Street Fighter II/M. Bison

Click here for more information about M. Bison's other fighting game appearances.

M. Bison is the primary boss of Street Fighter II. M. Bison is a "charge character" in that, his special moves require that you hold in directions for a few seconds before pulling a move off. Although never explicitly defined, it has been speculated that the M stands for "Master" or "Major". It originally stood for Mike when the name was applied to Balrog in the Japanese version, as a play on the name "Mike Tyson".

His general attire consists of a red military uniform with large silver shoulder plates, wrist bands, and shin guards; on his cap is the skull insignia of his crime syndicate known as Shadoloo (sometimes referred to as Shadowlaw or Shadowloo). Bison's eyes lack both pupils and irises (exception in "Street Fighter II"), leaving them a ghastly white color. He sports a dark colored cape in the Alpha series, in which he appears with his original body. In Street Fighter II and the Capcom vs SNK series, he appears with a much slimmer body, and removes his cape before battle.

Background
Next to nothing is known about Bison's youth and his early years, even as to when he was born (most game manuals list his birth year as unknown), but he appears to be in his late 40's to mid 50's although he could be much older - some speculate he is above the 100's despite his not-so-old appearance. His first appearance, chronologically speaking, was in Street Fighter Alpha, as the head of an elusive criminal and military organization known as Shadoloo. Along with his aspirations for world conquest, M. Bison had been working on perfecting a lethal and deadly energy that would exponentially increase his fighting ability, an inherently evil energy he refers to as "Psycho Power".

M. Bison held the second Street Fighter tournament to get revenge against the people who had destroyed the Psycho Drive. His new body was much weaker than the previous, but he was still very powerful. In the end, he was destroyed by Akuma, who killed him with the Shun Goku Satsu and sent his soul to hell to be destroyed. Bison was not heard of in Street Fighter III, and Chun-Li's mid-boss dialogue with Urien in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike suggests that Shadoloo was destroyed.