Bald Bull

Bald Bull (ボールド・ブル, Bōrudo Buru) is a fictional character in the Punch-Out!! video game series created by Nintendo. Depicted as a bald Turkish boxer from Istanbul, he serves as a non-playable opponent who fights Little Mac. Bald Bull has made an appearance in nearly every Punch-Out!! title to date and is voiced by Erse Yagan.

Appearances

Bald Bull appeared in five different Punch-Out!! titles, first appearing in the original arcade release in 1984 and last appearing in Punch-Out!! for the Wii in 2009. Bald Bull has had several different designers over the years; his original design was created by Shigeru Miyamoto for the arcade game Punch-Out!!, while his later designs were created by Makoto Wada and Eddie Viser.

He also appeared in the 1985 arcade game Arm Wrestling as "Mask X," the third opponent. In this game, he wore a mask that the player had to pull off in order to win the match.

Reception

Bald Bull has received positive reception and has been cited as a notable character to the Punch-Out!! series.^[1][2][3] A statue of Bald Bull constructed with Lego blocks was offered as a door prize at the Child's Play charity, along with Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog statues.^[4] ESPN editor Jon Robinson, in an interview with Senior Product Specialist of the Wii game Nate Williams, commented that he was "always a big Bald Bull fan."^[5] GameDaily listed Bald Bull as the fifth best baldy in video games.^[6] IGN included him in their list of the top fighters they want to see in the Wii Punch-Out!!, describing him as a "true veteran of the series".^[7] GamePro editors Patrick Shaw and Dave Rudden chose him as one of the four boxers that they most want to return, due to his high number of appearances in the series.^[8] UGO.com editors Russell Frushtick and C. Radtke stated "there have been damn good boxing games from EA recently, but nothing comes close to the thrill of knocking out Bald Bull for the first time."^[9] Allgame editor Skyler Miller commented that while humorous in Super Punch-Out!!, Bald Bull is not quite "out there" compared to the boxers in the NES Punch-Out!!.^[10]

Bald Bull is cited as being a difficult opponent in Punch-Out!!. Freelance writer Scott Jones commented that playing Punch-Out!! made him nervous, citing how Bald Bull's laugh after Little Mac loses made his hands shake.^[11] Destructoid editor Matthew Razak commented that the reveal of Bald Bull's weakness could have come sooner, cursing Makoto Wada as well as demanding that he owes him "two new controllers and a ton of band-aids."^[12] GamesRadar editor Brett Elston suggested that the difficulty of Bald Bull was high enough to make people "swear you’re going to break the controller in half, smash the disc and throw the Wii into the deepest volcano on Earth."^[13] GamePro Germany commented that Bald Bull was a "true heavyweight," and that his Bull Charge is "feared."^[14]

References