I remember as a kid, one of the biggest questions we had about Street Fighter II was, what does that “M” in M.Bison stand for? “Major?” Maybe “Master?” Undo the game of musical chairs that Capcom played, and it becomes a little more clear that the burly boxer we all know and love is “Mike Bison.”

The hack does exactly what it says it does, so the names of the bosses are properly swapped wherever they are referenced, and SCD did a pretty clean and thorough job; from the character select screen to endings, it seems like no stone was left unturned. I also appreciate the fact that softer words are replaced with ones that are a little more grounded. For those not in the know, before Mortal Kombat caused an uproar, the overarching belief in the early 90’s was that video games were for kids, so localization ensured that kinder words were selectively chosen, like “destroy” instead of “kill.”

My only nitpick is that between its two features, I feel like this hack wants to create the experience of playing the game through the lens of a Japanese player in the 90’s, sans stateside localization, but it stops at a halfway point where the opening animation and the title screen are left unchanged. Not that it’s a bad thing; the hack makes no promises past what it does, but there’s the potential for further improvements.

Overall, it’s a hack that delivers, but as someone who grew up with the US version, I find the name changes too disorienting. In my mind, Vega will always be the Spanish bullfighter, Balrog the boxer, and Bison the dictator, so this hack isn’t for me. Still, it’s a great option for players who prefer the original names, and want some of the nicer wording to be a little more honest with itself. There’s still room to push the experience even further by integrating the remaining regional differences into the US version, and I’m hoping to see it happen someday. Many thanks to SCD for an excellent job.