Conception and Development
In Japan, the character of Balrog is named M. Bison, with the letter being an initial for "Mike", and is intended as a parody of real-life boxer Mike Tyson. However, when the game was to be ported for worldwide audiences, under the suggestion that the character's name and likeness resembled Tyson to the point of infringement, the developers rotated the names of three of the boss characters for the English localization. As they felt the name Vega was better suited for the androgynous bullfighter, they gave him the character's previous name, Balrog, and changed the name of the game's final boss to M. Bison. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Balrog tells some of his defeated opponents that he's going to "bite ear off", a reference to Tyson's infamous "Bite Fight" with Evander Holyfield. Although usually removed when these illustrations are published outside Japan, some character illustrations feature his Japanese name, "Bison" on the waistband of his trunks. In Street Fighter IV, the waistband now reads "Champion". At 6' 5" (195 cm), Balrog was one of the tallest fighters in Street Fighter beside Zangief, Sagat and Hugo.
A character named Mike, who was also an African-American boxer, appears in the original Street Fighter. Although recognized as a separate character, Mike is considered to be a prototype of Balrog due to their similar names (when one considers Balrog's Japanese name of Mike Bison) and backstories.
Read more about this topic: Balrog (Street Fighter)
Famous quotes containing the words conception and, conception and/or development:
“We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp.... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)