So let's get right to it - what are the most poorly-named video games you can think of?  This can be for the title being strange, inaccurate to the property it describes, or just simply boring.

A recent story on GameDaily brought this topic to mind, but the first choice on my list pushed me over the edge.

BlazBlue - The title that inspired this post.  I know this is a Japanese game developed with a Japanese audience in mind, but can they not get just a touch of marketing insight if they're going to sell this thing overseas?  What about this title says fighting game?  What about this title says anything interesting whatsoever?  What does it even mean?  I never would have given this game a second look were it not for the forum thread here, and that was only because it kept going on and on so I figured there must be something to it.  I can see how the alliteration is a play on Guilty Gear but something with a bit more substance would have been wise.

Valkyria Chronicles - I really think you can attribute the game's poor sales partly (just a bit) to the title.  Almost anything with "Chronicles" in the title sounds boring and uninspired, and it doesn't help that nobody knows or cares (without playing the game at least) what "Valkyria" is.  "White Knight Chronicles" isn't much better but the "white knight" has a nice ring to it at least.

Star Fox Adventures - Really not the most inspired way to inform us that this is an adventure game and not a shooter.  They should have at least kept the "Dinosaur Planet" in the title.

Metroid: Other M - I know misguided American marketing soured many a game back in the day (especially the cover art) but in retribution do we have to be stuck with quirky Japanese-English in our titles today?  At least throw a "the" in there to make it sound more natural (and foreboding).

Dragon Age: Origins - A prime example of how every title for a game or movie has to have a subtitle to it nowadays.  Also a rather tacky way of informing us that they intend to make the game into a series.  I seem to remember the title change coming shortly after the change to "X-men Origins: Wolverine", which makes an unoriginal idea even less original.

Guardian Heroes - I love this game (love it!!!) but the title doesn't really work.  Gunstar Heroes - yes, Guardian Heroes - no.

Lord of Vermilion - Not a proper game but since the soundtrack crops up so much here I've included it.

Wild Woody - Nothing need be said.

As noted, it's a nice alliteration, and thus is supposed to get someone thinking "I wonder what it's about?" After all, how many titles really give you an idea of what the game is like? If you had never played Super Mario Bros, what would you expect from such a title? Personally, I think BlazBlue is a nice title. Blaz sounds like blaze, which we often associated with something fast. Blue is obviously the color, which is associated with very high temperature, so in my mind BlazBlue is indicative of something fast and hot, which is very appropriate for a fighter game of this quality.

Hopefully Nintendo will change the title of Metroid: Other M. That, is definitely not a good working title. As for Valkyria Chronicles not selling well because of the title, do you have any evidence for that? No, I don't think we can attribute poor sales to the title, although to be honest I'm not sure how poor the sales are. Also, I personally don't think it's a bad title. Perhaps a bit uninspired, but I don't judge a book or game by its title.

cheers,

-avatar!

Alright, let's move about in a synchronized, coordinated fashion as music plays.

Infinite Undiscovery - Because you can't undiscover something, much less do so infinitely.

Climax Landers - Hustler magazine showed a tender, young Idolores (at age 9) the different meanings for the word "climax". I can't look at this one without sniggering.

Touch Dic - This was apparently a Korean-English interactive dictionary for the DS, but they changed the name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_Dic

70's Robot Anime Geppy X - I have no idea what happened here. Of all the things to name anything even remotely related to bad-assed giant robots, you choose "geppy"?

Koudelka - What is it? "Kow-delka"? "Koh-delka"? "Koo-delka"?

Kidou Senshi Z-Gundam: Hot Scramble - Yeah, yeah. Japan, right. Far be it from me to criticize anything with the Gundam name slapped on it, the second half of that title sounds like something I'd order at Denny's.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army - By far the most succinct, concise title ever devised.

Heh, yeah sometimes translations across borders can end with some unexpected consequences! Take "Touch Woody the Internet Pecker" as an example:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cross-cu … wlers.html

ps I think these are all 100% genuine, but if anyone knows better let us know!

Best Game Title of All Time:

Mr. Nutz

Eight months isn't exactly "shortly after".

what?

you know why they named it that, right?

actually, nevermind.

Were you really reading HUSTLER at age 9?

My votes goes to Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. Did I miss something? Was there an unofficial game?

And yes, Climax Landers has always been a personal favorite as far as titles go; the humor being even more intense with the word "climax" being followed up by "landers." I mean no wonder it was changed to TimeStalkers with us dirty-minded gamers. However, in all seriousness I liked this game a lot, and was one of the reasons I liked the Dreamcast.

Also as far as titles go, can we nominate some trends that have worn out their welcome? Castlevania: Overuse of Convention? The only thing worse than this is Rhapsody's of Fire's catalog, where 85% of their songs have titles like "Warrior of Ice," "Flames of Revenge," "Wings of Destiny," "Forest of Unicorns," "Land of Immortals," "Symphony of Enchanted Lands," "Knightrider of Doom," etc, etc, repeat until you have an involuntary protein spill.

Reading? No. I never actually "read" magazine, per se.

Edit: No, wait. I did read the letters column. I think that's where I learned of these words that, er, bolstered my already impressive vocabulary at that age.

I think Hentai is the strongest arsenal of it, but very few of them have titles in English.

Mine would be Etrian Odyssey II. The second game no longer occurs in Etria (n?).

Would Lufia II also qualify under the above?

I'll think of a list later, but on the subject of BlazBlue, Adam, have you ever tried looking closely at Blazblue's Japanese pronounciation on the side of the box?
I think you'll find it says ブレイブルー, implying that is should be pronounced BLAYblue, which makes the title even more non-sensical...

The only language I can think of with a silent Z is French, but even in French Blaz wouldn't be pronounced "blay"...

