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  • Many game franchises were simply given the subtitle "3D" for their first 3D title (as were quite a few that started around this time). Even more likely if this also happened to be the third installment.

  • Ace Attorney:
  • The sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent is titled Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. The developers even mentioned how the name stuck just because of how odd and memorable it was.
  • Anno Domini:
    • The Anno series of historical city builders (known as A.D. in some markets) goes back and forth between the centuries. First there was Anno 1602, followed by Anno 1503, then Anno 1701, Anno 1404, Anno 2070, Anno 2205, and as of 2019, Anno 1800. Even odder since the numeration could lead a newbie to think 1701 is the first, with the series going backwards 99 years with each installment.
    • In addition to all this in some markets the latest installment Anno 1404 is sold as Dawn of Discovery. This in turn has an expansion pack which is known as both Anno 1404: Venice and Dawn of Discovery: Venice.
    • Interestingly, the dates always add up to the number nine.
  • Assassin's Creed:
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt 3: In-Universe, the latest installment of Sumeragi's September Records MMO series combines this with Overly Long Name: September Universe Tri-Age Spirits: Prologue of Reminiscence IV (Working Title). Justified in that, In-Universe, said series has been going on for decades by that point.
  • Ball Revamped has Ball Revamped 2: Metaphysik, Ball Revamped 3: Andromeda, Ball Revamped 3: Gemini, Ball Revamped 4: Amplitude and Ball Revamped 5: Synergy. The odd subtitles are sometimes left out of the titles, leading to Numbered Sequels instead.
  • Banjo-Kazooie was followed by Banjo-Tooie, which made an in-game mention of a Banjo-Threeie that led some people to believe that the third game would be called that. The third game instead ended up being a midquel known as Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, followed by (after a five-year gap) Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts — which shifted from a collectathon platformer to include an emphasis on vehicles. Before Nuts & Bolts, there was also a racing game spin-off for the Game Boy Advance called Banjo-Pilot.
  • Invoked with Barkley 2: Curse of Cuchulainn, the full name of which being "The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 - Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie - Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga." It's only marginally less weird when one considers the full title of Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa.
  • The sequel to Battle Clash is titled Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge. The only indicator on the title that Metal Combat is a sequel is the fact that the hero's mecha in both games is called the "ST Falcon."
  • The Battlefield series goes as thus: Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Vietnam, Battlefield 2 (which was spun off onto consoles as Battlefield 2: Modern Combat), Battlefield 2142, Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (which now has an Expansion Pack titled Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam), Battlefield Play4Free, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield 1, Battlefield V, and Battlefield 2042. The numbers don't indicate proper order at all (for example, the "1" in Battlefield 1 stands for World War I), and message boards abound with confusion over the fact that there's multiple games labeled Vietnam and 2.
  • Konami's BEMANI rhythm game series is extremely fond of this trope, to the point of almost deserving its own page.
    • beatmania consists of, in order: beatmania (retroactively referred to as 1stMIX), 2ndMIX, 3rdMIX, completeMIX, 4thMIX, 5thMIX, completeMIX 2, ClubMIX, featuring DREAMS COME TRUE, CORE REMIX, 6thMIX, 7thMIX, and THE FINAL. Did we mention two years passed between the release of 5thMIX and 6thMIX?
      • It then received a sequel series by the name of beatmania IIDX, which was then followed by beatmania IIDX substream, and then beatmania IIDX 2nd style, beatmania IIDX 3rd style, etc., which leads to the most recent games, 23 and 24, actually being the 24th and 25th entries in the series. Justified in that substream was more of an Expansion Pack to the previous game than a new game.
      • And then, there was another sequel series titled beatmania III, which despite the name is actually a sequel to the original beatmania series rather than IIDX. beatmania III was then followed by beatmania III APPEND CORE REMIX, a companion game to beatmania CORE REMIX, then APPEND 6thMIX, APPEND 7thMIX, and lastly beatmania III THE FINAL.
    • DanceDanceRevolution was doing OK for its earlier entries, with them all being numbered as NthMIX, until the 6th game, which was called DDRMAX -Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX-, followed by DDRMAX 2 -Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX-. The following game, Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME, decided to get rid of numbers entirely (though earlier in development it was also referred to as 8thMIX, which stuck around for a bit after release). Then there was SuperNOVA, then SuperNOVA 2, X, X2, X3 vs. 2ndMIX note , before deciding to drop subtitles entirely and just call itself Dance Dance Revolution. Then in 2016 they brought subtitles back with Dance Dance Revolution A, which was followed by A20, A20+ and A3. And that's just the arcade installments.
    • GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, generally considered to be a single series, had GuitarFreaks being one numbered installment ahead due to the first DrumMania game coming out around the time of the second GuitarFreaks game. Konami eventually decided to fix this by starting the numbering over, by calling new games V, V2, V3, etc. Then the series was rebooted with GuitarFreaks and DrumMania XG, which lasted three games until it was rebooted again under the Officially Shortened Title of GITADORA, which doesn't use numbers (though the third GITADORA game is subtitled Tri-Boost).
    • REFLEC BEAT followed the format of "Reflec Beat (insert some word here)" until the sixth main installment, which is titled REFLEC BEAT Yuukyuu no Reflesia, with the subtitle translating to "Reflesia of Eternity".
    • jubeat's second, third, and fourth main installments are called jubeat ripples, jubeat knit, and jubeat copious. When each of these games got an Updated Re-release, the resulting version had "APPEND", um, appended to the title (for example, jubeat copious becomes jubeat copious APPEND). jubeat saucer's update did away with the "APPEND" pattern, instead being called jubeat saucer fulfill. jubeat prop neglected to have an "append" version of any sort. It currently remains to be seen what will come after the current version, jubeat Qubell.
    • MÚSECA's sole "sequel" version is called MÚSECA 1+1/2, the idea being that it's not thematically different enough to be a sequel, but also too big to be simply an update patch for the original. This is because 1+1/2 was originally announced as a "RENOVATION" update, leading players to believe it would simply be a big update patch, but it ended up being an entire Updated Re-release.
  • The BIT.TRIP series was named consistently, starting with BIT.TRIP BEAT, then BIT.TRIP CORE, BIT.TRIP VOID, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, BIT.TRIP FATE and BIT.TRIP FLUX, until came BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien, justified since the latter can be considered a spin-off, but can also be considered a sequel to RUNNER.
