastered Arkham City’s combat.
5) Kessler – Infamous
Infamous is the only game on this list that isn’t based on a pre-existing comic book. Still, it’s a phenomenal action game on the PlayStation 3, which puts you in the shoes of Cole MacGrath as he learns to use his new electrokinetic powers. Along the way, you’ll come up against a man named Kessler. I won’t spoil the twist around this fight, but I will say that, on tougher difficulty modes, you’re going to die a lot while you figure out how to deal with his electric attacks.
4) Final Boss – Silver Surfer
To be fair, Silver Surfer on the NES is one of the most frustrating games of all time. This bullet hell game features a visual style that makes it nearly impossible to tell what’s an enemy and what’s just a wall. So, it’s highly likely most players would never run into this final boss. The good news is that its patterns are relatively simple, so once you get the hang of it, it’s not too big a deal. That said, it has a huge health pool, and if you’re hit once, you’ll die. You’ll need to be on your A game for an extended fight, or you’ll have to start over.
3) Carnage – Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage
Similar to Silver Surfer, Maximum Carnage is one of the most difficult games of its era. Part of that comes from how difficult it is to get the hang of the hit boxes in this brawler. Yours feels much larger than your enemies, which means you’ll often be close to ripping your hair out after taking what seems like unavoidable damage. Carnage’s fight just makes that all worse. It moves around the battlefield with otherworldly speed and has a litany of attacks that are nearly impossible to dodge. This one sometimes feels unfair, which might make you think it’s an arcade port made to take your quarters, but Maximum Carnage never went to arcades.
2) Brainiac – Injustice 2
Brainiac is the boss of Injustice 2, and he certainly hits like it. His health pool is astronomically high, and his blows feel like you’re being hit by a truck. Those giant tentacles he uses can rip through your own health bar if you’re not careful. Unfortunately, Brainiac has few, if any, tells, which makes getting around his combos very difficult. You basically have to find your character’s best cheese moves and use them repeatedly to pound Brainiac into the dirt.
1) Thanos – Marvel’s Super Heroes
It’s no surprise to see Thanos top this list. The guy has become one of the biggest villains in the Marvel universe, and this era of fighters was all about having overpowered boss characters. His toolkit of attacks means that he can hit from nearly anywhere on the screen, making it almost impossible to find an opening. And unlike any other fight in the game, you’ll have to take him out a second time, giving him even more time to snap you out of existence. Fighting games of the ’90s were not pulling any punches, even those based on hit comics.
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