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Explanation Revealed For Guns N' Roses Being Mega Man X5 Bosses

by Dan Ryckert on Apr 30, 2011 at 11:33 AM

Ever play through Mega Man X5 and notice a trend in the names of the bosses? They're all named after Guns N' Roses members. Axle the Red is Axl Rose, Duff McWhalen (amazing name) is Duff McKagen, Izzy Glow is Izzy Stradlin, Grizzly Slash is Slash, and so on. The fact that they're named in this fashion is weird enough, but it's doubly odd considering the game was released in 2000, smack-dab in the middle of Axl's cryogenic sleep/cornrow-growing hibernation. Eleven years later, and we finally know why this happened.

It turns out that Claire Redfield is to blame. Well, her voice actress at least. Alyson Court also handled localization for some Capcom games, and today she explained how these odd bosses came to be:

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.

I have no problem with the GNR names in Mega Man, but I would have definitely taken issue if any of them played Use Your Illusion II's "My World" during the boss fight. Holy lord that's an awful song.