Market Based Title / Video Games

Many video games seem to undergo a wide variety of titles across the globe.

---

Systems:

• Many early Japanese game consoles had their names changed for the overseas market:
  • The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was originally released as the Family Computer (FC) or Famicom for short, with the hardware itself being completely redesigned from the more toy-like top-loading design used by the Famicom with the permanently-wired controllers to the more VCR-looking front-loading design used by the NES with its detachable controllers. The differences are not just cosmetic. The different pin size of the cartridges themselves meant that certain Famicom games, most notably Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, would employ additional sound channels that cannot be heard on an actual NES console, even when played with a converter, without some modding. Moreover, the Famicom has a dedicated expansion port for additional peripherals, whereas the NES uses controller port#2 for the same purposes, rendering peripherals for both consoles mutually incompatible with each other as well (although, the Famicom AV would switch to using NES-style controller ports while still keeping dedicated ports for peripherals). Also notable is that the Famicom lacked any Region Coding whatsoever (with the exception of an unintended lockout from the Japanese version of NTSC having a frequency range unique to Japan) while the NES has region coding in the form of the NES10 chip. On the flipside, NES units has a hidden expansion slot on it's underside, while Famicoms lack that amenity.
  • Likewise, the Super Famicom is known as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or Super NES for short) outside Japan, but only the North American model went with a different design for the console and controllers (the European and Australian versions of the console left the design alone outside of the name being changed). Unlike its predecessor, there were no internal changes, with the North American model being perfectly compatible with Japanese games (after removing two plastic tabs in the cartridge slot that prevent them from being inserted).
  • In South Korea, Hyundai Electronics (now Hynix) officially distributed Nintendo consoles under the Comboy line. The NES became the Comboy, the SNES became the Super Comboy, the Game Boy became the Mini Comboy, and the N64 became the Comboy 64. Starting with the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo's consoles kept their original name in Korea, although the GameCube was distributed by Daewon, with Nintendo finally distributing its consoles themselves starting with the Wii and DS.
  • Sega:
    • The company's Sega Mark III console (so named as it succeeded the SG-1000 and SG-1000 II consoles) was released as the Sega Master System overseas (a name later used in Japanese for a revised version of the Mark III, known as the Mark IV internally). In Korean, it was called the Gam*Boy. Yes, really.
    • The Mark III's successor, the Mega Drive, was released as the Sega Genesis in North America and the Super Gam*Boy in Korea (but was still called the Mega Drive everywhere else). The rename for the North American market was usually attributed to a trademark dispute, but it was actually because Sega co-founder David Rosen did not like the term "Mega Drive" and wanted the name to reflect that it was a "new beginning" for Sega. Either way, as a result, the Mega CD add-on became known as the Sega CD in America, while the American-created Genesis 32X was known as the Super 32X in Japanese and as the Mega 32X in Europe.
    • A combo unit of the base console with CD add-on created by JVC was known as the "Wondermega" in Japanese (both JVC, under their Victor name, and Sega released units) and as the bizarrely-named "X'Eye" in English (the combo unit never reached Europe), while a solely Sega-produced combo unit that could also function as a portable CD player was known as the Sega Multi-Mega in Europe and as the Genesis CDX in America (this model was never released in Japan, at least in wide numbers); Brazil split the difference and called it the Multi-Mega CDX.
  • The PC Engine became the TurboGrafx-16, with the PC Engine Duo (combining the PC Engine with the Super CD-ROM² add-on) becoming the Turbo Duo. In Britain, it had a limited release just as the TurboGrafx with no number; France, on the other hand, released the original, un-remodeled PC Engine.
  • The PC-98 became the APC (Advanced Personal Computer) outside of Japan. Granted, it lost the ability to display Japanese text, but gained CGA compatibility to be more in line with western PCs and clones. Unfortunately, it still had issues with certain PC software, the biggest being that it required it’s own specialized version of MS-DOS, which means western “booter” games won’t start on the machine. Likewise, games that did undocumented things and accessed hardware directly that was expected to work on a western PC or compatible would not work on a PC-98 due to slight differences in the memory layout. This eventually caused NEC to stop exporting the platform and creating proper PC clones for the western market.

By Company:

• A few of Compile's Casual Video Games were also subjected to this trope, with Lunar Ball becoming Lunar Pool and Party Games for the Sega Master System becoming Parlour Games.
• Electronic Arts produced the Sega Genesis versions of several British Amiga games from Psygnosis, retitling two of the conversions: The Killing Game Show became Fatal Rewind, and Leander became Galahad. EA also published Galahad as The Legend of Galahad in Europe; the Genesis/Mega Drive version of The Killing Game Show was published under its original title in Japanese, but not European languages. (Shadow of the Beast, a Psygnosis game with better recognition and wider distribution to begin with, was not retitled by EA for the Genesis.)
• When Mattel Electronics began porting their Intellivision games to the Atari 2600, they marketed them under the "M Network" label, with different packaging and mostly different names (non-sports Licensed Games and arcade ports were exempt):
  • Armor Battle became Armor Ambush.
  • Astrosmash became Astroblast.
  • Frog Bog became Frogs and Flies.
  • Major League Baseball became Super Challenge Baseball.
  • NASL Soccer became International Soccer.
  • NFL Football became Super Challenge Football.
  • Night Stalker became Dark Cavern.
  • Space Battle became Space Attack.
  • Averted with Star Strike, which had the same name on both systems.
• Epyx changed the titles of many of the European computer games it imported to North America:
  • Alternative World Games became Sports-a-Roni.
  • Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and its sequel Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax became Death Sword and Axe of Rage.
  • Driller became Space Station Oblivion.
  • Inside Outing became Devon Aire in the Hidden Diamond Caper.
  • International Karate became World Karate Championship; the sequel IK+ was released by a different U.S. publisher as Chop n' Drop.
  • Quedex became Mindroll.
  • The Sacred Armour of Antiriad became Rad Warrior.
  • StarRay became Revenge of Defender.
• Sinclair Research changed the titles of several early Hudson Soft games when publishing them for the ZX Spectrum: Bomber Man became Eric and the Floaters, Cannon Ball became Bubble Buster, and Itasundorious became Driller Tanks.
• SNK
  • Art of Fighting is called "Ryuuko no Ken" ("Fist of the Dragon and Tiger") in Japanese, which refers to the motifs that represent the Kyokugenryu styles of protagonists Robert Garcia and Ryo Sakazaki, respectively.
  • Fatal Fury's name in Japanese is "Garou Densetsu" ("The Legend of the Hungry Wolf"), referring to series face Terry Bogard's nickname. The Japanese title is alluded to in, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, in all regions (although "Garou" was made into "Fatal Fury" for the Dreamcast release but kept the subtitle intact). Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves writes the Garou Densetsu name in Japanese underneath the English title, which appears to give the game a single logo across all regions ("Garou Densetsu" is also used in the Japanese-language trailers when the title of the game is spoken).
  • The Last Blade is called Bakumatsu Roman in Japanese, referencing the time period in which it takes place (the end of the shogun age in Japanese history). Unlike the other SNK examples, this English title does reference the same age, albeit more abstractly than the Japanese name.
  • The oddly spelled Samurai Shodown series is called Samurai Spirits in Japanese. The Japanese titles also do not use numbers to distinguish installments, instead opting for subtitles, while the English titles stick with Roman numerals.
• Tec Toy, Sega's Brazilian distributor, curiously retitled a number of games for Sega consoles:
  • Bubble Bobble became Dragon Maze.
  • Columns became Shapes and Columns.
  • Enduro Racer became Super Cross.
  • Factory Panic became Crazy Company.
  • Halley Wars became Space Battle.
  • My Hero became Gang's Fighter.
  • SpellCaster became Warrior Quest.
  • TransBot became Nuclear Creature.

By Game:

• The three PS2 Ace Combat games all had their titles changed in Europe.
  • Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War got off the lightest, merely losing the number to become Ace Combat: The Belkan War.
  • Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies became Ace Combat: Distant Thunder.
  • The worst casualty was Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War which became the spectacularly dull and generic Ace Combat: Squadron Leader.
• Beyond Oasis is known as The Story of Thor in Europe and as Story of Thor ~Hikari wo Tsugu Mono~ (Story of Thor ~Successor of the Light~) in its native Japan. The prequel, The Legend of Oasis, was known as The Story of Thor 2 in Europe and Thor ~Seirei Ō Kiden~ (Thor ~Chronicles of the Elemental King~) in Japan.
• Akumajō Dracula (Demon Castle Dracula), officially known as Castlevania, enjoys this trope a lot:
  • The MSX game was brought to Europe as Vampire Killer.
  • The arcade game was brought outside of Japan as Haunted Castle.
  • Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin (The Sealed Curse) was localized as Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
  • Dracula no Densetsu (The Legend of Dracula) was localized as Castlevania: The Adventure. Its direct sequel received the same treatment, as Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge.
  • Akumajou Densetsu (Legend of the Demon Castle) was localized as Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.
  • Both Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (Demon Castle Special: I'm Kid Dracula) games for the Famicom and the Game Boy were localized as Kid Dracula.
  • The SNES game was localized as Super Castlevania IV.
  • In American languages, the Genesis/Mega Drive title known as Vampire Killer in Japanese was renamed Castlevania: Bloodlines. In European languages, it's known as Castlevania: The New Generation.
  • The SNES Castlevania: Dracula X was retitled Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss in European languages. It was known as Akumajou Dracula XX in Japanese.
  • Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Nocturne in the Moonlight) became Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
  • Shikkoku Taru Zensoukyoku (Dark Night Prelude) became Castlevania Legends.
  • Mokushiroku and Mokushiroku Gaiden (Apocalypse and Apocalypse Side-Story) became Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, respectively.
  • Byakuya no Kousoukyoku (Concerto of the Midnight Sun) became Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance.
  • Akatsuki no Enbukyoku (Minuet of Dawn) became Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
  • The game known as Castlevania: Lament of Innocence in American languages is simply titled Castlevania in European languages and Japanese, possibly referencing its position as the chronologically first game in the franchise.
  • Sougetsu no Juujika (Cross of the Blue Moon) became Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
  • Gallery of Labyrinth became Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
  • Ubawareta Kokuin (The Stolen Seal) became Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
• Of the Aleste series, various installments were distributed internationally by four different companies, who obscured the relations between them with different titles:
  • All Aleste games distributed by Sega became Power Strike outside Japan (including one game that was only released in Europe).
  • Musha Aleste dropped "Aleste" and became MUSHA: Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor (a backronym which already existed in the Japanese documentation).
  • Dennin Aleste became Robo Aleste, keeping the series title for once. This might qualify as a Completely Different Title, except that "Dennin" was otherwise left untranslated.
  • Super Aleste became Space Megaforce in North America, but the European release used the original title.
• Alundra is known in Europe as The Adventures of Alundra.
• Animal Crossing:
  • In native Japan, Animal Crossing is called Animal Forest (dobutsu no mori).
  • Let's Go to the City was released in North America with the subtitle City Folk, because "Let's Go to the City" is a bit too wordy in English and "City Folk" is a familiar American term with the same connotation. The European release notably uses the original title.
• The Nintendo DS game titled Another Code: Two Memories in Japan and Europe was renamed Trace Memory in North America, which extended to renaming the in-game device resembling a DS from Dual Another System (DAS) to Dual Trace System (DTS). Averted with the remake that uses the Japanese/European title internationally as part of being in a collection titled Another Code: Recollection, which also includes the second game (R - Journey into Lost Memories) that never released in America.