  • Bubble Bobble:
    • More a case of Oddly Named Non-Linear Numbered Sequels, there are three second-installments (Rainbow Islands, Bubble Symphony, Part 2) and two third-installments (Parasol Stars, Bubble Memories) in the series.
    • Then there's Puzzle Bobble aka Bust-A-Move, Puzzle Bobble aka Bust-A-Move Again, Puzzle Bobble 3 aka Bust-A-Moove '99, and Puzzle Bobble 4 aka Bust-A-Move 4. Not to mention a No Export for You Updated Re-release of PB2 named Puzzle Bobble 2X.
  • Call of Duty:
  • The Castlevania series of games (at least in the original, pre-Lords of Shadow continuity) followed an eclectic naming pattern: The direct follow-ups to the first game were called Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and Super Castlevania IV. Of these, only Simon's Quest was a direct sequel, with Dracula's Curse being a prequel and IV being a retelling of the original. In between the releases of these games, there were several more Gaiden Game entries, including two remakes of the original called Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle. A particularly confusing element is the existence of two games called Castlevania IISimon's Quest, which is a sequel to the original, and Belmont's Revenge, which is a sequel to Castlevania: The Adventure for the Game Boy. After this point, the major sequels stopped being numbered and followed a varied naming pattern until Castlevania: Symphony of the Night came out, starting the Metroidvania era and giving future sequels a The X of Y naming pattern.
  • The Clock Tower series gets this, mainly due to localisation:
    • The first game, known as just Clock Tower in Japan, remained untranslated on the Super Famicom, and was not released internationally until the year after it came out, as a port on the PlayStation, being named Clock Tower: The First Fear. This was considered necessary, because...
    • Not much later, another game, called Clock Tower 2 in Japan, was released internationally as just Clock Tower.
    • Later, an offshoot game with little to do with the previous games, called Clock Tower: Ghost Head in Japan, was named Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within for international releases.
    • Thankfully, this ended with Clock Tower 3, which has the same name for everyone.
  • Command & Conquer:
    • Upon the success of Command & Conquer: Red Alert, the original Command & Conquer was subtitled Tiberian Dawn to differentiate it from the Red Alert games and from its own sequel, Tiberian Sun.
    • The name Tiberian Dawn had been used by Westwood in pre-release materials, and even appeared in the readme.txt file, but didn't appear anywhere in the original game or its packaging, so didn't see widespread use among fans until it became necessary to differentiate the first game from the series as a whole.
    • While not oddly named by general standards, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars and later Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight were oddly named in the context of the series, since the only game out of five previous releases to have put a sequel-indicating number in the title had put it after the subtitle (3's very subtitle was also different from previously established nomenclature, being "Tiberium Wars" instead of "Tiberian Wars").
      • Justified because Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert are two different settings and plotlines, so each got their own sequel-indicating numbers: C&C had its C&C2 in the form of Tiberian Sun, and then C&C3 with Tiberium Wars; C&C:RA on the other hand had Red Alert 2 and Red Alert 3. Different stories, different sequels, coherent successions.
  • Contra:
    • The original Contra was followed by Super Contra — at least, the arcade version was; the NES sequel was shortened to simply Super C. The third game, Contra III: The Alien Wars, arrived on SNES and Game Boy (back in Japan it was simply called Contra Spirits). Contra 4 didn't come out until Nintendo DS era because of the many spin-offs that were made between the numbered entries (Contra: Legacy of War, C: The Contra Adventure, Contra: Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra).
    • Special mention goes to the Game Boy installments. Operation C serves as the reimagining of both NES titles with lesser amount of stages. Port of The Alien Wars lost its number.
    • Sega Genesis' Contra: Hard Corps title was eventually followed by a "Contra"-less Hard Corps: Uprising.
    • For European region, the human characters were replaced with robots, and the title was changed to Probotector. Thus Super C became Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces, and The Alien Wars had been renamed to Super Probotector: Alien Rebels. Ironically, the Game Boy versions have proper numbering without any subtitles.
    • Another NES title, Contra Forces, is only vaguely similar to its console "brethren" — simply because it was supposed to be titled Arc Hound and not have any relation to the franchise.*
    • Years later, the original game was reimagined for 2020s console hardware and computers as Contra: Operation Galuga.
  • Crash Bandicoot:
  • Craz'd! has a Spiritual Sequel called 2. Yes, just 2 instead of Craz'd! 2.
  • Crypt of the NecroDancer's DLC prequel is called Crypt of the NecroDancer: Amplified. Simple enough, right? But then the base game's direct sequel, a crossover with Zelda, offers quite the doozy: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Feat. The Legend of Zelda.
  • Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (aka Vampire: The Night Warriors in Japan) was followed by Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge) and Vampire Savior (Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire; the American release was originally planned to be titled Darkstalkers: Jedah's Damnation until they decided to stick with the original Japanese sans subtitle). To make matters more confusing, Japan received two simultaneously released updated rereleases of Vampire Savior titled Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2; the main difference between the three games are in their character roster. The PlayStation game Darkstalkers 3 (aka Vampire Savior: EX Edition) is actually a pseudo-compilation of Vampire Savior, Vampire Savior 2, and Vampire Hunter 2.
  • Death Stranding's 2025 sequel is titled Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
  • Deception:
    • The first game in the series, Tecmo's Deception: Invitation to Darkness, was followed by Kagero: Deception II and Deception III: Dark Delusion. Okay, at least they're numbered. Then Tecmo called the fourth game Trapt and published the next game abroad as Deception IV: Blood Ties, which received an Updated Re-release titled Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess.
    • The Japanese titles aren't any better. In order, we have Kokumeikan (Deception), Kagero: Kokumeikan Shinsho (Kagero), Soumatou (Deception III), Kagero II: Dark Illusion (Trapt), Kagero: Darkside Princess (Deception IV), and Kagero: Another Princess (Deception IV's Updated Re-release). However, despite Kagero: Darkside Princess and Kagero: Another Princess lacking the Numbered Sequels treatment, the official Japanese website for both games does have "kagero3" (later "kagero3-2") in its URL.
  • Devilish, a series of Breakout- and Arkanoid-inspired action/puzzle games, goes Devilish (1991 for the Game Gear), then Bad Omen (1992 for the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis), and finally — over a decade laterDevilish: Ball Bounder (2005 for the Nintendo DS). This only applies for the Japanese releases, however, as Bad Omen was released outside of Japan as Devilish: The Next Possession.
