Balrog


 * For the claw-wielder named Balrog in Japan, see Vega.

"I'll make you regret that you were ever born. You two-bit chump!"

- Balrog to Chun-Li

"Just try an' stop me! (Don't Stop Me!)"

- Balrog (Street Fighter IV series)

Balrog, known as M. Bison (マイク・バイソン) in Japan, is a character from the Street Fighter series. He first appeared as a boss character in Street Fighter II.

Appearance
Balrog is a tall, heavily built and very muscular black boxer. He wears blue boxing trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top. He wears red boxing gloves and boxing shoes. His hairstyle consists of short hair in what appears to be wide cornrows; this hairstyle is similar to Mike Tyson's haircuts from the time Street Fighter II was released. Official artworks at the time also depicted him sans a canine tooth in the upper right side of his mouth.

Name change
When Street Fighter II was localized in the United States, Capcom was afraid of a lawsuit from Mike Tyson over a character with his likeness and a similar sounding name (his Japanese name being Mike Bison). Additionally, when the designers presented the game to Capcom USA's marketing department, they believed that the name Vega was a weakling's name. They decided to rotate the names of three of the four boss characters in the following manner:


 * The boxer is known as M. Bison in Japan and Balrog in the U.S.
 * The Spanish assassin/bullfighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega in the U.S.
 * The evil dictator and head of Shadaloo is known as Vega in Japan and M. Bison in the U.S.

In certain illustrations, including ones for the Street Fighter II series, his Japanese name, "Bison", can be seen on the waistband of his trunks, although it is usually removed when these illustrations are published outside Japan. In later games, the word "Champion" appears in its place. Many of his moves retain their bison/buffalo theme.

Personality
Balrog is generally self-centered, hot-tempered, arrogant, and sadistic. He is a belligerent pugilist who possesses an insatiable urge for money and a vicious, bullying mean streak, often refusing to take responsibility for his actions. Despite being a once great prize boxer, Balrog has intentionally cheated in his fights whenever he felt like it, and has even killed one of his opponents (though by accident).

Balrog is also shown to be somewhat unintelligent; when M. Bison was believed to be dead after the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, the role of leader of the organization fell to him, and it collapsed immediately, which forced him to work security at casinos and other places just to get by.

His motivations for joining Shadaloo and M. Bison throughout the Street Fighter series have always been to attain massive wealth, fame and glory so he can be on easy street for life. As such, though Balrog would cheat, steal or even kill to this end, he is not evil so much as he is greedy, and takes little substantial interest in Shadaloo affairs otherwise; he also relates to characters with similar motivations (e.g. C. Viper).

Balrog also displays an extreme affinity for women, with Chun-Li being the only exception. He also greatly despises Vega, his occasional partner as an assassin working for Bison, due to his "pretty boy" persona.

Background
Rising from a childhood of poverty, Balrog was once a great boxing champion and prize fighter. He was banned from boxing for permanently injuring his opponents and accidentally killing one (as well as his illegal maneuvers, particularly his headbutt), so he joined the Shadaloo criminal organization, and worked his way up from the bottom, eventually becoming M. Bison's chief enforcer.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
"Balrog is the former heavyweight boxing champion. This Shadaloo executive worked his way up from the lower ranks. Armed with the world's strongest punches, his ambition continues."

- Balrog's Profile in Street Fighter Alpha 3

While running errands for Bison, he killed Dhalsim's elephant with a single Gigaton Punch. In one mission, Balrog was sent to terminate Birdie. Although he did not know why, Balrog went anyway. Birdie told him about the Psycho Drive, and Balrog agreed to help him find it, thinking he could make money from it. When the Psycho Drive exploded, Balrog realized that he had not been paid recently.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo
When Bison was killed at the hands of Akuma, ownership of Shadaloo was transferred to the former prize fighter. Unfortunately, he ended up running the entire organization into the ground in no time. After the fall of Shadaloo, Balrog was back on the streets, working menial jobs (such as casino security, as seen in his Street Fighter IV intro cutscene).

Ultra Street Fighter IV
However, when Bison makes his return with the construction of his new body, Balrog is immediately brought back into the organization, hired by Bison to guard Bison's replacement bodies, which Balrog refers to as "dolls". Balrog is not satisfied with this, however, and forms a new get-rich-quick scheme. He manages to make his way into the S.I.N. building (along with fellow agent Vega).