• Another World was released in North America as Out of This World, and in Japan as Outer World. It has been renamed back to Another World for its 20th anniversary rerelease in English.
• Aqutallion was released outside Japanese as Secret of the Stars.
• The Area 88 games are known as U.N. Squadron internationally. Whatever the reason for the name change, it was certainly not due to licensing issues, as Shin, Mickey, and Greg all retain their likenesses.
• The Sega Master System game TransBot was titled Astro Flash in Japanese. Sega also created as an Arcade Game which had the same title in Japanese but was titled Transformer internationally.
• Atomic Runner Chelnov, as an Arcade Game, had the same title in all regions. The Sega Genesis port was released as just Chelnov in Japanese and as Atomic Runner in English, even though the altered Excuse Plot of this version made Atomic Runner an Artifact Title.
• Aztec Wars was released in European languages as The Aztec: True History Of Empire, as Aztec Empire in Polish, and as Die Azteken in German.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt is titled Armed Blue: Gunvolt in Japanese. The titular character's title is also changed as such.
• Baraduke has a rare American English version named Alien Sector, where the only thing that changed is the title screen, since all the text was in English even in the original Japanese version.
• Bare Knuckle is known as Streets of Rage in English.
• The NES version of Batman: Return of the Joker was called Dynamite Batman in Japanese.
• When Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril made its official debut in Japan eight years after its original release, it was named Battle Kid: Kikenna Wana in Japanese.
• The early beatmania games were released in South Korea as beatstage, and weirdly as hiphopmania in the USA (even though the games featured little to no hip hop music).
  • All of the DrumMania video games from the original to 10th Mix were released in Asia as PercussionFreaks, presumably because Konami wanted to have a consistent branding with the GuitarFreaks series. KeyboardMania was also renamed to KeyboardHeaven.
    • For some reason, DrumMania V6 BLAZING! was released in Asia as DrumMania V6 BURNING!. The GuitarFreaks counterpart kept its original title.
  • For years, DanceDanceRevolution games were retitled Dancing Stage in Europe, presumably because many Europeans have poor memories of something that was called DDR. Dance Dance Revolution X onwards drops this, instead being called DDR as well over there.
  • Dance Maniax was renamed Dance Freaks in Korea.
  • ParaParaParadise was renamed ParaParaDancing in Korea.
  • jubeat was released as jukebeat outside of Japan. It was originally going to be titled UBeat.
• Mobile Phone Game Beauties Battle is also distributed as League of Beauties.
• Biohazard is known as Resident Evil outside of Japan and South Korea, because Biohazard was too generic to be properly trademarked in America; both a band and another video game used the name.
  • The subtitle for the third game was also changed from Last Escape to Nemesis (after the titular monster), even though Jill title drops her "last escape" during the opening monologue.
  • Played with in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which combines the English and Japanese titles together, where they take top billing in their specific regions, making the Japanese/Korean title "Biohazard 7: Resident Evil".
• Blackthorne was renamed Blackhawk in certain European countries. One possible explanation was due to sharing a name similar to a brand of British cider, Blackthorn; though this is unlikely due to the 'e'. The GBA rerelease retained the original Blackthorne title.
• The Data East run-and-gun shoot-em-up Bloody Wolf is known as Battle Rangers in Europe since "Bloody" is considered a profane word in England.
• Bomber King was localized as RoboWarrior on the NES. Bomber King: Scenario 2 on the Game Boy was localized as Blaster Master Boy in America, and Blaster Master Jr. in Europe.
• Early Bomberman games were released in Europe as Dynablaster, sometimes written as two words (Dyna Blaster). There were a few Bomberman games from this era (Bomber Boy for the Game Boy and the Irem arcade games) that were retitled Atomic Punk for the U.S. market. The Nintendo Entertainment System game Bomberman II also used the Dynablaster name in Europe, but it used the original name in North America (the first NES game was not released in Europe). This ended in 1993 with Super Bomberman using the same title worldwide.
• For a while, the Bonk games were known as B.C. Kid in Europe. In Japanese, Bonk is known as PC Genjin, being a Pun on the franchise's console of origin (the PC Engine), with "genjin" being Japanese for "caveman".
• Breath of Fire. Outside Japan, Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter became Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
• Bully became known as Canis Canem Edit (the Pretentious Latin Motto of the fictional Bullworth School) in the UK due to controversy over the title. It has since died down and the Updated Re-release was released under the title Bully.
• Enix had a Rhythm Game in Japan known as Bust A Move. Unfortunately, Taito's Puzzle Bobble had already been released under that title outside of Japan, so Enix's game had to be released as Bust a Groove in English. Since Square Enix succeeded both companies, European releases and some online versions use the Puzzle Bobble title instead of Bust-A-Move.
• Masters of Combat, a Fighting Game for the Sega Master System, was released for the Game Gear in Japanese as Buster Fight.
• Cannon Dancer was changed into Osman for its English release.
• Captain Tsubasa on the Famicom was given a Cultural Translation on the NES and renamed Tecmo Cup Soccer Game.
• Cassette 50 was released in Spain as Galaxy 50 - 50 Excitantes Juegos (which translates to Galaxy 50 - 50 Exciting Games).
• Castlequest for the NES was originally released as Castle Excellent in Japanese. This raises the question of what the international title of Castle Quest, an unrelated Strategy RPG for the Famicom, would have been. Answer: a translated version of Castle Quest for the NES was previewed under the title Triumph, but only the Game Boy version was released overseas in Europe, under the Castle Quest title.
• Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is known in Japan as I Love Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Oshiro Daibōken (I Love Mickey Mouse: Mysterious Castle Great Adventure). The Game Gear version is known in Japan as Mickey Mouse no Castle Illusion.
  • Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse was released in Japan as Mickey Mouse no Mahō no Crystal (Mickey Mouse and the Magic Crystal).
  • World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck was released in Japan as I Love Mickey & Donald: Fushigi na Magic Box (I Love Mickey & Donald: The Mysterious Magic Box).
  • Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is known as Mickey Mouse: Densetsu no Ōkoku (Mickey Mouse: The Legendary Kingdom) in Japan.
• Castle of Shikigami came to North America "localized" as Mobile Light Force 2, and in European languages as MLF2.
• Castleween was released in English under the title Spirits & Spells.
• Kid Chameleon was released as Chameleon Kid in Japanese.
• The Chaos Engine was released in English on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis as Soldiers of Fortune (not to be confused with Soldier of Fortune).
• Chiki Chiki Boys was retitled Mega Twins outside Japan in all versions except the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version which used the original title in all territories.
• In European languages, the original Contra was released Gryzor on the arcades and home micros, and as Probotector on the NES. The latter version is notable for redesigning the protagonists and some of the enemy characters into robots due to a law in Germany that forbade the depiction of human characters killing each other in games sold to minors. This ban would be in effect until Contra: Legacy of War on the PlayStation, which was when the European versions of the console games started keeping the Contra name and characters.
  • The NES version of Super Contra is known as Super C in American languages and Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces in European languages. The arcade version used Super Contra in every regional release.
  • Operation C, the Game Boy-exclusive entry in the series, is simply known as Contra in Japanese and Probotector in European languages. However, the Japanese version spells the title in katakana to distinguish itself from the arcade and Famicom versions, which used kanji.
  • Operation C was also included in the Game Boy Color Compilation Re-release Konami GB Collection: Vol. 1, a compilation that never reached North America. Weirdly, the European version used the Probotector name, but featured human characters.
  • Contra III: The Alien Wars is known as Contra Spirits in Japanese and Super Probotector: Alien Rebels in European languages at least for the Super NES version. The Game Boy version was simply titled Contra: The Alien Wars (without a numeral) in American languages and Probotector 2 in European languages (it was still called Contra Spirits in Japanese).
  • Contra: Hard Corps is known as Contra: The Hard Corps in Japanese and once again shortened to Probotector in European languages.
  • Contra Force would had been titled Arc Hound in Japanese had the Famicom version been released.
  • Contra: Shattered Soldier is known as Shin Contra in Japanese.
  • Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX is known as Contra: Hard Spirits in Japanese.
  • Contra 4 is known as Contra: Dual Spirits in Japanese.
• Crackdown for reasons unknown is called Riot Act in Japanese.
• The Crazy Castle series:
  • The Famicom game Roger Rabbit was brought to the Game Boy as Mickey Mouse, becoming the first game in the Mickey Mouse series in Japanese.
  • The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle on the NES is based on Roger Rabbit. The Game Boy version is based on Mickey Mouse.
  • Mickey Mouse II was released as The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 in the US. In Europe, the game was released as Mickey Mouse, and also as Hugo, to tie into the Hugo series, followed by the sequel Hugo 2, based on another Hugo 2 game on the PlayStation.
  • Mickey Mouse III: Balloon Dreams was released in the US as Kid Klown in Night Mayor World, becoming the first game in the Kid Klown series.
  • Mickey Mouse IV: The Magical Labyrinth was released as The Real Ghostbusters in American languages and Garfield Labyrinth in European languages.
  • In Japanese, Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 was also released as Let's Go!! Kid: Go! Go! Kid.
• Data East USA retitled Crude Buster to Two Crude in arcades; the Sega Genesis port was retitled Two Crude Dudes in North America and Europe.
• Each main game in the Danganronpa series has had its Japanese title changed for its western release:
  • Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei (Danganronpa: The Academy of Hope and the High School Students of Despair) was changed to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.
  • Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen (Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye, Despair Academy) was changed to Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
  • New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shingakki (New Danganronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Mutual Killing) was changed to Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.
• Darius II was released as Sagaia outside Japanese, and Darius Force was released in America as Super Nova.
• The sequel to Level-5's Playstation 2 action-RPG Dark Cloud is known as Dark Cloud 2 in North America...and Dark Chronicle everywhere else.
• Crusader of Centy is Dawn of the Era: Ragnacenty in Japanese and Soleil in European languages.
• The survival horror game Demento was released as Haunting Ground in American languages.
• For some strange reason, the game known as Dewprism in Japanese was turned into Threads of Fate in English.
• The Puzzle Game Diablo (not to be confused with Diablo) had some Japanese-made ports retitled Blodia, and the TurboGrafx-16 version of Blodia was retitled Timeball in English.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon World 3 became known as Digimon World 2003 in Europe. It's been speculated to have been done to avert likely confusion resulting from Digimon World 2 not being released in Europe.
  • The following game was known as Digimon World X in Japanese, but renamed Digimon World 4 in American languages and, strangely, European languages.
  • In American languages, Digmon Story and its sequel, Sunburst & Moonlight, were released as Digimon World DS and Digimon World Dawn/Dusk respectively, despite it being a separate series. The trend continued with Digimon World Data Squad and Digimon World Championship but, thankfully, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth averts this.
• The Disgaea games are titled Makai Senki Disgaea followed by the entry number on Japan. The western releases add a subtitle after the number.
• Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers is Donald Duck: Quack Attack in European languages. With at signs: Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers is Donald Duck: Qu@ck Att@ck in European languages.
• Donkey Kong Country was released in Japan as Super Donkey Kong.
  • Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest was called Super Donkey Kong 2: Dixie & Diddy.
  • Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! became Super Donkey Kong 3: Nazo no Kremis Shima (Super Donkey Kong 3: The Mysterious Kremis Island).
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns dropped the "Super" and was just known as Donkey Kong Returns in Japan. Same with the sequel: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze in Japan.
• Double Dragon
  • Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone became Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones outside Japan. This was likely due to the fact that the Rosetta Stones that the Lee brothers collect throughout the game are nothing like the actual Rosetta Stone the game draws its title from. However, the arcade game, which spells its title with an Arabic numeral, was unaffected by this change and the title Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, was used in every region.
