Fungi Forums
Video Games => Video Game Chat => Topic started by: Glorb on March 07, 2007, 10:51:31 AM
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The first thing that you see or hear when you see or hear of a game is the title. Therefore, I think that the title is second only in importance to the cover art, appearance-wise (or maybe it's the other way around). For a game title to be good it must be fairly short, recognizable, and not fatally stupid-sounding. For example, Grand Theft Auto is a great name, for many reasons; chiefly among them is the fact that it tells you what the game's about: stealing cars. Another is Half-Life: it's a scientific term in theretical physics (the decay constant to an atom or something like that), and Godon Freeman is a scientist, but it also (probably) has something to do with the "half life" of the zombies.
But on the other end of the spectrum are crappy names, mostly names made up of random words to sound as generic as possible. Take Alpha Black Zero: Intrepid Protocol and the recent Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner. Both names give no information on what they're about, except that one is a generic shooter (it has "Alpha" and "Zero" in the title) and the other is a generic RPG (it has "Kingdom" and "Summoner" in the title). Other crappy names include Elemental Gimmick Gear (what exactly is so gimmicky about this...elemental...gear?) and No One Can Stop Mister Domino!, a game famous in the annals (I went through extra effort not to misspell that) of bad-name history.
Oh, and I dare anyone to think of a cooler-sounding name than Far Cry. If you ask for it at a game store, it definately sounds like you're buying a manly shooter and not some generic puzzle game collection or something.
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Both names give no information on what they're about
Well, names like, "Super Mario Land," or, "Super Mario World," don't necessarily tell me what those respective games are about, either.
Take Alpha Black Zero: Intrepid Protocol and the recent Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner. Both names give no information on what they're about
Well, I did research about ABZ. It turns out that the game is set in the future. The reason for the name is because Alpha Black Zero is the name of the protagonist's "commando unit," so it does kind of tell you that it will be a military-esque game. I looked up both "intrepid," and "protocol," and when put together, it basically means a fearless strategy, which the protagonist has to develop, since he has been, "accused of multiple illegal assassinations against his own government."
Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner, obviously tells me that it's about monsters and involves a jewel. It tells me more about it than a name like "Yoshi's Island DS", where you just have to assume that the player knows what Yoshi's Island is, and what happened in the first game.
And I have no idea what Far Cry is. When I hear the name, I think of a game where falcons are used as weapons or something.
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I submit the actual game names:
Alien Shooter
Divine Divinity
You Are Empty
Run Like Hell
Hard Truck Apocalypse
Pretty much every WWII FPS has a horrible name, all of which sound exactly the same (you know, Call of Medal of Men of Honor).
Furthermore, games need to stop using colons in the title. It's gone too far.
Oh, and
The Varghina Incident
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I remember back when it was sufficient for a sequel to have a number on the end and that was it. Sometimes I envy other countries if a game's title is different there (Super Donkey Kong always made more sense to me than Donkey Kong Country), and the practice of giving every DS game a second title that started with D and S got kind of annoying after a while.
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I'd love to know exactly what a "Valkyrie Profile" is. Is it a profile shot of a valkyrie? Is there a whole case of profiles on known valkyries? I mean really.
Also, Far Cry has the word cry in it, which implies someone being emotional. Emotional does not meet standards of manly to me.
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Hey, guys can be emotional and manly, like me. *starts to cry* I don't have to conform to your rules!
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Run Like Hell
Best game title ever.
Also I've always liked the title Baldur's Gate. I just thought I'd throw that out there. It's a good game, too.
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Valkyrie Profile is a game about a valkyrie. So it profiles her.
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the practice of giving every DS game a second title that started with D and S got kind of annoying after a while.
Oh, lord, I hear ya. How much longer do you think it'll be until companies stop thinking that's cute or funny enough to keep doing? Just another reason not to put numbers or acronyms in your system's title (well, N64 had a few "64" games, but it's gone into downright overkill on the DS).
It's the chicken and the egg, really: Do they get the plots to work with the name, vice-versa, or do they just give 'em inaccurate/wildly unoriginal (Yoshi's Island DS? Genius!) titles under said self-imposed restraints? Man, who cares, just make a DS game I'll wanna play, for once.
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I remember back when it was sufficient for a sequel to have a number on the end and that was it.
I think game developers stopped doing that (movie studios too) when it was found that apparently consumers don't like sequels with numbers in them. Apparently the number made it sound too much like a "sequel."
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Numbered sequels sound like it's more of the same, so instead they go with the franchise title as an overarching brand name and use the subtitles for the actual name of the installment.
That said, you can still have three installments of Final Fantasy XIII.
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The first thing that you see or hear when you see or hear of a game is the title.
Not always, sometimes we get "tentative titles" accompanied by screenshots first.
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I think "Doom" is an awesome name, for two reasons: it's simple, and it sounds violent, which are pretty accurate descriptions of the game. Really, would a parent buy a game named Doom for their young ones?
And as soon as heard the name Hard Truck Apocalypse, I cried at how rad it sounded.
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From the random name generator department:
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
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Seriously? Those must be some pretty wussy heroes, being as how their empires were annihilated.
