- One half of the dire duo, the 'Boss has waited so long to see the Dragons fall. Now, with the Dark Queen's help, he's sure it'll be curtains for 'em all. - Official description from the manual
The Shadow Boss is one of the two antagonists from Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, representing the Double Dragon side of the two franchises. He is characterized as the longtime nemesis of the Lee brothers, who joins forces with the Dark Queen, the Battletoads' own arch-nemesis, to defeat their common foes.
The Shadow Boss shows up as the boss of Stage 6, titled "Shadow Boss Showdown", which is set inside the basement of an abandoned building. Throughout the stage, he lurks behind the columns in the corridor, until eventually showing up to confront the player. His techniques include a teleportation move, a rolling attack where he turns into a giant ball of spikes, and a grab move in which he holds his opponent by the head and punches him repeatedly. When he is defeated, the Shadow Boss disappears and leaves his mask behind.
Trivia
Since the developers at Rare were not familiar with the Double Dragon storyline and characters, the Shadow Boss is not based on a particular enemy, but rather is a loose amalgamation of various characters from the earlier games. He serves as the nemesis of the Lee brothers in the same way Willy did in the original arcade game, while the Shadow Boss' name itself comes from Jimmy Lee's title as the secret leader of the Black Warriors in the NES version of the same game. He also has some visual similarities to Burnov from Double Dragon II: The Revenge, as they're both masked shirtless wrestlers who grab their opponents by the head and they both disappear when they're defeated, leaving behind their masks. However, whereas the Shadow Boss has a lean, muscular build, Burnov is normally portrayed as obese.