Tchernobog, Molov, The Vorsoth Guardian, Makron, General Mohc, The Spider Demon... they all have one thing in common. I utterly and unconditionally despise them for ever making an appearance in a computer game. The traditional boss fight is a legacy of old which I think would be best put down to rest. Seeming to stem from a storyteller's wish to create a formidable and terrifying foe it instead conjures up spite and frustration as you have come this far, wanting to finish the game, only to stall in finding a way to blast the ugly thing to kingdom come.

If it was bad enough in the 8-bit days, it became even more annoying as the geezers started to taunt and goad you, so that you'd have to concentrate less on the fighting and more on trying to pick up exactly what they said in the middle of the mayhem.

One of the most annoying features of the boss is that he usually lives in a completely different universe from the rest of the game. Suddenly the laws of physics you've been following through the campaign vanish into thin air. I'm sorry, those fifty rockets you shot up his butt cannot damage him, your only chance is to wait for him to stop firing and open that little hatch in his forehead that exposes his soft glowing brain. I don't know about you, but if I were the boss I'd keep that shutter tight.

There are many games that have successfully put an end to a story without the need of a slow or dumb slab of metal augmented flesh (which is what it usually boils down to) that stands in the middle of a circular arena and indifferently sends a gazillion of fireballs after you.

Look to games such as Call of Duty, Freelancer or Ikari Warriors. Tension and difficulty instead comes from battling a large enemy force that offers difficulty without dumbing down the experience of the game. (Admittedly it'd be difficult to put in oversized tanks or cyborg soldiers in a WW2 game, although some games best forgotten have plied that route).

I imagine there are still plenty of hopeless bosses out there that I will one day have to face, and with the help of the cheat code I will bring them down swiftly without justice.

Vital boss statistics:

Hardest: the space-whatever-creature in Z-Out
Easiest: Shinnok, MK4
Most original: all the fights in MDK
Most intimidating: the guardians of Into Oblivion
Most out of place: the giant bomber in 1942