Barbon (also known as Barbawi in the French version) is the first boss from Streets of Rage 2 and the fifth boss from Streets of Rage 4.
Overview[]
Barbon is a tall, muscular man, sporting a short hair a bushy moustache. He wears a black shirt / tank top with his exposed chest, as well a white pants, a black belt, red socks and wristbands, and a black pair of shoes.
Streets of Rage 2[]
Barbon first appears in Stage 1 background, shown as a bartender preparing a cocktail. He moves away when the player engages the mini boss Electra. He is fought shortly after, in the bar's back alley, beginning the fight by ripping his shirt off and saying, "Come on!"
He has no long range moves, but is a mid-range type of opponent. His basics include punches, spin kick, and a quick snap kick. He has the ability to lift and throw players across the screen, more common in harder difficulties. He will use his snap kick if you do an air attack when he recovers after being knocked down and he often blocks when players fight too aggressively. Barbon has the same combat capabilities as Eagle.
Later on in the game, two pallete swaps of him named Wayne and Vulture will appear as mini-bosses in stages 5 and 8 respectively.
Streets of Rage 4[]
Barbon returns as a boss in Stage 5. His moveset is inspired by his Streets of Rage 2 incarnation, but with a few differences. He no longer blocks attacks nor throws the player. Instead, he's a very mobile opponent that closes the gap quickly and can employ powerful roundhouse kicks. His moveset on the first phase is:
- Blocked: used in all games, all variants. They block all incoming attacks with their arms, reducing all incoming damage by 90%. You can still catch them though.
- Two-Hit Combo: Barbon delivers a quick gut punch followed by a roundhouse kick that launches players away.
- High Kick: Barbon performs a quick upwards kick. Often used as an anti-air or when closing the gap. This move has super armor.
- Spinning Kick: Barbon charges for a second, and unleashes two rounhouse kicks in succession. This move covers long range as Barbon slides through the ground towards the player. He has super armor while charging and during the first kick.
Once he reaches around 50% health, he'll enter his second phase, becoming more aggressive and using an additional move:
- Super Spinning Kick: essentially the same as his Spinning Kick, but used four times instead of two. It's also slighter faster. He'll prioritize using this move over others. He has super armor during the move's entire duration (both charge and attack).
In addition to fighting Barbon, if the player destroys any of the bikes in the boss arena, they'll will be ambushed by Sugar and variants, one for each bike destroyed. One of the bikes will contain a sissy bar, which can be used as a weapon.
Variants[]
Barbon has two variants, which have less health. These appear exclusively in Mania+ and Survival Mode.
- Vulture, with white hair and moustache, and sporting a black outfit, fights a bit more defensively than Barbon, using all his moves from his first phase.
- Wayne, with blonde hair and moustache, and sporting a black tanktop with blue pants, fights exactly like Barbon in his second phase, but will use Super Spinning Kick less often.
Strategy[]
Barbon and his variants are powerful opponents due to their high movement speed, attacks with high priority and their powerful Spinning Kick, which can be difficulty to avoid. The player should avoid using jumping attacks as they'll often intercept it with High Kick. Baiting the gut punch and dodging will leave them open to retaliation.
To deal with Spinning Kick and Super Spinning Kick, the player can either attempt to outmaneuver their advances by moving to the sides, or by simply jump in place when the attack is about to connect, since the first frames of jump have invincibility frames.
Sprites[]
Gallery[]
-Trivia[]
- In Streets of Rage 2, Barbon wears a bartender uniform, while in Streets of Rage 4, he wears a biker jacket instead (suggesting he's the leader of the Red Demons MC).
- In the beta version of Bare Knuckle II, he is the final boss.
- Barbon is a portmanteau of "Barman" and "Bourbon", a popular alcoholic drink.