Top 10 Deja vu moments in video games (part 1)

Do you ever get the feelings of familarity when playing video games (where things seem to repeat themselves)?  You are not alone.  In this blogpost, I will talk about at least 10 deja vu moments that I have encountered as a gamer.

#1- Bowser boss fights in Super Mario Bros 1 - to demonstrate the Bowser fights, here is a youtube video I found:


For the first deja vu moment, we go all the way back to the first Super Mario Bros game.  This game launched the Super Mario bros series as we know it today and is perhaps one of the first games to have boss battles in them (can't think of any games prior to SMB1 that have boss fights).  Anyways, when you fight Bowser at the end of the dungeon levels (the 4th level in each world), the boss fights are always the same.  Bowser (who is usually an imposted until world 8) is on this draw bridge, spewing fire balls at Mario and Luigi, and there are 2 ways you can beat bowser: 1) getting past him and touching the axe icon at the end of the bridge or 2) shooting fireballs with him (assuming you are able to keep the fireball power up for the whole dungeon) until he dies.  Of course, you will fight these exact same "boss battles" in all 8 worlds.  The only things that change are the dungeon layout and some of bowser's attack patterns (such as shooting hammers at Mario and Luigi in worlds 6-8).  Another deja vu moment is that prior to world 8, "Bowser" turns out to be an imposter (such as a goomba) and Mario/Luigi encounters Toad, who tells him that she is in another world.

# 2- Count Dracula's first form in most of the Castlevania games -
Here is a youtube video about a boss fight against Dracula on Castlevania Dracula X. This boss fight is the classic and perhaps one of my favorites.

If you have played most of the games in the Castlevania series, you would know that the main villian in the series is the Count Dracula, who is the evil vampire that wants to destroy the human race (only to be stopped by the Belmont clan and its allies).  Anyways, at the end of the game where you fight Dracula, usually you fight him in at least 2 forms (though not always), and while the developers usually get creative about Dracula's demonic form (such as the Gargoyle in Castlevania Dracula X), the first battle with Dracula is almost always the same.  In his first battle, the evil lord teleports around the room and hurling fireballs and other projectiles at he hero (sometimes he also tries to suck the hero's blood as well in some games, such as Castlevania 64 when you fight the imposter version of Dracula) and you usually get a short period of time to attack him before he teleports again, and the battles play out this way until you defeat him, after which he usually transforms into his monsterous form that you also have to defeat. Of course, this type of boss fight with dracula can be found just about any Castlevania games, with two exceptions being Curse of Darkness (I thought that Dracula was much more animated in that game doing more than just teleporting around the room and attacking), as well as Symphony of the Night, when you go up against Dracula as Alucard (the traditional Dracula boss fight actually takes place when you fight him as Richter towards the beginning of the game, and when you go up against him as Alucard at the end of the game.

Usually, once you beat his first form, he turns into a hideous beast that you also have to defeat, though in some of the games, that is the only form you fight as is the case in Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest and Castlevania 4 (I thought that one was a bit anti-climatic when I played that game given the extra bosses you fight in the "room of close associates" that you go through towards the end of the game where you fight Death, Gaibon and Slorga). Also, in Castlevania 64, you will actually do the traditional Dracula fight twice (first with the imposter Dracula and later with the real Dracula, who is actually the boy, Malus if you remember that game of course). Even in some of the newer Castlevania games, where there is a new villian in place of Dracula (such as Walter in Lamment of Innocence), the new guy often mimics dracula as he too does the teleportation moves while attacking as well.

Here is a short youtube video about the boss fight against Walter in Lamment of Innocence (posted by megagrey).  As you can see, in this battle, Walter actually mimicks Dracula.  BTW, Lamment of Innocence is actually a prequel of the series.