Why don't non-fighting games use AI?

In a fighter, you're using your wits against a computer driven opponent who tries to perform moves to ensure its own survival and the defeat of the player.  The player must respond with skill, though sometimes luck is involved.

Why don't bosses in, say, beateumps use AI?  You'd expect Ryu Hayabusa, or Shinobi, or Wolverine, or the Hulk, or even Spiderman to have to face bosses who can outwit and outthink players, but instead, most bosses rely on patterns of attack, defense, and response to player actions.  In other words, you can tell when a boss is about to attack, about to have an opening for attack, about to stop attacking, about to be invincible for a little while, about to be vulnerable, and about to unleash some cheeseball move.  Compare Ryu Hayabusa fighting the first boss in Ninja Gaiden to Ryu Hayabusa fighting in Dead or Alive 3.   

Would it be that hard to have bosses think for themselves rather than using patterns reminiscent of old NES games?  Would it really take system resources in a 1 on 1 boss fight?  Would it really be too hard to go through a normal level and THEN fight a smart boss? 

Other games that might benefit from AI but rely on patterns instead include:  2D Shooters, 3D platformers, licensed games, and 3D space shooters.  Third person shooters and other action games also.

Fighting games are a very focused genre. There are only X amount of situations that can occur in many games, and while a good fighting game should never have a BEST option, a decent AI will be able to make the choice when there are two or three options. In VF, for example, the basic guessing game is between a mid attack (which must be guarded high and will hit if guarded low) and a throw (which will connect if you're guarding high, but not if you duck). There are a thousand other two-choice situations the player can create, and AI can be programmed to be very good in these situations (as seen, again, in VF4, pretty easily the strongest fighting game AI there is, but still far, far behind an advanced human player).

The more variables, the tougher it gets to make AI that works for them. Most game genres don't have that kind of design, where there are two or three particularly good attack options. In Ninja Gaiden, the guys are still pretty dumb, but they defend well, and they know to hit you in the back while you're busy. Not too smart, but smart enough to have the potential to kill you. In Hurricane Pack 2, incidentally, the guys just kind of block everything and punish the hell out of you. I don't know if that counts as AI or just making the enemy obscenely strong.

As for beatemups and 2d shooters, much of the idea is that the player is fighting the pattern. If you fought a bunch of really smart enemies in a beatemup, they'd kill you every time. All they need to do is get one on each side of you, and you're in a situation where you MUST take damage (either via special move or via getting beat the fuck up). Think about the firepower bosses have in 2d shooters. If they DIDN'T fire in those patterns and actually made a conscious attempt to aim for you, you'd be dead in a second. These genres are about overcoming ridiculous odds through the sheer stupidity of the enemy.

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