Metal Gear Solid has become one of the most iconic video game series of all time and it seriously helped establish Hideo Kojima as a leading name in the industry. Metal Gear Solid helped popularize the stealth genre back on the original PlayStation, but the games have become defining PlayStation titles and they’ve helped chronicle Kojima’s growth as a writer and director.
Some of the Metal Gear Solid games are challenging action games, but they also feature a number of eclectic boss fights with powerful and exaggerated obstacles. Over the course of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, there have been some boss fights that are considerably harder than the rest.
10 Metal Gear Solid 4: Crying Wolf
Metal Gear Solid bosses sometimes have secret strategies for easy wins, like in the case of Psycho Mantis. Metal Gear Solid 4’s Crying Wolf is a member of the Beauty and the Beast Unit who’s been driven insane and uses a resilient quadruped armor to dominate in battle. Crying Wolf doesn’t have a guaranteed way to win, but hiding out under the truck and waiting until she reveals herself makes the battle a whole lot easier. The only problem is that this strategy requires extreme patience and it can take a very long time to execute.
9 Metal Gear Solid 3: The Fear
Metal Gear Solid 3 is a breakthrough entry in the series and it features a number of bosses that aren’t just creative, but also frustratingly difficult. The Fear is someone who specializes in camouflage and the fight turns into a difficult exercise in even locating the character, but even then he moves so quickly that it’s often too late. Many of the bosses in Metal Gear Solid games only become true challenges when they’re set to the higher difficulty settings, which in this case really makes The Fear a challenge to find.
8 Metal Gear Solid: Metal Gear REX
Battles with different Metal Gear mech have now become par for the course in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, but it’s quite the spectacle back in the series’ first entry. Metal Gear REX really puts Snake’s skills to the test.
The mech has a huge amount of life and throws a ton of powerful attacks at the player. Chaff grenades are essential here and the battle becomes even more exhausting if there aren’t any handy. It’s a grim hint of the Metal Gear battles to come.
7 Metal Gear Solid 3: The Fury
Metal Gear Solid 3 features some of the most difficult bosses in the series, but there are also helpful tricks to skirt past them, like how the player can bypass The End battle by making him die of old age. The Fury is a challenge that needs to be faced and it’s a creative battle with how it surrounds the player with flames. Taking care of the fire is a grueling task in itself and it’s difficult to properly get behind The Fury to take him out. The window for success becomes even tinier and more unforgiving on Extreme difficulty.
6 Metal Gear Solid 2: Vamp
Many Metal Gear Solid boss battles involve absurd personalities, even in the series’ earlier entries. Metal Gear Solid 2 really turns things up another level with bosses like Fatman and Vamp, who introduces vampires into the series. Vamp is incredibly fast and if players don’t properly figure out his pattern of attacks then they’ll never get the upper hand. Another helpful strategy is to take out the lights so that Raiden’s shadow is gone, which becomes a major area of vulnerability to the character. Vamp is unpredictable and strong, which makes for a very challenging battle.
5 Metal Gear Solid 2: Solidus Snake
The Metal Gear Solid series has made final showdowns with the President of the United States a running tradition. Metal Gear Solid 2’s conclusion puts Raiden against Solidus Snake and the main reason that it’s such a difficult fight is because Solidus moves at such a fast speed.
Solidus’ pattern can be figured out easily enough, but he’s still hard to get the advantage over. It also doesn’t help that the fight is done with Raiden’s sword, which is a fantastic weapon, but difficult to gain a grasp on right away, which it expects of the player.
4 Metal Gear Solid V: Sahelanthropus
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the final—at least for now—entry in the core series and it doesn't waste the opportunity to feature some especially extravagant set pieces and boss battles. What's easily one of the most memorable fights from the entire series is Venom Shake's showdown with the humungous mech, Sahelanthropus. Sahelanthropus advances on the player and demolishes everything in its path. It creates a serious feeling of helplessness as it destroys possible sources of cover and it absorbs such a high level of damage that weapons seem useless against it.
3 Metal Gear Solid 2: Metal Gear RAY Squad
The first Metal Gear Solid game is very memorable, but its astonishing just how much Metal Gear Solid 2 plays with the audience’s expectations and makes some decisions that are fairly revolutionary for their time. A culminating boss fight in the series involves fighting multiple Metal Gear RAYs at once. The amount and strength of the Metal Gear RAYs becomes more cumbersome the higher the difficulty is at and in the case of the highest “European Extreme” setting, there are 25 RAYs to eliminate, which becomes a serious challenge in endurance.
2 Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Metal Gear REX
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker doesn’t always get its due, but it helped legitimize Sony’s PSP and show what could be accomplished on the handheld. Peace Walker packs in a ton of challenges and content with gameplay that leans towards grinding. The game indulges in some DLC crossover material with the Monster Hunter franchise and as a result, Snake can fight against dinosaur-like beasts. One of Peace Walker’s most difficult examples of this is the Metal Gear REX, which infuses Metal Gear technology with a monster. It’s specifically designed to be a boss that’s an onslaught for multiple players.
1 Metal Gear Solid V: Skull Snipers
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a title that allows for many mods and has optional content to work through. The Skull Snipers that are in the game’s additional Code Talker mission are easily the most unforgiving challenge of the series, especially when on Extreme difficulty. Granted, this fight can be bypassed entirely, but those that actually try to beat them for the bonus are in for a lot of trouble. Every sniper is at the same skill level as Quiet, yet Snake has to take down five of them. A single wrong move and it’s game over.