Game titles that don't suit the game?

Mr E

I was browsing around Gamestop at lunchtime, and it stuck me that some game titles really don't suit the game.

Take the Bioshock games, for example. What does Bioshock even mean in the context of the game? Changing your genetics with plasmids is a shock to your biology? Maybe because it was a spiritual successor to System Shock? Surely something like Rapture would have been a better title.

Darksiders - in the context of the game, the title makes no sense whatsoever. The word Darksiders isn't even mentioned in the game itself (as far as I can remember).

Infinite Undiscovery always struck me as a terrible name. I know nothing about the game, so maybe it means something profound, but its a truly awful pretentious name.

Oh, and the irony of Final Fantasy XIII isn't lost on me either.

What other games have unsuitable (or awful) titles?

cherryghost

Big Mutha Truckers.

RobertFoster

New Super Mario Bros. Wii just rolls right off the tongue.

Retr0gamer

Well Final Fantasy was supposed to be the last game an almost bankrupt Squaresoft would ever make. It was meant to be their swansong but became wildly successful.

folan

Wii Play - sounds like a wierd porn site

Otacon

I remember hearing Metal Gear Solid for the first time and not having any idea what to make of it!

Retr0gamer

Ring of Red on the PS2 sounds like a nightmare morning after pints and vindaloo/rapetime session rather than a tragically underrated strategy game.

pixelburp

Warcraft & Starcraft. I mean what do those words even mean? The craft of making stars / war?

Penn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well Final Fantasy was supposed to be the last game an almost bankrupt Squaresoft would ever make. It was meant to be their swansong but became wildly successful.

Final Fantasy has to win this.

Final... Fantasy... XIII ?

cableguy.ie

Sorry if i am going old school but

Jet Set Willy.

youcancallmeal

Street Fighter
Its clearly not about random fights on the street its all about organised tournaments by shadaloo etc. Should of been called World Warriors or something?

Metal Gear Solid
I dont get this one at all? Maybe a bad translation from the original Japanese name?

Banjo-Kazooie
???

mayordenis

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Banjo-Kazooie

Main character is Banjo,
Bird in his back pack is Kazooie.

L31mr0d

Crysis... why is it called Crysis?

Skerries

cableguy.ie wrote: »

Sorry if i am going old school but

Jet Set Willy.

well the jet set were people who could afford to fly on holidays rather than a few days by the sea in Skegness or Mosney

evad_lhorg

cherryghost wrote: »

Big Mutha Truckers.

No way it makes perfect sense. And dont forget the sequel
BIG MUTHA TRUCKERS 2: TRUCK ME HARDER!

sink

pixelburp wrote: »

Warcraft & Starcraft. I mean what do those words even mean? The craft of making stars / war?

Warcraft came first, It's a play on the word Witchcraft. Starcraft was derived from Warcraft, continuing many of the same game mechanics in a different setting.

nice1franko

Tetris

should have been called:

different-shape-blocks-falling-down-and-have-to-make-them-into-lines-tris

Mr E

nice1franko wrote: »

Tetris

Tetromino doesn't have the same ring to it.

pixelburp

sink wrote: »

Warcraft came first, It's a play on the word Witchcraft. Starcraft was derived from Warcraft, continuing many of the same game mechanics in a different setting.

Ack, I know that, but warcraft's already a made-up word (90% sure of that & it's not in the Dictionary); it kinda suits the game, but it's still a made up gubbins of a word

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Mr E wrote: »

I was browsing around Gamestop at lunchtime, and it stuck me that some game titles really don't suit the game.

Take the Bioshock games, for example. What does Bioshock even mean in the context of the game? Changing your genetics with plasmids is a shock to your biology? Maybe because it was a spiritual successor to System Shock? Surely something like Rapture would have been a better title.

Darksiders - in the context of the game, the title makes no sense whatsoever. The word Darksiders isn't even mentioned in the game itself (as far as I can remember).

Infinite Undiscovery always struck me as a terrible name. I know nothing about the game, so maybe it means something profound, but its a truly awful pretentious name.

Oh, and the irony of Final Fantasy XIII isn't lost on me either.

What other games have unsuitable (or awful) titles?

