How M. Bison's appearance has changed almost as many times as he's swapped bodies after 30 years!

When you think of fighting game bosses, it's hard for your brain not to immediately go to M. Bison. Sure, the dictator's not exactly the cheapest or wildest villian in the genre, but he'd help set the stage for everything to come after.

One thing Bison does have over most other bosses, however, is that he's changed bodies multiple times over the past 30+ years of Street Fighter, which has had an interesting impact on his designs throughout the games.

While the violent Shadaloo leader does carry over a number of signature details between the entries, let's take a closer look at what actually sets them apart.

As part of the 35th anniversary of Street Fighter, we've taken a look back at how Ryu and Akuma have changed in their appearances across the mainline series of Street Fighter games, so now it's Bison's turn to receive that treatment.

How's about we begin with the original release order of the games, so that we can get the best sense of how the dictator's design evolved over decades.

Street Fighter 2

Flashback to 1991. You're at the arcade mashing away on the Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior cabinet after dumping a handful of quarters into the machine to finally defeat Sagat in the 10th match before moving on to one last challenge.

Standing before you is a man in a red military uniform who throws off his cape to reveal his big shoulder and knee pads underneath... and then he quite literally stomps you into the dirt.

That's essentially how the world was introduced to M. Bison for the first time (or Vega for those playing on the original Japanese machines) because it'd be a while yet before you could actually pick him on the character select screen.

Looking back now, Bison's choice of costume is arguably a bit plain to what would come later, but almost all of the staples would remain consistent for over 30 years.

His red military hat with the black bill, the red coat, the belt, his signature cape (that he likes to casually throw away most of the time, and of course the silver pads on his shoulders, wrists and knees / shins.

While he was certainly an intimidating figure upon first meeting him, Bison would take more time to flesh out as a character, so he doesn't quite ooze that absolute treachery that would help define his style and vibe.

Although Street Fighter 2 was his introduction to the series, Bison was already on at least his second body by that point, and it'd be the only mainline game he'd use it in — thanks Akuma.

For what makes the first iteration stand out, the Shadaloo boss' stature looks slightly more long and lanky next to his later designs, including his face in many depictions. The stripe down his uniform is blue in SF2, and his belt buckle is solid gold. One of the more interesting details is Bison's eyes were originally red before being changed to the almost glowing white we'd see in everything after Hyper Fighting.

Street Fighter Alpha

The Street Fighter Alpha games would begin dropping in 1995 with that trio of fighting games providing fans the opportunity to see Bison in what seems to be his original body.

His appearance in those games is much more bulky all around from his limbs to his head, making the mad man look more monstrous and almost as wide as he is tall.

Outside of the bulging muscles, the stripe going down Bison's coat is now black and splits at the bottom, his leg guards have even more detail to them, the hat has the golden Shadaloo logo on it and the belt buckle now places a lightning bolt in the middle.

The Alpha games would be the first and only time that the SF boss would fight while wearing his cape (as the default at least), and most of the costume changes made here would carry on for the rest of the series through Street Fighter 5.

Also, while he smiled a good bit in the art for SF2, it'd be the Alpha entries that would solidify Bison's constant maniacal grin that just makes you want to punch him and ruin his plans.

Street Fighter 4

Now on seemingly his third body and sitting out Street Fighter 3 on account of being apparently dead, M. Bison finally returned after a decade away from the fighting in Street Fighter 4.

For his revival, Capcom looks to have combined their visions for SF2 and Alpha into a fairly streamlined fighter ready to slide all over you in style.

Many of their design decisions come down to largely modernizing what was already there, so there's not really much that's changed overall aside from the vessel he's fighting in. The shoulder pads appear bigger, his face is obviously a little different, and the armor over his feet don't seem to cover as much of his boots now, but that's about it. Gone is the battle cape though Bison will still happily wear it in every cutscene he can.

Street Fighter 5

Now moving on to Bison's latest and potentially last mainline design, we land on Street Fighter 5. This version of the dictator changed up his appearance the most since the Alpha days, but you'll be forgiven if you don't immediately notice why.

The biggest change to Bison's costume this time around was elongating his coat into much more of a trench coat, so that he can have the flowing fun of a cape without worrying about it getting tangled around his hands.

SF4 to SF5 is probably the most similar the character has looked between entries, but that's likely because it's the only time he's kept the same body between them. Speaking of that, the other noticeable change on his body in SF5 is that Bison is suddenly sporting white hair after having it look jet black in all previous titles.

That one alteration makes the villain look so much older and gives off the vibe that it could be his last go around if things don't go well in his evil schemes — which of course they don't.

We never really got a full explanation as to why that change occurred as far as I'm aware, but I always liked my personal head canon that Bison's replacement body was beginning to rapidly age / deteriorate like we seemingly saw with Ed or the clones from the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

There are sources that claim the hair color change is just his body being affected by Psycho Power though that isn't as cool. That would be the look that Bison would blow up with for like the third or fourth time, and now he's just a purple Psycho ghost for the time being.

Let us know in the comments which version of M. Bison is your favorite as well as your first memory seeing / fighting the iconic Street Fighter boss.

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