  • The German civilization sim Die Volker (The Nations) was translated into English as Alien Nations and later brought to America under the Completely Different Title of Amazons and Aliens. The sequel was released as Alien Nations 2 in the UK whilst the US opted for a direct translation while removing the number. If that wasn't confusing enough, the rereleases on GOG.Com use the UK name for the first game and the US name for the second.
  • The Divinity series gets to be oddly named from the very beginning, but the sequels make their own kind of nonsense. In order: Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga (which is itself made up of Divinity II: Ego Draconis and Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance). Divine Divinity was meant to be Divinity: Sword of Lies, and Beyond Divinity was a spin-off; Ego Draconis was the original Divinity II game, which was re-released as The Dragon Knight Saga as a bundle or as just the expansion, Flames of Vengeance. Then you add in Divinity: Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin as well, making the prospect of what order the games are in a little tricky.
  • DJMAX Portable, DJMAX Portable 2, DJMAX Portable Clazziquai Edition, DJMAX Portable Black Square, and the US-only DJMAX Portable Fever.
  • Tradewest's fighting game based on the Double Dragon (1993) cartoon was titled Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, which was released for the SNES and Genesis (as well as the Jaguar), even though it had nothing to do with the previous Technos-developed games and there was no "Double Dragon IV". While technically there was a fourth Double Dragon game, it was an SNES-exclusive installment titled Super Double Dragon, meaning that the owners of the other consoles would've not been aware of it. Neither game is set in the same continuity as the original trilogy (nor is Double Dragon Neon) and, many years later in 2017, there would be a "proper" Double Dragon IV meant to serve as a direct follow-up to the first three titles.
  • You would think Dragon Age would be going this way with the first game being called Dragon Age: Origins and the expansion being called Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. But nope, in a reversal of Michael Bay's thoughts, the devs opted to call the sequel Dragon Age II just to make things less complicated on the audience. Next up is Dragon Age: Inquisition. It was originally announced as Dragon Age III: Inquisition, but the "III" was dropped at E3 2013.
  • Duke Nukem:
  • Dwarf Fortress:
    • After Dwarf Fortress retroactively sequelized to follow the defunct Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, it is now Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, subverting Exactly What It Says on the Tin since it doesn't feature Armok in any way and dwarves do not keep slaves.
    • Technically Dwarf Fortress is followed by yet another random subtitle, Histories of <synonym of greed> and <synonym of hard work>, i.e. Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress: Histories of Gluttony and Determination.
  • The virtually unknown Real-Time Strategy Earth 2140 has a much more successful sequel named Earth 2150 (or Earth 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet), which itself has two standalone Expansion Packs named Earth 2150: The Moon Project (some editions drop Earth 2150) and Earth 2150: Lost Souls. The third full game in the series is, consequently, named Earth 2160, even though Earth itself is gone by that point in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, and the entire game takes place on other planets. Apparently, it is a rule in the series that a major conflict has to take place every 10 years.
  • The Elite series seemingly follows no naming convention whatsoever. It started with Elite, then the sequel was Frontier: Elite II, followed by Frontier: First Encounters, then Elite Dangerous 20 years later.
  • While the standard Final Fantasy games are regularly named, its side game names have been getting progressively weirder over the years.
  • Fallout:
  • Frog Fractions deserves special mention. During the Kickstarter campaign for Frog Fractions 2, the devs promised that the sequel's title — plus the credits and company name of the sequel — would be under different, completely unrelated names in their best attempt to make the sequel completely untraceable to the first Frog Fractions. The sequel to Frog Fractions was finally released in 2016, as "Glittermitten Grove" (or "TXT World" or "Frog Fractions 3").
  • Galaga:
    • The sequel to Galaga was called Gaplus, then was re-released under the name Galaga 3 in North America. There is no Galaga 2.
    • And then, of course, Galaga '88. Does the absence of intervening numbers need to be brought up again?
    • The Game Gear port of '88 would in turn serve as the basis for a second Game Gear game in Galaga '91 (which, unlike '88, actually released in the same year as its title). When brought over to Europe in 1993, the game was instead titled Galaga 2. Makes sense given both its inspiration and Late Export for You status, but also thoroughly confusing.
  • Galaxian, Galaga's somewhat lesser-known predecessor, was no stranger to this either.
    • First, there's the sequel, Galaxian3: Project Dragoon. Originally a 3D Rail Shooter attraction that ran at Namco's Wonder Eggs theme park, it would be ported to the PlayStation in 1996 for the Japanese and European markets, without the Project Dragoon subtitle. According to Word of God, the "3" in the title is not the number 3 but the cube of a number (i.e. "Galaxian Cubed") in reference to the game's polygonal models. Despite this, and the game's title being stylized as GALAXIAN³, the Japanese characters used (ギャラクシアン3) spell out "Galaxian 3", which often leads to "Wasn't there already a Galaxian 3?" among those knowledgeable of Gaplus.
    • In 1994, Galaxian3 would be followed by Attack of the Zolgear, based on a smaller, six-player variation of the arcade rail shooter. Despite being offered as a conversion kit for Galaxian3, there is no mention of Galaxian in Zolgear's title.
    • Long before Galaxian3 saw the light of day, there was a Galaxian 2/Galaxian II of sorts, released as a handheld game in 1981 (the same year as Galaga) by Entex Industries. The catch? It was neither a port of Galaga or a true sequel to the original Galaxian; it's named as such because there's a two-player mode where one player controls the "Galaxy ship" and the other controls the aliens.
  • Gargoyle's Quest and Gargoyle's Quest II came out for the Game Boy and NES, respectively. They were followed by Demon's Crest on the SNES. Their Japanese names weren't any better, the first two games being named Red Arremer I and II, and then the third game being called Demon's Blazon.
  • Gex was followed up by Gex: Enter the Gecko and then Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko.
  • The mediocre Amiga Doom knockoff, Gloom has a sequel titled Gloom 3: Zombie Edition despite the absence of a Gloom 2.
  • In the Gobliiins series, each "i" in the title refers to the number of Goblin protagonists in the game. Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon features two Goblins. Goblins 3 features a single Goblin.
  • Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III, then Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and then finally Grand Theft Auto IV. And after that, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony before Grand Theft Auto V. This has resulted in all of the oddly-named prequels to III being referred to as the "GTAIII Era", since unlike the prior two games they are all connected in one continuous story spanning most of two decades.