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On the plus side, at least they didn't use a colon.
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Really, would a parent buy a game named Doom for their young ones?
Oddly, yes. Although I've never thought it was an awesome name. In fact all the names you have cited as awesome so far have been some of my least favorites. Now I'm trying to find a game that I do in fact think has an awesome name. It's a little harder than I thought. Bandit Kings of Ancient China is a pretty awesome name.
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Something colon-related that's really annoying is when you're writing or typing the title of a game, and you're not sure if it has a colon in it or not. But that doesn't really pertain to the topic much...
Before it came out, would any of you have played a game titled "Kingdom Hearts"? How about "Pokémon" (before the show and cards)? "Pickle Wars" (actual DOS game)? All of these games are pretty good, though they don't exactly have spectacular titles.
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Honestly Kingdom Hearts makes me think Romance of the Three Kingdoms or some generic romance novel like "Restless Hearts" or something. If I could think right now I could pinpoint the title it makes me think of.
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Holy cow! I haven't thought about Pickle Wars in a decade. That game was totally awesome. Thanks, donotcare95!
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I think the name "Resident Evil" is interesting in that it's two random words that, taken at face value, have little to do with the game (yeah, I know, it's an EVIL RESIDENT in a house with zombies, or whatever, but that's not relevant) but still sounds awesome. It sounds cool without sounding goofy or anything.
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Paper Mario was a pretty embarrassing title.
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Paper Mario? Embarrassing? I doubt it. It describes the story telling aspect quite well, I think. It's also a nice bit of distance away from the standard "Super Mario."
Anyway, what's so embarrassing about it?
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Why would it emberass TC? He didn't make the game... So??
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I always thought "Resident Evil" was like "The Local Evil that Lives Here." I like the name Biohazard much better because it's actually accurate.
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When I first heard "Resident Evil," I thought of something similar-- some person who lives in the vicinity of other people that is apparently evil. I don't understand what it has to do with viruses, zombies, or otherwise.
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Paper Mario? Embarrassing? I doubt it. It describes the story telling aspect quite well, I think. It's also a nice bit of distance away from the standard "Super Mario."
Anyway, what's so embarrassing about it?
You'd be surprised how many people I know who actually thought the game's plot revolved around saving Peach from a paper shredder. :/
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When I first saw it, I thought it centered around arts and crafts. o_o
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Well, that's the thing. Most people hear "paper", they think, uh, paper. Most people hear "Mario" and think, "that's a kids' game", even if that's not entirely accurate. So paper + kids' game = arts and crafts, at least when you first hear it.
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Paper Mario seems more like a sequel to Mario Paint...
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Don't exactly know why you said people think "that's a kids' game." Most people, at least ones that play games, know what Mario games are, and probably have played a few.
So yeah Glorb, I'm calling you wrong.
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You'd be surprised how badly I was rejected by everyone back in 5th grade simply for being a Mario fan.
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5th grade is serious business. If you don't like games about shootin' hos, you're just not cool.
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You're pretty right about that, actually.
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Holy cow! I haven't thought about Pickle Wars in a decade. That game was totally awesome. Thanks, donotcare95!
Glad to be of service.
5th grade is serious business. If you don't like games about shootin' hos, you're just not cool.
When I was in fifth grade, everybody played Pokémon.
Back on topic: Life Force. Salamander. Scramble. Darius. All of these fall under the category of "shmup". Does "Scramble" sound to you like it would be a space game, or a stupid little puzzle? Obviously, shmups and other arcade titles didn't need names that described the game, because you could just watch the demo onscreen and decide if it looked like something you wanted to play. However, when they got ported to home consoles, people who had never experienced them in an arcade (myself included) probably wouldn't know what to think of them from the title alone. Not only this, but the console versions of many arcade games are considerably lacking compared to the original version, and even if someone had loved a game in the arcade, they might still dislike the home version because it was too easy/too hard/looked like crap. In other words, companies had to be careful about what they ported, and also about what they named a game (especially if they changed the name in the conversion). Same thing goes for when weird games like Katamari Damacy are localized - they have to pick a good name, especially if it's a crazy game like that.
Now, let's switch from arcade and console games to PC games. Ever heard of a game called "Alien Carnage"? It was previously called "Halloween Harry" once. Which sounds better for a sidescroller about destroying invaders and rescuing hostages? If you're like me, you'd probably say the first one. Well, so did Apogee, and they changed the name. Not only did some PC games change title, but many of Apogee's games were episodic in nature, and each episode's title reflected that game (see Commander Keen), rather than one name having to fit multiple games. Nowadays, we have what are known as "expansion packs", some of which might as well be called episodes, while others only add some new features (such as new units or play modes, or, in the case of an MMORPG, new areas, quests, and character classes) to a game. However, they oftentimes have their own name, and the name usually describes the new content in some way.
The name is a hugely important part of a game, and can determine if a game sells at all, though it's not odd if a game with an awful title that would cause it not to sell turns out to be great, while games with utterly awesome titles (or games based on a hit anime or movie) are lackluster, but still sell huge amounts.
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"Scramble" sounds like eggs to me.
