Cheat codes seem to have disappeared in the new games. Does anyone remember all the games that had cheat codes for the old systems like the N64 and PS1, it was about 98% of them had cheat codes.
Bosses have not gone away fully there are still in games but in fewer and fewer.I liked it when at the end of every the level there was a boss to battle and now its maybe there are 2 or 3 bosses placed in the game.(This part about the bosses could be false,it could just be the games I own)

Games are evolving - a lot of games don't even have levels any more. It's a shame but I think cheats codes are relics of retro games now bud

well i still hope GTA 4 has the guns and car cheat code

Cheat codes are far from gone if you use Action Replay or something similar. You're talking about cheats that are built-in to the game, right? I liked it better when you could unlock them, then go back through the game with them on. But, cheat codes would ruin the experience of most games that I can think of nowadays.

...and shouldn't this topic go under "Retro"?

While it is true that there are a lack of "cheat codes", I definitely miss having bosses in games. I loved the games that had a big bad boss at the end of each and every level rather than just one sub-par battle at the end of the game. There are a few games in the recent years that have been pretty good at including bosses, namely Kingdom Hearts...

yah, I miss bosses, but in some games bosses don't belong, like in COD 4, would you really wan't to fight some super terrorist?

and there should be more cheat codes in games.

I'd like to see them introduced in XBLA style games - but I agree with ChorleyDominic, modern titles are too sophisticated to have cheat codes.

SSBB looks like it will have some nice boss battles, an as for cheat codes, Here are 3 I remember from GTA vice city
R R B BLack Up down up down up down, gets rid of stars
same as last one except left right left right left right, adds stars
R Black L A up down up down up down, body armor, I think it gives you body armor and money in San Andreas.
Also about the bosses, I miss them because I am a fan of those epic boss fights with huge bosses, something which SSBB wil have

What did happen to bosses? I bought legend of zelda Phatnom Hourglass and there are like four bosses in it.

I'm surprised there are less cheat codes because of the fact that gaming is gathering a large casual audience. Cheat codes could make the game easier, more humorous, etc. for them. Bosses, on the other hand, are suffering because of casual gamers. A soccer mom doesn't want to sit around and try to kill one huge demon from hell. She wants to kill many! a. because it relieves stress and b. because it is easier and c. you can just jump in and play with tons of monsters, whereas with a boss you want to go at it all at once.

well i've been thinking about this and well have an idea as to why bosses are going.

bosses used to be the challenging enemy that would test out the player to the best of his abilty in the way that normal enemies couldn't. Bosses could kill you easily, you had to put effort in to defeat it, it wasn't like taking out 50 bad guys without a single hit.

Now think to todays games, what is here instead of the easy to defeat bad guys, who provides the challenge? multiplayer. there you can be easily killed, have to put lots of effort in usually to win a game. it is where we test ourselves out.

so i put it that we are each others bosses.
May i be the first to say, i call flame balls!:D

I kind of miss cheat codes in a way. Obviously they couldn't be used in multiplayer, and I would never use a cheat when I was playing a game seriously, but they could really make a game fun for when you're in a more "casual" mood. I guess that means they all appeal to casual gamers.

But frankly, bosses just don't work as well with most games nowadays in my opinion. Most retro boss battles were about dodging the overpowered attacks of the boss until the perfect moment came for you to attack him in the exact right way to hurt him. Rinse and repeat, but next time the boss's attacks are harder to avoid, and the next time it's even harder, etc.

I think that perhaps the spiritual successors to boss battles are arena battles -- climactic points in a game where you are trapped with a specific limit of maneuvering space, and must fight many enemies that, while not unfamiliar, are in higher numbers than you have encountered them before, and you will have to be at the top of your game to succeed. That eliminates the sometimes (often) trial and error of finding out how to kill a boss, and replaces it with a situation where you know how to win, but winning is significantly harder than usual.

Arena battles are more fun to me. They keep me immersed in the game but still manage to give me the feeling that I am at a key point in it at the same time. If I die a lot it is more often because the game is hard gameplaywise rather than hard because I haven't figured out the boss's "weak spot" yet. Beating such a part because I know I played well enough feels more rewarding. So boss battles are fun in their own right, but what I see as their replacement is a step forward.

they were only really useful before memory cards where you could type in a password to reach the level you last played. cod4 has some cool unlockable cheats.

your right, it's because of the internet and the expantion of the internet has made finding out Cheat codes much less fun. So if somebody puts in a bad ass cheat that is almost impossible to have. That would kick ass.

GH3 has cheat codes but most arent usable online or n career mode. anyway nowadyas its shifted to glitching

I really liked the way Dead Rising had bosses. Most boss battles were optional to the main plot. They were all very different with various difficulty levels.

As much as I liked Crackdown, the boss battles were very poorly done. The only two bosses that stand out in my mind are the final boss and the boss in the patroleum factory where you had to blow up the pipelines in the building before you could take him out.

Bioshock's last fight should be considered a boss battle but it was probably the easiest boss battle I've ever played. Didn't die once.

I'm sure that Ninja Gaiden 2 will have it's fair share of impossible bosses.

yuck, the dead rising bosses made me put it down and never come back to it... i mean, you're running around the mall finding survivors and it is fairly challenging, then you hit a boss and it's like the hardest thing in the world... the difficulty curve in that game when fighting bosses is insane... too much, in my opinion.

The final boss in Kingdom Hearts 1 was borderline ridiculous, all 500 versions of him... same with the final boss in Rogue Galaxy (which is a fantastic cell-shaded WRPG style game for PS2). Both of these games have bosses throughout the entire game.

i think Venom hit the nail on the head saying bosses have been replaced by arena fighting... uncharted comes to mind.

yeah....i still like cheat codes where even with the code, you cant use it unil you beat the game. And come on, you know the guys with bombers on their heads made MoH:RS pretty funny!

How ace would boss battles be in multiplayer? For example, a group of you trying to take down a scarab in Halo?

I think Left 4 Dead is going to be using that kind of gameplay - hundreds of AI zombies and then 4 player controlled super zombies.

I wish games would have more fun cheat codes like the cod4 tire one. that awsome and really funny.

O and where have all the cheats gone well on xblm u can pay for them now

How ace would boss battles be in multiplayer? For example, a group of you trying to take down a scarab in Halo?

I think Left 4 Dead is going to be using that kind of gameplay - hundreds of AI zombies and then 4 player controlled super zombies.

well, in the free online game BOTS, you have robots destroying viruses. You can fight other people, but story is the same draw, and at the end of each "network" Is the main virus....but because it drops a box when killed, many people cheat by letting everyone lose health on the minor viruses, then get wasted by the boss, and finish him off themselves.

The thing is that games have been getting a lot easier and appealing to a more general audience...so cheats are not needed as much. Take BioShock for a prime example. How often do you find Vita-Chambers? (rhetorical question)

Cheat codes are still on handheld titles, though.
Not all of them, but they are there.