03-27-2013, 10:25 PM
I don't have a Top 10 list, per se, but rather I can pick out ten of my favorites off the top of my head in no specific order:
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Alien Soldier (Genesis)
Startropics (NES)
Ugh, I feel a bit sick now, I finished most of this earlier and didn't hit the post button. I'll just add more later as I see fit.
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES)
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
SpoilerAshtar
![[Image: ashtar.png]](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-_GdzgS_Ijk/SkY9BJOprUI/AAAAAAAAAjw/CA3-c3pJpQU/s400/ashtar.png)
![[Image: Ashtar.jpg]](http://ninjagaiden.neoseeker.com/w/i/ninjagaiden/a/a0/Ashtar.jpg)
Ninja Gaiden II was one of the earlier games I rented, and one of the first games I played with an in-depth story via cutscenes. Ashtar is one villain who not only was meant to be feared, but also a clear-cut image of a villainous asshole. He has a complicated, long-running plan, he has an army of evil tribesmen from another dimension, he's a crazy demon samurai, he's immune to bullets, he was seconds away from beheading Ryu, and to top it all off after fulfilling his promise to give Irene back to Ryu in exchange for meeting him, he proceeds to quite literally stab her near-fatally in the back.
Ninja Gaiden II was one of the earlier games I rented, and one of the first games I played with an in-depth story via cutscenes. Ashtar is one villain who not only was meant to be feared, but also a clear-cut image of a villainous asshole. He has a complicated, long-running plan, he has an army of evil tribesmen from another dimension, he's a crazy demon samurai, he's immune to bullets, he was seconds away from beheading Ryu, and to top it all off after fulfilling his promise to give Irene back to Ryu in exchange for meeting him, he proceeds to quite literally stab her near-fatally in the back.
Lavos
![[Image: Lavos.jpg]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080828025846/chrono/images/7/73/Lavos.jpg)
Magus is cool and all, but one thing I can say about Lavos that I can't say about Magus is that for the entire game after he is first introduced, you are filled with this feeling of dread that sometime somewhere you were going to have to fight this monster that is capable of turning the world into a bleak, barely breathing husk. You get to SEE the giant monster raining death down on a world so much more advanced and no doubt better prepared for something of that magnitude, and you have to live with the fact you need to fight this thing the entire game. You can even give yourself a taste of it by choosing to fight it directly at the End of Time early on in the game. To top all that off, he kills Crono. What an asshole.
Magus is cool and all, but one thing I can say about Lavos that I can't say about Magus is that for the entire game after he is first introduced, you are filled with this feeling of dread that sometime somewhere you were going to have to fight this monster that is capable of turning the world into a bleak, barely breathing husk. You get to SEE the giant monster raining death down on a world so much more advanced and no doubt better prepared for something of that magnitude, and you have to live with the fact you need to fight this thing the entire game. You can even give yourself a taste of it by choosing to fight it directly at the End of Time early on in the game. To top all that off, he kills Crono. What an asshole.
Xi Tiger and Seven Force
![[Image: alien-soldier-18.png]](http://www.quebecgamers.com/archives/thisweek/2Sept2008/alien-soldier/alien-soldier-18.png)
![[Image: 1091584417-02.png]](http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll292/SirIlpalazzo/1091584417-02.png)
It was hard for me to choose just one boss from this game, so... I picked two.
In what little story there is within the actual game cartridge, Xi Tiger is definitely one of the two major villains mentioned. He basically murdered a little girl that triggered a change in a boy that became Epsilon Eagle, and then becomes the main target for the first ten levels of the game. He confronts Epsilon on top of a moving train, looking fairly creepy starting out as a humanoid guy with claws, but then undergoes a transformation into a massive clawed alien tiger. What follows is a rather intense battle considering he has only melee attacks. A seasoned player who mastered the teleporting dash wouldn't have much of a problem, but anyone without an understanding of it will be promptly murdered by Xi Tiger's enormous reach.
Seven Force's story in the game isn't very much explained, but speculation is that she is the murdered girl brought back to life as a partially robotic super soldier. Seven Force is a reference to a transforming robot from Gunstar Heroes with the same name. Alien Solider IS linked to Gunstar in a number of ways, almost a spiritual sequel. Seven Force in this version can (unfortunately) only take five forms, but each one is tremendously difficult in its own way. What's worse is that certain forms are immune from certain ammunition, so you need to make sure to have a variety of weapons in your arsenal. A cool tidbit is the fact that each force is named after a mythological woman of some kind (Valkyrie, Medusa, Sylpheed (Is that mythological? It might not be), Artemis and Sirene).
It was hard for me to choose just one boss from this game, so... I picked two.
In what little story there is within the actual game cartridge, Xi Tiger is definitely one of the two major villains mentioned. He basically murdered a little girl that triggered a change in a boy that became Epsilon Eagle, and then becomes the main target for the first ten levels of the game. He confronts Epsilon on top of a moving train, looking fairly creepy starting out as a humanoid guy with claws, but then undergoes a transformation into a massive clawed alien tiger. What follows is a rather intense battle considering he has only melee attacks. A seasoned player who mastered the teleporting dash wouldn't have much of a problem, but anyone without an understanding of it will be promptly murdered by Xi Tiger's enormous reach.
Seven Force's story in the game isn't very much explained, but speculation is that she is the murdered girl brought back to life as a partially robotic super soldier. Seven Force is a reference to a transforming robot from Gunstar Heroes with the same name. Alien Solider IS linked to Gunstar in a number of ways, almost a spiritual sequel. Seven Force in this version can (unfortunately) only take five forms, but each one is tremendously difficult in its own way. What's worse is that certain forms are immune from certain ammunition, so you need to make sure to have a variety of weapons in your arsenal. A cool tidbit is the fact that each force is named after a mythological woman of some kind (Valkyrie, Medusa, Sylpheed (Is that mythological? It might not be), Artemis and Sirene).
Zoda
![[Image: startropics2.png?w=256&h=224]](http://notilezone.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/startropics2.png?w=256&h=224)
![[Image: zoda.gif]](http://tartarus.rpgclassics.com/startropics/bosses/zoda.gif)
![[Image: 70-Zoda.png]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/DeeMer/Startropics/Chapter8/70-Zoda.png)
Zoda doesn't have AS much of a tremendous presence in his own game as some of the others previously mentioned on this list, but when he DOES show up he DOES deliver. He starts out fairly difficult when fought, and after that you get to chase his TRUE form, who happens to utilize all the same conventions of movement on the battlefield that the player does, almost making it seem like the computer is trying to outdo you at your own play style.
While the second game is divisive between fans of the original and players who prefer the sequel, I personally like the concept of Zoda having clones of himself coming back for revenge. What's cool is that each one has different abilities in the standard horned-helmet form, followed by a different alien form.
Zoda doesn't have AS much of a tremendous presence in his own game as some of the others previously mentioned on this list, but when he DOES show up he DOES deliver. He starts out fairly difficult when fought, and after that you get to chase his TRUE form, who happens to utilize all the same conventions of movement on the battlefield that the player does, almost making it seem like the computer is trying to outdo you at your own play style.
While the second game is divisive between fans of the original and players who prefer the sequel, I personally like the concept of Zoda having clones of himself coming back for revenge. What's cool is that each one has different abilities in the standard horned-helmet form, followed by a different alien form.