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What's in a name?

As an astute (cough) observer of the video game industry, I pay close attention to as many trends as possible. And so this latest trend sticks out as being particularly troubling. I'm talking about the latest trend that's developed over the last few years, of good games with really dumbass titles. There have always been stupid titles for good games, ever since games moved beyond utter simplicity like "Adventure" or "Tennis". But a few years ago, things started to get really silly.

The worst offender in recent memory is Giants: Citizen Kabuto. What the hell does that name mean? I mean really? From that title you would think the game centers exclusively on really big creatures, and tells the story of one such creature who aspired to greatness in the publishing industry before succumbing to his own indulgence and dying alone, mourning the loss of his childhood.

But you would be wrong.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto actually is about a clever and original world, which is inhabited by various creatures, including giants, but also funny little big headed guys, sea creatures, and some rather silly british blokes who crash landed there. In actuality, the game doesn't even center on Kabuto, as his campaign makes up only a third of the game, if that. For the rest of the game, you'll be controlling the brits and a female sea creature (who discovered her own shame just months before its release and shipped fully clothed).

The name "Giants: Citizen Kabuto" is bizarre, and admittedly it is a bizarre game, but it's just terribly misleading. Of course, this is from a developer who named themselves Planet Moon, so what would you expect? Their next game is just as confusingly titled. The name "Armed and Dangerous" suggests a kind of rugged, SpecOps type adventure. But no! The game, like Giants, has the same kind of goofy humor the developer is known for. At least this time they can claim the title is ironic, but it's still silly.

Other recent offending games: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (wait, didn't he fall in the first game? How much more can he fall? And this is supposed to be a love story?), PlanetSide (what does that even mean, anyway?) and EverQuest Online Adventures (apparently console gamers need to be told in the title whether a game is online or not, a la Phantasy Star Online). A couple of other slightly offensive titles include Battlefield 1942 (which doesn't take place exclusively in 1942, so why bother putting a year in the title?) and Medieval: Total War (Total Medieval War would make more sense, wouldn't it?). And those are just a few of the ones on my "to be played" stack.

Obviously, the name of the game isn't as the gameplay, but Giants was actually a really fun game that didn't sell nearly as well as it should have, and you have to wonder if the game would have sold better under a different (more accurate) title.

Posted by jason at August 4, 2003 05:13 PM | TrackBack | Read more: Games