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The 50 Worst Videogame Names of All Time
Game Revolution has a great feature looking at fifty of the worst-named games ever to require a controller. They dig deep here, unearthing gems like 'Yo! Noid!', 'Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt!', and 'Huygen's Disclosure'. From the article: "From Dick Butkus to Hootie and the Blowfish to Lake Titicaca, bad names have been with us forever. But thanks to the inevitable collision of reclusive nerds, bizarre artists and painfully unhip marketing execs, the video game industry enjoys some of the worst names of all. The following list was compiled after hours of lively debate, pages of exhausting science and one actual geek fistfight."
Wild Woody huh... Could've been worse, they could have had a sequel. "Wild Woody meets Mad Pussy" or something
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This list of 50 badly named games doesn't even have XPlay's "worst named game" Tube Slider or even my perennial favorite Spawn In The Demon's Hand. Not even a mention of Capcom's "Street Fighter" sequelitis with "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" or "Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha".
Speaking of sequels, there are games like "Mega Man X" (right after MM6) and "Wizards and Warriors X" (sequel to W&W2, I believe) that just confuse people as to what game they are playing. Hey, what's all this "Super Castlevania IV" about? Is it better than regular old "Castlevania IV"?
Gah, now I need to make my own list.
How is Skidmarks (plan-view racer on the Amiga) not on there? That's got to be /the/ worst videogame name of all time, bar none!
Oh no... it's the future.
Yes, the game was actually called Linkle Liver Story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkle_Liver_Story
Actually, I recall that Wargasm's title had little to do with the game (beyond the "War" part, anyway). To quote IGN: "Apparently someone at DID's marketing department thought that the 'kids' might dig it if they took their latest action title, put a woman in a bulging flak jacket on the cover (maybe she's carrying a bunch of grenades) and named it after something sexual. The PR staff picked up on the Beavis and Butthead vibe and began sending us sheaves of mail with jokes like 'It's time for Wargasm' and 'Multiple Wargasm.' After this ridiculous blitzkrieg of banality (which must have humiliated the actual design team beyond measure) Tal, Jason and I began furiously scrapping over who was going to have to review a game that was sure to be as embarrassing on the inside as it was on the out. I lost (for those of you who keep track of such things, let me warn you that Jason carries brass knuckles) and sadly loaded the game only to find that there was nothing within the actual software that had anything to do with the title, the chick on the cover or anything else we received in the mail. What I did find was a solid action game that is surprisingly hard to put down." So the name clearly turned people off to the game who might otherwise have enjoyed it. That's about as bad as a name can be.
Miyamoto's said as much in his interviews.
We are talking about worst game NAMES, not worst GAMES. Though if you're only creative enough to add on the system's name to whatever it is you're making...
The number one worst named game on the list is based on a real Japanes gameshow where contestants carry a metal rod through a maze with electrified walls, where the walls are only slightly wider than the stick.
I love the Japanese!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Oh, and who could forget the classic Street Fighter:The Movie:The Game? I mean, it was a game about a movie that was based on a game. Has that ever been done before? Movies based on arcade games almost universally suck. And video games based on movies also suck. But a video game based on a movie based on an arcade game? That approaches a level of suckitude that almost cannot be measured. Oh, and getting back on topic: The name sucked too.
Oh, right. Names. Not the games themselves. Goddamn I'm dumb.
Then yes, it was dumb.
I was wondering why so many of these games weren't actually that bad. Well, there ya go.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the source, so take it as you will.
In an interview with Miyamoto, he said that he wanted to call the game "Stubborn Monkey" (because the monkey wouldn't give Jumpman/Mario's woman back). After the standard Engrish translation, Stubborn became Dnokey, and Monkey became Kong, giving us the title we've been seeing for the last quarter-century.
I remember what ended the "Avoid the Noid" campaign, or at least so I thought.
Back in 1989, a guy named Kenneth Noid held up a Domino's in Georgia and kept the employees hostage for 6 hours. The man was paranoid delusional and thought that the campaign was directed specifically at him. The stand-off ended with no one hurt, and I believe the guy got off with an insanity plea.
I remember this in the news when I was a kid, because I'm from Georgia. It was "the big story" that day.
Turns out though, according to the Wikipedia, the campaign was actually ended becase the artist who created the character wanted more money. That's kind of disturbing in a way.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Atari 2600: Name this Game. Like they couldn't figure out a name, so you're supposed to name it yourself. Or maybe it was a note from the programmers to the marketing team: Name this Game. So instead of naming it, they just used what the programmers penciled in.
God spoke to me.
I always thought that "Wargy" would have been a better name for multiplayer Wargasm.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem