There was a time when I hated Capcom USA; back in the day when they gave us that atrocious box art for Street Fighter Alpha, deformed renditions of classics like Final Fight Streetwise, and Mega Man X bosses named after members of Guns and Roses. Everything they did back then seemed to scream “We don’t care about our fans, and we wish we were doing something else.” It’s incredible how much the company has changed. The staff at Capcom USA and Capcom-Unity are some of the most passionate, game loving individuals I’ve had the pleasure to meet during my time here at Destructoid. I know for a fact that a lot of them try extra hard to compensate for the crimes committed by Capcom USA back in the 80’s and 90’s.
One on-again, off-again Capcom USA employee doesn’t appear to share in that sense of regret. Alyson Court (voice actress for Claire Redfield and close personal friend to Big Bird) was apparently responsible for some of the localization work on Mega Man X5. She is personally claiming responsibility for naming the game’s bosses after the guys from GnR, and she is not ashamed. In fact, she seems so sincere in her belief that changing giant whale boss from “Tidal Makkoeen” to “Duff McWhalen” stayed true to Mega Man’s music-based roots, that I’m finding it difficult to stay mad at her. Still, I’m glad to see that she’s apparently out of the localization business, and is sticking to voice acting.
For more details, check out the full twitter-quotation below, compiled by the good people at GoNintendo.
Alyson Court Talks Mega Man X5 Guns N’ Roses References– [Protodude’s Rockman Corner]
“Apparently the localization (text editing) I did for a Capcom game is *famous*. Er, make that infamous. Who knew? My then husband was responsible 4 text localization. He asked me 2 do it &, since he was a GnR fan, I changed the names 2b GnR references. I didn’t know the game nor did I know how mad fans wld be that Id changed the characters’ names. But yrs later ppl now like it! My ex-husband had his own company, GenAzea, which did localization for many Capcom games. I did a lot of that work. At first my hubby laughed & liked it [the GnR names]. Then when fans started complaining he got mad at me. I meant well.” – Mega Man X5 localizer and voice of Claire Redfield, Alyson Court
