I have no idea where you're getting that time frame. The arrest was almost exactly around when the arcade game came out (July '91), and I think the bigger fear then was that the name AND image combined could get them sued. And he didn't get out of prison until '95, which was around the time Street Fighter Alpha came out.

Zest, what you have to remember is, even if the drama WAS over, no-one wants to run the risk of pissing off Mike Tyson.

Oh hey you're right! I think I was getting Mortal Kombat's and SF2's home console releases confused.. I was working off some memory I had where Tyson was back in the ring and a big fighting game came out and he went and bit Evander's ear off. I was trapped in music camp for the entire summer so everyone would talk about these things from a distance.

Still doesn't really explain why Japanese versions continued (I believe up until current releases) use the original names, as if Japan didn't know what they were doing with the character or something or had never heard of boxing.

It's a mistake that stuck.

Japan still uses the original name because they can get away with it. Tyson would have a much harder time suing them in Japan than he would over here.

So I think Capcom is safe as long as Balrog's new win quote isn't "HELLO I AM THE ACTUAL MIKE TYSON AND THE EVENTS OF THIS GAME ALL REALLY HAPPENED TO ME. ONE TIME I THREW A BABY INTO A SHARK TANK FOR LAUGHS."

I think Japan was banking on the fact that there was an ocean between them and Tyson. Boxers, like ring wraiths, are afraid of running water, and would be unable to go on a punching rampage at Capcom's Osaka headquarters.

His massive upset loss to Buster Douglas was in Japan, so your theory has merit...

Seems like this has happened elsewhere with no major drama.. I think it was the game Basesd Loaded, or one of those baseball games not licensed by the MLB who used names and teams very similar (for example H. Conseco who happened to play for Oakland (I'm just making that one up, but it was about like that)) and I don't remember the MLB sicking the lawyers on them.

Do football games, like the ones where you play as different teams throughout history still let you play with OJ Simpson on the team?

Capcom probably played it smart by changing the names, but besides the first initial and rhyming last name, Bison's just a black boxer; if he had a story in Super Street Fighter it was just a normal American boxer's story. The Simpsons' Drederek Tatum was a much more obvious parody, and while they might have gotten some legal flack for it, they used him throughout the Tyson drama.

Best pre-fight press conference ever.

Tyson. Ali may have been a heavyweight in his career a few times but Tyson has that raw animalistic punch absorbing power. Ali probably couldn't wear him down fast enough. Ali is the better boxer, no doubt, but I don't think he'd last in the ring.

Who knows though, Ali in his prime was magical. He'd have to be pulling off some pretty fancy footwork.

If Ali won, it'd have to be 12/15 (depending which era) rounds of him staying the hell away from Tyson and out-boxing on points, but all Tyson would have to do is corner him once or twice. The Tyson/Spinks fight was supposed to be that and it lasted 91 seconds. Not that Spinks was even in the same league as Ali, but I don't see him surviving a whole fight.