The various bosses in the ' The House of the Dead ' series are generally undead creatures, though they are more technically mutated or formed than the standard undead and creations encountered. They exist due to the experiments of Doctor Curien, and represent his attempts to push the boundaries of power that his monstrosities could wield. All are virtually impervious to conventional attacks, with the only method of damaging them being via one to several weak points unique for each boss, sometimes highlighted in the AMS files, and sometimes not. Each is named after one of the Major Arcana tarot cards (until House of the Dead: Overkill) and given a corresponding Type Number, Letter, or a combination of both. While a high number of them are undead, not all are made from a human base (such as Lovers and Tower), hence they take many forms, from plants to snakes to spiders. Most are of low intelligence, with their mindset comparable to that of a guard dog, but a select few (such as Hangedman, Magician and Star) demonstrate high level brain functions, seemingly capable of arranging and acting towards goals.
List of Bosses
The House of the Dead / Mobile
These Mutations arose as a result of the first experiments using the mutagen that created all the creatures. All of them (except Magician) served as guards to Curien's laboratory, with Hangedman being the only one with a slightly different purpose, which was to assure the death of anyone on the grounds, rather than protecting the lab from inside the house. These Mutations would form the basis for almost all subsequent Mutations, with Chariot and Hangedman directly serving as the templates for both creature components in the boss Judgment in HotD2.
The House of the Dead 2 / Typing / Pinball
These Mutations were created by Goldman (utilising Curien's mutagen, with Magician being an almost exact replica of the original) to wreck havoc on the streets of Venice. Thus they were generously deployed throughout the city to sow chaos. Many of them claimed a particular territory for themselves, but were put down nontheless one by one by the AMS agents. Magician personally oversaw the defense of the Goldman Building as its one-man bouncer. Strength was created and deployed solely as a suicidal gladiator against the AMS, while Judgment, Hierophant, and Tower took over the various parts of the city (the streets, river canals and sewers respectively).
Goldman demonstrated his ability to repeatedly produce these creatures by resurrecting all of the fallen ones after the defeat of Strength, so as to challenge the AMS agents once again. However, having defeated them once before and having learned their weaknesses, the Mutations were once again put down by the AMS. Strength was never revived for undisclosed reasons. After Goldman witnessed the defeat of Emperor, he claimed that "a successor will come", and then committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of his headquarters.
Zombie Revenge
The House of the Dead III / Typing II
The House of the Dead 4 / Special
The House of the Dead EX
The House of the Dead: Overkill
Unlike the previous games, Overkill's bosses aren't named after cards of the Major Arcana. This is likely because most bosses in previous games were based on Dr. Curien's experiments, while the creatures in Overkill were created before Curien's descent into madness.
Chronological Order
- Jasper Guns
- The Screamer
- Nigel and Sebastian
- The Crawler
- The Lobber
- Brutus
- Clement's Mother
- The Chariot
- The Hangedman
- The Hermit
- The Magician
- Zeal and Kuarl, the Judgment
- The Hierophant
- The Tower
- The Strength
- The Emperor
- Justice
- The Lovers
- The Empress
- Temperance
- The Star
- The World
- Death
- The Fool
- The Sun
- The Wheel of Fate