I'm 41, and I can recall the feeling I had as a kid beating Shadow Link. I wasn't aware that he could be cheesed. One of my crowning gaming achievements as a kid. Zelda 2 was released when I was 7 years old (almost 8) when it released in the USA. I played Mario 2 first, which I got for my birthday in early December, and then Zelda 2 which I got for X-Mas. Good feels!

Jackal is not only a great game, but I think it has fantastic difficulty that generally rewards you for practice (and since minor memorization) without being overly cheap. Awesome 2 player gameplay as well.

Shocked that the Grim Reaper from Castlevania wasn't on this list.

@AreyouthirstyTV

2 жыл бұрын

He’s easier with the holy water but still tough due to that section right before you get to him as well

@robertoazuaje9279

2 жыл бұрын

He's a piece of cake if you manage to lock him in place with the Holy Water... as long as you're able to get there with it and with a decent amount of health, as the section before the boss can be a pain in the ass. Without the water I would say he's even harder than Dracula. I still have no idea how I managed to beat him the first time I finished the game

@megamob5834

2 жыл бұрын

Reaper in 3 is the tougher fight

Battletoads where you have to race the rat to the bomb. In a game that was already ridiculously difficult it was probably the hardest.

@MosoKaiser

2 жыл бұрын

The level right after that, Clinger Winger, is possibly even harder. Granted, it might be down to the crazy precise timing required in the NES original, combined with input latency 'n' shit when emulated and/or played on modern displays, but the Rat Race I've managed to get through with judicious savestate scumming, but Clinger Winger I just can't do.

@retrogamerfan123

2 жыл бұрын

Thers a way to cheese it if you kill the rat in rat race 2 it’s basically a win all the way to the end

@brocksamson9737

2 жыл бұрын

Dude your right ! Idk how any of the Battle toads bosses didn't make this list

Pat finally got what he wanted lmaoooo

"I've never played this but it doesn't seem too hard." What are we doing here?

MT punch out speedruns are some of the most impressive things to watch.

Mike Tyson's punch out as a whole to me always felt like one big action puzzle game because you need to know the way the game wants you to fight the character there's not like multiple strategies and different waysTo fight each character it's like you have to do it the way it was designed to be done. I even tried to beat my Tyson's punch out with a ton of game genie codes and I couldn't do it because of the way the game is set up you actually need to know how to fight each character individually. There's not a way to cheese in this game you have to do it pretty much legitimately. And that's why it's one of the greatest games in history because there's been no punching game like it since.

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

You can definitely cheese these guys. There are multiple ways of beating them! But I’ve played this game more than any other and still haven’t made it past round 2 with Tyson. One of these days!

Now we need to do an Easiest Boss Fights poll 👍

@bedtime9876

2 жыл бұрын

I'd throw the end boss from Crystalis on that list

@venicebeachsportsnetwork6677

Жыл бұрын

All the bosses in Zelda 1 are too easy

@BenderBurgers

Жыл бұрын

Shredder TMNT

@arkanoidaddict2125

Жыл бұрын

Gradius final boss for sure

@jesse3733

Ай бұрын

Kung fu

For me it was Mike Tyson and The Grim Reaper from Castlevania, I never could make it to Dracula!

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

Get that holy water!

@aidanb4477

2 жыл бұрын

@@opaljk4835 This, possible to get triple shot holy water within his stage, but even then if you fuck up once and either die or mess up the cheese pattern with Death, it's the hardest boss in the game. The only time I've beaten him without the holy water is with I think a double shot cross and it took way longer to do.

@awalltep81

2 жыл бұрын

I think the hardest part might be getting to Death with full health after that final hallway with the Axe Armors and Medusa Heads going all which ways.

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

awalltep81 the holy water technique really makes both of these rooms a lot less of a pain. Plus the health in the wall before that hallway is a nice back up. Second better technique is having a triple shot boomerang cross. That thing will clear a path. And the Medusa’s always change based on where you’re standing and you will eventually get used to walking right past those lil pains

I finished Fester's Quest on an Extra Life playthrough a couple of years ago. The end boss is not that bad - you cheese with missiles and hammer the two glowing pods in the morning with your flaming whip. Like a lot of games of that period, having maxed-out weapons by the end is the real challenge.

