The hardest bosses in Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood

Mario and Luigi: Brotherhoodand the series as a whole, has an innovative combat system that many developers haven't copied. It's a turn-based combat system that's active, meaning players can time their attacks and blocks to gain bonuses. It's an immersive experience, but brutally demanding at the same time.

If players fail to block a few hits in a normal battle with Mario and Luigi: Brotherhoodone of their two plumbers may die. This is especially true for boss fights, which are even more intense. Grinding for EXP and getting the best gear can help, but these boss battles in particular are still deeply frustrating at times. These rankings will take time and place into account along with power. There will be spoilers.

6 Gorumble

First Boss Is Doozy

Gorumbla will be the first boss players will encounter and will be the wake up call. This game is not kidding about boss battles. Plumbers are at a disadvantage because they don't yet have the skills to help them Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood like Plugs.

Also, while he may be slow, Gorumbla makes up for it with power, and it's not exactly like players will be flush with items at the start of the game. This means the counters aren't too hard to figure out and Gorumbla will eventually go down.

5 Sharpcask

Steel barrel trap

• Location: Great Lighthouse Island (2nd)

Sharpcask is the boss of the second Great Beacon Island. It's a giant robotic steel barrel with little eyes peeking out. Despite its massive size, this barrel is fast as it puts in plumber brothers like Sonic chasing Dr. A worker.

Players don't have to fight him, but occasionally E's will appear to boost Sharpcask's defensive and offensive abilities. It's a chore to get his HP down, and the best way to do it is through Luigi Logic, which leads to a Tetris-like minigame that can be harder than the fight itself.

4 Zokket

Framing brother vs brother

• Location: Zokket Fortress

Zokket is ready to become the final boss of the game, but it's all a ruse. Spoilers about who this person is will be hidden, but final boss or not, Zokket is still pretty formidable. His greatest strength is using Glohm's energy to corrupt one of the brothers, so players can only attack one party member at times.

However, a good counter will set Mario or Luigi back in the right frame of mind. This is the frustrating part of the battle along with Zokket's quick attacks. He can also go into a heightened state through Glohm to hit even harder.

3 Bowser

King Koopas Stands Tall

Bowser has two boss battles in the game. The first is normal, while his second boss battle turns him into a Glohm version. This form of Glohm is challenging, but not as difficult as his first appearance. Bowser hits hard which gives plumbers a bad advantage if he makes contact plus Bowser can summon minions.

Any boss battle that involves multiple enemies at once is a threat. Fortunately, there are plenty of group moves in the game that take care of multiple targets at once. Bowser's patterns are hard to counter at first, but players should eventually get the hang of it and take down this king of the Koopas.

2 Pipegunk

Switching between fire and ice

• Location: Great Lighthouse Island (3rd)

Pipegunk can be a deal breaker for some players and is located on the third Great Lighthouse Island. It's a big lump of sebum that looks a bit like Muk z Pokemon series, but scarier. Shun waits there in the background to periodically transform Pipegunk into fire and ice forms.

It's hard to keep up with the constant switching, and Luigi's logic for mitigating the battle is almost impossible to figure out. What's really tricky, aside from the hard-to-dodge attacks, is that Pipegunk can heal itself. Any boss in an RPG that can heal itself is fake.

1 A recluse

Boss marathon

Final bosses in RPGs can sometimes be the hardest bosses in the experience and that goes for Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood at least. There are technically four forms or stages that players must go through when encountering a Reclus. First, players go through a classic SHMUP style. If players miss the attack, they'll have to deal with random enemies, ending up with a not-too-difficult encounter with Reclusa in her normal jester form.

This battle will end and continue with the Reclusa becoming a giant tree, the Weeping Reclusa, which will then transform into the Weeping Core form and then back into the simplest form of the Reclusa. It's a marathon boss battle and one wrong move can leave players fumbling so much that they have to retry the battle/battles. Even die-hard RPG fans can leave these battles feeling breathless.