Hot Head

Hot Head is the boss of Turtle Rock in Link's Awakening. He is a fiery head that dwells in the lava pit of Turtle Rock. Hot Head resembles giant Podoboo, the living fireballs from the Super Mario series, also encountered in this dungeon. He also resembles Fryguy who was a boss in Super Mario Bros. 2 and a character in some other Mario-related media. He attacks Link to prevent him from playing the Instrument of the Sirens. After Hot Head is defeated, he will also state that Koholint Island is just part of the Wind Fish's dream.

Strategy
In battle, Hot Head will go in and out of the lava and shoot fire. If hit by the magic rod, his fiery appearances will lessen. It can be easily defeated by using the Magic Rod. Link just needs to rapidly fire the Magic Rod while aiming at Hot Head. Link must be careful not to be hit by either Hot Head or the splashes of lava that appear when he jumps into lava. It will cause an enormous amount of damage (4 hearts). Defeating this boss gets him the Thunder Drum.

Trivia

 * Hot Head's Japanese name (Degu Fureimu) is made of the words "Degu", a made-up adjective that basically means "Big" or "Great" in the Zelda series, and "Flame". Thus, its Japanese name could be translated to as "Great Flame"; which is also the name of the boss in the Death Mountain dungeon in Four Swords. It should be noted that although both have a similar appearance, Hot Head's name is generally written using katakana, while Great Flame's is only written with kanji.
 * It is strange that Hot Head is weak to fire. The reasons of this are:
 * the Magic Rod's projectiles are present in the form of Fireballs;
 * he lives in lava;
 * he is made of fire.