Never heard yellow devil before. Always called him the putrid puzzle

Dracula in CV 3 is definitely wayyyyy worse than the first game

This topic finally won

No joke, the first time I ever fought Tyson I made it to round 2. I’d never felt so focused in my life

Good vid but there is a pattern here where Pat and Ian watch someone who is an expert at the game and knows the exact strategy to beat the boss, then go “oh that doesn’t look too tough”. They aren’t taking into account the trial and error and learning curve to get those patterns down. Perfect example is Dracula first form in CV3. The fire columns are an absolute beast the way they track your position on the floor and get you where you stand. In hindsight, sure you can beat it with practice but back then you would get there, try and fail, start the level over, rinse and repeat until you pulled your hair out.

I love the fact that not only is Mike Tyson the hardest boss, but also the most realistic boss on the NES. His one-punch knockdown ability for the first 90 seconds was based on Tyson’s real-life fight strategy, and his later fight against Michael Spinks (a fellow unbeaten) ended in 91 seconds.

The toughest part about (the US version of) CV3 is that they start you in the middle of the last level if you die and it’s 4 hits = death no matter what. Overall, I thought the Dracula fight in CV1 was tougher, though.

@mikevisby8744

2 жыл бұрын

Yea but can't you cheese Dracula in the original game? I think holy water stun-locks him in place if I am not mistaken.

@megamob5834

2 жыл бұрын

@@mikevisby8744 yeah the second form is easily cheesed with holy water. Death in CV3 is harder than either drac fight imo

@awalltep81

2 жыл бұрын

@@mikevisby8744 I’m more remembering my first run in with CV1 Drac (I was like 13?) where I used the boomerang to kill the three fireballs so I was stuck with it for his second form. As for CV3 Death… Sypha’s lightning orbs obliterate him. But that sub-weapon obliterates everything and everyone.

Bucky O'Hare is a fun game. That boss is hard, if I remember right, just because it's a long fight.

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

The platforming throughout is pretty tricky. Stilll haven’t gotten to the end, but that boss does not look tough

I don't think any of the Robot Masters are that hard as long as you use the correct weapon. Doc Robot from Megaman 3 is way tougher than any of them.

Thanks for including video on all of these. Yep - this is why I don't fool with NES.

The bucky ohare last boss is super hard. Not only you have to dodge the shrapnel, but also the boss and the grenade. Awesome game by the way, beautiful graphics and great music.

Sagat -OG Street fighter 1- back in the day, in the arcade. Good memories with friends of a different time.Even though it cost me a good chunk of silver, I slept good that night. ✊

The most difficult boss for me on the NES is the dragon at the end of Castle Of Dragon. It's hard because long range weapon(knife) doesn't work you can't kill it with the mace either. Your only weapon is the sword and you have to get really close to slash. The pattern is very complex and he's constantly shooting big fireballs. You have to hit once and retreat to the other side of the screen. On top of that you can only hit him on the head which he does move back once in a while to avoid the hit. I only beat him once and had it recorded but I erased it later. I tried later times but failed.😭

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

Is this game fun?

@hectormontalvo5565

2 жыл бұрын

@@opaljk4835 it's an O.K. game but rather simplistic. Imagine Trojan but with a fantasy setting. Or maybe Castlevania but with a sword. I enjoyed it but it's nothing earthshaking.

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

HECTOR MONTALVO sweet. Thanks, I’ll put it on my to do list. Honestly I stopped buying games cause shit got so pricey and my backlog is not huge, but definitely enough to keep me busy…this might be worth the purchase if it’s on the reasonable side of things

@hectormontalvo5565

2 жыл бұрын

@@opaljk4835 I got out of retro collecting because of how ridiculously high the prices have gotten. I sold all my collection back in 2005 very cheap because nobody wanted the old technology. I repented years later and tried to buy it again but now prices are crazy. I sold many CIB NES for only $1 each! Now they charge $40-50 for those same games loose and with magicmarker marks! Ridiculous! If prices ever come down I'll buy more but for now I'm done.😭

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

HECTOR MONTALVO I feel your pain. I haven’t bought a game since last year, and even then i was very picky

I want to see a no hit Double Dragon run.

@Chaoktarukto

Жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/qH-Xls9yedfSgZs.html

I remember beating Mike Tyson for the first time- about 15 years ago. on a old tube tv, with my NES and cart I had growing up, while having some beers with friends. It was glorious.

Another normal , question on this channel which is good. I like the new direction this is going...

