Boss Battles

Boss Battles Mode (also called Boss Battles, Boss Mode, Bosses Mode, Boss Rush, or Boss Rush Mode) is an unlockable Stadium mode introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl that is very similar to All-Star Mode, except the player fights all the bosses rather than all the playable characters. Boss Battles Mode is unlocked after the player completes both Classic Mode & The Subspace Emissary for the first time, or in other words, has defeated each boss at least once (aside from Crazy Hand).

Gameplay

The Rest Area.

A battle with Petey Piranha in Boss Battles Mode. Note that the cages are empty, and the sky is blue, like in The Great Maze.

The goal of Boss Battles Mode is to defeat every boss in the game with a single stock. When a player begins Boss Battles Mode, they are immediately dropped into combat against one of nine bosses (excluding Tabuu). Once a boss is defeated, the player is brought to the rest area. The rest area displays all defeated bosses as trophies, a screen that displays the face of next boss to be fought, and has limited recovery items. There are three Heart Containers, which recover the player's damage to 0% and they don't reappear when they're consumed upon later visits to the rest area. This format continues until all bosses are defeated. The bosses are fought in random order, except for Tabuu, who is always last.

This format is mostly the same as All-Star Mode. However, continues are unavailable (since the player is under Stadium), so the mode must be done over again from the beginning if a Game Over is earned. If not all ten bosses are defeated, the player gets a Game Over, and on the Game Over screen, the number of bosses defeated (ranging from 0-9; depending how many they fought prior to Tabuu) appears under the "GAME OVER!" word before starting over again. The final three bosses before Tabuu move and attack at a faster rate (most noticeable with Rayquaza & Galleom), and boss HP gradually increases as the mode progresses. The player is treated to a picture of one of the bosses upon completing the mode; this picture varies depending on the difficulty level chosen.

Boss Battles also includes a co-op mode, where both characters will have a single stock and there will be three extra Heart Containers for a total of six. Both players must remain alive; if either player loses their stock, the game ends. If the mode is done in co-op, high scores (at the end) are not attached to any character nor are any Challenges unlocked. The high scores in co-op are instead tracked into a unique slot (similar to All Star). To unlock the challenges, Boss Battles must be done in solo (1 player).

The battles in this mode include:

• Master Hand
• Crazy Hand
• Petey Piranha
• Rayquaza
• Porky
• Galleom
• Ridley
• Duon
• Meta Ridley
• Tabuu

Rewards

There are eight trophies obtained by completing Challenges and one unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl involving boss battles mode. None of these challenges can be broken by a Golden Hammer; except in PAL versions of the game (which can break open all challenges).

• Clearing Boss Battles with Fox or Falco will challenge the player to beat Wolf, and beating him will unlock him.
• Clearing Boss Battles with 10 characters unlocks the Subspace Gunship trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles with 20 characters unlocks the Jyk trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles with every character unlocks the Winged Tabuu trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Easy difficulty unlocks the Subspace Bomb trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Normal difficulty unlocks the Shadow Bugs trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Hard difficulty unlocks the Dark Cannon trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Very Hard difficulty unlocks the Porky Statue trophy
• Clearing Boss Battles on Intense difficulty unlocks the Galleom (Tank Form) trophy

Changes from other modes

Several of the bosses are slightly altered from their appearances in other modes.

• Bosses generally have around half the HP they do in the equivalent difficulty in SSE and Classic Mode, with their attacks having about half the power as well. This may be to compensate for stickers being unavailable.
  • Bosses are additionally slower than normal, unless they're one of the final three before Tabuu.
• Crazy Hand is a boss on his own, rather than together with Master Hand.
• Master Hand and Crazy Hand have Stamina Bars like other bosses, rather than the usual HP shown at the bottom. Both Hands also suffer a much more severe HP drop than the other bosses, resulting in them having much less HP than the other bosses despite having above average HP in Classic Mode.
• Galleom will be fought randomly in one of his two stages. His death animation will depend on when the player fights him. If they fight him as one of the earlier bosses, he will kneel to the ground, defeated (like his animation at the end of The Wilds I). If he is fought as one of the last three bosses before Tabuu, he will fall backwards to the ground (like his animation at the end of The Ruined Hall).
  • Additionally, while the attacks of bosses are normally slower in Boss Battles, Galleom's uppercut attack is always faster in Boss Battles than it is on the equivalent difficulty in the SSE.
• There is no time limit when fighting Meta Ridley.
• On difficulties below Very Hard, Tabuu's Off Waves don't OHKO the player.
• Petey Piranha's cages are empty, as they are when he is faced in The Great Maze. Similarly, the sky is clear rather than covered in dark clouds.
• The individual boss themes are replaced with an arrangement of Melee's menu music, called Boss Battle, except for those of of Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and Tabuu. They use the music Final Destination (Melee), Giga Bowser (Melee), and Boss Battle Song 2, respectively.
• Items don't appear.
• The camera behaves as it does in normal Brawls rather than how it behaves in the SSE.

Gallery

Below are the congratulations screens for completing Boss Battles Mode.

• 

  Easy

• 

  Normal

• 

  Hard

• 

  Very Hard

• 

  Intense

Trivia

• The player can move while the Announcer is still saying "Ready?" and before he says "GO!".
• Water effects from F.L.U.D.D. and Water Gun and Push effects from PSI Magnet will make the colour in the boss's health bar blink as it does when the boss takes damage, even though these moves inflict none.
• The Boss Battles Mode is similar to The Arena from the Kirby series.
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the true ending of World of Light features a boss rush that pits the player against all the bosses (except for Master Hand and Crazy Hand), which can be fought in any order, before the true final boss.