  • Super Double Dragon is known as Return of Double Dragon in Japanese.
• PS2-era Dragon Ball fighting games provide an odd example:
  • In Japanese, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai is Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 is Dragon Ball Z 2, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 is Dragon Ball Z 3, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai is unchanged, while Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road is Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai 2.
  • Japan's Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! is localized as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi in English — essentially trading in Gratuitous English for Gratuitous Japanese. The fourth mainline entry, Sparking! ZERO would be the first time the series would use the Sparking! moniker worldwide.
• Dragon Knight III became Knights of Xentar in the US.
• The game DragonNinja was released in the US as Bad Dudes, and was released in Europe as Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Enix found that there was already an old RPG released in North America had used the title Dragon Quest and its publisher SPI still held the trademark to the name. Thus, when bringing Dragon Quest over, they were forced to use the name Dragon Warrior. Technically it was the camelcase DragonQuest, which, while not exactly the same, was still close enough to prevent Enix from calling its video game series Dragon Quest. This persisted until 2005, when Square Enix reclaimed the trademark from the now-defunct tabletop game and released Dragon Quest VIII internationally under that name. The series has used the Quest name ever since, with remakes of earlier games getting a Post-Release Retitle.
  • Another change between regions is that while the original Japanese games (after the first) had subtitles, the Dragon Warrior versions did not. They did gain subtitles when being rebranded as Dragon Quest, but different ones from Japan:
    • Dragon Quest II: "Gods/Pantheon of the Evil Spirits" became "Luminaries of the Legendary Line"
    • Dragon Quest III: "And thus into Legend..." became "The Seeds of Salvation"
    • Dragon Quest IV: "The Guided Ones" became "Chapters of the Chosen"
    • Dragon Quest V: "The Heavenly Bride" became "Hand of the Heavenly Bride"
    • Dragon Quest VI: "Land of Illusion" became "Realms of Revelation"
    • Dragon Quest VII: "Warriors of Eden" became "Fragments of the Forgotten Past"
    • Dragon Quest VIII: "The Sky, the Ocean, the Earth, and the Cursed Princess" became "Journey of the Cursed King"
    • Dragon Quest IX: "Guardians of the Starry Skies" became "Sentinels of the Starry Skies"
    • Dragon Quest XI: "In Search of Passing Time" became "Echoes of an Elusive Age"
  • Europe missed the Dragon Warrior era entirely and only started to receive games after the rebranding with VIII; but the releases in the first few years (VIII and remakes of IV and V) dropped numbers from the titles, probably to avoid the "some titles were never released there" problem. These three releases also had a "The" added to the beginning of the American subtitles. The numbers were eventually reinstated (and the "The"s removed) starting with IX in 2010. In addition, the subtitle of VI was changed from "Realms of Revelation" to "Realms of Reverie".
  • Dragon Quest Monsters:
    • Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland and Dragon Quest Monsters 2: The Mysterious Key to Malta, like the main series at the time, used the Warriors name and dropped the subtitles, becoming Dragon Warrior Monsters and Dragon Warrior Monsters 2. 2 did have two versions, though, and the version names reflected name changes for the protagonists: Iru's Adventure and Ruka's Journey were changed to Tara's Adventure and Cobi's Journey.
    • Dragon Quest Monsters 3: The Demon Prince and the Elf's Journey was simplifed to just Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. The removal of the "3" probably has to do with the fact that it's actually the seventh Monsters game, and two of the four that were skipped over were never released internationally.
• Dragon Slayer:
  • Legacy of the Wizard was Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family in Japanese. "Dragon Slayer" remained the name of the Sword of Plot Advancement, and Brøderbund Software left somewhat confusing references to "the Draslefamily" in the manual.
  • The Legend of Heroes sub-series. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes is known on the TG-16 as Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II was unreleased in English. The Legend of Heroes III: Shiroki Majo became The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch. The Legend of Heroes IV: Akai Shizuku became The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion. The Legend of Heroes V: Umi no Oriuta became The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean.
  • 'The Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki series became The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky series, The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki and The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki became The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure respectively, The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki series became The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series, and The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki became The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie.
• German Point-and-Click Game Edna bricht aus (Edna Breaks Out) was released in English as Edna & Harvey: The Breakout. The Gaiden Game Harveys neue Augen (Harvey's New Eyes) was released as Edna & Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes in English to make it clear that it's part of the same series, even though Edna and Harvey are no longer the protagonists.
• Elebits is called Eledees in Europe. It's a pun on LEDs, small electronic components which produce light for indicating the circuitry conveys the electricity properly.
• Elnard became The 7th Saga. Mystic Ark was planned to be localized as 7th Saga II.
• Emergency! 4 was released by Atari in North America as 911: First Responders. The first three Emergency games were released in the continent with their original names intact.
• Epica Stella was published in North America as Vanguard Bandits.
• Resonance of Fate is known as End of Eternity in Japanese.
• The Estepolis Denki series of JRPGs was renamed Lufia when the first installment, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom, was released in America. This ended up being an Artifact Title from the sequel onwards, as "Lufia" was the name of one of the major characters in the first game, who didn't appear in any of the others. Particularly confusing for people in Europe and Australia, who never got the original at all and who had the name of the second game shortened to simply Lufia, a title that basically meant nothing to them.
• Sega's Eternal Arcadia became Skies of Arcadia overseas.
• The EXA_PICO series has had its rather lengthy titles shortened for each installment. The first game, Ar tonelico: Sekai no Owari de Utaitsudzukeru Shoujo (The Girl who Continues to Sing at the End of the World) became Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia. Similarly, Ar tonelico II: Sekai ni Hibiku Shoujo-tachi no Metafalica (The Girls' Metafalica that Resounds through the World) became Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica. Lastly, Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hiku (The Girl's Song that Pulls the Trigger of the World's Demise) broke the pattern with Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel.
• Fahrenheit was marketed as Indigo Prophecy in the US, in order to avoid confusion with the film Fahrenheit 9/11.
  • However, the uncut version (a sex scene was removed to get an M rating in the US) was released as Fahrenheit.
• Fatal Frame is known as Project Zero in Europe and just Zero in its native Japanese.
  • The third game, titled Zero: Shisei no Koe (Zero: The Voice of the Tattoo), was released as Fatal Frame III: The Tormented in America and Project Zero 3: The Tormented in Europe.
  • The fifth game, Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko (Zero: The Black-Haired Shrine Maiden)^note "Nuregarasu", literally "wet raven/crow", is an idiomatic term in Japanese referring to beautiful jet-black hair, was released as Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water in America and Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water in Europe.
• The Sega Genesis version of Taito's Arcade Game Final Blow was released outside Japan as James "Buster" Douglas Knockout Boxing, a title also used for an altogether different Sega Master System game.
• Final Fantasy
  • In North America, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI were renumbered II and III respectively on the Super NES due to Squaresoft not localizing the three installments that were released in between those two and the original Final Fantasy. From Final Fantasy VII and onward, Squaresoft now had better resources that allowed them to localize the series without skipping entries, resulting in the newer games keeping their actual numbering. Thus, when Square started re-releasing and localizing the older games on newer consoles such as the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance, there was no longer any need to renumber them.
  • Before Square properly introduced Final Fantasy to Europe, Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest were released there as Mystic Quest and Mystic Quest Legend, respectively. Mystic Quest was released in Japanese as Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest.
• The Natsume-developed Famicom shoot-'em-up Final Mission received a slightly enhanced NES localization for the American market with the unfortunate title of S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team. The European and Australian versions were given the more sensible (if generic) name Action in New York.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade was the first game in the series to be released outside Japan. As such, it was released internationally as just plain Fire Emblem. Once the series had established itself, the subtitle was added to promotional materials referring to the series' history.
  • Fire Emblem Gaiden: Internationally, the 3DS remake is subtitled Shadows of Valentia. In Japanese, it is subtitled Another Hero-King, playing up how Alm is Valentia's counterpart to Archanea's Marth, who is also known as the Hero-King.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses: The game's original Japanese subtitle is Fūkasetsugetsu: a four-kanji idiom meaning "Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon", which refers both to the in-universe season naming and to the game's four story routes. Because it would inevitably sound awkward in translation, however, the subtitle has been changed to Three Houses in English, with the added benefit of drawing attention away from the fourth major in-game faction (The Church) and concealing the fact that one of the House routes (the Black Eagles') splits in two half-way through the story.
• Genshin Impact is just called Yuánshén (literally "Original God", "Origins of God", or "Primordial God") in its native China, which "Genshin" is the Japanese reading of. The "Impact" was added to the title due to the worldwide success of miHoYo's previous game, Honkai Impact 3rd (which itself is titled Bēng Huài 3, literally "Collapse 3rd", in China - again, "Honkai" derives from the Japanese reading of the Chinese title, which in this case is "Hōkai").
• Groove Coaster is marketed as Rhythmvaders in some Asia Pacific countries.
• The Jaleco game The Ignition Factor was titled Fire Fighting in Japanese.
• Flipull was known as Plotting outside Japan, until Taito America released the Game Boy version under the original title.
• Flying Shark was released in English as Sky Shark.
• Taito's Fudou Myouou Den (The Acala Legend) received an edited translation as Demon Sword in the West.
• Most of the games in the Game & Watch Gallery series go by the Game Boy Gallery name in Australia due to what is technically the first game in the series, Game Boy Gallery, never being released outside of Europe and Australia. The first Game & Watch Gallery game is known as Game Boy Gallery 2 in Australia, and Game & Watch Gallery 2 and 3 are known as Game Boy Gallery 3 and 4 respectively. Game & Watch Gallery 4 breaks this pattern by instead being named Game & Watch Gallery Advance, and is the only game in the series to use the Game & Watch Gallery name in Australia.
• Game Boy Wars Advance was retitled Advance Wars for its western release since it was first Wars game to get an international release and most western players would've not been familiar with the earlier Game Boy Wars games that were released only in Japan. When the DS sequels were made, the English versions kept the Advance Wars name, while the Japanese versions changed it to the Famicom Wars moniker of the series' home console installments.
  • The second DS game in the series is known as Advance Wars: Days of Ruin in North American English and Advance Wars: Dark Conflict in European languages.
• Pocket Arcade Story's original title in Japanese is Game Center Club. It was changed to Pocket Arcade Story due to the rest of the world being more familiar with Kairosoft's <x> <y> Story naming scheme and due to Game Center being the Japanese Gratuitous English term for arcade.
• Ganbare Goemon is known as Mystical Ninja or Legend of the Mystical Ninja outside of Japan.
• Intra-region example: Gaplus was rereleased under the name Galaga 3 to make it more clear that it was a sequel to the original Galaga. Somehow, they skipped making a "Galaga 2."
• Garfield: Caught in the Act is titled Garfield in TV Land on PC, which was also the title of a cancelled 32X port.
• The Girls Mode series of fashion boutique simulators is known as Style Savvy in North America, and New Style Boutique in Europe.
• Mobile Phone Game Girls X Battle, Ninja Girls: Moe Moe Moe or Ninja Girls: Revolution is titled Kawaii Academy in Thailand and Sexy Academy in Indonesia.
• God Slayer: Haruka Tenkū no Sonata (God Slayer: Sonata of the Far-Away Sky) became known as Crystalis, presumably to avoid offending religious people.
