What is your single shmup boss that blew your entire game?

[manatworks]

Titanic Lance ,Darius Gaiden
yeah, i know that game have alot more difficult bosses ,but that guy seems to be so impossible back in the first time i fight him

[AntiFritz]

Espgaluda II shin seseri

I rather die on purpose to avoid fighting her.

Most people do, I think i've only seen one video of that boss.

[StoofooEsq]

Blaster Cannon Core from Stage 5 of Gradius V gave me a lot of trouble for a while.

Once I unlocked all sections of Stage 5 in Stage Select, I kept jumping directly to the boss for practice runs and using the full power up code until I was able to destroy it without dying. Eventually, I got over that hurdle and was able to 1CC the game years back.

More Shmups should have a similar Stage Select feature that lets you go to individual sections of a stage. It was VERY helpful for practicing specific trouble spots I had in Gradius V.

[BIL]

I had a really rough time with Gun.Smoke's final boss. Taking out his two flunkies before the fight gets underway is simple enough, but avoiding his spreadshot while fending off popcorn and returning fire is like breakdancing on a postage stamp. Didn't help that the game is noticeably padded-out lengthwise - I made it to him with about a dozen lives in stock, and a couple picked up after, only to game over more than once.

[jadkni]

Strikers 1945, stage 6 boss.

I was 7 and the only machines they had at the pizza place were Strikers 1945 and Galaga (I sucked less at Galaga.) So I was feeling daring with that week's allowance and went into Strikers pretty much clueless aside from the few times I'd played before and gave up early on. I was doing surprisingly well for the majority of the game - then I hit that thing. There went my quarters.
(Yeah, I wasn't very wise with money.)

Of course, this is more like me reminiscing about why Strikers haunts my nightmares, so I guess that more recently it's probably Glow Squid's last phase in Battle Garegga. I hate that thing so much. And the theme... ugh.

[Bananamatic]

Homura, stage 4 boss first form

I perfected his demon form several times now without even realizing it, but the first one...goddamn.

It's like they took away all the difficulty from the first 4 stages and threw it into that dude.

[MX7]

Raizing games seem to have a lot of these 'gatekeepers'.

Stage 2 boss in Ibara. Not so hard once you learn to run loops around it, but since this is technically a Cave game, and Cave games generally just require you to sit at the bottom of the screen for bosses, then it seems like a big difficulty spike.

Pink Sweets has a really nasty midboss on stage 4. I've always had a hard time with lasers.

Armed Police Batrider. Envy (pretty sure that's the one), the stage 5 boss (one of several) with the lasers. Was so happy to find out how to avoid this one.

[mouser]

Ikaruga Ch.3 midboss (XBLA version).

After being so used to the Gamecube version, the reversed pattern of the XBLA midboss bumbles me up.

I think I was better at playing video games when I was a teenager....the pattern really doesn't look that hard :\

[chempop]

I have to say Black Heart 2 in Garegga is my Wall, what a cruel boss!

[Estebang]

Raiden IV, stage 3 boss. Biggest difficulty spike in any shmup I've played.

[null1024]

Radiant Silvergun, Gallop, and the boss right after him. Gallop is a bother to hit and dodge [and timing out takes too long if you just want to focus on dodging], and the boss after is... well... gah. If the laser doesn't kill you, the rotating field will.

After this, I am clearly too bad to continue playing past this point, but the boss before you choose which stage will be next is extremely easy.
Maybe all this is just me sucking.

[Annoyboy]

The boss at the end of the speed stage in Gradius 3, with those unpredictable bouncing balls. :(

[Deca]

Armed Police Batrider. Envy (pretty sure that's the one), the stage 5 boss (one of several) with the lasers. Was so happy to find out how to avoid this one.

I've been playing Batrider for years and still don't even know how to begin to approach Envy :/ If I get an Option Special Level Up my run is pretty much over lol

[dex]

RFJ last boss (not TLB).

[MathU]

Armed Police Batrider. Envy (pretty sure that's the one), the stage 5 boss (one of several) with the lasers. Was so happy to find out how to avoid this one.

I've been playing Batrider for years and still don't even know how to begin to approach Envy :/ If I get an Option Special Level Up my run is pretty much over lol

The only part of Envy that really gives me trouble is the final stage of the fight where its back tracking laser weapons turn into erratic purple beams when you destroy them. It's all about destroying the boss as fast as possible then. Everything else can be dodged with a little practice. The orange straight beams are fairly straightforward to dodge, the green homing beams can be avoided by moving to the side as they close in on you, the blue beams can be dodged by keeping your ship lined up with its shoulder cannons, and the yellow circular beams it shoots from its hands can be dodged by moving your ship to the center with the right timing.

I accidentally got an unwanted special power-up on the Highway stage one time and ended up facing Envy, but I still managed to beat it without dying, and then went on to beat the game on one credit. It's not an impossible boss.

[dunpeal2064]

Raiden IV, stage 3 boss. Biggest difficulty spike in any shmup I've played.

I was just playing this yesterday. Is stage 3 different in 360 mode?

I had never tried arcade, so when I got to that st3 boss, he gave me the super rape

[Battletoad]

Stage 4 boss in Gunbird 2. Either totally breaks my run or let's me pass with maybe one or two lives every once in a while. Doesn't get any better in stage 5 and 6 though.

Giga Wing 2 last boss first form. The second form is easy if you know what to do, but that first one...

[ZengarZombolt]

Mirror Shield -REH ROH-
How in the motherfuck.

[EllertMichael]

PERFECT from DDP DFK (stage 3 boss)
that bitch with either make or break my run.
sometimes I'll no-miss her, other times she'll just rape me.
Fun!

[RNGmaster]

Dragon Blaze, Stage 6, form 2. I can't hope to tech it, and I suck at dodging its radials, so I speed-kill it. Problem is that speedkilling it takes at least 3 bombs. Oy vey.

[ancestral-knowledge]

DDP DOJ 2nd boss : the phase where all these little blue sticks come at you crossing each other.... sometimes it's just impossible to get through. that's why i quickbomb/hyper this boss.... just too much risk...

[Zengeku3]

There is one such situation that I remember most traumatic. I was trying to 1cc Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith on Lunatic without bombs. Got to the Stage 5 boss with only one miss. Now, that stage 5 boss in particular is really easy and is someone I normally do an effortless job at beating without missing or bombing but this time I managed to die 5 times. 5 bloody times. I made it halfway through the 6th stage after that before finally game overing.

That was the worst. Loosing an awesome run to something so pathetic.

[Plasmo]

Pink Sweets (1.00 of course).

Stage 5 Boss.

Absolute horror.

[Gus]

DDP DOJ 2nd boss : the phase where all these little blue sticks come at you crossing each other.... sometimes it's just impossible to get through. that's why i quickbomb/hyper this boss.... just too much risk...

That guy's a joke after like an hour of practice. The 3rd boss is what usually ends my runs.

[ancestral-knowledge]

what the heck?

i can get through the 3rd boss with 1 bomb (last pattern) but the 2nd really punches me.... any suggestions or strategy? please tell me... i hate this boss..

[Gus]

It helps a lot to just stay at the bottom of the screen and hold down on the keyboard or whatever controller you're using while you push left/right. That way you'll move slower which makes the high precision dodging a lot easier.

[Bananamatic]

dodge the shots one side first, then the other