Thank you so much for the very detailed feedback.
The boss was added last and we didn't get the time to refine it. Our artist did a great job adding the hurt states so it's nice to see someone appreciated it explicitly :)
Before the boss healthbar appears, touching any part will hurt you. Once the healthbar appears, there are two hitboxes: one going from the head and across the neck which will hurt you, and a body one which hurts the boss.
On the afternoon of the deadline I was frantically trying to add skeletal animation to it so the movement looked smooth, but did not manage to get it working in time, so we stuck with sprite animation and the boss following a fixed path around the level.
And I have yet to play Spore :)