The Top 7... Most satisfying one-hit boss kills

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Bang! Dead.


Every entry here is from the end half of a game, so watch yourself!

7: Bayonetta

This was possibly the moment that tipped our review score over to that coveted '10'. As the game nears its epic conclusion, a spectacular boss encounter boils down to a single bullet. But what a bullet it is. For starters, it's actually Bayonetta's lipstick. Secondly, it's still warm from being kept between her rather large mammary glands (we're reminded of Ivy). Thirdly, once it's been fired, you control it in super-slow motion. Fourthly, you then get to dodge shards of glass like a goalkeeper at a particularly unfriendly local derby. Finally, you get to plant it right between the eyes of evil Father Balder. Boom! Headshot! Oh, and it's all delivered with the brilliant line:


Above: Bayonetta is all kinds of awesome

And that's that. A magnificent moment that embraces everything great about videogames, delivering it in dazzling high definition and encapsulating the very essence of the game you've been wowed by for the past 10 hours or so. A team as precocious as Platinum Games knows how to put a cherry on the best cake we'd tasted in ages, and this is one hell of a tasty cherry. Kamiya, we salute you.

Seeit happen:

Mario makes another Top 7 list, but it's little surprise. This was one of the first recorded instances of a one-hit boss kill, so it has to go in. You don't even really hit Bowser yourself, just kill him via one hit to thebridge that he's standing on with a handy axe. Oh, didn't you know? Yup, that switch at the end of the bridge is, upon closer inspection, an axe.When you watch the video in slow motion, you'll see that - while not animated - Mario in fact cuts the small chain/rope that's holding the bridge across. Only took 25 years to make sense... perhaps some depiction of that event taking place would have helped? In fact, so much like a button is said axe, the DS version of the fight just has a button. D'oh.


Above: First it was an axe. Now it's a button. Honestly, Bowser would do well to throw out both of them

Still, what a nasty way to go. Suddenly plummeting downwards towards lava must be pretty scary, even if you are a terrifying turtle/monster hybrid. It's worse on the DS, of course, because you see bones emerge after Bowser's first dunking, before sinking into the magma, never to be seen again. Man, that's macabre. Still, it is a list of one hit kills, after all, so there has to be some killing. Sorry, Bowser.

See it happen:

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.