When it comes to video games, there’s little worse than a multi-fight boss that brings nothing but agony every time you face it. Boss fights are supposed to challenge the player’s tactical prowess and resource-management skills, not annoy them into submission. Problem is, that message hasn’t quite gotten through to video-game developers, who are still making games that feature the most annoying recurring bosses ever to spawn.

I am of the opinion that no video game should make you play through a boss fight more than once. That means no reskinned bosses with the same combat strategies, no transforming bosses who keep the same move sets, and no big bads that are merely powered-up versions of the monsters you’ve been encountering all level. Every boss fight should be fresh and exciting. They must be challenging, but the boss fight’s job is to test the player’s skill with the game, not try their patience with boring, pointless, or otherwise annoying combat.

So why does every gamer have at least one recurring boss that made them want to pull out their hair? I know I’ve yelled “Oh, come on!” at my television screen more than half a dozen times in my gaming career, all because the same baddie showed up to interrupt the flow of the game for a boss encounter I had no desire to complete.

15 Harbinger (Mass Effect 2)

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ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL. I hear those words in my sleep, folks. Playing through Mass Effect 2, there was nothing worse than holding your own on the battlefield, just surviving by the skin of your teeth, only to hear those three words and see a Collector light up with power right beside you. I carried the Collector Particle Beam all game, just to deal with the Harbinger.

Controlled remotely these Harbinger-Collectors have enough HP to comfortably fight at close range, putting Shepard on the immediate defensive if they have only a small gap to close. You can try to destroy all the Collectors on the field before the Harbinger can tap into them, but a stroke of bad luck will have the last, weak, struggling Collector taken over by its own overlord before you can finish it off.

14 Liquid Snake (Metal Gear Solid)

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Solid Snake never really seems to be rid of his clone-brother in the Metal Gear Solid series. From the first installment on the PlayStation, Liquid Snake shows up to cause trouble in almost every game, largely thanks to his transformation into Liquid Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. That wouldn’t be so bad, but every time Liquid shows up, you can pretty much guarantee that a drawn-out villain monologue will spew from his purely punchable face. There’s also the fact that he took over the mind of one of Metal Gear’s most-interesting villains, Revolver Ocelot, right up to the point of his death, which is a downright unforgivable offense, in my book. Thankfully, unlike many of the annoying recurring bosses on this list, Liquid doesn’t live to fight another day after his final encounter with Solid.

13 Seymour (Final Fantasy X)

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Dealing with Yuna’s charismatic pursuer gets old quickly in Final Fantasy X. Players throw down with Seymour Guado four times over the course of the game — the perfect number of encounters to make him feel like the piece of flypaper you just can’t manage to shake off your hand. Totaling nearly 200,000 HP across all of his incarnations, Seymour has far more than the game’s penultimate boss, Lady Yunalesca, and his final two forms make for notoriously difficult boss fights, thanks to his pronounced magical abilities.

Like Liquid Snake's awful personality above, Seymour’s disdainful attitude makes him all the more unbearable, largely because it’s impossible to actually punch him in the face from the comfort of your bedroom. Fortunately, once he’s defeated the fourth time, he’s gone for good, but not before he gets in a few last digs at Yuna.

12 Catwoman (LEGO Batman)

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As a playable character, Catwoman got some pretty cool attacks in the LEGO Batman video games, including the ability to pull other figures in for a fatal kiss. When you’re playing as the Bat, though, the Cat is anything but fun to encounter. Like her comic-book inspiration, LEGO Catwoman firmly believes that she who fights and runs away can fight again another day. She puts her acrobatic skills to work, engaging Batman just long enough to make time for another villain to get away before she flees as well. Catwoman’s main showing involves a long chase across Gotham’s rooftops, in an overly long battle that will only allow Bats to take her down one heart at a time, and turns out to be a pointless pursuit, in the end. Talk about your annoying boss fights.

