5 Rare Boss Battles That Punished Us For Being Completionists

When it comes to making final bosses as daunting and pants-fillingly challenging as possible, you need look no farther than the final bosses that Rare has gone on to release over last few the decades. It’s the way it should be in all honesty – we’ve put in our time into progressing through the story and if the final boss is an absolute pushover we’re going to feel unfulfilled about the finale. But it seems that Rare has taken this little factoid into consideration and decided that certain battles should go beyond that of ‘challenging yet rewarding’ to ‘your nightmares come alive ready to fight tooth and nail’. For the purposes of this list, the following bosses can only be fought after you’ve viewed the credits sequence; we can infer that after that any casual and weaker players would have pat themselves on the back with a job well done and left off there. But if you’ve made certain to break your back going after every last collectible and percentile, these fights were for you to exhaust your blood, sweat and tears. These are 5 Rare Boss Battles That Punished Us For Being Completionists.


#5. GRUNTILDA WINKYBUNION THE WITCH – BANJO-KAZOOIE


After besting Gruntilda the Witch at her own Quiz Show near the end of the game, Banjo and Kazooie rescue Tooty and return home to Spiral Mountain after enduring the lengthy credit sequence. While Tooty breaks up the party announcing that Grunty is still at large, the important thing is that you’ve saved little sister and you’re free to leave off there. If you decided to ascend Gruntilda‘s tower however, you’d find a heady Note Door requiring you to pay up a sum of 810 Notes before you crept up to the final Jiggy painting that would leave you with only 2 Jiggies if you managed to finish off the adventure with all 100. If you had kept your nose to the grindstone and revisited all of the worlds to satisfy these final hurdles, you’d have your final match against Gruntilda herself who would constantly rain spells from above. Even with the Jinjonator‘s assistance, the final battle is tough to stick out and required many frustrating retries. Some gamers still have Wartbags on their cartridges to this day…


#4. BARON SAMEDI – GOLDENEYE 007


After a gripping showdown with double crossing 006 Agent, Alec Trevelyan, James Bond kicks his previous partner from the antenna and makes an impressive jump towards Natalya‘s escape chopper. As the credits roll, Bond and Natalya share an intimate moment in the Jungle; you’ve saved the world, seduced the love interest and had your drinks specifically shaken rather than stirred. But if you’ve managed to clear every single mission on Secret Agent mode you’ll haved unlocked two bonus levels, Aztec and Egyptian, the latter of which will host a confrontation with Baron Samedi. While you’ll have acquired the Golden Gun from within a secret and heavily guarded chamber within the Temple, it’s single shot kill capabilities will be lost on the Baron who will likely gun you down and drown out your screaming with his maniacal laughter. Even after witnessing the Baron‘s death, Bond leaves the scene only to be followed unknowingly by the undead chortling Samedi. Even Trevelyan died when we kicked him off the Cradle!


#3. KAPTAIN K. ROOL 2 – DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2: DIDDY’S KONG QUEST


Tasked with braving the whole of Crocodile Isle to rescue the apenapped Donkey Kong, it’s up to Diddy and Dixie Kong to master every scurvy stage and send each nautical naughty to the briny depths. The final confrontation sees our heroes aboard the Flying Krock where a showdown with Kaptain K. Rool sees the old salt unceremoniously ejected from his airship and left to swim with the fishes. There’s a definite feeling of triumph as the credits play off, but as Cranky Kong‘s demoralizing banter lingers on, it appears that there’s much more to do. Specifically, collecting all 75 Kremcoins will unlock several extremely challenging bonus levels in the Lost World. If you can manage this mammoth task you’ll enter Krockodile Kore where you’ll find a waterlogged – but very much vengeful – Kaptain K. Rool. This final fight will require all of your cunning and dexterity to come out on top, as the Kaptain is even more difficult the second time around. At least Cranky will get off your back though.


#2. BARON VON GHOUL – GRABBED BY THE GHOULIES


The freaks and frights you’ll encounter throughout Ghoulhaven Hall will see you all the way back out the front door, and even after the triumphant defeat of Baron Von Ghoul, you’ll still be tasked with escaping the Manor and liberating its scattered prisoners. The rising sun will cue the credits, but if you want to finish off the terrifying title completely you’ll have to collect all 100 Bonus Books and then complete the 20 corresponding Bonus Challenges for your adventure. Doing so will unlock the heinous Challenge 21 extra, which tasks you with completing the game over as Cooper‘s girlfriend Amber with only 10 health to spare in every single room. Given your limitations, Baron Von Ghoul is extremely difficult in this mode, as each knock about with his propeller staf will reduce your health to half, and if you even manage to get to his final stages, your health will be drained to nothing with a single hit from the Baron. This can be quite time consuming, but if it’s a complete game you desire, then you’ll have to grin and bear it.


#1. WIZPIG 2 – DIDDY KONG RACING


After Diddy and friends managed to clear out all the racecourses in Dino Domain, Snowflake Mountain, Sherbet Island and Dragon Forest it’s into the gaping maw of the Wizpig statue where they’ll have a final race with the big pig himself. After a grueling race in the rain, Diddy and crew pull through, seeing the hog off of Timber Island and into outer space, where he’ll likely come back again to torment the island inhabitants – hooray for happy endings! If you’d rather some closure on the wild racing adventure however, you’ve got quite the task ahead of you. First off, you’ll have to complete every single Trophy Challenge; that’s all 20 previously mastered racecourses back to back, doing so will unlock the final hidden world, Future Funland. Manage to master all of these racecourses and you’ll have to do them over a final time with the infuriatingly difficult Silver Coin Challenge. After that, it’s off to the big pig for one last impossibly difficult space race, which sees the whole thing off with a ruddy cliffhanger! Punishment indeed!

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