• The arcade version of the original Gradius, as well as the three MSX games in the series, were released under the Nemesis title outside Japan. In a form of Recursive Import, the Nemesis name was used in Japanese and European languages for the two Game Boy games (the first of which used the Nemesis title in North America, and the second of which came out as Gradius: The Interstellar Assault in North American English) and Nemesis '90 Kai for the Sharp X68000 (an enhanced remake of the MSX version of Gradius 2). The arcade version of Gradius II was also released as Vulcan Venture in European languages. And Salamander became Life Force in North American English, though the arcade versions differed a bit more than in name. On the NES, Life Force was called Life Force Salamander in European languages, Salamander being the name of the arcade version outside of North America.
• Graffiti Kingdom was renamed to Magic Pengel for its English release. Confusingly, Graffiti Kingdom 2: Battle of Devil Castle was later released as... Graffiti Kingdom.
• Gravity Rush, a Killer App for the Play Station Vita, is called Gravity Daze in Japanese.
• Green Beret was released in North America as Rush'n Attack, exploiting the Cold War hysteria at the time (if it isn't so obvious, "Rush'n Attack" is a play on "Russian Attack").
• Gunbird came to the US and Europe localized as Mobile Light Force.
• Taito tweaked the title of Gun Frontier to Gun & Frontier outside of Japan to avoid confusion with the anime of the same name. They did the opposite to Dungeon & Magic, which lost the ampersand outside of Japan.
• Gwent: The Witcher Card Game: The game is known as Gwint in the original Polish, presumably changed during the English localization of The Witcher 3 for ease of pronunciation.
• Rad Racer was called Highway Star in Japanese.
• The platformer Human Weapon: Dead Fox was released outside Japan as Code Name: Viper.
• Astyanax was originally titled The Lord of King in Japanese.
• Forgotten Worlds was originally titled Lost Worlds in Japanese. Later Japanese ports of the game used the English title as well.
• Glory of Heracles: Proof of the Soul was released in North America as just Glory of Heracles.
• The Guardian Legend was originally Guardic Gaiden, a spin-off of the MSX game Guardic.
• Mobile Phone Game Gundam Breaker Mobile was released as Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare outside of Japan.
• Cannon Spike was released in Japanese as Gunspike.
• Hard Edge was given the title of T.R.A.G. - Mission of Mercy in North America, however it kept its original Japanese name in Europe.
• The first Hebereke game received a Cultural Translation as Ufouria. It never left Europe until nearly 18 years later, though.
• The Hoshi no Kirby (Kirby of the Stars) series is shortened to just Kirby internationally, except for the Chinese and Korean versions. Even ignoring that, most games get new subtitles between languages. This can get weird when newer titles reference prior subtitles from other languages.
  • The original game, simply titled Hoshi no Kirby, became Kirby's Dream Land in English. The two numbered sequels followed the same pattern (Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3), while Kirby 64's English title exchanged "Hoshi no" for the subtitle The Crystal Shards.
  • Kirby's Adventure is Hoshi no Kirby Yume no Izumi no Monogatari ("The Story of the Fountain of Dreams") in Japanese, while its remake, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, is Yume no Izumi Deluxe ("Fountain of Dreams Deluxe").
  • Kirby's Avalanche is known as Kirby's Ghost Trap in Europe. It has no Japanese title since it was never released there, being a reskinned version of Super Puyo Puyo.
  • Kirby Super Star is known as Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe in Japanese and Kirby's Fun Pak in European languages. The remake, Kirby Super Star Ultra, is Kirby Ultra Super Deluxe in Japanese and, strangely, still Kirby Super Star Ultra in European languages.
  • Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is Hoshi no Kirby Kagami no Daimeikyū ("The Great Labyrinth of the Mirror") in Japanese.
  • Kirby: Canvas Curse is Touch! Kirby in Japanese Kirby: Power Paintbrush in European languages. Its spiritual sequel, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, is Touch! Kirby: Super Rainbow in Japanese and Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush in European languages.
  • Kirby: Squeak Squad is known as Hoshi no Kirby Sanjō! Dorocche-dan ("They've Arrived! The Dorocche Gang") in Japanese and Kirby: Mouse Attack in European languages.
  • Kirby's Epic Yarn is simply called Keito no Kirby ("Yarn Kirby") in Japanese.
  • Kirby Mass Attack is the localized name of Atsumete! Kirby ("Gather! Kirby"). Oddly, it's a play on the prior "Mouse Attack", even though that title was only used in European translations.
  • Kirby's Return to Dream Land is Hoshi no Kirby Wii in Japanese and Kirby's Adventure Wii in European languages; the European title keeps the Super Title 64 Advance element from the Japanese title, but has the unfortunate side effect of making it sound like a remake of the aforementioned Kirby's Adventure. The Japanese title was kept for the game's rerelease on the Nintendo Switch (as Hoshi no Kirby Wii Deluxe), but the European title was not, instead using the North American title of Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
  • Averted by Kirby: Triple Deluxe, which stayed the same in all languages (barring the usual removal of Hoshi no) — which is odd since "Triple Deluxe" is a Call-Back to "Super Deluxe", a title only used in Japanese. The title does, however, serve as a Super Title 64 Advance for the 3DS system and reflect the fact that the game is a Three-Dimensional Episode in the series.
  • Kirby: Planet Robobot has the subtly different title of Hoshi no Kirby Robobo Planet in Japanese.
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land is known as Hoshi no Kirby Discovery in Japanese.
• Intelligent Qube was released in Europe as Kurushi.
  • Intelligent Qube Final became Kurushi Final when it was released in Europe. Intelligent Qube Final was not released in North America at all.
• It's A Wonderful World became The World Ends with You because every variant of the original title that Square Enix could come up with was already trademarked.
• The first Jet Set Radio is known as Jet Grind Radio in North American English, allegedly to avoid confusion with the band Jet Set Satellite. The radio station is still referred to as "Jet Set Radio" in-game though. Apparently they weren't as worried about this confusion for the release of the game's sequel/remake/Alternate Continuity, Jet Set Radio Future, and the conflict was long gone by the time that the HD re-release of the first came out. However, the GBA release still retains the "Grind" title.
• The Backyard Sports games are known by their original name, Junior Sports, in Europe.
• JumpStart is known as Jump Ahead in the United Kingdom.
• Deception: Kokumeikan was released as Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness, Kagero: Kokumeikan Shinsho was released as Kagero: Deception II, Soumatou was released as Deception III: Dark Delusion, Kagero II: Dark Illusion was released as Trapt, Kagero: Dark Side Princess was released as Deception IV: Blood Ties, and Kagero: Another Princess was released as Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess.
• Kiki Kai Kai is known as Pocky & Rocky outside of Japan.
• Kileak The Blood was released in North American English as Kileak: The DNA Imperative, while the sequel's American title became simply Epidemic.
• Kult: Heretic Kingdoms is called that in Europe (where it was made), but turned into Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition for its American release.
• The Kunio-kun games released outside Japan were released as Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom, and Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge. River City Ransom was released as Street Gangs in European languages. Later Kunio-kun games keep the River City title, despite taking place in Japan and focusing on the original characters. Then there is the case of the Super Famicom title Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, which only would be localized nearly thirty years later as River City Girls Zero, in order to associate the game with the more recent River City Girls, a Western-developed love letter to the former.
• The first Langrisser game was released on the Sega Genesis as Warsong.
• Legend of the Cryptids is Legend of Monsters in Japanese.
• Mobile Phone Game Lies of Astaroth is also distributed as Elves Realm.
• Lilo & Stitch
  • The PlayStation release of Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise has its subtitle dropped by Sony Computer Entertainment America in American languages, even though the game's Windows version was also released in North America with the original title intact. Complicating matters is that there is also another Lilo & Stitch video game for the Game Boy Advance by a different developer that also goes without a subtitle, which caused a few online databases to mistakenly define that game as a version of Trouble in Paradise for a while.
  • The GBA game's standalone sequel Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc loses the subtitle in European languages, while the Japanese title also removes the number and swaps out the ampersand for the word "and". (Japan never received the first Lilo & Stitch GBA game.) Additionally, the title screen of the Japanese version adds The Series as a subtitle, since it's the tie-in game to that show.
  • The first tie-in game to the Stitch! anime, Stitch! DS: Ohana to Rhythm de Daibouken (literally Stitch! DS: A Great Adventure of Ohana and Rhythm), had its name pared down in English to Disney Stitch Jam for the North American and European releases.
• Some level names in LittleBigPlanet PSP change depending on the localization: "High on Rugs" vs. "Rugs and Kisses" or "Brazilian Whacks" vs. "Golissmo!".
• The Adventures of Bayou Billy was called Mad City in Japanese.
• The original Magical Drop Arcade Game was released outside Japan as Chain Reaction, a title used in no subsequent release.
• Magic and Mayhem was released in American languages as Duel: The Mage Wars.
• Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times was titled Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry in European languages. The American version was originally announced under the title Little Magician's Magical Adventure.
• The game Magic John was released in English as Totally Rad.
• Marvel Land was released as Talmit's Adventure in Europe.
• Matrix: Gridrunner 2, a Centipede-like game, was released in the U.S. under the title Attack of the Mutant Camels, which belonged to a different game by Jeff Minter, simply because the publisher liked the title. When the real Attack of the Mutant Camels was released in the U.S., it was renamed Advance Of The Mega Camels to preserve the initialism.
• Mega-Lo-Mania was released in the U.S. as Tyrants: Fight Through Time.
• Metafight, or Super Planetary War Records: Metafight, was localized as Blaster Master. Metafight EX on the Game Boy Color was localized as Blaster Master: Enemy Below.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear: Ghost Babel is known as Metal Gear Solid in North America and Europe, suggesting that it was a reworked port of the PlayStation game of the same name for the Game Boy Color. At the time, it was not uncommon for most console and PC games to be released alongside cheaper Game Boy Color versions (such as Daikatana, Tomb Raider and Perfect Dark).
  • The extra missions disc that came with Metal Gear Solid: Integral (the Updated Re-release of Metal Gear Solid in Japan) was released as a stand-alone game under the title of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions in North America and Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions in Europe.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel for the PSP is known in Japanese as Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée, after the French term for graphic novels. Strangely enough, the French version does not use this title.
  • The Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection is known as Metal Gear Solid: HD Edition in Japanese, a somewhat misleading title, as it implies that it's a stand-alone remaster of the first Metal Gear Solid when it's actually a compilation of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and 3 with a voucher code to download the first game if you bought the PS3 version (which is ironically the only title in the collection not remastered in HD, being instead a straightforward emulation of the PS1 version). Unlike the North American and European versions, the Japanese compilations did not come with the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker remaster, which was instead given a separate stand-alone disc release.
• Metal Marines was released as Militia in Japanese.
• The Puzzle Game Mindbender, which went by the title Brainbender on the Game Boy, was released by Acclaim's Japanese division under the title Migrain.
• There's no end to this for the Monster Hunter series. Just to name some more popular examples: Monster Hunter Portable became Monster Hunter Freedom in the West, Monster Hunter Portable 2G became Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Monster Hunter 3G and 4G became Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and 4 Ultimate, respectively, and Monster Hunter X (Cross) became Monster Hunter Generations. It stopped happening from the fifth generation onwards.
• The NES game Monster Party would have been known as Parody World: Monster Party in Japanese had it not been cancelled.
• Mortal Kombat games are usually published with an untranslated title in France. But Mortal Kombat: Deception was translated to "Mortal Kombat: Mystification" because "déception" is the French word for "disappointment".