11 Rivals (Pokémon)

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No Pokémon game throws players into the world without a good Rival to keep them on their toes. These NPCs make their way through all of the gyms before you’ve even had a chance to challenge their leaders, which means you’ll always feel as if you’re playing second fiddle to them. Although the earliest Pokémon Rivals — Blue “Smell Ya Later” Oak and Silver the Thief — were easy to hate and difficult to beat. Later generations turned those tables, introducing NPCs that were affable and posed little challenge to the player, some of whom even requested help in learning how to catch Pokémon and build their teams. Regardless of whether your Rival is likeable or not, however, they will always show up at just the wrong time, stalling your gym-busting progress and annoying the heck out of you.

10 The Black Knight (Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance)

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When the Black Knight shows up in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, your best bet is to run. This ironclad dude is as bad as he looks. He’s capable of killing even over-leveled characters in one hit, provided they make the mistake of straying too close to him. To make matters worse, the Black Knight is untouchable during two of his three appearances, which means that Ike and crew will only hurt themselves by trying to fight him prematurely. Even when he shows up for the third time, two chapters before Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance ends, the Black Knight does not have to be killed in order for Ike to progress, so running away from him remains a viable option, even in at the end of the game.

9 Croco (Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars)

When Mario first meets Mallow in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the little Nimbus is following close to the top-hatted thief, Croco, who has stolen the kid’s Frog Coin. Mario, being the heroic kind of plumber that he is, resolves to help Mallow retrieve his money by chasing down Croco for him. The chase sequence proves to be one of Super Mario RPG’s more annoying interludes, and ends in a short boss fight with the crocodile, which saves Mallow’s day and makes Mario a new friend.

The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom encounters Croco three more times over the course of the game, with another chase scene to accompany his second encounter. Thankfully, that’s the last time Mario must chase Croco down, as he simply leaves the plumber some of his loot upon their next meeting.

8 Jeanne (Bayonetta)

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Bayonetta’s not-quite-hostile rival, Jeanne, is brainwashed into opposing her old friend when the first game opens. Over the course of Bayonetta, the white-haired witch fights her gothier opponent five times, and only near the end of the game does she realize that the two of them were once allies. The girl-power vibe between Jeanne and Bayonetta will give you the warm-and-fuzzies, but the NPC witch’s insistence on teasing out her friend’s skill is not endearing at all. Jeanne becomes one of those Little John-style bosses, the kind who get in the hero’s way and require a test of strength before they will allow her to continue. As a character, Jeanne is likable enough, but as a recurring boss, she’s approaching the bottom of the barrel.

7 The Shaker Brothers (Chrono Cross)

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Every game needs a tutorial, and the Shaker Brothers are it for Chrono Cross. Solt and Peppor are bumbling Acacia Dragoons who appear in Another World whenever a new component gets added to the game’s combat system. Between chastising each other and complaining openly about their own shortcomings, the Shaker Brothers unwittingly teach Serge and his party everything they need to know about element strengths and weaknesses, spell types, healing, and friendly fire.

Back in Home World, Solt and Peppor work as a comedy duo in a stage troupe. Unfortunately for us, their recurring boss battles are not nearly as entertaining as their stand-up routines. You can’t help but groan whenever these dunderheads come onto the scene, because you know you’re in for a simple boss battle that could be avoided, if only the Shaker Brothers would hurry up and die.

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Like Croco and Catwoman above, the Master Stalfos in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening makes a bad habit of stealing things and running away when the hero turns up the heat in battle. Link’s encounter with the Master Stalfos consists of four back-to-back battles with the fleet-footed skeleton, who, after being foiled once by the young hero, steals the treasure from a dungeon chest in an attempt to make himself stronger. Link must pursue the Master Stalfos in order to get the prize he stole, but finds the retrieval process lengthened by the enemy’s tendency to flee whenever he can. After three escapes, the Master Stalfos falls on his fourth defeat, leaving Link to loot the treasure from his body and proceed with his dungeon-delving, pot-smashing plans.

