Top 5 Favourite Metal Gear Solid Bosses

Top 5 Favourite Metal Gear Solid Bosses

My original idea for a post today was to do a top 10 favourite video game boss battles. I started listing off bosses and realised most of them came from just two game series, one of those series of course being Metal Gear Solid. So here’s my top 5 (Sort of) and bare in mind there will be spoilers.

 

5. The End / Crying Wolf

Okay before pressing the cross in the top right of the screen to close this page hear me out. Technically speaking The End is probably the best boss fight on this list and while the two are similar basically a more vast and difficult version of Crying Wolf. You’re probably thinking “It’s just because you can’t do it”. Honestly … you are completely right. I suck so much at The End boss fight it is so incredibly frustrating. Crying Wolf always seemed like a dumbed down version and that’s why I like it, because I can do it.

 

That’s not to say Crying Wolf isn’t a good boss fight in its own right. The nostalgia it pulls on you is great and the snowy and decently sized battle ground makes an excellent location for a sniper duel. You are required to enforce your stealth skills to the max for the fight with the roaming soldiers and the Crying Wolf herself and like the rest of the Beauty and the Beast units the fight ends on quite a sombre note putting a tragic and mentally destroyed women out of her misery. Even if I didn’t suck at The End and put it higher I would still include Crying Wolf.

 

The End is a masterfully crafted Boss Fight. Many consider it one of if not the best Boss fight of all time and I completely understand why. The vastness and varied nature of the jungle you fight in is a fantastic setting, the End himself is an intriguing yet creepy character who remains mysterious to us and the battle itself for someone who can actually do it takes tactics, intelligence and all you’re survival instincts in a raw and intense experience that can feel like the ultimate game of cat and mouse. It is so incredibly satisfying to sneak up on him and point a gun at him and even things like ways of missing the fight through leaving the game or shooting him outside a warehouse are ingenious editions to make the game feel so much more real. I appreciate and respect this boss fight a whole lot, I just hate it because I can’t do it properly.

 

4. Metal Gear Ray

What do you do when you’re series have awesome futuristic walking tank / robot type things in your game series? Make them fight of course and what better way to do it than after a daring and thrilling escape from a crumbling facility. This is probably the most explosive and action packed battle in the entire series but that is certainly not a bad thing.

 

Not many things in general can appeal to my inner child quite like this boss fight. I love deep and intelligent storytelling along with symbolism and metaphor but that doesn’t mean that I can deny that giant robots are awesome. It felt like something out of a Godzilla movie, especially with the height and size of the structures. The weaponry feel immensely satisfying to use and the battle has an epic and grand feel to it in terms of attacking power and significance.

 

Honestly there’s not that much to say about this one. I just feel that joyous and giddy feeling inside because I was fighting a cool giant robot inside another giant robot. It’s a similar feeling I had to watching Pacific Rim or like watching Robot Wars back in the day. Entertaining and awesome, the best way to describe fighting Metal Gear Ray.

 

3. Psycho Mantis

This fight sure is infamous. Perhaps one of the most unique gaming boss fights in gaming history, we all know how this fight works. Metal Gear has never been afraid to break the fourth wall and this battle emphasises this point to the full. Switch the controller into the second port, what an amazing idea. I can’t imagine how great it would’ve felt to figure that out when the game first came out.

 

Him vibrating the controller and reading your memory card was also a brilliant piece of bizarre Metal Gear humour and this fight was full of bizarre personality. This fight is great for it’s being unique and incredibly clever. It’s so off the wall when you compare it to your standard boss fight, I really enjoy boss fights that you defeat with your brain and not brawn and this does this perfectly.

 

Psycho Mantis is such a fantastic moment to play through, I’m the kind of guy who loves clever and interesting atmosphere and personality to a boss battle and Psycho Mantis has it in abundance. I have no complaints for this at all, the only thing stopping it from being higher up isn’t even a criticism of the game, it is in fact that I played Metal Gear Solid 1 years after it had been released and because of the years each game came out it was in fact the last of the four original Metal Gear Solid games I managed to play. I already knew about Psycho Mantis when I played MGS 1 and while it did blow my mind I can’t begin to imagine how much it would’ve blew my mind when the game came out. This takes away nothing however, Psycho Mantis was a spellbinding experience and one of the most innovative things I have ever done in a video game.

