Boss fights. You love them, you hate them, but are they necessary? Maybe for an RPG or action game, but what about a platformer? Read on as we discuss what boss fights are, what platforming games are, and if the latter needs the former.
Do Platforming Games Need Boss Fights?
There’s no better metric of your learned skills and progression within a game than a big ol’ hulking pile of hit points to sink your skills into. And while I like a puzzle as much as the next guy, there’s nothing quite like a massive boss monster to fell before I head out on another adventure.
It’s this universal familiarity with the concept of video game bosses that makes people think that every game needs one when, in fact, not all of them do. Case in point: platforming games. I’m sure you’ve noticed that a lot of platformers nowadays — heck, even then — have boss fights to cap off each "world" or "stage", as it were.
And while they’re usually decent, they’re often the weakest aspect of the platforming experience, feeling shoehorned in at best and downright awful at worst. But why is that? What about the concept of a boss fight is fundamentally incompatible with platformers? Well, we’re here to discuss exactly that. Follow me as I go through the design principles of platformers, boss fights, and why they aren’t always the best fit together.
The Principles of Designing a Platformer
Pretty much every gamer knows what a platformer is even if they’ve never played one. It’s a very ubiquitous sub-genre of Action games that defines itself well with its mechanics and simplistic game design. It’s a very real case of "you’ll know it when you see it" because floating platforms and oddly terraced terrain don’t usually occur in real life.
The sub-genre also has well-defined elements — four, in fact — that pretty much make it hard to misconstrue, namely: The Player, Level, Camera, and Goal.
The Player
"The Player" is a representation of your position on the screen. This is often represented by a character and sometimes a host to a slew of abilities like jumps, dashes, and the like. To keep it simple, this is what Mario, Shantae, or Shovel Knight are, although other characters like Hollow Knight, Super Meat Boy, and Crash Bandicoot could also be considered.
The Level
Next, we have "The Level", or the area that The Player traverses. I’d say this is the most important part of a platformer because it’s the defining feature of the sub-genre. The character needn’t always be special, but a good platformer has levels or environments that are both complex and challenging because that’s where the skill aspect — and thus, the fun — of the game comes into play. Platforming is simply getting from Point A to Point B, but it’s what happens between those two points that can make or break a platformer. Keep that in mind moving forward, it will come up often.
The Camera
Thirdly, we have "The Camera", which defines the player’s POV of the level and character. This is also important because it determines what dimensions you can travel to reach the end goal, with some types of POV having more options than others. There are simple 2D sidescrollers like Super Mario and Sonic, but we also have 3D platformers who offer an entirely new dimension of travel. Then there are the experimental ones like Superliminal and Viewfinder, which use the camera’s limited POV itself as a tool to move through space.
The Goal
Lastly, we have "The Goal", which may seem cut and dry, but it’s far more complex than one would expect. The goal of a platformer is to use the tools you are given — which may include The Player’s Skills, The Level’s design, and The Camera’s POV — and reach a point on the screen. Note that it matters greatly what happens between the start and the end because, more often than not, the journey matters more than the destination.
What Makes Platformers Fun
The variety and challenge of a platformer can be found in the creative and purposeful implementation of the above-mentioned design elements. Note that common game design elements that are usually associated with boss fights (health, skills, minions, equipment, super attacks) are not among those mentioned. That’s because … well… they aren’t meant for platformers, at least not traditionally. They aren’t effective in highlighting what makes the game fun (at least when not done well), and they usually stand by themselves, alone at the end of the game with nothing else supporting them.
Even a good platformer boss fight wouldn’t and shouldn’t be its game’s defining characteristic because that’s simply not the sub-genre’s allure. By the time you reach the end, the best part’s over because you’ve conquered it. But enough about platformers, what is it about bosses that make them incompatible with the sub-genre?
What is a Boss Fight For?
It’s a test. I know, shocking, but that’s essentially what boss fights are. They exist to see how well you’ve learned the game’s mechanics and how much you’ve grown in skill compared to when you first started. While some bosses exist as their own characters and set-pieces, you’d hardly find such a boss in a platformer, where the story is usually secondary to the level and backgrounds do nothing more than decorate.