While looking for treasure (possibly anything he could sell), he stumbles across a young, bandaged child begging for help. Balrog is apathetic, until a mark in the shape of the Shadaloo symbol begins to glow on the child's hand. Realizing the child could hold some valuable secrets, Balrog takes the child away (saying along the way, "This must be my lucky day!"). However, when he questions the child on what powers the child has, who reveals to be powerless alone. Balrog, disappointed, says the child is worthless. Nevertheless, Balrog remains optimistic that the child will be valuable later; he picks the child up and walks off with it, while the child's hand glows again.

Capcom vs. SNK games
Balrog appeared playable in Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000, Capcom vs. SNK 2 and SVC Chaos.

Street Fighter X Tekken
In Street Fighter X Tekken, Balrog is sent alongside Vega to retrieve Pandora. The two despise each other, but continue to work as a team, if only in order to obtain Pandora for themselves. Their rivals are Yoshimitsu and Raven, who ambush them during their travels.

Balrog and Vega's ending depicts Balrog attempting to open the box, but Vega decides to kill Balrog instead for sole possession of the box. Both are taken over by the influence of Pandora, and proceed to attack each other.

After the credits roll, a post-ending shows Balrog's fate. If the player defeated Ogre with Balrog, he wins the fight and kills Vega, obtaining Pandora for himself. Balrog then uses its powers to finish off his enemies, starting with his former boss M. Bison If the player defeated Ogre with Vega, Balrog loses the fight against Vega and is killed.

Street Fighter 1994 film
In the 1994 live action film, he was portrayed by Grand L. Bush and was one of the good guys, more specifically the camera-man in Chun-Li's news-crew. Like the other members (Chun-Li and E. Honda), Balrog held a grudge against Shadaloo for ruining his boxing career. Near the end of the film, he dons his regular outfit from the games.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
In the film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Balrog is portrayed by Michael Clarke Duncan. His role in Shadaloo remains unchanged, being one of Bison's loyal enforcers alongside Vega.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Balrog is portrayed close to his original role in the games, which is largely as dumb-muscle for Bison. Interestingly enough, he does not don his boxing gloves when he fights E. Honda. He is voiced by Joe Romersa in the English dub and Joji Nakata in the Japanese version. He first appears in the series as a representative Shadaloo at a criminal convention in Las Vegas, where he watches a battle between Zangief and Blanka. Later, he accompanies M. Bison to Thailand for the final showdown. While Bison battles Guile and a brainwashed Ken battles Ryu, Balrog battles E. Honda.

Though Balrog has the upper hand initially, repeatedly punching and head butting Honda in quick succession, Honda strikes back with a head butt of his own. The two charge at each other and the impact of their collision causes both of them to hurtle off a cliff side. The rest of their fight is not shown; Honda defeats Balrog, and is seen carrying his unconscious body up the mountainside following Bison's defeat.

Street Fighter 1995 cartoon series
In the 1995 animated series, Street Fighter, Balrog is not only a boxer but also a scientist (in contrary to his trademark "brainless muscle" stereotype) who programmes Shadaloo computers for M. Bison, with his storyline intact. Even though the series follows the movie, Balrog and Dee Jay's personalities seem to have been switched during production. He is voiced by Paul Dobson.

Street Fighter II V
In the anime series Street Fighter II V, Balrog, despite not being a boxer, still works for Shadaloo as a spy with the task of infiltrating the police forces in charge of investigating and foiling Shadaloo's criminal activities and reporting such operations directly to M. Bison, while posing aside the law officers as a legitimate Interpol executive. Using this disguise, he tricks Cammy - who in the series works as a mercenary assassin and has no relation with Shadaloo - into assassinating federal Hong Kong police officer Dorai after telling her that he is the supposed drug lord in Chinese branch of Shadaloo's drug route - but Do Rai survives later on, despite his heavy injuries. After fighting Fei Long (who was protecting the still-alive Do Rai), Cammy realizes she has been deceived by Balrog and attacks him the same way she did to Do Rai, but without killing him. Cammy then quits the job and hands the badly mauled Balrog down to Fei Long.

Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind
He makes a cameo appearance in Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind, sitting inside of the Shadaloo Aircraft that Seth escapes into at the end of the movie. He doesn't have any lines.

Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game
In Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game, it is stated that Mr. Ray has been Balrog's manager from his pro-boxing days to his time with the Street Fighter Circuit. Also, Balrog is training Samson Jr., the son of an old friend from the streets.