 

2. The Boss

The word emotion is throw around a lot. Here it couldn’t be more appropriate, throughout Snake Eater we go through Snake’s journey, we feel the confliction about having to kill his mentor and friend. The connection between them is more than just a romance thing, they’re buddies, friends, and comrades. They’ve been through a lot together and Snake would’ve trusted the Boss with anything and here he is fighting her in a fight to the death.

 

This battle is full of touches that make is magnificent. The white flowers and the silence at first really highlight the difficulty in what Snake has to do. The lack of music says so much in its ambience and atmosphere is such an emotional journey to go though. You then get the kick ass Snake Eater song playing out in the background and the intensity of the battle really shines through and only receiving 10 minutes before you’re bombed to hell adds a new level of urgency to the fight.

 

I’ve been talking about this fight like it’s a cut scene, this fight in terms of gameplay is excellent. It puts all your CQC skills to the test against probably the toughest opponent in such a battle you could probably ever be pitted against. You can’t simply overpower her with weapons she’s too good for that and I love how you need to have mastered the superb CQC controls to take her down. It’s true what she says, there is only room for one Boss and it makes you feel like you have surpassed her when you finally defeat her. Then they makes you press the button to fire the final show and that killed me, it was such an emotional and tragic moment to have to be the one to fire that bullet from her gun, especially if you go through the whole game without killing anyone as you still have to kill the one you’d like to least. The battle is so fitting for such an incredible game and really it doesn’t get much better … only very slightly better.

 

1. Metal Gear Solid 4’s final Boss fight

Forget favourite Metal Gear boss fight, this is my favourite boss fight period. I have no idea how to put how much I love this battle into words but I’m going to give it a go. I talked about emotion in this post. This battle gives you that emotion more than any other I’ve experienced. As the final event in the Metal Gear Solid events with everything with the patriots over there’s one thing left to settle. A great rivalry between two men who despite their fights have the greatest f respect for each other.

 

First things first I really enjoyed the gameplay here. It’s simple but that’s the point. Neither have weapons other than their own bodies and all the fancy gadgets have been thrown out the window. This is a bare knuckle battle to the death between two rivals who are on the brink of death. There’s nothing left to do but have this one last fight, that moment where liquid injects Snake with the nano machines for me was a huge moment, it signified the beginning of the end.

 

The fight itself is so atmospheric. Things like the health bars that change thought the health bars from previous games and the previous sound tracks playing created an extremely fitting and incredible experience. This for me was the ultimate closure of the characters involved, especially Ocelot who gradual retains control as the fight goes on until eventually as Snake Eater starts playing he does his signature little salute thing and settles the one final score. Talking about this makes me want to go and play Metal Gear Solid 4 again, it’s so hard to talk about it without wanting to gush a bunch of incomprehensible words.

 

I wanted to applaud when this fight was over, that’s how much it impressed me. What this fight did was stir the emotions can be described as truly epic. It took something truly special to end the Metal Gear saga and this boss fight certainly did that.

 

Time for a little self-promotion so I’d understand completely if you don’t want to read although I would appreciate it massively if you did. I’ve had a bit of a spike of views lately and far more than I ever thought I’d get, I figured I’d be getting like 3 view a post, one from me and 2 from my parents. In all seriousness it makes me feel great that people out there I have never met actually enjoy reading some of my posts. I would love a little feedback on the blog both on the quality of the blog (Constructive criticism is welcome) as well as what people would like to see on the Blog.

 

Finally I’d like to say that next week I’ll do my Top 5 favourite boss fights from another game that has incredible boss fights. Meanwhile did you agree with my list? If you enjoyed this click one on the sharing / social media type buttons below.