Yellow Devil, Dark Link, and Technodrome all have exploits that make them no challenge at all. Shredder also has an exploit where you can beat him by standing still and just press B whenever he comes near you. Don't we just love games where you can manipulate a boss's A.I. because of bad coding?

I only ever beat Tyson one time...years after getting the game and after witnessing my older cousin finally beating him. I set out to do it myself and somehow lucked my way into beating Tyson sometime in the early-to-mid 90s. One time...not sure I can do it now in my 40s. Still, it is my favorite game of all time.

Feels like you guys said "cheese" here more times than you would in a 30 minute discussion of pizza

The NES Max controller works as a 4 button controller. The rapid fire buttons do work as 2 button attacks for NARC

There’s a huge boss in the third or fourth level of Conquest of the Crystal Palace that’s really difficult. He keeps jumping, which is not only tough to avoid but also causes you to freeze when he hits the ground (it shakes like an earthquake), then because he’s shooting fire simultaneously, when you freeze after he shakes the ground, you just get hit by the fire. You actually have to use the blocks in the room (I believe they burn up and later respawn) to block the fire, rather than jumping on them to evade him.

Ghostbusters stairs killed me sooo much

Congrats, Pat.

For me was Dracula from Castlevania was the hardest boss I ever Tackle and The Joker too on Batman NES

Yea, I finally won.

Never understood why people thought Yellow Devil was tough. It's the exact same pattern every time. Learning the pattern is easy and then it's just avoiding getting bored the amount of time it takes to finish him off. The Mega Man 3 version at least had the variation where it moves from left to right which to this day I don't understand how to dodge without rush jet.

Needle man is easy compare to Shadow Man, try fighting him without the weapon he is weak to.

There is no cheesing Mike Tyson. You are right about that. It's all about memorizing his patterns and being able to counter his punches. I didn't think it was possible, but dudes nowadays beat Mike Tyson without getting hit. It's crazy to me.

Grew up in northern Canada with pretty poor access to game hints/guides and I pretty well beat all of these games as a kid, including Tyson, with the exception of Batman, which I beat last year using only my original cart, no cheats. I was pretty cut off from the rest of the world back then when the NES was current and I had no idea about how to cheat Dark Link in Zelda II until like last year. So, what I guess I am trying to say is that all I could do was practice over and over again - and while it is the oldest cliché ever, it does make perfect.

Most of the NES games were too difficult for me. I was 5 years old when we had a NES console. Born in 87

The topic that never got chosen! It got chosen!

Even without cheating, Shadow Link isn't that hard if you jump slash. That's also the way to take down Ironknuckles quickly.

I can beat Double Dragon on arcade, but I've never beat the NES version. My friend and I used to play 2 player Double Dragon all the time from beginning to end when we were about 11-12 years old. Then when I was 15, I went on a family vacation and found the arcade in the hotels game room. I spent $10 in quarters to beat it alone.

Festers Quest boss - Whip the center 2 pieces out and then go to the left or right side; top of your head should be just below the boss, the boss cannot hit you there. Then use the missiles. Easy.

The fight against Shadow Link in The Adventure of Link is deceptively easy if you know what to do. Ironic given that the game defines NES hard.

@RunplaysinHD

2 жыл бұрын

especially with a turbo controller

@buckeye631

2 жыл бұрын

@MY CATS COOL That kind of strategy made that series special.

Shadow link isn't hard if you master the jump duck slash maneuver.

@pigs18

2 жыл бұрын

Which hardly anyone did. None of these are particularly hard if you master the nearly impossible combo.

For some time I had a pretty hard time beating Crash Man in Mega Man 2.

Oh Lord Double Dragon

I learned the pattern to Yellow Devil like 20 years ago and I still sometimes win first try without taking a hit so the fight really stuck with me. However, without previous knowledge, going in cold turkey, I'd be absolutely wiped out.

Castlevania 3 is all about manipulation. Moving to avoid the flame, knowing when to get under the flying head, and then riding the platforms and manipulating the beams.

Hard bosses I've faced in more obscure NES games, Hades in Battle of Olympus (very much like Dark Link). Ice foot in Snake Rattle n Roll. And the final dragon on Dragons Lair

Jesus... That damn Machine Gun boss in Double Dragon! I regularly speedrun that game but I have STILL yet to figure out a way to beat that guy consistently, so he kills a lot of my runs! I need to just look up how to properly do it I guess. The TRUE final boss aka your brother is actually a cakewalk & no problem at all. It's just a matter of getting to him aka beating the damn machine gun guy....