• Mother:
  • The leaked English prototype and early promotional materials of MOTHER indicated that, in the original plans to internationally release it (which obviously never happened), it was also going to be renamed EarthBound. Its eventual official release on the Virtual Console has the title EarthBound Beginnings.
  • MOTHER 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back, better known outside Japan as EarthBound. For decades, it was the only Mother game to actually have been released outside of Japan. EarthBound's opening, "The War Against Giygas", tagline does refer back to the Japanese title, though. The reason for it not being "strikes back" is obvious: since the original MOTHER wasn't released outside Japan until twenty years after its sequel, Giygas had no reason to "strike back" as far as American players knew.
  • Although it has yet to see an official release outside of Japan, Mother 3 retains its name whenever it is referred to in titles such as Super Smash Bros..
• Irem's Arcade Game Mr. Heli no Daibouken was released outside Japan as Battle Chopper, but the Western computer ports dropped only the Japanese words and were titled Mr. Heli.
• The Slam Masters series of Wrestling Games are known as Muscle Bomber in Japanese, although the second arcade game (Muscle Bomber Duo) kept its original title outside Japan for some reason.
• Nebulus was released in North American English as Tower Toppler. However, the NES and Game Boy versions were Castelian in both territories.
  • In Japan, both versions were a Licensed Game based off of the Japanese snacks Choco Ball. The game was renamed to Kyoro-chan Land and the player character was changed to Kyoro-chan, the Choco Ball mascot.
• Necro-Nesia was released as Escape From Bug Island.
• Hudson Soft released Nectaris for the TurboGrafx-16 as Military Madness in America. Later remakes of the game were released internationally with both titles combined.
• A really bizarre example was an Atari 2600 game released in North America as Name This Game and Win $10,000, which in fact had a contest after release to name the game for a $10,000 reward (though the developer went bankrupt before the contest could even be completed). In Europe, it was simply titled Octopus, as they had no intentions of holding a contest there.
• Need for Speed:
  • The first four games were sold under the Over Drivin' name in Japanese for some reason.
  • High Stakes is Road Challenge in Europe and Brazil.
  • Porsche Unleashed is Porsche in Germany and Latin America, and Porsche 2000 in the rest of Europe.
  • V-Rally for the PlayStation was originally released by Infogrames. However, when Electronic Arts purchased the publishing rights to the PlayStation version, they retconned it into a Need for Speed game, marking one of few times when a game has actually jumped across franchises for marketing purposes. The N64 version was released under it's original name.
    • The sequel was also retconned as a Need for Speed title on the PlayStation in North America as EA purchased the publishing rights to that one too, but the Dreamcast version was instead published by Infogrames themselves, who released it as a Test Drive title, as Infogrames had obtained the franchise when they acquired Accolade earlier in 1999. Therefore, in North America, Need for Speed: V-Rally 2 for the PlayStation and Test Drive V-Rally for the Dreamcast are the same game/port.
• The Nintendo Entertainment System version of The NewZealand Story was for some reason released in the U.S. as Kiwi Kraze: A Bird-Brained Adventure!.
• N.I.C.E. 2, a German-developed Racing Game, was released internationally by THQ and SouthPeak Games as Breakneck. Its predecessor, Have a N.I.C.E. Day, was apparently distributed by 21st Century Entertainment in some countries under the title Axelerator.
• The original Nier was released in two separate versions in Japan: Nier: Gestalt on the Xbox 360, where the protagonist is a middle-aged man, and Nier: Replicant on the PS3, where he is a younger man. Only the Gestalt version was released outside of Japan, where it was simply titled Nier.
  • In 2021, a remaster of the Replicant version titled Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... was released outside of Japan.
• Ninja Gaiden:
  • The series was originally called Ninja Ryukenden in Japanese. An odd case, as Tecmo simply switched one Japanese word for another instead of actually translating the title into English. Ninja Gaiden was actually the Working Title in Japanese before they eventually settled with Ninja Ryukenden. Tecmo thought that the title Ninja Ryukenden would've been too hard to pronounce for English speakers, so they kept the name Ninja Gaiden for the American version.
  • The European and Australian versions of the Ninja Gaiden games (particularly the arcade version and the first two NES games) were called Shadow Warriors as using the word 'ninja' was forbidden for children's toys under some European laws at the time, as with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Rocky Rodent was released in Japanese under the title Nitro Punks: Might Heads.
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee became Abe a Go Go in Japanese.
• In the Onechanbara series, The OneeChanbara was released as Zombie Zone, The OneeChanpurū ~ The Onechan Special Chapter ~ was released as Zombie Hunters or Zombie Zone: Other Side, The OneeChampon ~ The Onechan 2 Special Chapter ~ was released as Zombie Hunters 2, OneeChanbara VorteX ~ Imichi o tsugu mono tachi ~ was released as Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, OneeChanbara Revolution was released as OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers, and OneeChanbara Z2 was released as Onechanbara Z2: Chaos.
• Onmyoji is known by this title in all localizations except Japanese, where it's titled Onmyōji Honkaku Gensō RPG because the original title is trademarked by Baku Yumemakura for a series of completely unrelated novels.
• The French computer game Opération Jupiter was released in other European countries as Hostages and in the US as Hostage: Rescue Mission (note the singularization). The Nintendo Entertainment System port, however, was released as Hostages: The Embassy Mission in Japanese and as Rescue: The Embassy Mission in English.
• Pac-Man was originally titled Puck-Man, until someone figured out what would happen if a vandal changed the P to an F. Only the Japanese and German releases used this name.
• Pandemonium! (1996) and its sequel were imported to Japan by Bandai under the titles Magical Hoppers and Miracle Jumpers, the former also receiving an edited translation.
• Panel de Pon was released as Tetris Attack overseas, presumably to cash in on the popularity of the Tetris label despite both games playing very differently. Later games drop the Tetris branding and are known under the Puzzle League brand; Nintendo seems to look for any excuse to not call it Panel de Pon in the West.
• Pang and its sequels were titled Buster Bros. in English (with the third game becoming Buster Buddies, except for Mighty! Pang, which used the Pang title even in North America); the first game (and only the first) was titled Pomping World in Japanese.
• Phantasmagoria was renamed Phantasm in the Japan-only Sega Saturn release.
• The original versions of Pipe Mania!! were renamed Pipe Dream in English.
• The first Pokémon Stadium game was only ever released in Japan, so what was Pokémon Stadium 2 over there was released as simply Pokémon Stadium outside of Japan, and Pokémon Stadium Kin Gin (Pokémon Stadium Gold Silver) was released outside Japan as Pokémon Stadium 2 (though some versions of it in Japan were known as Pokemon Stadium Kin Gin Crystal Version).
• Pokémon Trozei! was named Pokémon Link in European languages.
• Pokkén Tournament is titled Pokémon Tekken in German, likely because "Pokkén" sounds like "Pocken", the German word for smallpox.
• Mobile Phone Game Pocket Three Kingdoms is Three Kingdoms Legend in Thailand and Three Kingdoms Hero in Indonesia.
• The Fighting Game Power Athlete was released in North American English under two different titles: Deadly Moves on the Sega Genesis, and Power Moves on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
• Police 911 is known as Police 24/7 in European languages, and The Keisatsukan in its native Japanese.
• Power Blazer was released in English as Power Blade.
  • The game's sequel, Captain Saver was released in North America as Power Blade 2.
• The First-Person Shooter PowerSlave was released in European languages as Exhumed and in Japanese as Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu (1999 AD: Pharaoh's Resurrection).
  • Averted with the Nightdive Studios remaster of the console version, which combined the original and European titles to become PowerSlave: Exhumed.
• Prehistorik Man was shortened to just P-Man in Japanese.
• The Professor Layton series:
  • Layton-kyōju to Fushigi na Machi (Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town) became Professor Layton and the Curious Village.
  • Layton-kyōju to Akuma no Hako (Professor Layton and the Devil's Box) became Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box in American languages and Professor Layton and Pandora's Box in European languages.
  • Layton-kyōju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokō (Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel) became Professor Layton and the Unwound Future in American languages and Professor Layton and the Lost Future in European languages.
  • Layton-kyōju to Majin no Fue (Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute) became Professor Layton and the Last Specter in American languages and Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call in European languages.
  • Layton-kyōju to Chō-Bunmei A no Isan (Professor Layton and the Legacy of Super Civilization A) became Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy.
• Puyo Puyo has been distributed internationally under the name Puyo Pop since the Neo Geo Pocket Color version. The only previous releases outside Japan had been some quite strangely Dolled Up Installments of the first game. Strangely enough, Sega also completed a straight translation of the original game, and American or European players who imported Puyo Puyo for the Game Gear would be greeted with Puzlow Kids on the title screen. While the main series went back to the Puyo Puyo name after Puyo Puyo Tetris, the game known as Puyo Puyo eSports in Japanese was released as Puyo Puyo Champions internationally.
• Puzzle Bobble, a puzzle game spinoff of Bubble Bobble, was renamed Bust-a-Move internationally, except in European languages where it inconsistently uses both names.
• Taito America shortened the title of Rastan Saga to Rastan, but then released its sequel under the title of Nastar Warrior. The Sega Genesis port averted this, being titled Rastan Saga II in both U.S. and Japan.
• Most of the sequels to Ratchet & Clank have had their subtitles changed in Europe, mostly due to their innuendous nature - Going Commando became Locked And Loaded (or simply Ratchet & Clank 2 depending on the region), Up Your Arsenal was just called Ratchet & Clank 3, Deadlocked became Gladiator, Full Frontal Assault became QForce, Into the Nexus became simply Nexus, and all Ratchet and Clank Future titles had the "Future" part removed.
  • In Norway, Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal apparently kept their original titles while Deadlocked was changed. There's hardly any consistency.
  • In Australia and New Zealand, the third game got both titles, being called "Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal" (the official name in the US lacks the 3).
  • It's worth noting that the reason the Future was removed was because "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" proved to be rather complex in other European languages (and in addition to the Future removal, the subtitle was often changed as well). This was kept for the follow-ups Quest for Booty and A Crack in Time for consistency, although one wonders why the UK title also lost Future when it uses the same dominant language as the US.
  • The exceptions are the PSP games (which were developed by a different team who have links with the original team), which are named Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank in both regions.
  • The Ratchet & Clank Collection is titled Ratchet & Clank Trilogy in PAL regions and Ratchet & Clank 1+2+3 in Japan.
  • With the exceptions of All 4 One and Into the Nexus, every game has gotten a completely different subtitle in Japan, with the first three sequels + Size Matters also receiving the Numbered Sequels treatment:
    • Going Commando -> 2: Gagaga! Galactic Commando
    • Up Your Arsenal -> 3: Charge! Galactic Rangers
    • Ratchet: Deadlocked -> Ratchet & Clank 4th: Force Gigabattle of the Last Minute Galaxy, notably restoring Clank's name to the title
    • Size Matters -> 5: Clash! Miri Miri Corps of the Dodeca Galaxy, notably being the only non-Insomniac title to be numbered
    • Future: Tools of Destruction -> Ratchet & Clank Future
    • Secret Agent Clank -> Clank & Ratchet: Secret Mission Ignition, notably restoring Ratchet's name to the title and reversing the usual name order
    • Future: Quest for Booty -> Future Gaiden: Treasure of Pirate Dark Water
    • Future: A Crack in Time -> Future 2
    • Full Frontal Assault -> Galaxy Sentai Q Force
    • Ratchet & Clank (2016) -> Ratchet & Clank: The Game
    • Rift Apart -> Parallel Trouble
  • Up Your Arsenal is titled Tool Warrior Reloaded in Korea, while Deadlocked is titled Ratchet & Clank: One-on-One Tool Champ restoring Clank's name to the title just like the Japanese release.
