Capcom Confirms Walk Back of Mega Man X5 Names in Mega Man X Legacy Collection

A few days ago, when Capcom released a new trailer to highlight the new “X Challenge” mode in Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2, one couldn’t help but notice that something was slightly… off. No, not the color of X’s new “Penultimate” Armor (we already knew about that), but rather, the names of some Mavericks were a little different from what we’d become accustomed to.

Long a point of contention among fans — some who loved them, others who hated them — the names of the eight Maverick bosses in Mega Man X5 were changed to something different from the norm for its western localization. In fact, one could even go so far as to say that they decided to “Court” controversy with that move.

But now that Capcom is releasing the game for the third time (fourth, if you count the PlayStation One Classic release), they’ve seen fit to make amends. As they tell GameSpot‘s Steve Watts (via Polygon):

“In our mission to make these collections an authentic Mega Man X experience, we took the opportunity to better align the naming of the Mega Man X5 Mavericks across all regions for better narrative cohesion across the series, making the names more aligned with the original Japanese version release. We hope that fans appreciate our intent to unify the Mega Man X Maverick-naming convention all these years later.”

(Full disclosure: Watts is the founder of The Mega Man Network.)

With this, it would appear that Grizzly Slash will henceforth be known as Crescent Grizzly, Dark Dizzy as Dark Necrobat, Mattrex as Burn Dinorex and The Skiver as Spiral Pegasus. While they weren’t shown in the video, it seems safe to assume that Axle the Red, Izzy Glow, Squid Adler, and of course, Duff McWhalen will likewise take on the names of Spike Rosered, Shining Firefly, Volt Kraken, and Tidal Whale, respectively.

This would not be the first time that the names from Mega Man X5 have seen a call for a mulligan, as Archie’s Worlds Unite series also featured the group with either their original Japanese names or their closer westernized approximations.

With this move, however, Capcom has proven nothing is sacred in the transition of these games from their original versions to Mega Man X Legacy Collection. Maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up for “The Answer” to play as the opening theme of Mega Man X6, but maybe they’ll finally clean up that translation? Or at least fix that damned Sentsuizan input?

Finally, before I leave you with a Not Safe For Work “retrospective” on Duff McWhalen (whose creator has declared Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 non-canon, by the way), I just want to reassure you all that despite this turn of events, I won’t be changing my GnR-inspired name.

(Hey, I had it first.)

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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