TMNT - Technodrome can be cheesed. Move forward, kneel under the lightning, go all the way to the right. STAY ON THE GROUND!!! Using Don, destroy the right gun, but never jump until it is destroyed. The lone foot soldier will stand there and do nothing. Then jump and destroy the other gun. Then attack the eye while doing tap jumps. You will never get hit.

Pat the Magician in Castlevania is named Sypha and its a woman. Great video 😊

The 4 final bosses on street fighter 2010! I think AVGN could attest to that ! Lol

Willie is not the boss in Double Dragon, and he is vulnerable to the hair-pull kick. The boss is your twin, and he has all your moves.

So much cheese this episode... I love cheese. I beat most of these bosses before high-school. I beat Mike Tyson, but used the password to get there. I used to have a piece of tape with the pw on it on my Nes lid. I was powered by Mac n Cheese and Kool-aid growing up, so I guess I cheesed a little.

I haven't played any of these but these all sound balls hard and I'm not sure I could do any them

MGW is tough on Arcade, doable on NES. Spam jump kicks

In my entire life I've only made it to Tyson once and NEVER beat him .

my dad beat Tyson and I was shocked I was like 11 at the time

I have the damage pulled for some of the pro Wrestlers. Machine gun Willie. Just line yourself up on the bottom line before you fall off. You can attack him anywhere on this line and he can’t hit you

Ninja Gaiden Jaquio - stay on the ground run to the right, avoid the flames, jump on pedestal, attack and back to the ground. Repeat. This is a tough one still

I never thought the jackel boss to be hard. Its only hard with grenades cause they take to travel thus making the battle much harder and slower. My brother and I at the age of 8 and 6 spent all summer beating it. Also i can beat it by myself. With two players you can split between units spawning in and one on the building. We got it as kids to beat it without continuing. One would take grenades and the other would have the missle cause the nades can go over barriers.

Well you CAN beat Mike Tyson on an LCD TV, you just need to have it on Game Mode & have one with a good response time. Anything less than 16ms or less than a frame is fine, but you also HAVE to be using either an FPGA based solution via HDMI or be using OG hardware with a premium upscaler such as the RetroTINK or OSSC. Otherwise if you're trying to do so on an Emuator or via Composite on an LCD, yeah, best of luck lol. The input lag is gonna make it nigh impossible.

Also beat The Great Puma w/ Star Man. He was the best character in that game.

The thing about Jackal was that the last boss was really hard if you didn't do good during the rest of the game until you got there.

When I was a kid I thought Tyson wasn’t too bad but now I can’t beat him at all.

Had a feeling tyson would be number one. He's in my top 10 for sure. Only have beaten him with GG or save states.

Imo the train boss is even harder than the final boss in Bucky . The final bosses of Silkworm, Dragon's lair and Cobra Triangle must have been the hardest boss fights for me

Why isnt Bloody Malth in the thumbnail? That was the bar for the kids of my time. Id say hes thumbnail worthy. Also the boss from.street fighter 2010 at the end was a pain and the level leading up.to.him needs a flawless run. Once you got the run up.sorted you were usually ready to win the fight

TBH I find Thunderbird infinitely harder than Shadow Link.

Well as far as some of the hardest bosses that I have gotten through were the 2 bosses in the final 2 stages of Double Dragon 3. The key with the Joker fight is that you have to keep going after him punching him as many times as you can very quickly or use the Batterrangs. Yeah that Mega Man 1 boss is a bitch I remember my cousin going through that game he had trouble against him. Yeah the Technodrome in TMNT is a huge pain in the ass. Even getting to it is a marathon in of it self. Yeah even inside of the bloody thing was difficult. Yeah Jaquio in Ninja Gaiden is a giant pain.

@NESADDICT

2 жыл бұрын

Yea I use the batarangs on batman

@osurpless

2 жыл бұрын

And the funny thing about coding as mentioned in another comment is that the Joker is the rare example of post-hit invincibility affecting the enemies (rather than the player). As this is why throwing rapid punches or batarangs when right next to Joker works, because he can then run through you without doing any damage. Keep it up in the same manner, and that’s the key to the easier way to defeat him.

The only time Needle Man was a difficult boss from what I recall was when someone was doing a "no hit" run through all the Mega Man games with just the Mega Buster. The number of tries they had to do before finally beating Needle Man was a lot.

