Those "Two Hands with a Big Head sometimes" bosses

Ikagura

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Why were they popular in Nintendo games?

I cannot recall many non-Nintendo bosses with that archetype.

1742088321118.webp
 
My best guess on why is that it's easier to just keep the face as part of the background, and create sprites for the hands? That way, one can create the illusion of fighting a giant monster. From the NES days, the trope must've stuck.

I don't have any personal examples of this, but I second @Xdqwerty and their upload of Git's video.

EDIT: Well, there was that Mega Man X boss, Rangda Bangda, but he's a face. I forget if he's in the Git video or not.
1742091294461.png
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I used to make my toys fight each other as a kid and sometimes they ended up fighting my hand. That's my canonical explanation for Smash Bros' Masterhand, just a kid playing with his toys.
 
I really like this guy's upgraded form from Kirby Super Star Ultra:

KSSU_Wham_Bam_Jewel_Sprite.png


He's made of diamonds! I like that you don't really see his body, either – it makes that fight really mysterious and ambiguous. WHAT DOES HE REALLY LOOK LIKE?????? Good boss for a game about exploring dark caves.

Also, gotta love the final boss fight from Sonic 3&K:

v3x2tgbzfuy41.jpg


You know that you can beat this guy really quickly by revving up a spindash between his fingers? That's a little tip from your ol' pal Gorse. ;->
 
I used to make my toys fight each other as a kid and sometimes they ended up fighting my hand. That's my canonical explanation for Smash Bros' Masterhand, just a kid playing with his toys.
AAAAAA!!! So did I! Though, I would usually have my arm included, meaning my hands were like wild snakes with faces that could split apart and stuff.
 
AAAAAA!!! So did I! Though, I would usually have my arm included, meaning my hands were like wild snakes with faces that could split apart and stuff.
I can't quite recall doing so myself, but when you mention snakes? It remembered using a stapler-remover as some kind of cobra-head monster a couple times as a kidlet. Used it to chomp some clay figures I made.

I am so glad West of Loathing had the same idea.
1742096087900.png
 
It remembered using a stapler-remover as some kind of cobra-head monster a couple times as a kidlet.
I DID THIS TOO!!! Except I always thought of them as alligators or crocodiles. But still! Those things have the best shape ever.

You know what's also great? Using your mom or your sister's hair-clip things as giant venus flytrap mouths. If these objects ever come to life, I'm screwed.
 
As others have pointed out, they were a staple of 2D games in general and not limited to Nintendo. It's really because it was one way to make large, impressive looking bosses within the technical limitations of the time. Most of the boss doesn't move, it's probably a background layer and only the hands are sprites, but you see all of it as the boss. Typically those giant bosses had the simplest patterns. Then it became a classic type of boss that you could do, basically, which is why we still see them.
 
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Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time. Nightmare fuel. Imagine waking up to this hanging over your bed at night.

bongobongo.png

Castoth from Illusion of Gaia. I used to waste so many herbs on him and have to reset. 😠

castoth.jpg

As others have pointed out, they were a staple of 2D games in general and not limited to Nintendo. It's really because it was one way to make large, impressive looking bosses within the technical limitations of the time. Most of the boss doesn't move, it's probably a background layer and only the hands are sprites, but you see all of it as the boss. Typically those giant bosses had the simplest patterns.

I kinda miss this trend. Hacking away at giant monster hands and waiting for the vulnerable head or other part to pop back out. Some more modern games still have this mechanic though. Like the Ys Origin version of Gelady.

gelady.png
 
Bongo Bongo from Ocarina of Time. Nightmare fuel. Imagine waking up to this hanging over your bed at night.

View attachment 43223

Castoth from Illusion of Gaia. I used to waste so many herbs on him and have to reset. 😠

View attachment 43226



I kinda miss this trend. Hacking away at giant monster hands and waiting for the vulnerable head or other part to pop back out. Some more modern games still have this mechanic though. Like the Ys Origin version of Gelady.

View attachment 43229
Came here to post the Illusion of Gaia one. ::thumbsupwario
 
My 3 guesses:


Intimitadion factor: Your sprite of a One Man Army being the size of the smallest fingernail of a behemoth all of a sudden will scare anyone

Resource saving: Making a simple trio of sprites instead of the whole body of, Say, a dragon, was more time, space and art saving in the long run

And the one that makes sense to me the most, one Nintendo designer was

latest.png
 
I don't know why but I really like bosses that are just two hands and a big head. I tried to make one for a GameBoy game I was working on but it didn't end up very well
 

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And Wham Bam Rock from Kirby SuperStar, who looks very questionable now that I see him as an adult.
View attachment 43150
Its Superstar Ultra redesign isn't for nothing...
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I kinda miss this trend. Hacking away at giant monster hands and waiting for the vulnerable head or other part to pop back out. Some more modern games still have this mechanic though. Like the Ys Origin version of Gelady.

View attachment 43229
I love how you say "modern games" when Origin is as old as the original Ys was back when Origin just came out.


PS: What is Bongo Bongo even supposed to be?

I forgot to tell: sometimes they have eyes in their palm (as a weak spot).

I suspect that the Youkai called Tenome may have been an inspiration for it:
1742120887081.jpeg




手の目
てのめ

Translation: eyes on hands
Habitat: open fields and gravyards at night
Diet: human bones, fresh from the body


Appearance: Tenome takes the appearance of an elderly zato, a kind of blind guildsman. Its face has no eyes at all; instead, it has eyes on the palms of its hands.

Behavior: Tenome wander through open fields or graveyards at night, hunting for tasty humans. They wait until their prey is very close before attacking. By the time one is able to recognize that they are face-to-face with not a zato but a yokai, it is often too late to escape. Tenome can run very quickly, and while their vision is not particularly strong, they have a powerful sense of smell which helps them follow their victims in the dark.

Origin: Tenome’s true nature is not known, but they are most likely the ghosts of blind men who were robbed and murdered by thugs. This explanation can be traced to a folk tale, in which a man is attacked at night by a monster with eyes on its palms but none on its face. The man flees to a nearby inn for shelter. He tells the innkeeper what he saw, and the innkeeper replies that a few days ago, a blind man was attacked and robbed out in that field. As the man lay dying in the grass, he cried out with his last breath, “If only I could have had once glace at their faces! If I only had eyes that worked — even if only on the palms of my hands…!” The old blind man’s resent-filled death caused him to be reborn as a yokai — with eyes on the palms of its hands, just as he wished.

Legends: In Shichi-jo, Kyoto, a young man entered the graveyard at night as a test of his courage. From out of the darkness, a blind old man approached the young man. When the elderly figure got close enough to be seen in detail, the young man saw that it had eyeballs on the palms of his hands, and it was coming after him!

The young man ran as fast as he could to a nearby temple and begged the priest for sanctuary. The priest hid the man inside of a long chest and locked the lid. Shortly afterwards, the monster entered the temple, sniffing loudly as if it was hunting. The young man could hear he sniffing noise getting closer and closer, until it stopped right next to the chest he was hiding in. Then, there was a strange slurping sound, like the sound of a dog sucking on an animal’s bones. A little while later, the eerie sounds vanished, and all was quiet. The priest opened up the chest to let the young man out, but all that was inside of the chest was the loose, empty skin of the young man. His bones had been completely sucked out of his body!


At the end of the day it's probably old game design being kept
 
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