• RayForce is a huge offender. The original Japanese and American arcade releases are called RayForce, and the European verison GunLock. The Japanese console release? Due to trademark issues with the name of another Japanese video game company, it was renamed Layer Section. And when Acclaim got the rights to publish the Saturn port in North America and Europe, they renamed it Galactic Attack. Its sequel, RayStorm has a lesser example of this; the Japanese Saturn port is called Layer Section II, but all other versions retained the original title. RayCrisis mostly escapes this trope, although Working Designs appended "Series Termination" as the game's subtitle.
• In North America, Rayman M was known as Rayman Arena because it was thought that people would think that the 'M' stood for 'mature'.
• Deadly Premonition is titled Red Seeds Profile in Japanese.
• Rhapsodia is known outside Japan as Suikoden Tactics.
• The Rhythm Heaven series is known as "Rhythm Tengoku" in Japanese, "Rhythm Paradise" in European languages, and "Rhythm Sesang"^note "sesang" means "world" in Korean in Korean.
  • "Rhythm Tengoku Gold", the Nintendo DS installment, dropped its subtitle internationally due to the first game never leaving Japan.
  • "Minna no Rhythm Tengoku" became "Rhythm Heaven Fever" in America, "Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise" in Europe, and "Rhythm Sesang Wii" in Korean.
  • "Rhythm Tengoku The Best+" became "Rhythm Heaven Megamix" in America, "Rhythm Paradise Megamix" in Europe, and "Rhythm Sesang The Best Plus" in Korean.
• Road Blaster by Data East was published as Road Prosecutor on the Pioneer LaserActive, Road Avenger on the Sega CD, and Road Blaster FX in Japanese, probably to avoid confusion with RoadBlasters by Atari.
• Mega Man is better known as Rockman in Japanese. The name change from "Rockman" to "Mega Man" was originally thought to be done to avoid trademark issues with a brand of guitar amplifiers, but it was later revealed that a Capcom USA executive simply didn't like the name.
  • All mainline Mega Man (Classic) games, save for the original and Mega Man & Bass (itself renamed from Rockman and Forte), have Japanese subtitles that were removed when they were localized:
    • Mega Man 2's is Dr. Wily no Nazo (The Mystery of Dr. Wily),
    • Mega Man 3's is Dr. Wily no Saigo?! (The End of Dr. Wily?!),
    • Mega Man 4's is Aratanaru Yabou!! (A New Evil Ambition!!),
    • Mega Man 5's is Blues no Wana?! (Proto Man's Trap?!),
    • Mega Man 6's is Shinji Sadai no Tatakai!! (The Greatest Battle of All Time!!),
    • Mega Man 7's is Shukumei no Taiketsu! (Showdown of Destiny!),
    • Mega Man 8's is Metal Heroes,
    • Mega Man 9's is Yabou no Fukkatsu!! (The Ambition's Resurgence!!),
    • Mega Man 10's is Uchu Kara no Kyoui!! (The Threat from Outer Space!!),
    • and Mega Man 11's is Unmei no Haguruma!! (The Gears of Fate!!).
  • Rockman DASH was changed to Mega Man Legends.
  • And the Battle Network Rockman.EXE games were brought over, not as Battle Network Mega Man.EXE, but as Mega Man Battle Network. The Battle Network pretitle was dropped after the third game in Japanese.
    • Similarly, the sequel Series Ryuusei no Rockman/Shooting Star Rockman had its name changed to Mega Man Star Force; the Star Force is an important plot element...in the first game in the series. In the sequels, it's never heard from again.
    • In the third game, the localization actually shoehorns it into the plot as the name of the team designated to stop Meteor G from crashing into earth since the Star Force was the power the Satellite Admins first gave him to save the Earth from the FMians.
• Rollercoaster Tycoon: The first expansion pack, "Added Attractions", was released in North American English as "Corkscrew Follies". This proved a hindrance with the advent of the Internet and people getting confused about which extension contained which rides. They did not repeat this error for the second expansion.
• The original Runabout was released outside Japan as Felony 11-79. The sequels averted this.
• Rune Factory:
  • As soon as the series became its own series the Japanese games dropped the "a fantasy Harvest Moon" subtitle. It was mostly present in the first game so people would know it was a Harvest Moon spin-off, and since the games were gathering their own fans the director wanted them to be more divorced from the original series. The English copies of the game continue to carry the subtitle for any Harvest Moon fans who might not have heard of the series.
  • Due to a copyright spat with Natsume over the use of the Harvest Moon name, the series was retitled Story of Seasons internationally while Natsume took the "Harvest Moon" name in its own direction.
• Rushing Beat and its two sequels all made it out of Japan, but under three different names: Rival Turf!, Brawl Brothers and The Peace Keepers. Brawl Brothers was titled Rival Turf 2 in European languages.
• Mobile Phone Game Age of Ishtaria is Saga of Ishtaria in Japanese.
• Samurai Spirits is known as Samurai Shodown outside Japan: an odd case considering the international title actually misspells the replacement word ("Showdown").
  • It was supposed to be called "Shogun Shodown", a punny if not so clever title. However, for some reason, the misspelt word stayed that way.
• Dynasty Warriors is originally titled Sangoku Musou in Japanese, which literally translates to "Three Kingdoms Unrivalled". The English title became Dynasty Warriors. The first installment of the series was a traditional fighting game, and the series didn't start having the famous horde hack'n'slash gameplay until the second installment, with which they started giving it a new title: Shin Sangoku Musou. Shin roughly means new/true, implying that the series was reborn into its true form.
  • The English titles are always one number higher than the Japanese titles for this reason. Due to the large gameplay transition from Sangoku Musou to Shin Sangoku Musou, the Japanese branch decided to reset the numbering of the titles, while the English branch did not. Dynasty Warriors 1 still refers to the original Sangoku Musou fighting game, while Dynasty Warriors 2 refers to the first installment of Shin Sangoku Musou. This carries over to the sequels, so Shin Sangoku Musou 2 was brought to the West as Dynasty Warriors 3, and so on.
  • The English versions of Warriors Orochi are also chronically a number higher than the Japanese titles, albeit for the opposite reason. Warriors Orochi 2 is not considered a full sequel in Japanese, because as a Mission-Pack Sequel, it adds nothing to the gameplay. It is known in Japanese as Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin; the subtitle roughly means "Rebirth of the Demon King". Musou Orochi 2 actually refers to Warriors Orochi 3, a next-generation title that shakes up the status quo quite a bit.
• Seiken Densetsu (Legend of the Holy Sword) is known as World of Mana outside of Japan, though the Japanese titles have been adopting the "of mana" title as well.
  • Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden became Final Fantasy Adventure to more closely match the Final Fantasy franchise. A later remake retitled it to Adventures of Mana.
  • Seiken Densetsu 2 became Secret of Mana.
  • Seiken Densetsu 3 retroactively became Trials of Mana for its international debut.
  • Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana became Legend of Mana.
  • Shin'yaku Seiken Densetsu became Sword of Mana.
  • Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana became Children of Mana.
  • Seiken Densetsu 4 became Dawn of Mana.
  • Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana became Heroes of Mana.
• Sengoku Ace was retitled Samurai Aces for the international market. Its sequel, Sengoku Blade, was released outside Japan as Tengai.
• Senran Kagura Burst: Crimson Girls was released outside Japan as Senran Kagura: Burst.
• The Sentinel was released in the U.S. as The Sentry.
• Shadow Hearts: Covenant is simply Shadow Hearts II in Japanese. Oddly, the original name is still present on the title screen of the game.
• Shadow of Memories was released in the US as Shadow of Destiny. In the UK and Europe, it retained its original title.
• Shadow of the Ninja, like other Ninja examples in this article, was retitled Blue Shadow in European languages. The Japanese version was simply titled Kage.
• Shien's Revenge was originally titled Shien: The Blade Chaser in Japanese. No, it's not a sequel to anything.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • The more kid friendly spin-off Devil Children has been given several names to circumvent the rather unfortunate connotations "Devil Children" has in Western countries. When Atlus translated the GBA games, they were named Demi Kids and TMS Entertainment is adamant in referring to the anime tie-in as DeviChil: Goddess Rebirth (as a side, this series did get some airtime in Italy).
  • Revelations was the early US name for the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, which was discarded with the US release of Nocturne. Last Bible was released in the US under the name Revelations: The Demon Slayer.
  • The Persona sub-series: The first game, Megami Ibunroku Persona, became Revelations: Persona in the West. The rest of the Persona series in Japanese is simply Persona without the subtitle Shin Megami Tensei. Elsewhere, however...:
    • The PSP remake of the first Persona released in North American English as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona.
    • Persona 2: Tsumi^Translation"Sin"'s PSP remake added the Shin Megami Tensei subtitle, released as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin. The original version of the second part, Persona 2: Batsu^Translation"Punishment", was previously brought to the US as Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the PlayStation.
    • Shin Megami Tensei was added to Persona 3 and Persona 4, becoming Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. Later Persona games stopped the practice as the sub-series became more popular than mainline Shin Megami Tensei.
    • The PS Vita re-release of Persona 4 is called Persona 4 Golden in English and Persona 4: The Golden in Japanese. There are still some parts with the Japanese name however. Likewise, Persona 5: The Royal was changed to Persona 5 Royal.
    • Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena became Persona 4: Arena for the overseas market. Atlus could have gone with a literal translation and called it The Ultimate in Midnight Channel Arena but the Gratuitous English would sound very weird to English speakers. The sequel, Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold, became Persona 4: Arena Ultimax overseas.
    • The Rhythm Game spin-offs Persona 5: Dancing Star Night and Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night had their subtitles changed to Dancing in Starlight and Dancing in Moonlight respectively in the English localization to cut down on the Gratuitous English.
    • Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers was shortened to Persona 5 Strikers in English-speaking territories.
    • The official Chinese title of the series is "女神異聞錄"^note Reads as Nǚshén Yìwén Lù, which is a direct transliteration of the first game's subtitle Megami Ibunroku. This was most likely because of the fact that it is the only part of the title that is conveniently in kanji.
  • The Avatar Tuner series outside Japan was released as Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga to associate it more with the main series, with Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner and Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 becoming Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga and Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2.
• The Super Shinobi, the first Shinobi game for the Mega Drive, is known as The Revenge of Shinobi outside Japan, while its sequel, The Super Shinobi II, was retitled Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master for its overseas release. Meanwhile, Shin Shinobi Den is known as Shinobi Legions in America and Shinobi X in Europe.
• Two of the expansion packs for The Sims for PC were re-titled: The Sims: Livin' Large became The Sims: Livin' It Up (or a translation thereof) in all European languages, while The Sims: Vacation was renamed The Sims: On Holiday in British English, Chinese and Scandinavian languages. The first The Sims was also renamed Sim People in Japanese, however the subsequent games in the series use The Sims. The ExpansionPacks were also renamed in Japanese:
  • Livin' Large was changed to the more cheerful-sounding Happy Life
  • House Party was changed to Party Fever
  • Hot Date was changed to Love Date
  • Unleashed was changed to the more descriptive Pets & Gardening
  • Superstar was changed to Star Paradise
  • Makin' Magic was changed to Magical Dream
  • Averted with Vacation, which used the same title even in Japanese.
• German Point-and-Click Game Silence was released in some English-speaking markets as Silence: The Whispered World 2, to make it clearer that it was indeed a sequel to The Whispered World.