@officialFredDurstfanclub

Жыл бұрын

Yeah Needle Man ain’t hard at all. Fire Man on the other hand is fucking brutal

@JHaras

7 ай бұрын

@@officialFredDurstfanclubWhen I was a kid, I beat Fire Man ONE time. Only problem: You still had to collect the Orb, and his last shot killed me before I could do that ☹️. I didn’t really get around to utilising the power-ups back then, I was too economical.

The boss before that in buckyohare is way harder. I mean if u game over with full life then you have to restart the level because it’s impossible with no power ups

I got Fester's Quest as a kid once with my birthday money. There is no reason that game is as bad as it is.

If memory serves you can easily defeat the machine gun guy in the NES version of double dragon by forcing him off the side of the screen and spamming a kick & knee to the head combo. To defeat Jimmy, keep hitting him with the back elbow strike as he tries to get up.

@Turnabout

2 жыл бұрын

I always beat him by zagging this direction \ into the foreground and waiting for him to come to me. Before Jimmy makes it onto your plane, start throwing kicks. You can easily spam the kick to knee-kick/throw grapple over and over again against him.

I’ve watched my friend beat ninja turtles countless times . He has a pattern he uses every time and he beats the game every time . I can’t beat it sadly .

I also like watching younger people do mike tyson for the first time now adays because if they are familiar with the game they probably are through speed runs and people doing it blind folded etc. So, they come in thinking it's not gonna be that hard and then he kicks their ass in round one.

Would have preferred to watch Pat play this

I never understood why so many people cry about shadow link being hard. Beat him as a kid with a simple crouch, jump, head jab pattern. Never even knew of the corner crouching until AVGN.

I had the rerelease with Mr. Dream. Same game but just a different head. Never beat it.

Funnily enough the only boss on this list I ever beat was Mike Tyson, but boy oh boy, did it take practice.

King Slender back breaker all day baby!!! Pumas a piece of cake💯💯💯

Joker on Batman 1 and 2…return of the joker can be challenging.

Needleman was a pain to deal with but once you figure out his attack pattern, he is easy to defeat.

@opaljk4835

2 жыл бұрын

I feel like there aren’t many mega man robot master bosses that aren’t manageable. Some are more tricky than others, but they literally give you the tools to render them useless. There are definitely some harder fights in the MM series

I hated the end bosses of Blaster Master. It’s not that they were impossible, but the game’s continue system meant that you really had to be perfect and you only basically had one shot.

Battle toads, the entire game, is the hardest boss fight.

this should be called "Hardest boss fights from the most popular nes games", because there are hundreds of japanese obscure games in which you won't beat even the 1st level

@AustinSincrow

2 жыл бұрын

…such as?

@RunplaysinHD

2 жыл бұрын

@@AustinSincrow Try for example Holy Diver, its much harder than any game from this list, even Battletoads is much easier. To beat it, you need to train for about a month

I have beaten Mike Tyson in the past on my original NES but I stand no chance against Mr dream on the NES classic. There's just enough latency on that plug and play device to make it virtually impossible to beat him

Needleman? They must be joking, I routinely start with him when I play through Mega Man 3 and beat him with the regular old buster. His pattern is simple and dodging his attacks isn't difficult. Plus even if you have trouble, there's an E tank in his stage you can pick up to help out. Otherwise, yeah, if you wait until later the Gemini Laser murders him quick.

@lindyxmjh4589

2 жыл бұрын

@dbnydnvn I've never usually have trouble with Snake Man, but then I usually face him after I beat Needle Man and have the needle weapon that can beat him quickly. Quick Man especially without using the Time Stopper can be very very hard, though.

The ninja gaiden final bosses were tough because it was multiple of stages or new forms

@relaxandcalmstation

Жыл бұрын

Couldn’t ever make it to them ….. I couldn’t make it past level 6

judge doom you can nail him w cigars to help lower his health

I think Death in the original Castlevania was a lot tougher than Dracula in Castlevania III. But that's just me I guess.

cant think anything was worse than ninja gaiden

I have never beaten Shadow Link without the cheese. Just seemed luck based otherwise.

i beat cs3 with just belmont, mage does make it easier. Tyson is nails. But he can be beat. first 2 times i beat him by decision, then finally went back to it n ko'd him.

King Kang Karn. That was how I beat Great Puma.

I think the last boss from Guerilla War was way harder than Jackyl.