  • GRID series of racing titles is not immune from such naming conventions, as well. It goes as thus: Race Driver: GRID, GRID 2, GRID Autosport, GRID, and GRID Legends. And no, Race Driver: GRID has no relation to TOCA Race Driver — although both games had been developed and published by Codemasters.
  • Oh boy. Guilty Gear is chock full of these, too.
    • The second Guilty Gear game is Guilty Gear X, and the "X" sure doesn't stand for the Roman numeral (apparently it's pronounced "Zex"). After that, it's Guilty Gear XX (pronounced "Igzex"). And then come its re-releases, #Reload (pronounced "Sharp-Reload"), Slash, and Λ Core ("Accent Core"). And Accent Core Plus, the updated release of an updated release (that's right, the full title is "Guilty Gear Igzex Accent Core Plus"). There's also the spin-offs Isuka, Judgment, and Dust Strikers (they aren't preceded by the "XX", though), but they're more like Mission-Pack Sequels. Guilty Gear X [By your side "G. Gear"] too.
    • Technically, the true sequel to Guilty Gear is Guilty Gear 2: Overture. This made for a bit of narrative confusion, as there was a five-year Time Skip between The Missing Link and Overture, with certain plot points being set up or hinted at in Accent Core Plus... which came out after GG2.
    • XX later received a fifth update, entitled Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R. In an attempt to outdo themselves again, Arc System Works then announced a new installment, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, which mixes this trope with Sequel Number Snarl. (The "Xrd" — pronounced "Igzird" — can be read as "X third", thereby following the lead of the X and XX subseries despite the fact that Xrd is essentially GG3.) This would be followed by an update/sequel titled Xrd -REVELATOR-, suggesting Xrd would adopt a naming convention similar to that of the XX iterations. Even then, the update to -REVELATOR- threw something of a curveball, being titled REV 2 instead using the "-[insert noun here]-" format of the previous two games.
    • The title of the 2021 installment? Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. Not Guilty Gear Xrd -STRIVE- like one might have expected, just Guilty Gear -STRIVE-.
  • Guitar Hero:
    • The Guitar Hero saga, only counting home consoles releases, goes (deep breath): Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's (spin-off), Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (band-focused), Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero: Metallica (again, band-focused), Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (another spin-off), Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero (yet another spin-off), Guitar Hero: Van Halen (yep, band-focused again), and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
    • And there's the portable games: Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, and Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits.
  • Gundam's Battle Master/Battle Assault series of Fighting Games is pretty straightforward for the most part. Emphasis on "for the most part."
    • Both Gundam: The Battle Master and Gundam: The Battle Master 2 were Japan-only titles featuring a variety of Mobile Suits (primarily from the Universal Century timeline) but Original Generation pilots instead of the usual faces. When the second game was localized for release in North America and the PAL region, it was reworked as Gundam Battle Assault, using the actual Gundam characters as MS pilots and including the Wing Gundam as a playable unit (as Gundam Wing was airing on Toonami and Cartoon Network at the time). This was followed by a sequel, Gundam Battle Assault 2, which featured an even bigger roster, most prominently Mobile Suits from Endless Waltz and G Gundam (which American audiences were also familiar with thanks to Toonami). However, instead of marketing the game in Japan as something like "The Battle Master 3", it was instead split into two games as part of Bandai and D3 Publisher's Simple Characters 2000 Series of budget-priced PlayStation games. note  Thus, you have Simple Characters 2000 Series Vol. 12: Kidō Butōden G Gundam - The Battle and Simple Characters 2000 Series Vol. 13: New Mobile Suit Gundam W - The Battle.
    • Then along came a third Battle Assault, this time a PS2 exclusive for America. With a title like Battle Assault 3 Featuring Gundam SEED, one would rightly expect Gundam SEED to hog the spotlight, but the game's roster is almost entirely comprised of Cosmic Era Mobile Suits save for four Secret Characters: Wing Gundam Zero Custom, Tallgeese III, Burning (God) Gundam, and Master Gundam. Aside of those four, whose character models were taken from their appearance in Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space, nearly all assets — including most of the soundtrack — were seemingly recycled from the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED shooting game from 2003 that was also developed by Natsume, indicating Battle Assault 3 was something of a consolation for that title not making it out of Japan.
    • Natsume also released a SEED-based fighting game for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, between the releases of Battle Assault 2 and Battle Assault 3. Another U.S. exclusive, it was titled Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Assault, most likely to tie into the modest cult following of Battle Assault 2 despite focusing on the then recent localization of SEED. A sequel/updated version of the game based on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny that included the original title as an unlockable released later that same year, but only in Japan and sharing the title of the anime.
  • Half-Life:
    • Half-Life 2 is followed by Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. You might think this means that Half-Life 2 is "Episode Zero", but no — it's a full-size game, rather than just a prologue or episode, whereas the two Episodes are Mission-Pack Sequels. Prior to these installments, there was also the single bonus chapter Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.
    • In 2020, Half-Life 2 received a long-awaited new installment, though not Half-Life 3 as one might've expected. Instead, you have Half-Life: Alyx, a VR interquel set between the first two games. The game, to the surprise of many, also manages to move the overall narrative forward by means of a Cosmic Retcon that changes the ending of Episode Two, with the Distant Epilogue of Alyx taking place five years later during the now revised ending of Episode Two.
  • Halo:
    • Halo 3: ODST actually takes place concurrent with Halo 2 and has next-to-nothing to do with Halo 3, but because it was built on the Halo 3 engine it got Halo 3's number.
    • That said, throughout ODST, there are references to the fact that the Covenant has established a dig-site in New Mombasa to uncover... something they want really badly. Turns out, it's an artifact that creates a portal to The Ark, which is a major plot point for Halo 3. The Legendary version of the epilogue even gives an up-close view of the Artifact.
  • The Harvest Moon series has done this almost to an extreme. Except for some versions on Nintendo portables (which are simply named Harvest Moon 1, 2, 3 and DS) and the PSP version, every sequel has a new name: Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon: Save The Homeland, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, etc. Also, many of these have a For Girls version, with a twisted name (such as Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life and Harvest Moon DS Cute); the Japanese versions of these just tacked on a "For Girl."
  • Heretic:
    • Heretic was followed by Hexen, Hexen II and Heretic II.
    • Originally, Hexen II was to be named Hecatomb — the trilogy's names were apparently decided by John Carmack himself. Heretic II is a sidestory unrelated to the larger Serpent Riders Story Arc.
