Bosses? But isn’t Seth the final boss in Street Fighter IV? Yes, Seth is the final boss. And his name is awesome stupid. Capcom might as well have named this formidible opponent Horace or Bob. In any event, what I mean when I refer to “The Bosses” is that in the original Street Fighter 2, after having beaten all eight world warriors, you’d go on to fight each of the four boss characters in sequence: Balrog the boxer, Vega the masked Spanish narcissist, Sagat the Muay Thai boxer, and finally M.Bison the dictator. These are the four characters I’ll be discussing today.

Firstly, Balrog. Balrog is rated very highly in character rankings, and people who know how to play him well are very hard to beat. But he’s one of two or three characters in the game that I find myself unable to play. I’m just terrible with Balrog. I hate holding the three buttons to charge his punches, I have trouble pulling off his headbut while continuing to charge backwards, and I have a hard time getting him within punching range of anyone throwing fireballs. Still, I know he’s a good character because even though I suck with him, I nearly beat Seth the first time I fought him. Completing the game with Balrog was nearly as easy as completing the game with Sagat.

Also, an interesting bit of trivia about Balrog that you may or may not already know: originally, the Japanese boxer character was going to be called “M.Bison”, while the dictator was going to be “Vega”, and the narcissist was going to be “Balrog”. But when they realized that they stood to be sued for naming a Mike Tyson-looking character “M.Bison”, they played musical names and the boxer ended up being called “Balrog”.

Sagat is a monster. He’s come a long way from that guy in Street Fighter 2 who’d spend all day throwing tiger shots, yelling “Tiger!” in a wimpy-sounding high-pitched voice, just waiting for you to jump over them and deliver a boot to the head. Sagat’s speed and reach, along with his high damage output, make him arguably the best character in the game. The first time I played him in arcade mode, I beat the game without continuing and got the “Save Your Quarters” achievement. I don’t play Sagat much anymore.

Vega is a difficult character to play well. He’s got great mobility and reach, but El Fuerte could throw a plastic spatula at him and knock him out cold. I really like his back handspring dodge maneuvers and his new flip (flash) kick, but I have a lot of trouble timing his dive-bomb moves, and the moves that make him intentionally drop his claw and mask are just stupid. I might try to start playing him more, because I really like the underdogs, but I doubt I’ll do well.

Lastly, M.Bison. Bison is actually a really good character. His scissor kick goes right over a lot of low attacks, and is especially good for thwarting Crimson Viper’s Seismic Hammer. Like Vega’s dive bomb moves, I’m still having trouble aiming Bison’s. I also still have a big mental aversion to M.Bison because he was originally a final boss, and therefore was a bit overpowered when he made his first appearance back in Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition. As it stands though, I wouldn’t fault anyone for making him their main character.