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Holy cow, Halloween Harry. That rawked even harder than Pickle Wars!! I gotta go back and play these again (well, maybe just Halloween Harry).
Katamari Damacy is an interesting case of the game title not even being translated from Japanese. A good choice, I'd say, especially with the theme song repeating those words over and over (and over).
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There's a whole slew of Japan-only weird-sounding names. Two that I can name off the top of my head are Hresvelgr ([wtd]?!) and Sexy Parodius. The first sounds like someone threw a fish onto a keyboard and used whatever letters it hit, and the second...well, let's just say "sexy" has nothing to do with the game. At all.
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Sexy Parodius is a joke though. I mean the whole game is a joke. Including the title.
Good Japanese name: XEXEX
Oddly similar American name for a completely different game: Xexyz (it could even make the same sounds as XEXEX theoretically)
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Okay, I'm now officially disgusted with HH/AC. Apogee has completely discontinued it, to the point of not even offering a shareware episode any more. Also, "It is not legal for you to email/upload/download/trade/distribute [this title] under any condition." Since I'm having difficulty getting the copy of the shareware episode I already have to run...
I should go back and play Bio Menace, Boppin' and Major Stryker, since they're freeware now. I already got the Windows version of Boppin', since Apogee isn't offering the DOS version, and I recently got the full DOS versions of the other two when my dad found an old Apogee compilation disc and I was trying to troubleshoot some of the games. Also, I should totally get my dad to buy me RotT, and maybe Raptor. I'd say Blake Stone, but we've had the original 6 episodes since whenever, and we recently bought Planet Strike, so we have all of that.
I believe Katamari Damacy had a spelling change in translation, but other than that, the title stuck.
Speaking of freeware games (ones which started out as freeware, not previously sold games that started being offered for free), how often does the name for one of those match the level of fun and playability of the game?
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BOPPIN'!!!!!!!!!!! *squeal*
donotcare95 is bringin' the good old game train, and I'm on board for the ride.
I believe Katamari Damacy had a spelling change in translation, but other than that, the title stuck.
Well, the US boxart still has the actual kanji on it, so there really wasn't a spelling change. The sound of shi got changed to cy, though, in the romanization. That's what you're thinking of.
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Yes, that is what I was thinking of.
Please don't squeal like that again, it's more than a little scary. Now, all aboard! We make stops at Diamondus, Selon, and Mysteria.
Infinite cookie cheat to anybody who can tell me what games those are from.
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I have always like the name Kickle Cubicle. It always felt good in the back of my throat saying that many K sounds. I think that most games that have repeating sounds like that get at least a little bonus from me. For example, Golgo 13, Karate Kid, another one that I can't think of right now. All got a boost from just being nice to say.
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Diamondus is from Jazz Jackrabbit. No clue on the second two.
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LD gets the cheat, even though he didn't know that Selon is the planet that Blake Stone: Planet Strike takes place on, and Mysteria is the land that Realm of Chaos takes place in.
Alliteration, assonance, and other ways of repeating sounds are silly methods for names, as is the "DS acronym" mentioned previously. True, some games have names that are difficult to say (many anime games before translation, for instance). But that's no excuse to make the title so simple that people are turned off of the game simply because of its name. Examples of games with silly names: It's Mr. Pants!, Pickle Wars, Sexy Parodius.
Well, maybe not the last one, that one makes sense.
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I have the first Golgo 13 game. It is pretty uninteresting.
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I'm not a huge fan of certain genres, so if a game's title is possibly misleading, there could be dire consequences. For example, my father bought a GCN game called "Day of Reckoning" for me, because it was a whole dollar. Turns out he missed the WWE logo. I've never even put the game into my system, though apparently my brother has played it and likes it. And hey, it was a buck.
Another annoying thing about titles is also the annoying thing about colons in titles. Adding a subtitle to a game just makes the title longer. "Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars" and "Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King" come to mind, though they're both fun games.
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But It's Mr. Pants!, Pickle Wars, and Sexy Parodius all make me more interested in the game!
Beats the heck out of something like Heroes of Annihilated Emipres or Alien Shooter.
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They're all examples of games with silly titles that may turn off casual gamers. I doubt many FF members are casual gamers, if they actually stay for longer than a year (though what that has to do with gaming, I have no clue...).
Heroes of Annihilated Emipres, huh? Sounds like Generic Game Company can't spell. Also, Alien Shooter sounds like something my brother would play, unless it were a shmup, in which case I'd pretend it had a better name and play it.
Isn't there some sort of punctuation in "shmup", or am I imagining it?
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What about the name Irritating Stick? That's just dumb. And kind of disturbing. Kind of like Three Dirty Dwarves.
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Man, now I want to play Irritating Stick.
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Man, now I want to play Irritating Stick.
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What Irritating Stick about anyway?
On a related note, NiGHTS into Dreams is a somewhat awkward title, while Bug! is a pretty funny one.
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I want to play Irritating Stick.
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I have no idea what IS is about, but I assume it's either a puzzle or platformer. Or, more likely, a fighting game (think about it).
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Man, now I want to play the Insane Steve game.
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Now I want to play Intoxicatd Squirrel.
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Conker's Second Bad Fur Day?