For those who have played the new Wii version.....

Nintendo was probably playing it safe this time around with his name.

Piston Honda is a DIRECT reference to automobiles and, thus, the Honda motor company. Gaming is much more mainstream since the debut of MTPO way back in the 80s and Nintendo just wanted to avoid any legal mess that might have occured (exposure is much greater now, especially with the Internet). Thus, Hondo is now the name of the character.

And there you have it! :) Hope this answers your question.

I think it due to similiarity with HONDA car manufacter, copyrights.

Yes, I believe they were afraid someone at Honda might flip their lid over it. Does anyone think the developers of the old NES game had a chuckle when they realized that his name also sounds like "pissed in Honda"? I bet that was intentional given the jovial nature they seemed to possess, creating fighters that were blatantly stereotypical, politically incorrect caricatures. I miss the days when people who got their panties in a twist about stuff like that were simply ignored. At least they didn't tone down those wacky characters for this recent installment.