  • The Homeworld series has Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm (a standalone Expansion Pack), Homeworld 2, and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (prequel to the series).
  • Honkai Impact 3rd plays with this: It looks like a regular Numbered Sequel, but its two predecessors are obscure outside of China (currently lacking pages on this wiki and instead being described on miHoYo's page), and are titled Benghuai Xueyuan (lit. "Collapse Academy") and Benghuai Xueyuan 2, which were localized as Zombiegal Kawaii and Guns GirlZ. Story-wise, they aren't exactly "sequels" but Alternate Universes in a similar setting; for HI3 in particular, the name refers to the "Third Honkai Impact" that serves as an important backstory for the game. This is continued with the turn-based RPG spin-off, Honkai: Star Rail, set in another parallel universe — and it gets even odder in that while previous Honkai titles deal with the cosmic threat called the "Honkai", in Star Rail the Honkai seemingly isn't a thing, with only Welt Yang (who explicitly crossed over from HI3 to this game) mentioning it in passing to explain his past. Presumably, the "Honkai" is there for branding purposes and to more directly link Star Rail to its predecessor, as several characters in the game are alternate versions of their HI3 counterparts.
  • The sequel/prequel/interquel of Hotline Miami is titled Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.
  • House of the Dead:
  • Ikari Warriors was followed by Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road and Ikari III: The Rescue. Though only the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Victory Road carried the Ikari Warriors II title; the original Japanese title, Dogō Sōken, had a kanji title (怒号層圏) beginning with the same character as "ikari" (怒).
  • The Imperium Galactica series starts with just Imperium Galactica, then is followed by Imperium Galactica II. The planned third game was to have the title Imperium Galactica 3: Genesis (it was supposed to be a prequel). After a number of bankruptcies and name changes, the third game was eventually released as Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.
  • inFAMOUS tends to jump between numbers "one" and "two", despite the few installments it has. In the order of release: inFAMOUS, inFAMOUS 2, inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood, inFAMOUS: Second Son, and inFAMOUS: First Light.
  • The Jak and Daxter series earned a massive fanbase during its PlayStation 2 heyday. When it comes to the main titles, however, it switched between several naming conventions. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was followed up by Jak II: Renegade, Jak 3, Jak X: Combat Racing, Daxter, and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Save for Daxter, which is an interquel placed between The Precursor Legacy and Jak II, the games were at least released in chronological order.
  • Capcom's first JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fighting game for the arcades was released internationally under the shortened title of JoJo's Venture. The sequel, which was titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future in Japan, was released under the manga's full title of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure internationally. The PlayStation and Dreamcast ports had no such titling issues.
  • Kingdom Hearts. This is gonna take a while, so you might want to sit down. It's a common joke among fans of the series to bring up the franchise's list of titles to someone who's not familiar with the games and then ask them what order the games take place in.
  • The Kingdom Rush series of Tower Defense games doesn't use numbering, instead relying on the "Version Title" format. The original Kingdom Rush is followed by Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. The third game, Kingdom Rush: Origins, serves as the prequel of the saga; bonus points for the main antagonist Vez'nan serving as a playable hero. The fourth title, Kingdom Rush: Vengeance, continues the storyline from Frontiers while also indicating the change of alignment; the players are fighting for the evil side. The fifth title, Legends of Kingdom Rush, retooled the gameplay into the RPG format while also uniting the good and bad guys against a common threat. As of February 2024, Ironhide Games have announced their return to Tower Defense roots through Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance (which is technically the sixth game overall).
  • The King's Field series can be confusing because the first game was only released in Japan, so King's Field and King's Field II outside Japan are actually King's Field II and King's Field III in Japan. The last one is variously called King's Field: the Ancient City, KF III, or KF IV.
  • The King of Fighters:
  • The game series now known as Legacy of Kain started with the game Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain with the weighting making it apparent the "Legacy of Kain" part was a subtitle. A few years later the next game came out called Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (blood no longer being much of a big deal to the wraithlike new hero Raziel). It was followed by Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2... but then came Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2, which thoroughly confused everyone. The 2 sub-series finally converged in the final game, Legacy of Kain: Defiance — to everyone's great relief.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Leisure Suit Larry series has a very strange naming convention. The original game is titled Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Its first sequel is Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places), informally called LSL-2. The third game, Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals, is the only one with Roman numerals. Al Lowe, the creator of the series, famously said their would be no Leisure Suit Larry 4... But he never said anything about 5. Starting with Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work, an in-game joke is that LSL-4 is titled Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies. After the fifth game, Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!, the sixth Game Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! dropped the number 7 in most markets. The game changed the main character to Larry Lovage and dropped the numbering alltogether in 2004.
  • Love Live! School idol festival announced a sequel to the first game, titled as Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE!
  • Love Plus for the Nintendo DS was followed by an Updated Re-release (Love Plus+), a 3DS sequel (New Love Plus), an Updated Re-release of the 3DS sequel (New Love Plus+), and a short-lived app for iOS and Android (Love Plus EVERY).
  • Magical Drop F: Daibouken mo Rakujanai!, where "F" stands for four.
  • The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games, whose first and second games were The Battle of Aces and The Gears of Destiny respectively.
  • Marathon was followed by Marathon 2: Durandal which was followed by Marathon Infinity. Infinity was then given a joke award by MacFormat for "largest version number increase." As if this wasn't enough, the game engine for Marathon 2 was subsequently released and developed into an open-source version named Aleph One, thereby restoring/continuing sequential numbering at the expense of not being understandable by anyone who wasn't a math major. This is partially justified in that much of the "plot" of Infinity was based on universe hopping and the game was released with the creators' level-design, physics-editing, and graphics-editing tools so that players could make their own stories, making the game "infinite."
  • Mega Man. The entire franchise is a very good example where the Oddly Named Sequel approach is applicable not just to the regular titles, but different eras and iterations of main heroes as well.
    • The early Mega Man (Classic) sequels were numbered with Roman numerals (at least on the title screens), but this became problematic when Capcom released a next-generation game for the SNES named Mega Man X (as in the letter "X", not a Roman numeral 10), which was followed by its own series of numbered sequels (up to X8 so far, plus two handheld interquels in the form of Mega Man Xtreme and Mega Man Xtreme 2). Because of this, Capcom switched to Arabic numerals for both the box art and title screens in the original series starting with Mega Man 8 in order to avoid any confusion, as the franchise eventually had a real Mega Man 10 (and Mega Man 11 further down the line, bringing everything full circle). This was never a problem in Japan, however, where the original Rockman games always used Arabic numerals and subtitles.
