A good video game boss is a challenging thing. For the developers as much as the players. A good boss has to make defeating it feel like it took genuine effort and mastery to achieve the victory. But it also can't be so simple that the players just breeze through it with no trouble at all. Not too easy, not too hard. And that's not getting into how difficult it is to make a final boss feel satisfying. Gamers can probably think of a few bosses that fit that description. Memorable encounters that made the triump🃏h of winning all the sweeter.

But then there are the bosses so hard that gamers threw their controllers against the wall in frustration. This list is made up of those bosses. These are the hardest of the hard, the biggest challenges any gamer could come across. Some of them are optional, some of ☂them are the final boss, and some are just particularly annoying speed bumps. The one thing all these bosses have in common is their difficulty. That balance described above is nowhere to be found with these g💦uys. They were designed to make players suffer.

We've dug through the history of gaming, from the arcades to the modern day, to put this list together. There are classics and a few more obscure entries. Any gamer that💙 can run this gauntlet is a true master. Dare you take on the challenge?

These are 25 Bosses So Hard We Have To Turn It Down To 🗹Casual Mode.

25 💞 🅰 Ornstein & Smough (Dark Souls)

In all honesty, we probably could have filled this list with Dark Souls bosses and called it a day. But if we have to pick one, might as well go with the first game's final bosses. Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough. This is a brutal battle with both attacking players at once. If you manage to dodge Smough's hammer, Ornstein will zap you with gold beaജms. Be𒆙ating one is hard enough, but then the other will eat his fallen compatriot and grow giant, restoring all his health. The rewards are great but darn if the challenge doesn't seem worth it.

24 🃏 Sephiroth (Kingdom Hearts) 𓆉

The fight against Sephiroth in Final Fantasy 7 was hard enough, but Square decided to make him even more difficult in their Disney series. If pla🍸yers haven't maxed out their health bar, don't even think about trying to take Sephiroth on. He's faster than lighting and armed with a one-hit KO. Even at max health, he'll take down most players with just three strikes. T🦄he white-haired pretty boy's absurdly long katana isn't just for show either. It greatly increases the range of his attacks. And if that weren't hard enough, he actually gets stronger the more damage you do to him.

23 🐟Vergꦯil (Devil May Cry 3)

Devil May Cry loves to go over the top and nowhere is that more 𓆉clear 👍than in this final brother on brother battle. Sparks fly every time Dante and Vergil's swords clash, but that's just window dressing for this incredibly hard fight. Vergil constantly regenerates health unless players keep on the offensive.

Slowly chipping away at his health.

That's easier said than done though, as you have to dodge Vergil's own𒀰 attacks at the same time. Each blow of his will wipe a good chunk out of your life bar. It's a cra𒁃zy frenetic pace to maintain and claim victory.

22 Senator Armstrong (Metal Geaಞr Rising: Revengeance)

Leave it to a Metal Gear game to make one of its hardest bosses a pudgy US senator. The biggest surprise with Armstrong though is that he comes after what most people thought was the final boss. But after Raiden takes down another mecha tank, here comes Armstrong buffed out with nano machines. Strategy-wise🔯 he doesn't have much going on. It's just each of his attacks deals huge amounts of damage and are wicked hard to dodge. It's a significant upgrade in difficulty from the game's other bosses, catching players just as offguard as Armstrong himself. Remember to vote kids.

21 Ba'al (Diablo 2) 🌠

The final boss of the expansion Lords of Destruction, Ba'al seems to want to wear players down through sheer exhaustion. Befor🌟e you can lay a finger on the demon himself, you've got to f﷽ight through five waves of the toughest enemies in the game. Then if you get through that intact, Ba'al will knock you on your butt. He's got a teleport spell that will frequently blindside you, and his mana drain will draw the battle out even longer. Oh, if you die, which you likely will, you have to fight through those five waves of monsters again. Damnation indeed.

20 Ultimate Alma (Ninja Gaide💃n Sigma)

Speed is tওhe name of the game when it comes to Ultimate Alma. For both her a𒁏nd the player. One missed dodge will spell doom for anyone handling Ryu Hayabusa in this fight. If you can avoid her attacks, you then have the difficult task of actually pinning Alma down.

She's constantly shooting projectiles all the while.

Alma will also sꦬummon helper demons 🐓almost as fast as her to divide players' attention during the battle. And just to add another complication, she's a damage sponge. With all that's happening on screen, your brain might shut down before you beat Alma.

19 ꦺ Mike Tyson (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!)

The real Mike Tyson went undefeated for a long 🅰time. It makes sense his video game counterpart would be just as hard to beat. This final boss battle from the classic Nintendo boxing game is almost like a real match. If you haven't studied Tyson's moves, you've lost already. Players have to have a keen eye for Iron Mike's tells to know what punch he'll throw next. To know when to dodge and when they'll get an opening. If they don't, Tyson's punches will knock them out flat. His up෴percut is often a one-hit KO. Nintendo put his name in the title for a reason.

18 Ruby & Emerald Weapons (Final Fantasy 7) 🌠

It's a good th🎉ing these bosses are optional. Most players wouldn't have finished the game otherwise. They've both got over 1 million hit points and even at level 99, their hits destroy your health bar. And if that absurd number of hit points wasn't enough, these weapons have other conditions too. Ruby can't be harmed by physical attacks, only magic. But it's also got a move which will end your best caster instantly. And Emerald is at the bottom of the ocean, forcing you to beat it before you run out of air. It's like they're designed not to be beaten.

17 🧸 Yellow Devil (ꦫMega Man)

This blob monster is creepy enough without being impossible to defeat. This may the simplest boss battle ♏on the ꦬlist, but that doesn't make it any easier. The Yellow Devil will fire a projectile at you, then split into blobs and fly across the screen.

You've got to dodge all of it perfectly.

This is made harder because the Yellow Devil is a giant twice the size of Mega Man. His flying blobs cover most of the screen. Once he reforms, you'll get the slimmest of chances to hit him. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Just like Mega Man.

16 C'Thun (World of Warcraft) ♏

Here's one boss so difficult, the developers actually had to tone it down themselves. Before he was patched, C'Thun could take out whole raiding parties alone and treat individual players like nothing. His attacks turned into massacres. C'Thun would swallow players whole. His eye beams would disintegrate anyone in their path with a one-hit KO. And his tentacles could wipe out parties of 40 or more. In the 45 seconds, he was vulnerable, players would be lucky to deal any damage to his health. Blizzard stepped in eventually and nerved C'Thun, but his difficulty had already passed into World of Warcraft legend.