Street Fighter IV - Balrog Vs Chun-li

Published 1 September, 2008 Duration 1:19

Well, you probably know him as Vega, actually. Apparently this is all due to a potential legal wrangle over the boxer, named Balrog in the Western releases, who was called M.Bison in the Japanese original. He was allegedly thusly named because his character was based on Mike Tyson. The potentially damaging lawsuit was averted by rotating the names, hence all the confusion.

Comments (13) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • illusiondance #1 4 years ago

    hmmm, i still want to give this a go, but why the hell have capcom made balrog even MORE of a muscle bound joke than his aplha/zero rendition.
    ...he could be sagat under that mask.

  • Biggles #2 4 years ago

    Am I the only one that thought the thumbnail for this was a little dodgy?

  • asphaltcowboy #3 4 years ago

    "Am I the only one that thought the thumbnail for this was a little dodgy?"

    gLOL! I came in just to see in the 2 existing comments had mentioned it! ;D

  • Slipstream #4 4 years ago

    Hahaha! I clicked the link for the same reason, xD
    Chun-Li fans ought to keep their desire for her behind closed doors if this is what we get...

  • knightmt #5 4 years ago

    Am I the only person who thinks this is vega and not Balrog, I thought Balrog was the Tisonesque boxer, where as this is the Spanish Matador with the claws. WTF

  • bushwod #6 4 years ago

    @knightmt

    I was thinking the samething. I know some of the name where swapped around from Japan to Europe but I didn't think Vega was one of them.

  • knightmt #7 4 years ago

    This does not make much sense as Vega is a spanish name and this guy is definately a matador, well was anyway.

  • Salato #8 4 years ago

    I read somewhere that in Japan M. Bison is named Vega, Vega is named Balrog, and Balrog is named M. Bison. Don't know if it's correct or not though.

  • asphaltcowboy #9 4 years ago

    The names were swapped around. From Wikipedia:

    "The character of Balrog was originally named M. Bison, with the letter being an initial for "Mike". According to the staff, the character was originally modeled after real-life boxer Mike Tyson. Under the suggestion that the character's name and likeness resembled Tyson to the point of infringement, the developers rotated the names of the boss characters for the English localization.[1] Thus, the African-American boxer M. Bison became Balrog; the Spanish clawman Balrog became Vega; and the evil mastermind Vega became M. Bison."

  • Danbojones Verified Senior Staff Writer, GamesIndustry International #10 4 years ago

    Do none of read my excellent captions? It's all there, tirelessly stolen from other sources, and you just ignore it.

  • asphaltcowboy #11 4 years ago

    @Danbojones

    Ah-ha! So you're responsible for that 'Zerg of the WH40K battlefield' comment!

    Heretic!

  • furyen #12 4 years ago

    why is vega being called balrog in this video?