What’s the use of a large, end-game menace to test your skill when you’ve been testing your skill on the way here? End-game bosses often feel tacked on and underwhelming because they often pose less of a challenge than the levels you suffered through on the way there. Take Dr. Robotnik and Bowser for example. Both were end-game bosses for classic platformers and both were pretty much defeated in one to two moves, the way to their boss arena proving to be a greater challenge than they were.
This touches on the fundamental problem with boss fights and why it doesn’t work well with platformers: it shouldn’t be about the boss. Yep, cool as they are, the level should matter more than the "boss" because that’s the focus of the game and the focus of your skillset. It’s what you’ve been learning so far, and so, it’s what you can apply it to.
The final test in a platformer should be a difficult and rewarding level that will force you to use everything you’ve learned so far. A boss character could be involved to up the ante and even cover some of the skills to be tested, but they shouldn’t be the focus. Particularly well-designed platformer boss fights would marry the two ideas and make the boss the level itself, which is a creative way to go about it.
Ultimately, it’s a matter of misdirected focus. There’s a time and place for inwardly complex and grandiose boss fights that go over the boss as a character — platformers are not the time nor place for one.
Good and Bad Examples of Boss Fights in Platformers
That’s not to say that there are no good boss fights in any platformer, far from it. It’s just that incorporating a boss fight into a platformer could pose a bigger problem than previously thought. In addition to creating the boss and knowing how they challenge the player, both factors must be recontextualized for the platformer’s mechanics. Here are a few examples of boss fights in platformers and what makes them good or bad:
Big Slugger (Super Meat Boy Forever)
This one’s a good example of turning the boss into a level. Big Slugger is a hectic fight where you need to time your jumps and slides right to hit buttons strategically positioned around its body. Buttons aren’t always readily accessible, however, and you’re going to have to bait a few attacks to expose them. It’s just a platforming level, but this time it’s out to get you instead of being a passive obstacle between Points A and B.
Bowser (Super Mario Oddysey)
Despite being a modern title and a great game overall, Bowser’s last appearance in Super Mario Oddysey as its endgame boss left much to be desired. Not only was it a slow affair that barely used any skilled platforming, but it also refrained from using the game’s Capture ability — a staple for every other level’s game design that was left out of the final battle.
King Ka-Thunk (Super Mario 3D World)
Another hit for Mario fans comes with King Ka-Thunk (or really most of the bosses in this game, save the last). It’s the same issue as the other one in that it frames the fight as a platformer but doesn’t utilize any of the game’s unique mechanics like the Super Bell. Serviceable, but overall a glorified level.
The Devil (Cuphead)
The Devil’s in the details and, boy, is it detailed. Cuphead is a platformer shooter that requires serious precision and platforming skills to play. No other boss in the game tests your skill more than the final fight against The Devil, which is an extended, three-part platforming brawl that’ll have you raging in no time flat. The Devil himself morphs and manifests the level randomly, keeping you on edge and forcing you to use every trick in the book to win.
Six (Little Nightmares 2)
Storytelling in a platformer boss fight? How absurd! Yet here it is, the conclusion of your journey with your friend Six, framed as a harrowing escape from a crumbling building. The encounter itself is less of a fight and more of a tactical battle against your disfigured friend. You utilize distractions, platforming, and stealth mechanics to your advantage, allowing you to destroy the music box and escape.
So What’s the Final Verdict?
No, Not Really
Platformers could benefit from a well-designed boss fight but they really don’t need them. Again, the fun of a platformer lies in the levels, the characters, and the interactions between them. Boss fights are good, especially if it's an action-platformer, but shoehorning one into a game without rhyme, reason, or heed toward basic platformer design could only lead to the game’s detriment.
One could design a perfectly good platformer without a boss in sight. In fact, people have! Limbo and Inside are both great platformer games that don’t have bosses in the traditional sense, or in any sense for that matter. Your goal is to solve puzzles and platformer your way into or out of a situation using what the world provides. Both serve as an amazing testament to the notion that bosses are cool, but not every game needs one.
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