Level in Boss Clothing

A Boss Battle that doesn't play like a Boss Battle. There's a boss health bar, and the level finishes when it reaches 0, but the boss isn't the focus of the level, instead acting as a timer for the level, Hold the Line-style. The hazards of the level instead consist of mooks and terrain hazards.

Related to Battleship Raid, Flunky Boss, and Anticlimax Boss, but is distinct from each - a Battleship Raid keeps the focus on the boss, and the things you have to destroy are generally part of the boss or ejected from the boss, a Flunky Boss generally keeps to one room, and an Anticlimax Boss doesn't take up the whole level.

Compare Boss in Mook Clothing.

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Examples of Level in Boss Clothing include:

• The level Aerial Combat from Bugdom. The level is completed by destroying the beehive at its centre, identical to how Queen Bee and King Ant are completed. The beehive cannot actually attack you, however, and the threats in the level consist of flying bees and various terrain hazards on the ground.
• Dr. Zomboss from Plants vs. Zombies. He plays almost entirely like a conveyor-belt Plants vs Zombies level, only occasionally attacking and becoming vulnerable.
• Ironhead from Cave Story. The fight with Ironhead takes up the entire level "Main Artery". However, Ironhead itself merely swims back and forth through the screen, occasionally shooting three puny shots at you. The level is mostly about fighting the swarms of Pufferfish that flood the screen, and dodging the blocks flying across the screen that deal Collision Damage.
• The Final Boss in Aero the Acro Bat: A good half of the battle is spent chasing him upwards and upwards through the floors, tiers, and rafters of his laboratory.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic And Knuckles, Lava Reef Zone, Act 2. The fight with Robotnik begins with a forced-scrolling segment, then the meat of the fight involves dodging mines while leaping between moving platforms in lava. You don't directly damage Robotnik; you just survive until Robotnik destroys the machine with his own mines.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 1 has the Labyrinth Zone boss. While you can hit Robotnik the pre-requisite eight times, it's entirely unnecessary, and the level ends once you reach the top of a vertical shaft filled with obstacles that is slowly flooding with water.
  • In Sonic Rush Series Adventure, we have the Ghost Whale which you must enter, then work your way through an obstacle course.
  • The first part of the Dark Gaia fight in Sonic Unleashed is half piloting a Humongous Mecha made out of temples and half this, with Sonic running down the aforementioned mecha's arms to hit Dark Gaia's weak spots.
  • In Sonic Generations, Perfect Chaos plays out this way.
    • Which is fairly similar to how Perfect Chaos worked in the original Sonic Adventure; despite the fact that you don't have Super Sonic for the fight, the Generations boost mechanic works in almost the same way, so the only real differences are the addition of 2D sections and the method of scoring the final hit.
• The boss levels for the video game version of A Bugs Life are like this, as you have to collect 50 grain, find all the FLIK letters, and kill all the enemies with a gold berry in order to fully complete them, just like any other level. The fights against the Bird and Hopper are particularily good examples, as they take place in level-sized maze/canyon areas that involve a lot of climbing.
• Speed Buster in No More Heroes plays like this. What makes her different from the other bosses is that she is at the end of the level, and that Travis has to make his way while avoiding her dreaded laser cannon. To win, Travis has to knock down a telephone pole to destroy her BFG, then make his way to Speed Buster herself to win. This break from the normal boss structure apparently causes her to not be included in the game's score attack mode, a Boss Rush mode that allows players to fight a ranking fight of their choosing.
• All three encounters with Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Asylum are this. After a few minutes of horror, you have to navigate a giant, fragmented landscape as a giant Scarecrow tries to spot you. At the end, shining a spotlight on him will dispel the illusion.
  • Killer Croc in the same game. His "fight" consists of sneaking around his lair trying to collect plant samples without alerting him to your presence, and knocking him back into the water if he finds you.
  • In Arkham City, some side character battles can play like this. Folks like Riddler, Deadshot, or Zsasz can't stand go toe-to-toe with the Bat, but have advantages like hostages or powerful guns, so their battles consist of getting close enough to them to perform an instant takedown without alerting them to your approach.
• Megaleg from Super Mario Galaxy.
• The Bowser battles from Super Mario 3D Land.
  • Also every fourth stage in the original Super Mario Bros..
• There are quite a few God of War examples, all full of Setpieces, such as the giant living statue at the start of the second game.
• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Galactus is less of an enemy and more of an incentive to move really fast as you fight your way through the rest of the stage he's encountered in.
• The level "The Flood" from Halo Wars. There's a giant alien brain on the other side of the level that you're supposed to kill, but it has no direct combat ability (although it is surrounded by Flood turret equivalents) and most of the threat to your units is typical Flood units. There are five Flood bases you can kill to weaken it, which eventually respawn, and if all five go down so does the boss without you even touching it.
• the Cydonia alien base on Mars in X-COM: Enemy Unknown has a big alien brain that needs to be destroyed in order to beat the game, but it doesn't do anything and thus the level is really more like a standard alien base assault mission.