    • While the games for the Game Boy shared the same names as the ones that were released for the NES albeit with Roman numerals (except the first one, which was titled Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge), they were not an actual ports of their corresponding NES games, but sort-of remixed versions that combined Robot Masters characters from the corresponding NES games with those from its succeeding installment (e.g. Dr. Wily's Revenge has bosses from the first two NES games, the Game Boy II has bosses from the NES 2 and 3, and so on). The only exception is Mega Man V, which features the new lineup of Robot Masters instead of borrowing the ones from 5 and 6. The Japanese versions of these games were released under the Rockman World name, helping Japanese fans tell them apart.
    • It didn't stop there, with the Classic series being followed by Mega Man X. When it came to the latter, one of the promiment characters (Zero) proved popular enough to continue his adventure a century after the conclusion of X's saga, resulting in the Mega Man Zero installments. At least every single entry in this Sequel Series is numbered properly (up to and including Zero 4).
      • Another discrepancy comes from Mega Man X: Command Mission, an RPG spin-off of the mainline X series. At first glance, this game feels like an adventure that either bridges the gap between X7 and X8 or bridges the gap between X8 and Z1. The "discrepancy" part comes into play thanks to the chronological placement of Command Mission — 22XX, which is when the Zero series is commonly (albeit mistakenly) believed to take place. Because of the potential Continuity Snarls and its status as a Gaiden Game, Command Mission is generally viewed as taking place in an Alternate Timeline, though Word of God has yet to clarify its placement in the timeline.
    • What follows next can be confusing to newcomers: The next era is Mega Man ZX. The combination of letters is not just for show — "ZX" literally means the combined might of previous protagonists in a single character. This time, however, there are only two main titles: Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent (though the "ZX" becomes something of an Artifact Title due to the shift in playable characters between games, with the heroes of Advent instead using mechanics lifted from Axl and his A-Trans ability, hence the "A" in Adventnote ). The Compilation Rerelease which bundles the Zero and ZX titles together explicitly alludes to the combination of X and Zero in its Japanese title, Rockman Zero & ZX Double Hero Collection.
    • The last era of the original timeline (chronologically speaking) is known as Mega Man Legends, which happens several millennia after the ZX duology. Sure enough, the prequel to the first Legends title (The Misadventures of Tron Bonne) is dedicated to another fan-favorite character (whose popularity rivals even Zero's). The original Japanese moniker of this era, however, is Rockman DASHnote , hence why Mega Man Legends and Mega Man Legends 2 are referred to as Rockman DASH: Episode 1 and Rockman DASH: Episode 2 respectively.
    • In the vein of the Pokémon games, the Mega Man Battle Network series also has the same problems with companion pairs (and trios) of titles, starting with Mega Man Battle Network 3: MMBN3 White/Blue, followed by MMBN4 Red Sun/Blue Moon, followed by MMBN5 Team Colonel/Team ProtoMan/Double Team, and culminating with MMBN6 Cybeast Gregar/Cybeast Falzar. Adding insult to injury, these titles are actually the fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth games in the Battle Network series respectively — all thanks to Japan-exclusive installments. In Japan itself, the series bears the title of Rockman EXE.
    • Mega Man Star Force serves as a direct continuation of the Battle Network saga (which is officially an Alternate Timeline to the original series). Yes, this also applies to the naming conventions and multiple versions. The Japanese moniker Shooting Star Rockman refers to the anime series of the same name. As for the installments themselves, they're known as MMSF: Pegasus/Leo/Dragon, MMSF2: Zerker x Ninja/Zerker x Saurian (the original Japanese names for these are Berserk x Shinobi and Berserk x Dinosaur respectively), and MMSF3: Black Ace/Red Joker.
  • Metal Gear:
  • Monkey Island:
  • Monster Hunter does this with its basic, non-Updated Re-release sequels:
    • The "2" in Monster Hunter 2 is pronounced "dos."
    • The third basic game in the series is called Monster Hunter 3 (Tri), "tri" being a Greek-born word root meaning "three" (as in triangle).
    • The "X" in Monster Hunter X (the Japanese title for Monster Hunter Generations) is pronounced "Cross." Its Updated Re-release takes it a step further, being called Monster Hunter XX, with "XX" being pronounced "Double Cross." In turn, the word "Cross" refers to the Megamix Game premise, as many monsters, characters, and locations from previous games are brought together.
    • Then there's the 2018 installment (and beginning of the series' Fifth Generation), called either Monster Hunter: World or Monster Hunter World, followed by another mainline entry in 2021, Monster Hunter: Rise (or Monster Hunter Rise). The Sixth Generation would begin in 2025 with Monster Hunter Wilds.
  • The Mortal Kombat series started off with fairly standard numbering, even if it did switch from Roman numerals to numbers between the second and third games, but it became more and more this trope as the series went on.
    • The main games are: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3 (re-released as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and then the first three games were combined to make Mortal Kombat Trilogy), Mortal Kombat 4 (re-released as Mortal Kombat Gold), Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (which does feature a logo resembling the Roman numeral V), Mortal Kombat: Deception, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (the three-dimensional "trilogy"), and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (a Crisis Crossover-type fighting game which is considered to be a pseudo-Mortal Kombat 8 in a sense). The game that came after these titles is just called Mortal Kombat, as it's a Continuity Reboot.
    • This, of course, isn't getting into the spin-offs territory: Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks — which only serve to create even more confusion for new fans of the series. To further exacerbate the problem, the film and its sequels all had their own (number-free) names, as did the live-action series, the animated series and the web series.
    • Special mention also goes for the handheld versions of Deadly Alliance and Deception. The GBA port of the former was split into two separate games: the first port retains the same name as its console version, while the second one is called Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition. Both include divided roster of fighters from the console version; however, Tournament Edition also adds several fighters which are unavailable in the vanilla Deadly Alliance. The PSP version of Deception bears the name Mortal Kombat: Unchained and adds four additional fighters previously playable in Deadly Alliance.