Only the other day I thought the same thing about Final Fantasy. It's pretty funny.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ring of Red on the PS2 sounds like a nightmare morning after pints and vindaloo/rapetime session rather than a tragically underrated strategy game.

Ring of Red would have suited the Xbox 360 better me thinks :P

pixelburp wrote: »

Ack, I know that, but warcraft's already a made-up word (90% sure of that & it's not in the Dictionary); it kinda suits the game, but it's still a made up gubbins of a word

Thought this was an easy one...

Warcraft: The art or skill of conducting a war; A warship (or warships collectively)

Star Lord

The Secret of Monkey Island.

20 years on and I still don't know the secret.

Then again, that makes it still a secret, so maybe it is fitting :pac:

bigeasyeah

Chuckie Egg.I just want to say Chuckie Egg.

Retr0gamer

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

The Secret of Monkey Island.

20 years on and I still don't know the secret.

Then again, that makes it still a secret, so maybe it is fitting :pac:

Eh, beat it and find out. My problem is that there's only one monkey on the island, a three headed one at that.

partyatmygaff

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Metal Gear Solid
I dont get this one at all? Maybe a bad translation from the original Japanese name?

The game used to be called Metal Gear in the old 2D days before it was released on the playstation in 3d hence the name solid.

landsleaving

Everybody's Golf.


I'm 99% certain that neither i, nor anyone else (except Tiger Woods) is golf.

Retr0gamer

Ninja Gaiden.

Gaiden is a non-canon sidestory.

So ninja gaiden is a side story of what exactly?

Eamo87

Tetris is the first that comes to mind. Like what is a Tetris?

cableguy.ie

Arkanoid.

humanji

Half-Life. I'm not sure what it's referencing. Is someone living part of a life? Or is it something to do with how long something lasts?

Dawn of War bothers me as well, since in that universe, all sides are always at war and the games take place well into this war.

Legend of Zelda. F*ck Zelda, Link's a legend!

Coriolanus

I always thought Half Life referred to Freeman's life before the incident in Black Mesa.
Ie: He was a tech, a drone, and was only living a Half Life.

o1s1n

Half-Life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay.

Wiki said it better than I ever could. I was thinking in relation to the Half-life of nuclear fallout.

humanji

Nevore wrote: »

I always thought Half Life referred to Freeman's life before the incident in Black Mesa.
Ie: He was a tech, a drone, and was only living a Half Life.

See, I thought it could be something like that, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We don't really know anything about his character and the only thing we really hear about it is that he was late to work because of a party the night before, so that would suggest he's not completely devoid of fun. It could be it, but it seemse very weak.

Oh, and another one: Baldur's Gate. You spend so little time there, after all.

o1s1n wrote:

Half-Life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay.

Wiki said it better than I ever could. I was thinking in relation to the Half-life of nuclear fallout.

See, I don't understand what's decaying. Like, is it the way Earth was, or something? It's a bit vague. But that said, the title of the thread is "Game titles that don't suit the game" and, even though I don't know what it references, it still kind of suits it, I guess.

Glico Man

What about Syphon Filter?? What the hell does that mean?

Retr0gamer

I think Half-Life is a really good name, but then again I've a first class degree in chemistry so I understand it's meaning in relation to the game Blue Shift is another play on scientific terms meaning a wavelenght of energy in the visible spectrum has shifted to a higher energy wavelength, in other words towards the colour blue in the visible spectrum.

o1s1n

humanji wrote: »

See, I don't understand what's decaying. Like, is it the way Earth was, or something? It's a bit vague. But that said, the title of the thread is "Game titles that don't suit the game" and, even though I don't know what it references, it still kind of suits it, I guess.

I know what you mean. I think it may just be a case of - Gordon is a scientist, therefore we need a cool science related term. Nuclear related things are cool. -> Half-life.

Here's another bit from Wiki about the science related titles -

The Greek letter lambda, which features prominently on the game's packaging, represents the related decay constant, as well as the Lambda Complex featured in the game. Opposing Force, while it could be named because the player assumes the role of one of the enemies in the original game, is also a reference to Newton's third law of motion, while Blue Shift refers to the blue shifting of the frequency of radiation caused by the Doppler effect or Special Relativity, in a similar parallel reference to the name of the shift your character takes. In Half-Life: Decay, the title again references the half-life equation with the lambda symbol being the decay constant. It has also been speculated that the Lambda symbol was chosen as it somewhat resembles a very simple picture of an arm holding a crowbar, the first weapon acquired by Gordon Freeman, and a weapon the Half Life series is famous for.

