I'd rather not have ANY boss battles. They're almost all tedious, outdated, derivative annoyances, which is why something like the original halo was so refreshing at the time. Very very few games pull off enjoyable, interesting, original boss battles
[quote]Kinda agree, but would say MGS tend to have very good bosses. MGS 3 being the most stand out to me![/quote]
I never completed MGS3 and haven't played any other MGS games since. But what I remember of MGS1 & 2 is that the bosses did tend to drag on, despite some nice ideas. One low point was the 5 (was it?) metal gears in a row that you had to destroy in MGS2.
I remember most of the bosses in 1 & 2 were quite protracted, repetitive, as you slowly chipped away at a health bar. But as I said, some nice ideas. That's quite old-skool, you see it in the old metroids, for example (even the prime series), and many many retro games.
But I think times change, tech offers new opportunities for fresh thinking, and so those games that do feature bosses need to move forward, the concept redefined - though I'd still prefer to play games without them
While I agree that the MGS boss battles can become sponges (MGS 2 Ray fight comes to mind) the MGS 3 bosses are very in depth. My personal favourite was the battle with The End. Sniper battle of skill, tracking and patients