He is one of the unforgettable characters of the Street Fighter series, with his iron fist, his thick head in places because he is a boxer but he is a boster, his white striped shorts and his top that looks like his arms were deliberately torn!
Balrog!
Although Balrog seems to have appeared in the World Warrior version of the second game for the first time in the Street Fighter series, it is actually quite similar to one of the enemies in the first game. In fact, in this context, it can be said that the characters in the first game are like the prototypes of the characters in the series, which has become a huge brand these days.
As a matter of fact, in the first game, an African-American man who participated in the fight at the Mount Rushmore monument with his red top and blue pants almost signaled that he would be the Balrog in the future. But for now, his name is Mike, and we’ll talk about that in a moment.
Approximately 4 years after the first Street Fighter game released in 1987, the Street Fighter 2 game, which we all know, perhaps the whole world, is released. Her blue-colored outfit, which almost never changes in the next games, will become an icon for herself. He is also one of the 4 bosses at the end of the game.
In the original Street Fighter game, Capcom had a marketing scare.
Street Fighter 2, which we probably played as kids, was the American version. But there are some differences in the Japanese version of the game in question. I summarized this in the Street Fighter article , but let’s go over it briefly.
In the Japanese version Street Fighter game; Balrog is M.Bison, M.Bison is Vega, and Vega is Balrog.
While the game, which was released in Japan in this way, was exported to other countries of the world, especially to America, it was decided to make a few changes. Because the boxer character designed as M. Bison is almost identical to the former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, both in name and appearance.
In fact, I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that the profile picture on the character screen of the game is like Mike Tyson’s 8-bit version.
Therefore, the character designed as M.Bison is changed to Balrog and thus finds its place in other countries of the world.
By the way, some sources say that the champion became aware of this issue years and years later, saying ‘I am really honored that they imitated me’.
As a matter of fact, we can say that Capcom was unnecessarily worried at some point. Think about it, the character in the game is inspired by you. They make the name similar to you, the design similar to you. Who wants to oppose it?
The Story of Street Fighter Balrog
When we look at the background story of the character, we see that he had a bad childhood. Balrog, who had a poor background before, started doing this job professionally after the days when he was introduced to boxing. These are good days. The place where he lives has a great reputation in Las Vegas. But he is banned from boxing because he permanently injures his opponents and kills one of them as well.
Since Balrog values money more than victory, this incident leads him to join the Shadaloo organization.
Ultimately, the series’ worst character becomes the chief executioner of dictator M. Bison.
Balrog in the Street Fighter Movie
In the 1994 film Street Fighter, which was not related to Street Fighter, Balrog was played by American actor Grand Lee Bush.
Let’s end this article here by saying that the character of Balrog in Street Fighter The Legend of Chun-li, which is also said to have little to do with Street Fighter, was brought to life by Michael Clarke Duncan, whom we know from the award-winning film Green Road.
If you want to watch this article as a video, you can take a look at the link below.
Take care of yourself, stay healthy, my effeminate.
References;
streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Balrog
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balrog_(Street_Fighter)
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