• The Siren Games have Siren, Siren 2 and Siren: New Translation in Asia, Siren in North America, and Forbidden Siren, Forbidden Siren 2 and Siren: Blood Curse in PAL countries.
• The Game Gear version of Skweek was retitled Slider in English, even though it was originally a European game and all previous versions had been released as Skweek.
• Slap Fight was retitled A.L.C.O.N. for the American market.
• Robotrek was originally Slapstick in Japanese.
• The Puzzle Platformer known in Europe as Solomon's Key 2 (which is a literal translation of the Japanese title) was renamed Fire 'n Ice in the U.S.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The European boxart and cartridge art for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 renders the title as simply Sonic 3, as did some contemporary media.
  • Many of the Game Gear and Master System games have different titles in different languages: Sonic Chaos is known in Japanese as Sonic & Tails, Sonic Triple Trouble is Sonic & Tails 2, and Sonic Blast is G Sonic.
  • Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island was known as Sonic 3D Blast in North American English.
  • The Sonic Compilation cartridge for the Mega Drive was retitled Sonic Classics for its later North American release.
  • The Xbox 360/Playstation 3 compilation Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection was renamed to simply Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in European languages.
  • In some regions, Sonic the Fighters was renamed Sonic Championship.
  • Sonic Unleashed was known as Sonic World Adventure in Japanese, and was originally announced under that name internationally. During development, it was going to be part of the Adventure series, but it eventually became too different from those games.
  • Sonic Boom is known as Sonic Toon in Japanese. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is Sonic Toon: Ancient Treasure, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal is Sonic Toon: Island Adventure, and Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is Sonic Toon: Fire & Ice.
  • In international releases, Sonic Generations retained the same name on both HD consoles and 3DS, but in Japanese they were suffixed with the subtitles Shiro no Jikou ("White Time-Space") and Ao no Bouken ("Blue Adventure"), respectively. The international box arts still have a white border for the HD consoles◊ and a blue border for the 3DS◊.
• Sonic Wings was renamed Aero Fighters in North American English. The same goes for its sequels.
• Soul Blader was released outside of Japan as SoulBlazer. Gaia Gensōki (The Gaia Fantasy Chronicles) was released as Illusion of Gaia in North American English, and is known as Illusion of Time in European languages. The European localization of Tenchi Sōzō (The Creation of Heaven and Earth), known as Terranigma, references itself as Illusion of Gaia 2.
• The PS version of Soul Edge was released as Soul Blade internationally due to trademark issues with the original title thanks to professional trademark troll Tim Langdell (the same guy who attempted to sue Electronic Arts over the title of Mirror's Edge). This is why subsequent installments were released as Soulcalibur.
• The arcade Beat 'em Up Kung Fu Master (ported to the NES as Kung Fu) is called Spartan X in Japanese, where it was a Licensed Game for a Jackie Chan movie of that title.
  • Amusingly enough, said film is also an example of this trope; It's known as ''Wheels on Meals" everywhere else in the world.
  • The game's MSX port was named Seiken Acho instead, because there was another Spartan X videogame already for the console.
• Speed Freaks was known as Speed Punks in North America.
• The PC-98 and Sharp X68000 versions of Spindizzy Worlds were released in Japanese under the game's Working Title, Spindizzy II. This choice of numbering is a bit odd, considering that the original Spindizzy only appeared on Western 8-bit computers.
• The 1981 Japanese computer game Star Blazer was released in the U.S. by Brøderbund Software under the title Sky Blazer.
• Spyro the Dragon:
  • Insomniac Games' second entry in the series was named Ripto's Rage! in North American languages and Gateway to Glimmer in European languages. In Japanese, it was released under the title Spyro x Sparx: Tondemo Tours.
  • In European languages, Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy and Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage were known as Spyro Fusion and Crash Bandicoot Fusion respectively.
• The arcade version of Star Force was released again in North America as Mega Force (no relation to the Atari game or Space Megaforce).
• To avoid legal trouble with a German company named StarVox, Star Fox was renamed Starwing in European languages, and Star Fox 64 was renamed Lylat Wars. This issue has since been resolved (or they just decided it wasn't an issue) and subsequent Star Fox games have kept the original titles.
• Star Wars: Rebellion was marketed in the UK as Star Wars Supremacy.
• Strider was shortened from its Japanese name Strider Hiryu. As revealed by Word of God, the game almost got its name changed to "The Falcon", as Capcom's overseas dept. initially thought the name was too confusing for a Western audience. Same thing with Strider 2.
• The Story of Thor: Heir of the Light is The Story of Thor: A Successor of the Light in Europe, The Story of Thor on the European Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, and Beyond Oasis in North America. Thor: Chronicles of the Elemental King is The Story of Thor 2 in Europe, and The Legend of Oasis in North America.
• Some of the Street Fighter games are titled differently between regional releases and console ports.
  • The very first Street Fighter was released for the Turbografx CD as Fighting Street.
  • In Japanese, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition is known as Street Fighter II Dash, while Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting is known as Street Fighter II Dash Turbo. The word "dash" is not spelled out on the title of either game, but represented by a prime mark (′) as a sort of Stealth Pun (both games were derivatives of the original Street Fighter II). The SNES port of Hyper Fighting is simply titled Street Fighter II Turbo in all regions, while its Genesis counterpart is known as Street Fighter II Dash Plus in Japanese and Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition everywhere else.
  • Super Street Fighter II Turbo was originally called Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge in Japanese.
  • The Street Fighter Alpha series is known as Street Fighter Zero in Japanese. The second game, Street Fighter Zero 2, had an Updated Re-release for the arcade in Japanese and Asia that was titled Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha, which then got ported to the home consoles as Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash. The console version was released in America as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and in Europe as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Dash.
  • The GBA version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 is known as Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper in Japanese, taking its title from a Japan-only upgrade of the arcade version. Thus, the PSP version, Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper became Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX.
  • The console version of Street Fighter: The Movie is known as Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film in Japanese. The game was retitled in North America to cash in on the arcade version, despite the fact that it's a completely different game.
  • The PS versions of the Vs. games dropped the "EX Edition" subtitle for each game when they were released outside Japan (hiding the fact that they were watered down ports that removed the tag team feature).
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Was almost the case for Super Mario Bros.. Copyright documents (and at least one flyer for the arcade version) suggest that Nintendo originally considered renaming the game Mario's Adventure for the American market, but they decided to keep the original name instead.
  • The original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels overseas due to the unrelated version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (a modified localization of Doki Doki Panic) that was released in its place. The Game Boy Color remake featured in Super Mario Bros. DX, known as Super Mario Bros. For Super Players, is actually an amalgam between the original Super Mario and the Japanese Super Mario 2, as it uses the game system and graphics from the former and the stages from the latter.
  • The overseas version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was relocalized for the Japanese market as Super Mario USA.
  • Super Mario World is known in Japanese as Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World. In contrast, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is known as Super Mario: Yossy Island in Japanese. The Japanese titles make more sense, in that Super Mario World looks and plays more like Super Mario Bros. 3 than Yoshi's Island.
  • One Yoshi-themed puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the original Game Boy was titled Yoshi's Egg in Japanese, Mario & Yoshi in European languages, and simply Yoshi in American languages. Similarly, the gyroscopic game for the Game Boy Advance was titled Yoshi Topsy-Turvy in American languages and Yoshi's Universal Gravitation in all the other translations.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is known as Luigi's Mansion 2 in European languages and simply Luigi Mansion 2 in Japanese and Chinese (the original Luigi's Mansion is also called Luigi Mansion in Japanese).
  • The WarioWare series are known as the Made in Wario series in Japanese. The first game in the WarioWare series went from the subtitle Mega Microgame$ to Minigame Mania in European languages. Justified in that most European countries don't use dollar signs, so the joke of replacing the s doesn't really work.
  • In Japanese, Paper Mario is known as Mario Story, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is known as Paper Mario RPG, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star is known as Paper Mario: Super Seal in both Japanese and Chinese.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is known as Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros. in European languages. Paper Jam follows suit with the title Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. The entire series runs on Numbered Sequels in Japanese — Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is known as Mario & Luigi RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions is known as Mario & Luigi RPG 1 DX, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is known as Mario & Luigi RPG 2×2, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is known as Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!!, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey is known as Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! DX, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is known as Mario & Luigi RPG 4: Dream Adventure, and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is known as Mario & Luigi RPG Paper Mario Mix.
  • Super Mario RPG was given the subtitle Legend of the Seven Stars for its release in North America. The Nintendo Switch remake averts this by removing the subtitle, making its title the same across all regions.
  • Super Mario Strikers was released in European languages as Mario Smash Football. Subsequent games in the series keep the original titles with the addition of the word Football at the end (because football is held in much higher regard outside North America): Mario Strikers Charged became Mario Strikers Charged Football, and Mario Strikers Battle League became Mario Strikers Battle League Football.
• Super Smash Bros.: Nintendo All-Star! Dairantō Smash Brothers became Super Smash Bros., Dairantō Smash Brothers DX became Super Smash Bros. Melee, Dairantō Smash Brothers X became Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Dairantō Smash Bros. Special became Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Super Stardust HD was released under the title Star Strike HD in Asian languages and Japanese. Perhaps the original title isn't hardcore enough for Japanese markets?
• The 1990 strategy game Supremacy: Your Will Be Done was released in American languages as Overlord.
• Mobile Phone Game Sword of Chaos is Art of Sword in some markets, including Thai.
• When Namco of America localized Tales of Eternia, they named it Tales of Destiny II in a bid to catch the people who had seen the only other Tales game they had published in America, and also to avoid lawsuits concerning Masters of the Universe. This proved to be a bit awkward for everyone when Namco released Tales of Destiny 2, a direct sequel to Tales of Destiny.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi (Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk) was localised as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.
• Because they were were preceded by an older platformer, the three following beat-em-ups based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles varied a little in name depending on the localization. In European languages, Ninja was excised from the title in favor of "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles."
  • The American ports of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were retitled TMNT II: The Arcade Game, while in Japanese it was ported with its original name; this was because the original platformer had a Completely Different Title in Japanese (Geki Kame Ninja Den/Fierce Turtle Ninja Legend).
  • The NES/Famicom-exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project was treated as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Manhattan Project (with no use of a roman numeral) in Japanese.
  • The SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time had IV added to its title, while its Japanese counterpart did not.
• In Tenchu, English localization tends to tackle very different subtitles to each game:
  • The first two games are named Rittai Ninja Katsugeki Tenchu (2) ("3-Dimensional Ninja Fighting Scene"), which was changed to Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins in English, respectively.
  • Tenchu San became Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven. Its Xbox update went from Tenchu San: Kaiki no Shō ("Chapter of Regression") to Tenchu: Return From Darkness.
  • Tenchu Kurenai ("Crimson") became Tenchu: Fatal Shadows.
  • Tenchu: Dark Shadow became Tenchu: Dark Secret.
  • Tenchu: Shinobi Taizen ("Shinobi Encyclopedia") became Tenchu: Time of the Assassins.
  • Tenchu Senran ("100 Revolts") became Tenchu Z, for some reason...
  • Inverted for the Wii game: Japanese Tenchu 4 became Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (dropping the number) for its English release.
• The Test Drive series has been well-known for this. This was because at a time in Europe, the series' trademark couldn't be used as Cryo Interactive held the rights to it (due to the fact they purchased the European publishing rights to Test Drive 6 from Infogrames), leading to some games in the series changing their names over there.
  • Test Drive Off-Road 2 was released as Test Drive 4X4.
