Balrog (Street Fighter)

Balrog, also known as Boxer, Destroyer of Rules, Legendary Champion, M.Bison, Mike Bison, The Blood-Crazed Bull, The Roaring Buffalo and Violent Boxer, is a character from the Street Fighter series.
== Charactah Account ==
Balrog is a disgraced heavyweight boxer and one of Shadaloo's Four Devas; he joined the organization after his excessive violence got him kicked out of the pro boxing world. After M. Bison's disappearance, Balrog spends all of the riches gained from his employment, ending up right back where he started.
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 and mean streak, often refusing to take responsibility for his actions. Despite being a once great prize boxer, Balrog 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 lack leadership skills; 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 lack of skill in pursuits other than fighting has been attributed to his unruly and delinquent youth, as his pursuit of strength and dominance in the mean streets of his home city led him to drop out of school.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
* Street Fighter II: The Animated Series
=== Cartoons ===
* Street Fighter: The Animated Series
=== Video Games ===
* Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium
* Capcom Arcade Hits Volume 1
* Capcom Arcade Stadium
* Capcom Classics Collection
* Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
* Capcom Classics Collection: Volume 2
* Capcom Digital Collection
* Capcom Fighting Collection
* Capcom Fighting Evolution
* Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium
* Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000
* Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro
* Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition
* Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter
* Monster Strike
* NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol.1
* Noite Animal
* SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium
* Street Fighter 6
* Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection
* Street Fighter Alpha 3
* Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX
* Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
* Street Fighter Battle Combination
* Street Fighter Collection
* Street Fighter Collection 2
* Street Fighter Duel
* Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting
* Street Fighter II': Champion Edition
* Super Street Fighter II: The Tournament Battle
* Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
* Street Fighter III: New Generation
* Street Fighter IV
* Street Fighter IV Champion Edition
* Street Fighter IV Volt
* Street Fighter IV: Arena
* Street Fighter Series
* Street Fighter V
* Street Fighter X All Capcom
* Street Fighter X Mega Man
* Street Fighter X Tekken
* Super Street Fighter II
* Super Street Fighter II Turbo
* Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
* Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival
* Super Street Fighter IV
* Super Street Fighter IV: Pachislot Edition
* SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom
* Teppen
* The Capcom Collection
* Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers
* Ultra Street Fighter IV
== Trivia ==
* Due to his regional name differences, Balrog is often referred to in the international community as "Boxer".
* Due to his appearance, moveset and Japanese name, Balrog was speculated to have been an updated version of the African-American boxer Mike, one of the computer-controlled opponents in the original 1987 game. However, Capcom has insisted that, despite these similarities, they were always intended to be two separate characters. The Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia (hardcover version) also lists them as separate individuals as does the Street Fighter V website, which has a separate character page for Mike and redesigned artwork for him.
* In Street Fighter IV, in the background of the Small Airfield stage, there is a black S.I.N. plane where Balrog can be seen in the door of the plane (he will 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.
** This is a reference to the international name change between the three fighters.
* In Street Fighter IV, Balrog yells "My fight money!" when knocked out; this circulated as a joke within the playerbase and was ultimately referenced in Street Fighter V with the Fight Money mechanic.
* 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.
** This could indicate that Balrog wears a prosthetic tooth in later games.
* Balrog is the only one of the four bosses from Street Fighter II that does not appear in the Street Fighter EX games.
** It should also be noted that despite Balrog not appearing in the EX series, a character named Cracker Jack shares a similar fighting style with him, down to using special and super moves and techniques with the same names and appearances.
* In the arcade versions of the CPS1 installments of Street Fighter II, Balrog's win quote is written incorrectly ("My fists have your blood of them!"). This is corrected in Super Street Fighter II and onwards ("My fists have your blood on them!"); the word "still" is added to the quote in both Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix ("My fists still have your blood on them."). Super Street Fighter IV inserts the expression "Damn!" to the beginning of the quote ("Damn! My fists have your blood on them!"). The Super NES and Sega Genesis ports of the Street Fighter II sub-series, as well as Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers for the Nintendo Switch, all replaced this quote with "Get up, you wimp!", and "Hey, what happened? I'm not through with you yet!", likely due to Nintendo of America's strict censorship policy at the time.
* In the CPS2 installments of Street Fighter II, if the player presses Heavy Punch (Fierce) to select Balrog, giving him his color scheme from Hyper Fighting, he will appear with a darker skin tone, and green boxing gloves. In the CPS1 Hyper Fighting, the color changes are applied to his clothing only; his skin tone color remains unchanged from the original color scheme, and his boxing gloves keep the same red color as the original scheme.
* One of Balrog's rotating win quotes in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is "My punches are stronger than your kicks", which does not fit in a mirror match because Balrog does not do kicks.
* 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, he appears cross-eyed.
* In the manga Street Fighter III: Ryu Final, it is said that after Shadaloo was destroyed and Gill established himself, Balrog went into the wrestling world.
* In Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Balrog is shown to be much older than Chun-Li, while his official birth date indicates that he is six months and three days younger than her.
* On the Street Fighter II casino stage, the nickname of the game's lead designer, Akira Nishitani (Nin Nin), can be seen on the sign for the background casino called "Golden Nugget: Nin Nin Hall". In the remastered version of the stage for Street Fighter V, the casino was renamed "Golden Bullion: Shadaloo Hall"; the word "Nugget" was likely changed to "Bullion" as not to step on the toes of a real life casino of the same name, while Akira has long since left Capcom to form Arika.
* In Street Fighter V, if the story mode costume is selected, during his win animation Balrog's sunglasses will have a reflection of either Bison or Ryu, depending on the side he's facing.
* Despite Balrog's height being officialy listed as 6'4" (193 cm), the Lair of the Four Kings stage (when knocked to the left corner) list it as 6'6" (198 cm).
* In Devil May Cry 5, one of Dante's weapons was named after Balrog.
* In the World Warrior, Balrog is the only character in the game to have "transition frames" when he crouches and stands that can not be interrupted by Inputs.
== Gallery ==
File:Balrog (Street Fighter) Render 01.png
File:Balrog (Street Fighter) Render 02.png
File:Balrog (Street Fighter) Render 03.png
File:Balrog (Street Fighter) Render 04.png
File:Balrog (Street Fighter) Render 05.png
== External Links ==
* Balrog at Street Fighter Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Street Fighter