What is a boss fight?

Big Core boss from Gradius II

Bosses are extra tough enemies that turn up key points during a game, usually at the end of a level (hence why they are sometimes called 'end of level guardians') or sometimes half-way (known as 'mid-level bosses' or 'sub-bosses').  They are usually big, have incredibly powerful weapons, lots of health or armour and use cheap tactics to dispense of the player.
Traditionally bosses have one or more weak spots that you must exploit in order to defeat them. It's this weak spot that lead to one of the most famous phrases in arcade games, "Shoot the core!" It first appeared in Konami's classic Gradius II and was an instruction to the player on how to defeat a boss with a weak central core (pictured above-right).

There is some debate as to which was the first arcade game to introduce the concept of bosses. Some argue it was command ships in Namco's Galaxian (1979), some would cite the UFO in Atari's Asteroids (1979), while others say it was the motherships in Taito's Space Invaders (1978). However, none of these enemies really fit the description of a boss, as none of them were at the end of a level and none of them were particularly tough to beat.

Were any of these the first boss?

For a the first "typical boss" we need to look at three games by three different manufacturers that were all released in 1980. They were the samurai master from Sega's Samurai, the ninja from SNK's Sasuke vs Commander, and, perhaps most famous of all, the mothership from Taito's Phoenix.

To be honest, all you need to survive most boss encounters is the ability to learn their attack and defend patterns. Nonetheless, there's something empowering about facing down an enemy who, on paper, is completely out of your league. When people think about old games, you can guarantee they will mention at least one memorable boss. They almost define the game itself.

MTW