There are few things in video games that are as exciting as a good boss fight. Pushed to your limit, these tests of skill and strength provide hearty challenge and lead to ultimate gaming bliss, with victory offering the sweetest satisfaction. The best boss fights of 2024 fulfilled their climactic duty in the most exhilarating ways possible, with loud, uproarious battles that remain in our memory long after the final blow. Due to their outstanding design, rewarding gameplay, or just pure spectacle, these are the boss fights of 2024 that rose above the rest. So, if you find yourself staring down any of these big bads, you at least have the comfort of knowing the fight will be worth it. Listed in no particular order, these are the best video game bosses of 2024.
ATTENTION: This list will contain spoilers for the following games: The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Tekken 8, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, South Park: Snow Day!, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. While we did our best to avoid any unnecessary spoilers, several important or final story bosses will be detailed.
The Best Boss Fights of 2024
1. The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – King Darius
King Darius is one of the climactic bosses in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the epic fight encapsulates everything awesome about the game’s movement and combat. When you face down the frozen corpse of this royal giant, he springs back to life, wielding his massive sword and standing at twice your height.
Despite his bulk, King Darius is deceptively quick, forcing you to bounce around the arena using Fabric of Time symbols to dodge his crazy elemental attacks. If you have the balls to pull it off, there’s a tricky mid-air parry to perform, resulting in an insanely cinematic moment. This bombastic boss fight comes with a challenge, demanding tight reflex and near-mastery of the game’s movement mechanics. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a fantastic game with some fun fights, and King Darius is easily the best of the bunch, earning him a spot on our list of the best boss fights of 2024.
2. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – Imurah
A sequel that doesn’t try to mess with the formula too much, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a third-person shooter that consistently delivers big, loud, and explosive action. Throughout the campaign, you routinely mow down thousands of deadly aliens and enemy soldiers, defending humanity with every blood-soaked reload. It’s a highly polished, linear throwback to the simpler days of the genre, before things got all muddied with forced online connectivity and live-service mechanics. As such, Space Marine 2 has some larger-than-life bosses, no more outrageously excessive than the final boss, Imurah.
As a Sorcerer Lord, Imurah is heavily equipped with some crazy space magic, transporting you to the otherworldly Warp where the fight takes place. Quick, overbearing, and dealing out tons of damage, he’s a boss that requires use of all your space marine tricks, but things get even more intense in subsequent phases. Not long into the fight, Imurah summons a towering, winged creature, who dishes out more spells of its own, while further pummeling you as he breezes about the arena. The climactic battle against Imurah is as lengthy as it is thrilling, and by the end of it, you’re left with a huge amount of satisfaction.
3. Tekken 8 – Angel Jin vs Devil Kazuya
Tekken 8 has a wild cinematic story mode, and the final fight between Angel Jin and Devil Kazuya is cherry on top of this crazy, anime-inspired tale. While essentially floating through the cosmos, Jin and Kazuya engage in a lengthy fight that lasts several rounds, with each character upping the ante with every passing moment. Kazuya, floating like a nightmarish boss out of House of the Dead, is equally matched by Jin’s full-on angel form, resulting in a clash for the ages.
There are some silly moments in Tekken 8, but Angel Jin vs Devil Kazuya fully jumps the shark in the best way. After hours of pummeling your opponents, you’re likely familiar with most of the game’s mechanics, and this battle pushes everything to the next level. Just when you think it can’t get anymore incredulous, this boss fight escalates even higher, leading to near absurdity. The past few Tekken titles have been amazing, and it’s fight like this that keep the franchise memorable.
4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – Blessed Leviathan
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes the franchise from the urban sprawl of Japan to the tropical beachside towns of Hawaii, marking a serious change in locale. In this JRPG, protagonists Kasuga and Kiryu explore the touristy town and, as common in this series, uncover a sprawling criminal conspiracy. There are plenty of thrilling fights against gangsters, cultists, and even heavy machinery, but it’s the sea creatures that make for the best bosses.
