Favourite Group of Bosses?

[Dirty Duck]

Which game has your favourite boss unit and what makes them win over the others for you? Which individual boss from the group is your favourite? Is it more because of the characters or the boss battles themselves for you?

And let's throw a bit of negativity into the mix: which group is your least favourite?

I've included the spin-offs in the poll as well just to give any free thinkers out there the chance to cast their vote. I've not put MGSV because I'm not sure you can call fighting the nameless Skulls several times a boss unit.

It's tough but I think my vote goes to FOXHOUND. I think every character is really strong both in terms of characterisation as well as their battles and story moments. Based purely on gameplay I'd maybe go for the Cobra Unit but with the exception of The Boss and The Fury I feel like we don't get much insight into them as individuals or even witness them interacting with one another much.

Least favourite is probably the AI Weapons. I have nothing against them as boss fights and I actually think the gameplay loop is kind of neat, but not having a single human enemy just feels very strange and naturally the 'character' of each of them has no distinction from one another. Even just giving them a specialised team of boss pilots with personalities and motives would have done a lot to help. Could have had them get out after the mech is damaged enough or during the fight so you suddenly have two targets to deal with.

[Wayno]

Yeah PW is the worst for everything bosses. There's no point discussing.

But Foxhound is leaps and bounds the best villain squad. They're not just the best written villains on their own but in terms of how they're written to interact with Snake is also just exceptional and with exception to maybe Naked Snake and The Boss (and I'm not so sure I think that myself), there's nothing better outside of MGS1. Snake interacts with every single person on numerous occasions and there's practically a similarity or two between Snake and his adversaries and there's actual humanity displayed, for the most part, when Snake overcomes them.

Is the Sniper duel with The End top notch? Absolutely. But does it come close to what we get when Snake beats Sniper Wolf? Not even in the ball park and the same goes for beating Mantis and Raven. The interactions, understanding and conflicts on the personal level add so much to a short game. Foxhound are a major reason why MGS1 is absolutely peak MGS for me.

[NateDog]

Plot and characterisation is easily Foxhound, gameplay is the Cobras. But even with how good those are to play, it never felt as deep without that extra connection. Honourable mention to MGS4 though with battles like Laughing Octopus, REX v RAY and Snake v Liquid Ocelot. Actually you know I might even have to throw MGS4 ahead of MGS3. Fighting as REX was unbelievably cool and fun and unexpected, and the last CQC fight really felt like a great way to honour the rest of series especially given it had that goofy element to it.

[Aragorn]

Hilarious to me that MGS V's boss fights were so shit that they don't even have an option in the poll.

[black king]

I'd say FoxHound. They're a pretty good five man band. They interact with Snake well and all have some memorbale backstory with the exception of maybe Raven. He's probably the weakest link and even then, I can still think he's memorable. Wish we'd seen more of the shaman side to go with the big guns though. 

Dead Cell is fine. Fortune and especially Solidus do a lot of heavy lifting for them. Fatman is just an annoyance responsible for my second least favorite part of MGS2: running around Shell 1 defusing bombs. Vamp is okay.

Cobras as characters are pretty dull. The Pain and Fear especially. The Sorrow, who's literally dead, is more interresting. Now I will say they had great boss fights, especially The End and the rest onward so gameplay wise, best so far.

Still haven't played PW or MGS4 (stop being a PS3 exclusive!) so onto PO.

FOX is better than it has any right to be, probably because it has so many throwbacks to Foxhound, like being the protagionist's older squad. Gene is supposed to be a successor to The Boss and has to fight the other successor (Solid/Liquid dynamic), the torture expert is second in command and has his own agenda and is planning on betraying his boss, there's a psychic on the squad, a guy who likes the cold you have to play hide and seek with in a frozen room. I do like how they interact with Big Boss. I wish Python had a bigger role in the game if you recruit him. 

I haven't pleyed MGR since like 2014 or so, so I won't comment on Deaperado. Anytime I see MGR referenced, it's usually Armstrong since he's an over the top meme machine.

The Parasite Unit are just harder enemies that look more menacing.