Boss trick

Just a few missiles and the boss will be defeated, right?

A boss trick is a common trope in fiction where the player is tricked into thinking they're witnessing a showdown with an antagonist, only to see the antagonist replaced by a bigger badder antagonist. This occurs in various forms of fiction including books, film, and comics, but it wasn't until the advent of video games that it became an interactive mechanic.

Personal

Video games handle the boss tricks in different ways. Personally, I much prefer when the player has to actually fight the fake boss before the real boss shows up. Whether you have to defeat the fake boss or simply survive long enough doesn't matter as much to me, but the bait-and-switch style of immediate replacement, which is both scripted and outside the player's control, is not nearly as exciting. My very first memory of this happening was in the early 1990s when I was watching my brother and his friend play Super C. They reached the boss of stage 6 and we were all a bit shocked at how easy it was to kill, only to be pleasantly surprised by the reveal of the true boss. Of course, in the NES port, even the second boss is pretty easy.

Definition

There are generally three ways to handle a boss tease:

1. The real boss appears after the hero defeats the fake boss.
2. The real boss appears during the battle with the fake boss. In video games, this usually occurs after the player has dealt a set amount of damage to the fake boss, has survived for a set length of time, or has sustained a set amount of damage.
3. The real boss appears before the hero even gets a chance to fight the fake boss.

There is a distinction between a boss trick and a boss that is simply fought in multiple stages. While the distinction is subjective, a boss trick works under the principle that the player is tricked into thinking they're about to fight a boss, have defeated the boss, or the boss is about to die, while a multi-staged boss occurs without trickery. For example, both Dragon Warrior and Castlevania have multi-stage bosses the player won't initially be aware of, but the second stage occurs fluidly without an attempt at deception. A setup for a sequel, where you realize that the boss of the game was really just an agent of an even bigger boss for a future game, is also not a boss trick.

Examples

This is a list of games that are important to me which feature a boss trick. For all games, see the category.

— This section contains spoilers! —

Title	Released	Occurs	Notes
Bionic Commando	1988-07-20	Before	The story in the NES port treats Generalissimo Killt like he's the primary boss, but he's taken out by the real boss just before you get to fight him.
Cave Story	2005-01-04	Before	Just as a security robot is activated, he's smashed, and you have to fight Balrog instead.
Contra	1987-02-20	After	Upon reaching the alien's lair, a giant alien head appears, but it turns out to only be a miniboss.
Mega Man II	1988-12-24	After	After you defeat a multi-staged Dr. Wily, there is a strange twist.
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium	1993-12-17	After	After defeating the new Dark Force there is a long cutscene which looks like the end of the game, then there is a huge explosion.
Super Contra	1988-01-08	After	Defeating the boss at the end of stage 6 plays the end of stage fanfare, but then, you discover you were only fighting its babies!
Super Metroid	1994-03-19	After	This game has a couple with the large metroid and the tease with Mother Brain.
Undertale	2015-09-15	After	In the pacifist run, you are made to believe Asgore is the final boss, but things become much more horrifying.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	1987-01-14	After	Players assume defeating Thunderbird ends the game, but the Triforce chamber reveals the true boss.

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