    • If all that wasn't confusing enough, the sequel to 2011's rebooted Mortal Kombat was in development under the working title Mortal Kombat 2 (not be confused with the Roman-numbered Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to the original game) and released in 2015 as Mortal Kombat X, in which "X" doesn't stand up as number 10. And one year later, this new game got an update called Mortal Kombat XL — which many people can still mistakingly call "Mortal Kombat 40".
    • The sequel to MKX was released in April 2019. It is simply named Mortal Kombat 11. This was followed four years later by another Continuity Reboot, this time titled... Mortal Kombat 1. Understandably, many were quick to dub the game "Mortal Kombat 12", both for simplicity's sake and to avoid confusion with the original (which officially lacks a number but is typically called Mortal Kombat 1) and the previous 2011 reboot.
  • Mushihime Sama's sequel is called Mushihime-sama Futari. "Futari" means "two people."
  • Myst:
    • The first sequel to Myst was called Riven: The Sequel to Myst. Later games adopted a more conventional numbering scheme, resulting in Myst III: Exile, Myst IV: Revelation, and Myst V: End of Ages. A spin-off also exists, which went through enough name changes between its development, release, the cancellation of its online component, the resurrection of its online component through GameTap and its second cancellation that it probably deserves its own trope. The last name it had was Myst Online: Uru Live.
    • As a side note, Myst V: End of Ages, although named in the Myst continuity, actually continues (and ends) the Uru storyline.
  • Need for Speed:
    • Ordering the Hot Pursuit subseries will give anyone a headache: Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, then Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, and then Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Yes, the completely unnumbered title is the sequel to the game that's number two.
    • Given how many games have been made in this racing franchise, the Oddly Named Sequel approach was inevitable. The original game's official title is Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed. The main title of Road & Track Presents comes from the fact that the popular magazine in question shared the necessary info about the featured rides. Starting with Need for Speed II, that label had been dropped completely - and so was the numbering after the fourth title, Need for Speed: High Stakes, came out.
    • Only several titles get the proper numbering. Namely, Need for Speed: Underground and Need for Speed: Shift sub-series. The first one has Underground and Underground 2, but the second one brings more confusion to the table. The original Need for Speed: Shift is followed by Shift 2: Unleashed, with the only indication of belonging to NFS franchise being its signature logo (which started to appear since Undercover).
    • And yes, only the few games have some sort of common plot between them. Storyline of Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005 version) is directly followed by Need for Speed: Carbon.
      • Speaking of follow-ups, there are installments that serve as spiritual sequels to one another. The aforementioned Shift sub-series is basically an enhancement over Need for Speed: ProStreet, thanks to participation in official racing competitions. Same deal goes towards Need for Speed Rivals - except there are numerous sources of inspiration: game mechanics carried over from 2010 version of Hot Pursuit, Frostbite engine is used for development akin to Need for Speed: The Run, and several aspects from 2012 version of Most Wanted are also being featured there.
    • During the Black Box era of the franchise (from Underground to The Run), several titles got the handheld versions. Among these are Need for Speed: Underground Rivals, Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0, and Need for Speed: Carbon - Own the City.
  • No One Lives Forever:
    • The original game was titled The Operative in No One Lives Forever. However, for the sequel they turned the original subtitle into the main title, resulting in No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way.
    • Let's not even mention the terrible sequel/prequel known simply as Contract J.A.C.K.
  • Ashens reviewed a game called Oriental Hero on the ZX Spectrum in his "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" series. Oriental Hero is the sequel to a ZX game called Ninja Master but doesn't use the word "ninja" anywhere in its title, despite being made by the same developer with the purpose of following on its original title in order to seize upon its success.
  • Panzer Dragoon was followed by Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Mini, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Panzer Dragoon Orta.
  • The Panzer General series, as released in Germany. The first one was still Panzer General, the second (Panzer General II) became Panzer General 3D (even though it wasn't 3D), and then the actual Panzer General 3D became Panzer General 4. Faces were palmed.
  • Parasite Eve:
    • Parasite Eve got a normal numbering for its first sequel Parasite Eve 2, but the next game was named The 3rd Birthday. Not Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday. Just... The 3rd Birthday. According to the developers, this is due to it being set in the same universe, but having few connections to the previous games besides the main character.
    • Not to mention that the first game is itself a loose sequel to the novel/film of the same name.
  • Pokémon:
    • Despite the ever-increasing number of entries in the main series, there has never been a Pokémon 2, let alone 3, 4 or 5, despite the fact that the second generation was indeed a direct sequel to the first one. Instead there's pairs (and, usually, eventually trios or quartets), of games with themed names in the format of "Pokémon [Version Title]," with no indication of what falls where. For those wondering, terms like the "second generation" or "Generation V" are non-official designations for groups of games and the Pokémon within them (which also distinguish remakes from the originals).
    • Of note is that Generations II through IV all used precious materials for their names (Gold, Silver and Crystal for Generation II; Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald for Generation III; and Diamond, Pearl and Platinum for Generation IV), which can be very confusing for non-fans. This has only become more confusing with subsequent generations: Gen V went back to colors (Black/White, which received Numbered Sequels in Black 2/White 2), Gen VI switched to letters/axis coordinates (X/Y), Gen VII used celestial bodies (Sun/Moon, which received AU Word Sequels in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, consistent with the Theme Naming for the various interdimensional aspects introduced in the original versions ex.), Gen VIII used combat equipment (Sword/Shield), and Gen IX went back to colors once more (Scarlet/Violet).
      • Additionally, Gold/Silver can be seen as outliers, as they're both colors like Gen I and precious materials like Gen III/Gen IV. Likewise, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald are respectively shades of red, blue, and green named for their corresponding gemstones, fitting in with how Gen III was a Soft Reboot for the games. note  Similarly, Black/White's titles refer to the concept of moral absolutes, a principle that N adheres to quite strictly (even going as far as to Title Drop it at one point His quote?) but is slowly pulled away from through his interactions with the protagonist.
    • The aforementioned remakes affix related words in front of the titles of the original games. So far there's been FireRed & LeafGreen note , HeartGold & SoulSilver, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl.
    • The final set of Gen VII games, Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee!, completely deviates from the above naming conventions. Aside of centering the titles around their respective Starter Mon, the names are also based in part on Pokémon GO — justified in that Let's Go was intended to serve as a Jumping-On Point for potential fans, particularly those who had already been exposed to GO, right down to blending some of that game's mechanics into the formula of a traditional Pokémon installment.
