Ok, the second boss with the helmet on, keeps chasing me and I pick up the stick and get stabbed. What do I need to do? HELP!

Worth noting that you'll likely have a better chance of getting a whack on him if he misses and it goes into a wall, trying to hit him while he is retrieving it from the floor is a good way to get cleaved.

Excellent, thank you. I really hate the boss battles - they seem so out of place with the rest of the game. Thank you!

Now I'm struggling with The Final Chapter. That f'ing ninja bird! UGH!

It's not that it's hard, it's just frustrating.

Managed it. Such a fun game, but the boss battles are utter guff.

That fight wasn't so bad, when I first did it, I thought it would be a good idea to throw the knives by the lower fountain while the ninja chick was crawling, so that when Tommy Wiseau over there pulled out his SMG's, I was ready, and it worked, it's actually the quickest fight for me.

The boss battles are over really fast, as long as everything else goes right. It's strange that developers still make boss battles, because they're nearly always the weakest part of the game.

That battle in particular just shows up the weaknesses of the core design, which is a shame. I loved the game overall though.

Boss battles are okay, and while it is true that they can, and will stagnate, if it is done right, then ideally it will not halt the pace or fun factor of a game, while at the same time existing to, dare I say, HELP the game, or not just exist simply because it can.

It's all about execution, but in this case I agree, the bosses in Hotline Miami felt like they simply existed because they could, and their pace just clashed with the overall pace and flow of the game, I thought. And with the exception of perhaps the first hefty gentleman, the big mistake I thought the bosses made was sticking to the typical boss formula of relying too much on the "open area with minimal to no obstructions" formula.

True but since it was a giant homage to the 80s I kinda just accepted it. Besides it was either that or some sort of gimmicky thing to kill the boss. They almost went that direction with killing the panthers with gold trophies.

It is probably a good thing that I did not work on the game, or any games for that matter, but if I was to do a boss fight in Hotline Miami, it would be more like the first hefty gentleman, with the layers of Kevlar to break through, but have in more of a maze-like setting not unlike the rest of the game, and he is just looking for you, and regardless of whether or not you are in the room that he comes to, when he opens that door, he sprays a shot from his shotgun, and if you are in the room, you're dead. So it becomes sort of like the rest of the game, plan your moves, catch the boss at his weakest and out-think him, and if you don't, well, you die.

But to be more on topic with what you said, the whole idea of killing purple panthers with a trophy tickled me a bit, and made me wonder if there was a direction that they were planning to go in but decided against it in favor of boundless slaughter that really makes you plan, or die, which, by the way, good for them, best 9 bucks I ever spent.

Every boss fight was different and they helped change the pace of the game in an agreeable way for me. I really like your idea, I think it would easily work as an additional boss, as each boss is already like a puzzle that needs to be figured out and executed in a tactical way.

I felt they interrupted the pace, honestly. And the designs themselves were so dull - basically a closed arena battle. The first of them, with the hulking guard, was interesting, except that he's got a radar to where you are.

I suppose I liked the feeling I was outwitting the rest of the enemies, and felt I was just exploiting patterns with the bosses.

While I certainly agree that it could have been better executed, I think the manipulation of the patterns to defeat bosses is more in tune with the gimmick of the tribute to the 80's, an example that comes to mind is a Bowser encounter in Super Mario Bro's, Bowser shoots fire, you jump over Bowser when he is not shooting fire, you get the axe, no more Bowser, or perhaps you wait until he jumps to slip under him and grab the axe, or perhaps you use the platform, the pace/speed depends on the way the individual plays it.

The feeling that I take away from Hotline Miami and its bosses is a simple one, Hotline Miami is a ride, not unlike a roller coaster, the adrenaline fueled quick-thinking-on-your-feet-boundless-slaughter is the downhill speeding, which is fast, and adrenaline pumping, and the bosses are the uphill climb where one can relax, and the return to the boundless slaughter is the next downhill launch before you can relax TOO much. I would basically call Hotline Miami a well-working, well-oiled thrill ride that just works wonderfully. Sure, the slow parts of the ride may slow the pace, but it is still reasonable, and as stated before, agreeable, because what a ride it is to get there, and what a ride that follows.