When The Sub-Boss Is Harder Than The Final Boss, In A Fighting Game

Fighting games tend to brag the SNK Boss Syndrome. Is it me or are some sub-bosses deliberately HARDER than the final boss? Be it the stats, the unfair AI, or just about anything. There are some fighting game sub-bosses that are considerably more difficult than EVEN THE FINAL BOSS!

The Mortal Kombat franchise made some sub-bosses harder

Mortal Kombat has some big bad final bosses that were a challenge. However, there were some sub-bosses that had unfair AI or stats. Some sub-bosses were actually harder than the final boss. One may remember how Goro was actually harder than Shang Tsung. 

Why is the sub-boss harder than the final boss? The sub-boss apparently serves as some bodyguard to the final boss. Perhaps,  person with greater physical strength but not much on the brain. Kintaro didn't have much brain compared to Goro. Motaro in Mortal Kombat III was invulnerable to projectiles and could volley people with repeated fireballs. Kintaro and Motaro served as Shao Kahn's chief enforcers -- perhaps to give Kahn extra protection should he need it! Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance featured Moloch -- an unplayable sub-boss before one took a fight against Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. The trend broke with Onaga since he was the only monstrously unplayable character. 

Mortal Kombat 4/Gold made Goro harder than any character. Sure, the stats have been broken down. Goro can now be tripped with a sweep or slammed with a throw. I prefer fighting Goro in Mortal Kombat 4 over his previous incarnations. It was a shame Mortal Kombat 4/Gold never did anything significant with Shinnok's boss fight. It's probably a lack of memory that caused Shinnok not to impersonate anyone. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat X fixed that mistake by giving Shinnok more personality. 

Mortal Kombat 9 gave Shao Kahn the toughest boss battle status. Goro and Kintaro are difficult but NOT THAT DIFFICULT. It's probably the AI over the stats that made Goro and Kintaro harder to defeat than Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn in the older titles. Shao Kahn manages to be tricky to defeat. I could remember getting hit by that Hammer Toss and forgetting it's UNBLOCKABLE. I was beaten by Goro and Kintaro at least twice. However, Shao Kahn can be a nightmare for beginners in the reboot. The reboot tried to make Shao Kahn as hard as possible. However, I'd still pick this incarnation of Shao Kahn over his past boss incarnations.

Mortal Kombat X also gave Shinnok a badly-needed boost. Goro was both playable AND a sub-boss. So yeah, Goro didn't have his beefy MOFO stats at all. I had all the fun playing a depowered and more balanced Goro. I could be Goro against human players without them saying, "WUT WAS THAT?" Corrupted Shinnok also unleashed that really IRRITATING FIRE BEAM. Corrupted Shinnok may not be as powerful as Shao Kahn (which IMHO was just unfortunate) BUT he's still a pain. Did the people at NetherRealm Studios notice the bitching back in the day? Mortal Kombat X is a remake of Mortal Kombat 4 in some way.

The Marvel vs. Capcom series' first two entries had that strange situation too

X-Men: Children of the Atom was one game that made Juggernaut the sub-boss and Magneto the final boss. There's always this switch that adaptations do with Juggernaut. Juggernaut's not a mutant in the comics or in X-Men: The Animated Series. However, I wish X-Men: The Animated Series used that change since Juggernaut was seen in the intro as one of Magneto's bad guys. Okay, what was Saban Entertainment thinking at that time!? They could've carried over the change made in Pryde of the X-Men with Juggernaut as a mutant and ignore the Cytorrak Plot completely! This game almost seemed to somehow copy a bit from Pryde of the X-Men in some way! 

Juggernaut can be a bigger pain than Magneto. It's because Juggernaut causes WAY MORE DAMAGE even without projectiles. TV Tropes gives this description on Juggernaut:

Juggernaut hits like hell and took a few blows to remember he had a hit stun. Just to put into perspective for people who didn't get it about Juggernaut. Many people argue that he is harder than Magneto, and with reason: In this game, he is a LITERAL JUGGERNAUT. If you wanted to die fast, you just needed to make your Full-special-bar-super-duper-stringy-combo. Juggernaut will take his time to do a full charged attack just because he won't flinch, no matter what. This works for hilarious effect if he starts using his Bum Rush while you are spamming him with Cyclops' Optical Blast at the farthest distance possible; He will PLOW THROUGH THE BEAM and will reach you with enough momentum to cause massive damage.

Magneto can still be stunned or use long-range attacks. Magneto can fill his super bar REALLY FAST. However, it seems that Magneto's hard but not so hard is meant to avoid less frustration. So okay, Magneto also can use his invincibility shield -- which is annoying. However, seeing the pattern can make Magneto easier than Juggernaut.

The trend continued in Marvel Super Heroes. Dr. Doom served as the sub-boss. Some argue Dr. Doom is harder than Thanos. Thanos is more powerful than Doctor Doom. The real problem is with the AI that's given to the evil doctor! TV Tropes also gives this description on Dr. Doom:

Doctor Doom is absurdly good at keepaway. Plasma Beam has priority over a lot of projectiles and lingers long enough to make it difficult to jump over. Photon Shot will stop you from advancing at all against him. He can make things even worse with his flight and air dash, allowing him to perform his air projectiles which can very easily interrupt you and sport a huge range. Even knocking him out of the air is hard thanks to his erratic movement during flight. Not to mention that Specials and Supers will knock a gem off your character. Try to move at the wrong time, and Doom can easily knock half or more of your gems out without you even getting close to him.

Dr. Doom's usage of keepaway attacks and anti-air is frustrating. Sure, Dr. Doom doesn't build his meter like crazy or requires an Infinity Combo to get the gems back. What irritates me that Doom really requires PROPER TIMING in hitting him. Doom flying around the room can be ANNOYING. In short, Doom is harder than Thanos due to how the CPU was programmed. It was probably done to knock players out of their false sense of security. Doom's use of his grand intellect makes him truly THAT IRRITATING A FOE.

Thanos was potentially harder than Doom. However, the AI doesn't seem to grant Thanos that much usage. Thanos' incredibly fast meter, his potentially deadly Infinity Combos, and the fact that only INFINITY COMBOS will get the gems back. However, Thanos' AI wasn't programmed to be as frustrating as Doom. Maybe it was but complaints probably reached Capcom HQ. Doom remains to be the MOFO button reading boss. Thanos isn't that good at button reading as the final boss. So yeah, Doom becomes more difficult than Thanos for that reason. 

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter did some alterations. Apocalypse becomes a bit more easy than he was in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Cyber Akuma? Well, that guy's a literal nightmare of a final boss. Cyber Akuma's super fast and SUPER POWERFUL. I wonder why didn't Capcom think of giving Thanos the painful AI and gave it to Doom instead back then?