I voted Amakusa, but even though he’s iconic, I think Zankuro is iconic as well (and he was a boss in same amount of games as Amakusa). Amakusa came first of course.
Talking in terms of power, Yuga is the most powerful entity in SS canon (if we are talking about fighting game bosses, since you could fight against Ambrosia only in SS RPG)
The thing that works against Rugal in gaming aspects is that it’s so damn hard to balance him, His Genocide cutter cannot almost have all it’s strength levels be a DP priority since it covers much more range (rivaling a flash kick) so Game makers tone him down to no end (either make his Kaiser wave slow [98] or erasable [cvs] and his GC either sucky [cvs] or wierd B and D properties [98]), that’s why he mostly ends up as “Sucky” or incomplete in almost all fighting games he’s been in playable LEGALLY and not as a boss (except for CvS Pro and arguably KOF 98 UM IMO very good versions of a Playable Rugal)
Krauser and Geese had lesser SNK-Boss syndrome for them, their moves where not originally created like a Deus Ex Machine, making programmers having an easy time adjusting them properly an just maxing them out of proportion when they need to be end bosses. hence more people have proper exposure to them and liking them.
I Do agree that Zankuro is almost up there, Goenitz nearly made it there as well but Ultimately they were less contributary than their predecessors.
God Rugal was great, also a lot of kof mods had broke as fuck Rugals. I also remember the first time CvS came out and I was up against the boss Geese and he was almost dead and I had a ton of life so I was like fuck it and I jumped in and ate a lvl3 storm.
As overused as Orochi is, he just doesn’t have that boss feel that both Geese and Rugal have. For third place, Igniz, easily. Everything links into everything into brutal god project.
I would go as far as to say Rugal outranks Geese in terms of SNK iconic bosses. I remember hearing somewhere that Rugal is SNK’s favourite boss character, and he seems to be represented in more games than Geese Howard is. Even so it’s a very close call.
I would have to disagree with that one though… SNK did admit that Rugal is their favourite Boss (thus having Triple H protection), Geese is still the most popular SNK Boss and the fact that he was counterpart for Bison (CvS1) proves that. but anyway to each his own… I personally like Rugal better but that’s just me.
They should bring Rugal back for every KOF. Canon be damned (Capcom sure don’t play that shit, and I applaud them for it), that man is THE KOF boss. Even Geese and Krauser (BLITZ BALL) stand in the shadow of Rugal’s mighty mustache.
Best possible ending for the Ash saga would be Omega Rugal floating onto the screen and Shun Goku Satsu’ing Dark Ash or whoever the fuck the fruitcake last boss of XIII will be. Cue his '98 theme and let the stick-chucking commence as he psychic DPs every jump you make and punishes every roll.
They need to make CvS3 just so they can bring Rugal back. SF4-Groove Genocide Cutter FADC Gigantic Pressure for the win.
You’re probably right, I loved fighting in Geese tower in CVS1 for the final stage. It’s a tough one to call Ithink, like Terry vs Ryo. Triple H protection is a great expression, I’m going to be using that one!
That would be really cool, even if it’s just a console exclusive bonus or something. He seems to make it into every dream match game though, so I’m sure he’ll rock up again eventually.