5 Fighting-Game Bosses Cheaper Than SF4's Seth

Editor's note: Street Fighter 4 boss Seth handed my ass to me numerous times until I finally beat him, so I can't imagine how frustrating it would be going up against some of these even tougher fighting-game bosses. -Brett

Seth

If you think Street Fighter 4’s Seth is a cheap final boss, you need to play more fighting games. In fact, Seth is pathetic compared to these overpowered bosses from yesteryear. Cower in fear, scrubs.

Seth Complaint: “Waa! Why can’t we fight M. Bison instead?”
Cheaper Boss: M. Bison - Street Fighter Alpha 3

M. Bison

People who complain about Seth forget how hard M. Bison was in earlier Street Fighter games. For the worst incarnation of the dictator, check out Street Fighter Alpha 3. Not only does Bison get a health and damage boost, but he also has the Psycho Drive Crusher, a full-screen Super move that knocks off 70 percent of your health in an instant.

To compare: If you mess up in Street Fighter 4 and Seth hits you with his Ultra Combo, you’ll lose a third of health at most. If you mess up against M. Bison in Alpha 3, you’ll die.

Seth Complaint: “Waa! Seth won't let me hit him!”
Cheaper Boss: Geese Howard - Fatal Fury series

Geese

Geese’s backstory as a murderous kingpin has shades of M. Bison's tale, but their fighting styles are completely different. While M. Bison drowns opponents in relentless offense, Geese breaks foes with impenetrable defense.

Even if you get past his Reppuken projectiles, landing a hit isn’t guaranteed thanks to the computer's preternatural ability to counterattack. The variety of Seth's counterattacks can be annoying in Street Figher 4, but watching Fatal Fury's Geese stain his hands with your blood after you're certain you landed a clean hit is frustrating beyond belief.

Seth Complaint: “Waa! Seth is overpowered!”
Cheaper Boss: Rugal Bernstein - King of Fighters series

If this was an honest list of cheapest bosses, they would all be from developer SNK. The company is infamous for all-but-omnipotent bosses. Rugal Bernstein isn't the flashiest King of Fighters boss, but all others follow his blueprint. He's impossible to fight far away due to his projectiles and reflector shield, he has fast normal attacks with great reach, and his Genocide Cutter anti-air move slices through your offense.

If you understand how the AI works in Street Fighter 4, you can play Seth like a puppet on a string. SNK bosses are not like that. You play by their rules, and if you’re lucky you’ll take out a third of their life before they kill you.

Seth Complaint: “Waa! I shouldn’t have to be an expert to beat Seth!”
Cheaper Boss: Jinpachi Mishima - Tekken 5

Jinpachi

Tekken bosses come in two flavors: Heihachi Mishima or rejects from a role-playing game. Jinpachi combines both flavors into one frustrating fight.

Developer Namco designed Jinpachi to rob quarters from people who can’t dodge and who don’t know what a juggle is. In other words, he’s designed for people who can’t play Tekken. He possesses an unblockable fireball that takes out half your lifebar, along with teleports, stun thrusts, and a bear hug that gives him many ways to punish button-mashing. You may as well put your quarters in an envelope and mail them straight to Namco.

Seth Complaint: “Waa! Why can’t Seth be fair like other bosses?”
Cheaper Boss: Psycho Gundam - Gundam: Battle Assault

Even console-only anime games feature more difficult bosses than Seth. Mostly these fights are artificially harder due to longer lifebars and shallow game engines, but the Gundam: Battle Assault games on PS1 do it right by having not one but several bosses harder than Seth.

The towering Psycho Gundam epitomizes these villains. This mobile suit is as large as the screen, takes an obscene amount of damage, and plows through your attacks with super armor.

Not enough? One Hard Kick does 70 percent damage. Yes, one kick hurts more than any SF4 Ultra Combo. So while it's true that Seth is strong, don’t forget there are many guys like him -- or worse -- all over the world.

I took on the classic list article for Michael Rousseau's Pressing Issue writing challenge. My situation was that my employer was working on a strategy guide on Seth, the final boss of the Street Fighter 4 series. To finish off the guide, he wanted me to write a 500-600 word article about five bosses that are harder to beat than Seth. My article was due on July 26th.

Tags: Street Fighter 4, King of Fighters, Tekken 5, fatal fury, Gundam: Battle Assault, Bitmob Writing Challenge

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Daniel Feit

July 24, 2010

If we're talking cheap bosses, Dio from World Heroes 2 needs to be name-dropped. In my entire lifetime I beat him once. ONCE.

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Rob Savillo

July 25, 2010

Flamelurker and King Allant from Demon's Souls rank up high, as does Castlevania's Grim Reaper and Ninja Gaiden's final boss (Jaquio/Jashin), but one of the most frustrating for me was Scarlet from Silent Hill: Homecoming. She's such a difficult fight, compounded by the horrible combat controls.

David Welsh

July 26, 2010

I wasted three hours of an afternoon trying to beat Rugal in KoF '94...I gave up.

James DeRosa

Justice from the original Guilty Gear was super cheap. I remember you had to beat the whole game without continuing using Sol in order to unlock the secret character Baiken. I nearly broke a controller doing that, and it was solely because of Justice.

Jason Wilson

I don't understand how these bosses are "cheap" if you pay full price for the game. Aren't you always complaining about game prices? OR do you mean that these bosses are programmed to take advantage of exploits and give the player the ultimate challenge in the game?

@Jason In fighting games, the programmers often don't bother to make the computer smarter. Instead, they just have the game read your inputs and block everything you do (the computer can react to what you dial in THAT quickly). Also, Jinpachi was irritating because Tekken isn't really a game with projectiles, and for some reaons they decded to make Jinpachi shoot a hard-to-dodge, unblockable fireball out of his stomach. That's what I consider "cheap." (I think "cheap" is being used colloquially here.)

Daryl Bunao

A couple fighting game bosses that I consider really busted are Onslaught from MvC1, Gill from Third Strike and just about any KOF boss after '98.

Chris Hoadley

Thanks for the front page post. Kudos goes to Michael Rousseau for giving me the assignment.

@Daryl Whittling down this list was a bit tough, though I never considered Onslaught being cheap. It's been a LONG time since I played MVC1 though, so it might be the fact that Abyss and Yami are fairly easy that I didn't consider Vs. series bosses for this list.

john Tanny

July 27, 2010

I remember some SNK bosses being ridiculously hard to beat.

Gill from SF3 wasn't a push over either.

Luke McKinney

I'll still support Bison over Seth any day of the week - at least he kicks your ass with his own moves, and even on the scale of "Stupid SF Bosses Who Aren't Seth," he's no Gill either.

Sandy Morley

Oh Lord, Geese Howard. When my 360 broke I whipped out the megadrive. The first game I played was one of the Shinobi's, and the second was Fatal Fury. By the time I'd had my ass handed to me on Canon Fodder, I was absolutely convinced that gamers don't need as much skill these days.

Then I got my 360 back and played MW2. I can't tell if I was right or I suck.

Gabriel Hernandez

I believe Azazel from Tekken 6 to be even cheaper than Jinpachi. The first time I faced him, I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. The character is an exercise in quarter-eating absurdity, with some incredibly cheap precognitive combat prowess when his health is low.