The Blessed Leviathan is one of the best boss fights of 2024, not just because of its epic and challenging nature, but also due to the tonal payoff it affords. Infinite Wealth is goofy, and by the end of the game, you’re waiting for the silliness to hit an all-time high. Following a fight with a massive shark at sea, Kiryu and company find themselves facing down a giant squid in a secluded cove. Leaning into the gimmick, this fight requires you to target various tentacles, dodge status ailments, and keep your companions in top shape. If you mess up, party members can get swallowed by the massive sea monster, forcing you to fight your way out of its stomach like you’re god damn Pinnochio. Fighting horrifyingly huge sea creatures is always a good time, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth fully delivers on that front.
5. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree – Messmer, The Impaler
With over 40 different bosses to battle, many of the fights in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree could’ve made this list. The insane chaos god, Midra, the finger-focused Metyr, and the historically badass dragon, Bale, all come to mind. However, in whittling it down, there’s one clear victor for the best boss fight in Shadow of the Erdtree. That honor goes to Messmer, the Impaler, who checks the list for everything you’d want in a Souls-like boss fight.
Considering that Messmer graces the front cover of the game, you likely expect a challenge when you meet him, but nothing really prepares you for the punishment that’s about to come. Dueling in a beautifully macabre arena, Messmer dashes around with notable speed, staggering between his attacks as he picks off your health. His second phase is even more aggressive, forcing you to evade massive snake heads that can one-shot you with ease. Whereas other bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree can feel kind of unfair at times, Messmer acts as an honest skill check, and can be justly defeated with enough patience and practice. Either way, when you finally slay Messmer, you’ll be 100% locked in and firing on all cylinders, making the victory all the better.
6. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess – Mukadejoro
Kunitsu-Gami is a third-person hack ‘n slash with tower defense mechanics, where most of your time is spent carefully considering your resources and positioning your troops before engaging in a battle. However, your adventure is occasionally marked by battles against massive, mythological bosses, where strategy is somewhat thrown out the window and survival is your first and only priority. While you are accompanied by soldiers who can assist in the fight, beating a boss in Kunitsu-Gami requires a smart understanding of your abilities, as button mashing won’t get you far. No other boss exemplifies that better than Mukadejoro, a horrifying insect creature the size of a bus, that skitters around in the darkness waiting to pounce.
From the moment you first see it, Mukadejoro is incredibly intimidating, made worse by the fact that you’re fighting it in a pitch-black cave. To both use your allies and get a clear view of the circular arena, you must run around and light torches, with each new light acting like a small beacon of safety. Unlike other bosses in Kunitsu-Gami, you can’t slow down or contain Mukadejoro for long, with its imminent deadliness making things all the more anxiety-inducing. In all fairness, it’s not the hardest or most visually impressive boss fight in the game, but the battle against Mukadejoro keeps you on your toes like no other, with a sense of urgency that kicks your brain into overdrive.
7. South Park: Snow Day! – Mr. Hankey
South Park: Snow Day! isn’t the best South Park game by any means, as its clumsy combat and uninspired level design leaves a lot to be desired. Designed as a cooperative, multiplayer adventure, Snow Day is all too brief, barely contains a story, and lacks a lot of polish. However, there a couple of boss fights that are actually fun, including a colorful battle against Princess Kenny. Snow Day saves its best boss for last, ending the otherwise mediocre experience on a humorous and satisfying note.
For the last fight of the game, players must take down Mr. Hankey, the cutesy pile of Christmas poo who has turned evil. Using his ultimate, dark Christmas powers, Mr. Hankey transforms himself into a Dune-style sandworm made out of shit and begins his final assault. During the fight, you must endure dozens of pooplet enemies as you hunt down sentient toilet paper, load it into rapid-fire cannons, and unleash your ammo for big damage. It’s funny, relatively easy, and is a welcome change of pace after hours of monotonous third-person fighting. It’s a shame that the rest of the game is so middling, because Mr. Hankey is definitely one of the best boss fights of 2024.