  • Test Drive Off-Road 3 was released as 4X4 World Trophy.
  • Test Drive Off-Road Wide Open was released simply as Off-Road Wide Open, but the rest of the game including title screen uses the original name.
  • Test Drive: Eve of Destruction was released as Driven to Destruction.
  • TD Overdrive: The Brotherhood of Speed, was released simply as Test Drive in North America.
  • Test Drive Off-Road was released in Japanese by Coconuts Japan under the name of Gekitotsu! Yonku Battle.
  • In North American English, Infogrames' Le Mans 24 Hours title was released as Test Drive Le Mans on the PS1 and Dreamcast. The later PC release and the PS2 versions retained the original name.
  • Also in North American English, the Dreamcast version of V-Rally 2 was released as Test Drive V-Rally.
• Two out of the three games forming part of Three Wonders had their names expanded: Roosters became Midnight Wanderers: Quest for the Chariot and Chariot was given the subtitle Adventure through the Sky.
• Despite being named Thunder Force everywhere for the second and third games, Thunder Force IV was inexplicably renamed Lightening Force in North America. Yes, that's a force that lightens things, not a Lightning Force. They would later go back to using Thunder Force for number 5.
• Thunderhawk was released in the U.S. as AH-3 Thunderstrike.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: The Great Beanstalk is Tiny Toon Adventures: Revenge of the Beanstalk in Europe, or possibly Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk in Europe, the name of a different game for PC.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream by Treasure, published in Europe, had a very limited release in the US as Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams.
• Codemasters' TOCA series, based on the TOCA touring car racing league in Britain, underwent several name changes in North America, where TOCA or touring cars in general have no footprint:
  • The first game, TOCA Touring Car Championship, became TOCA Championship Racing.
  • TOCA 2 Touring Cars became TOCA 2: Touring Car Challenge.
  • TOCA World Touring Cars became Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing in an attempt to latch onto surging NASCAR popularity at the time. The title is completely Never Trust a Title: Not only does the game not feature stock cars or the titular drivers, but the drivers in the title are misleading. Most NASCAR fans would immediately think of popular drivers Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte, or Bobby Labonte, but the title refers to their young 20-something upstart sons, Jason Jarrett and Justin Labonte (son of Terry, nephew of Bobby).
• Tokushu Butai Jackal, Konami's overhead jeep shoot-em-up for the arcades, is known simply as Jackal worldwide and Top Gunner in the states. Strangely, the Famicom Disk System version was released under the completely different title of Final Command: Akai Yōsai ("The Red Fortress"), while its NES counterpart was titled Jackal in the states (yet, it never came out in Europe).
• The first game in the Tomba series was known as Ore! Tomba (Me! Tomba) in its native Japan. In America, the title was shortened to simply Tomba!, while in the UK and Europe the game and its title character were known as Tombi!, the change being because "tomba" is Italian for "grave". The sequel was released in Japanese with the Gratuitous English title Tomba! The Wild Adventure, but still ended up getting retitled to Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return in America and simply Tombi! 2 (with no subtitle) in European languages.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was given the more bland title of "Tony Hawk's Skateboarding" in PAL territories due to the misassumption that Europeans would conflate "skater" for ice or roller skating as opposed to skateboarding. This only applies to the original game and 2 was released globally under one title, with every other Pro Skater following suit thereafter.
• The original arcade version of Bionic Commando (1987) was released as Top Secret in Japanese, while the Famicom version is known as Top Secret: Hitler no Fukkatsu ("The Resurrection of Hitler"). The series then changed to the international title of Bionic Commando in Japanese, beginning with the Game Boy version.
• Trusty Bell ~Chopin no Yume~ (Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream) is better known outside Asia as Eternal Sonata, which is a much more sensible title to the original's Word Salad Title.
• A Russian video game called Turgor (Тургор) was released as Tension in English-speaking countries, and then re-released as The Void.
• When Capcom localized the first game in the Gyakuten Saiban (Turnabout Trial) series for western audiences, they titled it Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, with the intention of calling the series as a whole Phoenix Wright. When it became clear that Phoenix wouldn't be the main protagonist of the fourth game, the series was rebranded as Ace Attorney. The games had simple numbered titles in Japanese, but gained subtitles when released in English.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 2 became Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 3 became Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 4 became Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 5 became Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 6 became Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice.
  • Gyakuten Kenji (Turnabout Prosecutor) became Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
  • Gyakuten Saiban 123: Naruhodō Selection was released as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy in English.
  • Layton-kyōju vs Gyakuten Saiban became Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
  • Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken (Great Turnabout Trial: The Adventures of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō) and Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Kakugo (Great Turnabout Trial: The Resolve of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō) are being released together in English as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.
• Turok 2: Seeds of Evil was released in Japanese under the title Violence Killer: Turok New Generation.
• Various Compilation Rereleases of Konami games have renamed Tutankham to Horror Maze, Quarth to Block Game, and TwinBee to Rainbow Bell.
• The classic British DOS game UFO: Enemy Unknown was retitled X-COM: UFO Defense in North American English, and all the sequels followed suit. The Japanese version was titled X-COM: Unknown Invaders, while the remake combined the two English titles.
• Uniracers is Unirally in Europe.
• Vampire became Darkstalkers for its English release, while its sequel Vampire Hunter became Night Warriors.
• Vampire: Master of Darkness was titled In the Wake of Vampire in Japanese; the Europe-exclusive Sega Master System version was just Master of Darkness.
• Vermilion was released outside Japan as Sword of Vermilion.
• Valkyria Chronicles known in the Japanese market as Valkyria of the Battlefield
• Virtua Cop is titled Virtua Squad on PC.
  • Same thing with Virtua Cop 2.
• The Virtua Fighter spin-off Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation: Ambition of the Judgement Six was released in North America as Virtua Quest.
• Viva! Las Vegas is Vegas Dream in English. Vegas Stakes is Las Vegas Dream in Japanese.
• The fifth non-Updated Re-release installment of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, referred to as Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5, is simply titled Maximum Tune 5 in the North American localization. Part of it is licensing costs to use the name, and part of it is because the playerbase doesn't care about the source material, which is Japan-only anyway. Conspiciously, the full title can still be pieced together from other titles shown in the game: the companion "terminal" cabinet is still called the Wangan Terminal, and the game gives Wangan Midnight R the Retronym of Midnight R.
• While Wardner was the usual international title of Wardner no Mori, the Taito America arcade release went under the name Pyros, and the canceled NES localization was to have been released by American Sammy under the title Pyross.
• Warzard was released in the US as Red Earth.
• The Wild ARMs sequels all have subtitles in Japanese (such as Wild ARMs: 2nd Ignition or Wild ARMs: The 4th Detonator. In English, these were all dropped for plain old numbers.
• Wings 2: Aces High was released as Sky Mission in Japanese, and as Blazing Skies in European languages.
• Wipeout 2097, released as Wipeout XL in North American English.
• Xenoblade gained the subtitle of "Chronicles" internationally, which expanded to its sequels, giving us Xenoblade Chronicles X and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
• The very rare North American version of Konami's Arcade Game Xexex is titled Orius.
• The arcade game Yakyū Kakutō League Man or Baseball Hand-to-Hand Fighting League Man was released in North America as Ninja Baseball Bat Man.
• Formerly, the Ryu ga Gotoku series (Like a Dragon) was known as Yakuza when brought over to the West. Starting with the fourth entry, the Japanese titles carried subtitles that were axed in Western releases (except for the sixth game, The Song of Life). The seventh game in the series is numbered as such in Japanese, but internationally, the game is retitled Yakuza: Like a Dragon. In addition, the zombie spin-off Ryu ga Gotoku: OF THE END is known in the West as Yakuza: Dead Souls. Beginning in 2022, going forward the series name now goes by Like a Dragon.
  • The eighth game was initially announced as Like a Dragon 8 worldwide. Its official western title is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, giving it a new subtitle but dropping the number.
• Zelda no Densetsu, known as The Legend of Zelda:
  • Zelda no Densetsu: The Hyrule Fantasy became The Legend of Zelda.
  • The Japanese title The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods became The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, probably to remove reference to religion and to establish the game as a prequel. The sequel, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, is The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods 2 in Japanese.
  • Though interestingly, although the series is still known as Zelda no Densetsu in Japanese, around the time of Ocarina of Time, Japanese games started to use the English logo and title as the forefront on the covers and titles of the games, with Breath of the Wild being the only exception.
• Zone of the Enders:
  • Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is known as Anubis: Zone of the Enders in Japanese, where it was treated more like a soft reboot than a sequel to the first game. The proposed third game would've been titled Anubis 2 had it been actually made.
  • Zone of the Enders: The First of Mars is known as Z.O.E. 2173 Testament in Japanese.
  • Like the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, the Zone of the Enders: HD Collection is known as Zone of the Enders: HD Edition in Japanese. Because of this, the stand-alone digital editions of both games are each disambiguated with the kanji characters 単体版/Tantaiban (lit. "stand-alone version") on the Japanese PlayStation Store. The western PlayStation Stores has no such issue, since the collection containing both games is clearly labelled as an "HD Collection".
• The fighting game Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Legion of Heroes was released in English-speaking countries under the title Rival Schools: United by Fate.
• Swedish puzzle platform game Kula World is known as KulaQuest in Japanese and Roll Away in American English.
• The Crash Bandicoot games sometimes got different titles when released in European languages and Japanese.
  • Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is named Crash Bandicoot 3: Buttobi! Sekai Isshū in Japanese.
  • Crash Team Racing is called Crash Bandicoot Racing in Japanese.
  • Crash Bash is called Crash Bandicoot Carnival in Japanese.
  • Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is known as Crash Bandicoot 4: Sakuretsu! Majin Power in Japanese, being officially recognised as Crash Bandicoot 4 in that language.
  • Crash Nitro Kart is called Crash Bandicoot - Bakusō! Nitro Kart in Japanese.
  • Crash Twinsanity is known as Crash Bandicoot 5: Ehh Crash to Cortex no Yabō?!? in Japanese, again getting a numbered title.
  • Crash Tag Team Racing is called Crash Bandicoot: Gatchanko World in Japanese.
  • Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is known as Crash Bandicoot: Buttobi San-dan Mori! in Japanese.
  • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is called Crash Bandicoot Racing Buttobi Nitro! in Japanese.
  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is called Crash Bandicoot 4: Tondemo Multiverse in Japanese, despite Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex already being known as Crash Bandicoot 4.
  • Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure is called Crash Bandicoot XS (a pun on the clothing size XS meaning "extra small") in European languages and Crash Bandicoot Advance in Japanese.
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced is known as Crash Bandicoot Advance 2: Guruguru Saimin Dai Panic!? in Japanese.
• Kaze no Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Klonoa of the Wind: Door to Phantomile) got its title simplified to just Klonoa: Door to Phantomile in English-speaking markets. The sequel had a bigger change to its title: Kaze no Klonoa 2: Sekai ga Nozonda Wasuremono (Klonoa of the Wind 2: The Thing That the World Wants to Forget) became Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.
• Star Ocean:
  • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is simply known as Star Ocean 3 in its native Japan.
  • Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is called Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness in Japanese (yes, the title is Gratuitous English). The number was dropped from the title in Western markets for some reason.
• In Japanese, Wario Land II is titled Wario Land 2: Nusumareta Zaihō (Wario Land 2: The Stolen Treasure).
• Rayman Arena went under the title Rayman M in Europe, the M standing for Multiplayer. The title was changed for the US market so that people wouldn't confuse the M in the title with the ESRB's mature rating, which was also a M.

---