Pokémon: 10 Memorable Mainline Game Boss Fights

The mainline Pokémon games have amassed over two decades worth of memories with both new and longtime fans. Since the franchise’s inception and original releases of Red, Green, and Blue, there have been different boss battles sprinkled throughout that resonated when discussion on the games sparks in retrospect.

Some encounters include infamous fights that plagued veterans in their early days of playing the games, to others that simply established a grand atmosphere. Trainers like Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Champions easily come to most fans’ minds, but certain Pokémon encounters have managed have become iconic over time.

10 Champion Blue

From the initial set of games, the beloved snarky rival Blue made for a special battle once the end of the game’s story came up. Players saw this again in the Game Boy Advance remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, but Red, Green, and Blue set the standard for this battle against the rival character after surpassing the Elite Four.

Having this playfully competitive rival periodically take jabs at the player while butting heads in Pokémon battles was a great build-up to face him in the games’ final test. It’s something that surely was a thrill in the late ’90s thanks to being surprising for the time, but special mention to the remakes for beautifully reworking this fight in the timeless and nostalgic pixel art of the GBA.

9 Mewtwo

While Blue was the original games’ final test, that applies to the main story. They had hardly any post-game content at this point in the franchise, but the boss fight with the Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo was one of the biggest takeaways for new players then.

Cerulean Cave was mysteriously guarded until the player was deemed strong enough, and was rewarded if they checked back after defeating Blue and the Elite Four. After making their way through a dark cave with surprisingly strong wild Pokémon, the player’s greeted with a level 70 Mewtwo. This boss fight is retained in remakes, but given the element of surprise, it especially left its mark in ’96 and ’98.

8 Whitney

Though Pokémon games have gotten surprisingly easier in recent years, they were never truly difficult to begin with. However, that doesn’t stop an iconic boss battle with Gym Leader Whitney from Gold and Silver from being any less memorable. It once again comes down to context, but Whitney famously gave fans a hard time upon the games’ release and into the early 2000s.

The fight came down to her stubborn Miltank, using impressive stalling tactics considering this a Pokémon NPC. Moves like Attract and Milk Drink turned things into a battle of attrition in Whitney’s favor, and the infamous Rollout all the while whittled down the player’s fresh team this early in the games.

7 Clair

Staying in Johto, the final Gym Leader of the games, Clair, proved another worthwhile encounter during the main questline. The Dragon-type Pokémon already featured in the original games but were limited to Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite. They were still admittedly sparse in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, but were gradually getting more spotlight there with a dedicated Gym.

Kingdra was the newest addition and was one of the boss battles in the games that gave young fans a difficult time with it and her Dragonair in particular. This fight is also one of the few Gym battles that had a bit of a story around it, as this led to exploring the Dragon’s Den after defeating her and initially refusing to acknowledge the player’s victory.

6 Red Gyarados

A new feature introduced in the Johto games was “Shiny Pokémon” that could be encountered randomly in the wild. Though, because of the extremely low chance of finding one at random, the main story had an event boss fight with a Shiny to showcase the feature. At some point, when meeting the Dragon Master Lance, the player battles an enraged “Red Gyarados” in the Lake of Rage.

The player had to defeat or capture it in order to restore calm to the riled-up creatures of the lake because of it. It was a battle worth remembering, despite not being a trainer or Legendary, given how beloved and prized Shiny Pokémon grew to be as generations of games followed.

5 Red

It is debatably the most iconic boss fight in the main series Pokémon games, even if it’s in part due to nostalgia, as the Johto games’ true finale against Red proved a truly memorable experience in general. Generation II felt like true sequels to their predecessors given their narrative and scope, and having the final battle be against the previous generation’s player protagonist to this day serves as an example of fan service at its best.

It’s just a shame G/S/C’s (and even the remakes’) lackluster level curve hampers this to a degree, since Red’s team is so much higher level than any trainer or wild Pokémon. In spite of this, the atmosphere and setting of reaching the peak of Mt. Silver against Red and his all-star team were immensely satisfying.

4 Steven Stone

Steven Stone in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire was a character similar to what Cynthia would be in the following generation. He’s a slick-designed and likable character in the Hoenn games that serves as a bit of a mentor while turning out to be the region’s League Champion.

Steven is a specialist in Steel-type Pokémon, one of the strongest defensive/offensive types in the games, and gave fans at the time a grinding boss fight at the end of the Elite Four. The typing got more attention in this region after debuting in Johto, and his signature Metagross proved nightmarish for many players.

3 Champion Cynthia

The fourth-generation games were a massive jumping-on point for many new fans. Making the leap from the GBA to the Nintendo DS brought new features and a batch of Pokémon to the Sinnoh region with Diamond and Pearl. Cynthia’s role like the aforementioned Steven could be argued as having resonated even more than the latter, bolstering the A-team used in battle.

Her boss fight as Sinnoh Champion won’t leave fans’ minds, with Pokémon like Garchomp, Lucario, Spiritomb, and Milotic wreaking havoc on players’ teams. Aside from the power Garchomp brought–being the region’s pseudo-legendary–Spiritomb’s Ghost/Dark typing had no weaknesses at the time.

2 Origin Forme Giratina

For the Sinnoh region’s third version game, Platinum gave fans a special battle with Origin Forme Giratina in the Distortion World. During the game’s climax, the player reaches the peak of Mt. Coronet and into the Distortion World to stop Cyrus and Team Galactic’s plans.

Giratina in general left a good impression on fans as one of the strongest Sinnoh Legendary Pokémon, but the combination of its new form and the warped, trippy dimension all cemented it. In the lead-up to the fight, the player has to incorporate some platforming gameplay mechanics along with some puzzle-solving. This pushed what the fourth-gen games could do technologically on the DS.

1 Ultra Necrozma

After the mainline games made the full jump into 3D with the Nintendo 3DS, fans did manage to get a welcome challenge in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Though the games here started to lean harder into hand-holding, Ultra Necrozma pleasantly surprised many players.

The dual Psychic/Dragon typing is already a heavy-hitting one, as it complements Ultra Necrozma’s high Attack and Special Attack stats. That stat spread particularly makes Photon Geyser and Dragon Pulse menacing attacks. Plus, it even has an aura that boosts its stats even further. It’s entirely possible that it can sweep the player’s team untouched if going in unprepared.

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