As for the thread title, I always found 'Magical Flying Turbo Hat Adventure' for the Megadrive to be a great name.

Xluna

Guilty Gear-no guilt nor gear.

youcancallmeal

Melty Blood

I don't know why but I actually love the name of this game

Fnz

Every Extend Extra - is a little odd.

cableguy.ie wrote: »

Jet Set Willy.

Jet Set Radio.


Also, Bioshock is a perfectly cromulent title. Humans be all kinds of messed up, in that universe.

sink

humanji wrote: »

See, I don't understand what's decaying. Like, is it the way Earth was, or something? It's a bit vague. But that said, the title of the thread is "Game titles that don't suit the game" and, even though I don't know what it references, it still kind of suits it, I guess.

In simple terms half-life is the length of time a radioactive substance takes to loose half it's current radioactivity (decay).

It will take the same amount of time to decay the first half as the next quarter.

So..

1 half-life = 1/2 or 50% decay
2 half-lives = 1/2 + 1/4 or 75% decay
3 half-lives = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 or 87.5% decay
4 half-lives = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 or 93.75% decay

and so forth in a continuing exponential function.

So a substance with a half-life of 100 years will loose half it's radioactivity in 100 years, 75% of it's radioactivity in 200 years, 87.5% of it's radioactivity in 300 years and 93.75% of it's radioactivity in 400 years.

Coriolanus

Yeah, but what does that have to do with the game?

Retr0gamer

Half-Life doesn't have to be just about radioactivity though.

What it has to do with the game is that it has a double meaning. The scientific one tying in with the research centre the game takes place in and a symbolic meaning. It also ties in with Lambda being the radioactive decay constant and the symbol for lambda core.

sink

Nevore wrote: »

Yeah, but what does that have to do with the game?

Gordon Freeman is a Theoretical Physicist who job is to study the effects of radioactive substances in an effort to open extra dimensional portals. The game is littered with references to real world physics.

Coriolanus

Fair enough.

Eamo87

Shenmue

corcaigh07

Eamo87 wrote: »

Tetris is the first that comes to mind. Like what is a Tetris?

in terms of the game itself,a tetris is 4 cleared lines, isnt it?

also, whats wrong with Jet Set Radio, the DJ shouted Jet Set Radio in every cut-scene announcing the Radio station called...................Jet Set Radio.

staying on sega, why is Shenmue named after a meaningless tree?

Retr0gamer

We'll find out in the final game!

Oh wait.....

Eamo87

corcaigh07 wrote: »

in terms of the game itself,a tetris is 4 cleared lines, isnt it?

Someone else said that to me before now that I think of it. Well thats my curiousity satisfied. Cheers.

Fnz

corcaigh07 wrote: »

whats wrong with Jet Set Radio, the DJ shouted Jet Set Radio in every cut-scene announcing the Radio station called...................Jet Set Radio.

It doesn't really tell you much about the game. "Jet Set Radio" could be anything from an air traffic control puzzle game to a rhythm-action, jelly simulator!

L31mr0d

corcaigh07 wrote: »

in terms of the game itself,a tetris is 4 cleared lines, isnt it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alw5hs0chj0

Star Lord

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Eh, beat it and find out. My problem is that there's only one monkey on the island, a three headed one at that.

I beat all of the Monkey Island games. I still don't know the secret. Ron Gilbert still won't reveal what he intended the secret to be at the end of the third game.

You're forgetting the monkey that you feed bananas to, and there were also the ones that escaped the island as the crew of the Sea Monkey, that took it back to Melee Island.

corcaigh07

Fnz wrote: »

It doesn't really tell you much about the game. "Jet Set Radio" could be anything from an air traffic control puzzle game to a rhythm-action, jelly simulator!

but how many games have a title that gives you an idea of the game, hardly gonna called it cel-shaded ASBO Radio! Jet set radio is the radio station in the game and it makes more sense than a lot of game titles.

does bioshock or shenmue tell you much about the game? If you never played tetris before, what the hell is tetris?