{"id":239,"date":"2006-02-17T18:02:08","date_gmt":"2006-02-17T16:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/?p=239"},"modified":"2006-02-17T18:04:29","modified_gmt":"2006-02-17T16:04:29","slug":"how-to-beat-the-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2006\/02\/17\/how-to-beat-the-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Beat the Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Intelligent Artifice<\/a>, The Guardian Gamesblog features a pretty nice guide on how to defeat end-of-level bosses<\/a>. Highlights:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep moving. Whatever you do, don’t stand still. Even for a second. This is the only cue an end-of-level boss needs to swipe at you with a giant fist or blast you with deadly lasers.<\/li>\n
  2. If the boss stops, panic. Bosses usually move about – when they stop it means they’re about to unleash their signature move, the aforementioned fist or laser blast.<\/li>\n
  3. Scan for weak spots. Every boss has one, sometimes more. They’re either permanently vulnerable but hard to hit, or they only become vulnerable at certain moments, usually after their signature attack.<\/li>\n
  4. The quarter rule. Keep checking the boss’s energy gauge – when there’s around a quarter left, more often than not, they’ll introduce a new attack, which throws you off-guard.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It reminds me a bit of the “How to be an evil overlord<\/a>” list in that it’s an analysis of genre conventions posing as a practical guide.
    \nOK, so it’s a list of genre conventions. But can you spot the pattern in the conventions?<\/p>\n

    Rules 2-4 all involve reversals:<\/p>\n