5 Popple (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

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Popple would really like to be an infamous thief, but he just doesn’t have it in him, see? Even with an amnesiac Bowser and a lovestruck Birdo helping out as his sycophants — both of whom are called Rookie — Popple can’t manage to carry off a heist, what with Mario and Luigi getting in his way.

Popple returns in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, where he forces the legendary brothers to fight a Wiggler he has ticked off, before turning on them himself, a move that ends in a resounding defeat, which proves to be the last time anyone hears from him.

What makes Popple truly annoying is his mafia-esque verbal tick, which compels him to end his sentences with the outmoded mobster catchphrase, “see?” That alone is enough to make you hope that every encounter with the little Beanish thief is your last.

4 Wesker (Resident Evil 5)

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In Resident Evil 5, each of Chris and Sheva’s four fights against series antagonist Albert Wesker is entirely different. First, players must focus the majority of their attacks on Wesker while trying to rescue his enslaved “partner,” Jill, by removing a control device from her chest. After this fight, Chris and Sheva encounter the former S.T.A.R.S. captain three more times, culminating with an Uroboros-disfigured Wesker serving as Resident Evil 5’s final boss.

Resident Evil diehards will disagree with my characterization of Wesker as an annoying recurring boss, but hear me out. Three-quarters of his fights happen in Resident Evil 5’s final act, which means that the end of the game revolves around Wesker, to the point that his presence feels overwhelming, and even a bit cramped. For that reason, and no other, he’s made my list.

3 Caius (Final Fantasy XIII-2)

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Not counting the optional boss fights, Caius Ballad is fought six times over the course of Final Fantasy XIII-2, with each battle increasing in difficulty and duration. Serah and Noel’s first encounter with the former l’Cie is a walk in the park compared to their final showdown, when Caius transforms into the formidable Jet Bahamut, and is flanked by two smaller, supporting dragons.

All told, Caius is far from an insufferable character. His backstory draws out players’ sympathy and ire, as the events recounted in Final Fantasy XIII-2 show him to be a compassionate man whose love for the seeress Yeul drives him to do many questionable things, including taking up a murderous campaign against a deity.

Regardless of Caius’ personal struggles, his recurring boss fights become hair-pullingly hard by the end of Final Fantasy XIII-2, leaving many players to feel only dread at the sound of his name.

2 King Koopa (Super Mario Bros.)

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Will the real King Koopa please stand up and explain why both he and Princess Peach are always in another castle? In the original Super Mario Bros., King Koopa has kidnapped Mario’s beloved Princess and absconded to a large castle eight worlds away. It’s Mario’s responsibility to track him down, but first, he’ll have to go through seven fake King Koopas, each of whom sports a sack of Toads as a ruse to appear as if he is the one in possession of Princess Peach.

Every fight against these fake King Koopas is the same: Mario must run across a fiery bridge, straight into King Koopa’s face, only to jump over him at the last second and land on an axe, which destroys the bridge and sends the fake King plummeting into a lava pool. It makes for good gameplay at first, but after a while, it just gets tedious.

1 Big Sister (BioShock 2)

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BioShock 2 was one of those games that sounded really great on paper, but turned out to be absolutely terrible in execution. Case in point: the Big Sister boss fights, which happened too often for too-little gain.

As a Big Daddy, you’re responsible for helping Little Sisters harvest ADAM from corpses. When your Little Sister has filled her syringes, you put her away and go in search of another tiny collector to help. After clearing all the Little Sisters in a level, however, you’re treated to a fight against a Big Sister.

The Big Sister was always intended to be a recurring boss, but when BioShock 2 was in development, there was only one, and she could not be defeated until the end of the game. When the sequel shipped, however, there were multiple Big Sisters, whose boss fights proved to be far too repetitive for gamers’ tastes.