Anything with the words "Final" or "Eternal" in it. Also, add "Infinite" and/or "Infinity," since it's creeping up in popularity. Here we go...

Final Fight
Final Lap
Final Fantasy
Final Zone
Final Justice
Final Combat
Final Round
Final Approach
Final Armada
Final Set
Final Stretch

Eternal Dagger
Eternal Arcadia (we got it as Skies of Arcadia)
Eternal Darkness
Eternal Champions
Eternal Legend
Eternal Striker
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Eternal Eden
Ys / Ys II Eternal
Eternal Eyes
Eternal Melody
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana
Eternal Poison (was Poison Pink)
Eternal Quest
Eternal Ring
Eternal Sonata (was Trusty Bell)
semi-related, Tales of "Eternia"

Infinite Space
Zill O'll Infinite
Infinite Loop
Infinite Undiscovery
Infinity series (Ever17 Never7 etc)

There are certain buzz words used in game-naming convention that I get sick of. And these are my top-tier.

I disagree on this one. I think it's a rather enigmatic title, whereas White Knight Chronicles sounds like Generic RPG #5634.

Some good ones have already been taken, so I'll pull up some I haven't yet seen.

Ephemeral Fantasia - Kind of a mouthful, and doesn't really give an accurate idea that it's a Groundhog Day RPG.

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia - The lowercase t is their contrivance, not mine. Somebody's trying way too hard to make this sound 'fantasy'.

Megaman Star Force 2: Zerker X Saurian - OOH, I want to buy this to find out what the hell a Zerker is! Yeah.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? - Seriously.

EDIT:

I'd heard a similar story to that last one, where (I think in Africa again) people refused to buy Gerber baby food because with a picture of a baby on the front they thought it was actually processed baby.

Aggressors of Dark Kombat - Well, at least you can tell what type of game it is.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam - An incredibly awkward title that reeks of desperation. Why not go with the simpler, more effective Gundam Warriors?

Tony Hawk's Project 8 Huh? Did someone forget to pick a real name?

UmJammer Lammy - I love the game, but I never did figure out what the title meant.

The Peace Keepers - A fantastic beat 'em up, but the title never made any sense considering that you're beating people up.

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team - Of all the unfortunate acronyms...

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - Redundant much?

Anything with X (Especially if it's in place of "Ex") - Dynasty Warriors: Xtreme Legends, Mega Man Xtreme, Grandia Xtreme, Xpand Rally Xtreme, XEXEX, Final Fantasy X-2.

I never understood that one, either. "The Official Game" would've been more than enough.

Jealousy Bomber all the way!!

LoL

Really?  I thought it was a fairly easy interpretation.  The "Um" is a representation of Lammy's low self-esteem and unsure demeanor; she's always nervously going, "Um, um...." whenever she speaks in the game. 

"Jammer" can have a double meaning.  One, that she plays the guitar, of course. The other because she's always getting herself into jams (i.e. trouble). 

I think they were trying to go for title continuity from Parappa The Rapper as well.  If that were the case, they may have been better off going with "UmJammy Lammy."

I seem to recall that "Tecmo Super RPG" was a working title for Secret of the Stars, but a Google search suggests that this is apocryphal.  I could swear that a preview of this game in Nintendo Power called it "Tecmo Super RPG," though.

that's entirely possible.....magazines in those days sometimes labeled games in such a manner before official titles were announced.

anyway, I thought I would avoid contributing to this topic, but I just stumbled across something I had to share. You guys all remember Deer Hunter, right? Crappy, extremely low budget hunting game that essentially helped put WizardWorks (the publisher) on the map and created the "original shovelware" fad (as opposed to previous and still standing forms of shovelware, such as bundling several games or dumping DOOM wads onto a CD). It spawned lots of spin-offs and many copycats, and it would not be wrong to say that it pretty much lowered the overall quality of gaming in general.

Now, the main Deer Hunter series had five numbered entries before it started using years in the title (and it thankfully didn't last much beyond that).

Deer Hunter 2 was subtitled "The Hunt Continues". Accurate.
Deer Hunter 4 was "World-Class Record Bucks", which sounds pretty much like a porno title but is admittedly on subject.
Deer Hunter 5, the last to have a subtitle, was "Tracking Trophies". I'm a big fan of alliteration, so I'll let that slide.

Deer Hunter 3?

The Legend Continues

I remember my brother and I asking for the "Treasures of Aht Urhgan" expansion for FF XI at the store. Not necessarily a bad title, but try pronouncing and spelling it out for someone who has no clue what you're talking about.

That's when you say:

"Do you have the new/third expansion for FFXI? It starts with the word 'Treasures.'"

Yeah, I never could quite understand what's so legendary about hunting an unarmed animal...

http://i30.tinypic.com/2u9lmwg.jpg

I think they should give deer guns as well, you know, to up the challenge and thin the herd of hunters. Living in central PA, you kind of get sick of that pride hunters try and wear around like a badge of honour (EUR spelling!) when they shoot something.

I think the real reason is that "Dynasty Warriors" is a trademark for the entire series of games, so it has to stay together.  The trademark is not on "warriors" so Gundam Warriors would likely mis-attribute the game to Bandai rather than a Koei-Bandai joint game.

They already have the Samurai Warriors series, though, as well as Warriors Orochi. Imagine how awkward it would've been if they had been titled Dynasty Warriors: Samurai or Dynasty Warriors: Orochi. I don't even think the Gundam universe has anything to do with dynasties, which makes the title all the more perplexing. Now, if they made a crossover game between Sangoku Musou and Gundam Musou (and I wouldn't put it past them), the title would make sense.

Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt!
Irritating Stick