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[AshfordPride]

I want to make sort of compilation of all these kinds of bosses.  It's something that I've only just noticed now, but they seem to be extremely common in almost every main Nintendo series!  Even odder, it seems like Nintendo only puts about one of them in their games per year.

Donkey Kong - Gameboy - 1994





Kirby Superstar - SNES - 1995





Super Mario 64 - N64 - 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4se1Yz-sL8


Star Fox 64 - N64 - 1997
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnOe2OqwCGA


The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - N64 - 1998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap0io293r8E


Super Smash Bros - N64 - 1999
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAG3AHuIceI&feature=related


Warioland 3 - Gameboy - 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9In9ni5n5M


Super Smash Bros. Melee - Gamecube - 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRE2b2S6n9s


The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Gamecube - 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGfm-KUUaxk



I'm trying to think of more.  I hear there's a boss in the new Donkey Kong game like this.  That's what inspired this all.  Now I've uncovered the goddamn Da Vinci Code.

[Gorgoo]

I always thought that it was a pretty common thing in video games. It seems to be more common in 2D ones outside of Nintendo, but off the top of my head, the Mega Man Zero series has at least 2 bosses like that (though okay, they were on a Nintendo system), and the final boss in Sonic 3 & Knuckles is like that in its first phase.

But it does seem to be a more common thing in 3D when Nintendo's involved (at least if the Master Hands count). I wonder if that's done as a reference to old games, or if it just turns out that way.

[phubans]

That's funny... The final boss of the first GM game I ever made & finished was a floating head with hands o_O

Spoiler:

It's me.

If you don't mind playing a pretty generic top-down-shooter-maze-game that's a HUGE download (12 MB!) then please give it a shot... I don't think (m)any people played this game, so I'd love to hear impressions!



Yes, I was very high when I made this game.

EDIT: The game is worth downloading for the readme.txt alone...  

EDIT 2: DAMMIT! The game won't run on this computer because it tries to push the screen res to 320 x 240, which my monitor won't even support I thought I'd give it a go for old time's sake

[Dustin Smith]

Actually, in the first Wario Land for GB there's a floating head & hand combo boss. I can't recall the actual level and I'm too lazy/buzzed to get the exact details, but I do recall that the boss also shucked boogers from his nose.

[DET. Defective]

This thread has a significant lack of

. D:



(You can get away with this as a technicality, it was released in 1993 for Japan. )

[Nitromatic]

But I like these kind of bosses. They're always so epic. (also giant laser beam bosses xD)

[Draknek]

There's more of these in the 2D Zelda games as well.

[___]

Didn't Contra have a few of these?  I think at least the Super Nintendo one did...

[tesselode]

Isn't Kirby basically a floating head?

[Tumetsu]

Zelda Oracle of Seasons final boss Onox's dragon form's hands and head are only solid things in battle, other body being in the background. Also, if my memory serves me right, ORacle of Ages eight dungeon's boss was somekind stone monster with head and hands.

[SirNiko]

Sigma from Megaman X did this.

Yeah, Nintendo does seem to do this a lot now that you mention it! Not that it is a bad thing.

I am sure with a little digging, though, we can come up with plenty of non-nintendo examples.

[droqen]

I recall something from Chrono Trigger, right at the beginning, with a floating head and hands. Not a boss. A guy in a circus tent.

Also, what about Rayman? Kirby definitely has his head firmly attached to his arms but Rayman is one floaty-head-hand bastard.

(again, not a boss)

[MaloEspada]

I recall something from Chrono Trigger, right at the beginning, with a floating head and hands. Not a boss. A guy in a circus tent.

not only that, but Chrono Trigger also has 2 or 3 bosses that are HEAD + ARMS (Giga Gaia and Lavos 2)

[Alevice]

I recall something from Chrono Trigger, right at the beginning, with a floating head and hands. Not a boss. A guy in a circus tent.

Also, what about Rayman? Kirby definitely has his head firmly attached to his arms but Rayman is one floaty-head-hand bastard.

(again, not a boss)

Plok was the father of them all.

[AshfordPride]

You can get away with this as a technicality, it was released in 1993 for Japan. )

This is interesting, because I'm really trying to find the earliest example of this kind of boss in video games.  I kind of figured it was a Nintendo invention, considering it's prevalence, but perhaps not! 

[Kren]

i beleive they do this because animating h ead and hands are easier than animating a whole body >_<.

[SirNiko]

But that's not the point here - what is the first video game to have done this?

Illusion of Gaia was released Nov of 1993, and Megaman X was Dec of 1993, so those are currently the front runners.

Sonic 2 had Final Boss robotnic that had arms animated separately from his body, and that's Nov 1992. Does that maybe beat out the others?

There's gotta be an NES game that's done this.

[TheLastBanana]

This doesn't quite beat Illusion of Gaia in terms of release date, but these were both in Sonic & Knuckles:






Technically, Sonic & Knuckles came out after Donkey Kong, but it was developed alongside Sonic 3, which came out before it, so it was probably designed at around the same time. It might not be an entirely Nintendo invention
I agree with Kren though, this kind of thing was simply easier to animate and took way less processing power than a huge, animated sprite.

Also, SirNiko, I'd argue that Sonic 2's final boss was supposed to be more or less attached, aside from the fact that the fists detached as rockets. Outside of that, it was one big robot.

[Zaphos]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GiantHandsOfDoom

^ they don't list dates but maybe Zoda from Star Tropics counts / is earlier?  Never played it so I'm not sure.

[s0]

Startropics came out in 1990, so that qualifies. It's a great game BTW, if you like Zelda, play it.