Fan film
Balrog is the focus of the short documentary fan film, Balrog: Behind the Glory, debuted on Evolution 2011 Championships. The short film was produced by Chubby Boy Films. The film depicts the brief history of Balrog, his childhood story of being bullied and fighting against the bullies, his training from his father who also once boxed, his winning success in his boxing career and popularity in the media, his marriage and divorce with a supermodel, how he was being taken advantage of managers and business due to his greed, his controversial headbutt that killed a boxer, thus resulting into a disqualification-ban in boxing and arrest, his path into Mad Gear and Shadaloo, and what has happened to him afterwards. The documentary interviewed Balrog's father Greg Bison, a book author Micah Shultz who wrote about the rise and fall of Shadowloo, and former Trainer Tim Tashun.

Gameplay and fighting style
An unskilled but strong boxer, Balrog relies on punching speed and raw strength, giving him strong normal attacks. The majority of his moveset is composed of several variations of dashing punches, including his Super Combos. There is, however, a certain amount of versatility to his moveset; among his punches are uppercuts, smash blows, and overhead swings, which can keep the opponent guessing if used well.

As boxers, he and Dudley are the only characters in the Street Fighter series whose movesets are almost entirely comprised of arm-based moves (punches, elbows etc.); their polar opposite is Elena, whose moveset consists solely of leg-based moves (kicks, knees etc.). Balrog will also resort to moves considered illegal in boxing whenever he sees fit. His moveset usually includes a headbutt, and during his second Ultra Combo in Super Street Fighter IV, he grabs and headbutts the opponent, then stomps on their foot - the only time he uses his foot at all in the games - and finally nails them with an elbow shot.

Trivia

 * It is possible that Balrog is one of the street fighters to make debut in the original game (1987). Here, an African-American boxer named Mike is introduced. Not only that Mike looks like his Street Fighter II counterpart but his moveset is also quite similar to Balrog's. Supporting the theory that these two are actually one and the same is the fact that Balrog is called Mike Bison in Japan.
 * Capcom however, because of lawsuit issues, have been very insistent that Balrog and Mike were always meant to be two different characters. On 2010-03-26, assistant producer of Street Fighter IV, Natsuki Shiozawa, wrote on Capcom's official blog that "One probably would believe it's one and the same character!".
 * The fact that Balrog only uses punches is referenced in the collegehumor.com parody Street Fighter: The Later Years. When Dhalsim asks, "Do you kick?", Balrog responds, "What's a kick?".
 * T.J. Combo from Killer Instinct has a similar moveset, physical appearance and fighting style to Balrog, but he throws knees and kicks while Balrog does not.
 * In Street Fighter IV, in one of the African stages (Small Airfield), there is a black S.I.N. plane that Balrog can be seen in the door of the plane (he will rudely open the door with a punch). If Balrog is selected, Vega will be in the plane instead. If Balrog and Vega are selected, M. Bison himself appears in the plane.
 * In Final Fight: Streetwise, if the player goes in Mike Haggar's gym and looks closely at the posters on the wall, it says "Dudley vs. Balrog".
 * Balrog is shown with all his teeth in the Street Fighter IV sub-series, while in the past games, he has a missing canine tooth on the upper right side of his mouth.
 * Balrog is the only one of the four bosses from Street Fighter II that does not appear in the Street Fighter EX games.
 * Balrog's win quote from Street Fighter II through Hyper Fighting is written incorrectly ("My fists will have your blood of them!"). This is corrected in Super Street Fighter II and onwards ("My fists have your blood on them!"). The SNES versions of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting and Super Street Fighter II replaced this quote with "Get up, you wimp!", more likely due to the Nintendo's strict policy of censorship at the time.
 * Balrog has had amusingly bad facial expressions and animations in several of his appearances. This is most apparent in his fight against E. Honda near the end of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and in the games when Balrog gets hit, his eyes constantly look in different directions of one another. Earlier in the same movie, his buttoned shirt flies open for apparently no reason when watching Zangief fight. Interestingly enough, when fighting E. Honda in the movie, he doesn't wear his boxing gloves.
 * The explanation for Balrog's shirt flying open is: during his fight against Blanka in the circuit cage scene, Zangief points towards Balrog in a "I'm gonna crush you!" attitude. Balrog, enraged, breathes in and flexes out his muscles, causing the shirt to burst open and show his abdominals in a "Bring it on, I don't fear you!" gesture.
 * In the manga Ryu Final, it is said that after Shadaloo was destroyed and Gill established himself, Balrog went into the wrestling world.
 * Balrog resembles Clubber Lang from the Rocky film series. Both sport blue and white trunks and unorthodox hairstyles for boxers. They also share a belligerent attitude and similar aggressive boxing style, though Balrog incorporates more cheating and Lang uses cleaner tactics.

Quotes

 * See Balrog/Quotes.