    • The final game released during the Gen VIII era, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, is a distant prequel to the entire series which takes place in the Hisui region (the past version of Sinnoh, the main location of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum). It is slated to be followed by Pokémon Legends: Z-A in 2025, which similarly focuses on a past version of Lumiose City from X/Y. The sequel takes inspiration from the Gen VI games — and not just in terms of naming conventions.
    • The duology of GameCube titles developed by Genius Sonority consists of Pokémon Colosseum and... Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. Not Pokémon Colosseum XD, but Pokémon XD. Officially, the "XD" stands for "Extra Dimension," but the title potentially doubles as an Antagonist Title, as the cover mascot and a central figure in the plot is a Shadow Lugia that is codenamed XD001.
    • Finally, there are only three games that do not have "Pokémon" or the "Poké" prefix anywhere in their titles; Hey You, Pikachu! (which was the only example from its 1998 release all the way until 2015), Pokkén Tournament (which is technically a cop out since it only adds an extra k to indicate its (loose) ties to Tekken via sharing a developer), and Detective Pikachu (whose live-action film adaptation otherwise tacks the franchise's name on its title anyway).
    • And the trope is even parodied within the games themselves: In B2/W2 you can find a pile of "old rejected movie scripts" at the Pokéstar Studios dressing room. One of them is titled "Galvantula's Travels 2: Eelektrik Boogaloo."
  • Prince of Persia. The first game was followed by the sequel Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame. Then Prince of Persia 3D followed, with the series jumping to 3D and beginning a new story. Four years later came Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starting a new story yet again, which would continue in the direct sequels Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Then, the story resets again, with Prince of Persia (and its Nintendo DS sequel The Fallen King) in 2008, followed by an Un-Reboot set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within with 2010's The Forgotten Sands. Fourteen years later, the series would see another reboot with 2024's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
  • The full title of the sequel to Project × Zone in Japan is Project × Zone 2: Brave New World (a nod to the opening theme of the same name from Namco × Capcom), whereas in the West it's just called Project × Zone 2. This might have to do with the fact that Namco × Capcom never made it out of Japan, despite both PXZ games following up on its story.
  • Ratchet & Clank:
  • Resident Evil:
    • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica has a title that implies it's a side-story to the series, even though the plot acts as a legitimate continuation to Resident Evil 2, being set three months after the events of that game, featuring not only the first time the Redfield siblings (Claire and Chris) appeared together, but also the return of Albert Wesker, the antagonist from the original Resident Evil. Part of the reason for this is because the game was intended to be a Dreamcast-exclusive, with the development being handled by a subsidiary company of Sega and story was not originally intended to be a follow-up to RE2 until some last-minute rewrites, but Sega's eventual departure from the console race allowed the game to be ported to other platforms.
      • The irony here is that, despite being a numbered title, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis can arguably be considered the real side story between itself and Code: Veronica. While 3 is a sequel to the original Resident Evil starring Jill, it's an interquel taking place before and during the Raccoon City incident and the game was originally conceived as a Gaiden Game that would make use of the RE2 engine.
    • The series had only numbered mainline games, until a subtitle was added to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, with the box art only having the number in Roman algarisms: RESIDENT EVII. And then the eight game, Resident Evil Village, drops the numbers... except for again disguising them in the art, this time in the subtitle VIllAGE (with the L's as I).
  • Rival Schools:
    • In North America, the sequel to Rival Schools: United by Fate was named simply Project Justice. In all other regions, the connection was made more clear — in Japan, the game was titled Moero! Justice Gakuen (the original game was Shiritsu Justice Gakuen) while other regions used the Project Justice name but tacked on Rival Schools 2 at the end.
    • It didn't help that the Japan-only Updated Re-release of the original game was titled Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2. The number was for the updated character creation mode (the Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki part of the title) included in the game, but the number's inclusion caused everyone outside of Japan to mistake it for a sequel.
  • Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has no Fallen Angel in the entire game, nor its theme has something to do with the fallen angel concept. The only character that could be considered one is the relatively minor dark Seraphim in Seraphim's side quest.
  • The Saints Row series goes through several changes in formatting across the series: Saints Row, Saints Row 2, Saints Row: The Third and finally Saints Row IV.
  • Samurai Shodown:
    • Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage for the PlayStation is not a port, but a distant sequel to the similarly titled Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade game Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage (which itself was a sequel to the original Samurai Shodown 64). The Japanese versions averted this by being named differently.
    • In Japan, the Samurai Spirits games in general have their own Word Salad Titles: II is Shin Samurai Spirits: Haohmaru Jigokuhen ("True Samurai Spirits: Haohmaru's Vision of Hell"), III is Samurai Spirits: Zankuro Musouken ("Peerless Sword of Zankuro"), IV is Samurai Spirits: Amakusa Kourin ("Amakusa's Advent"), and V is actually known as Samurai Spirits Rei ("Samurai Spirits Zero"). It helps to know that the order of the main games (I-V) is V, I, III, IV, II. The two SS64 games take place after II, and Sen takes place after the 64 games but before the PS1 version of Warriors Rage (which, as noted above, happens to share its title with the second part of the 64 duology). Meanwhile, VI is a Dream Match Game and was titled Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden ("Tale of the World's Greatest Swordsmen") in Japan to reflect its status as such.
    • The confusion was toned down with the 2019 installment, which is also titled Samurai Shodown... though that instead ran afoul of Sequel Number Snarl; it's not so much a Soft Reboot as it is yet another interquel, this time set between V and the original SamSho.
  • Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (or "TSE") and Serious Sam 2 (sometimes referred to as "SS2"" or "II") are actually two different games. The former is a Mission-Pack Sequel to the original, while the latter is a completely new installment — released well after The Second Encounter with its own art style, setting and story line. Both of these were followed by Serious Sam 3: BFE ("Before the First Encounter") a prequel to the original game (referred heretofore as "TFE", or "The First Encounter"). And that's not counting Serious Sam HD and Serious Sam: The Second Counter HD which are Updated Re-releases of TFE and TSE, respectively.
  • Shadow Hearts:
    • Apparently the English-speaking world needs their sequels to have subtitles. Shadow Hearts 2, as it is called in Japan, was changed to Shadow Hearts: Covenant for the English version. The third game followed suit, and was called Shadow Hearts: From the New World in all versions.
    • And let's not forget that they're all sequels to a game called Koudelka.
  • Shantae:
    • The adventures of the quirky heroine started with Shantae (2002) for the Game Boy Color. This relatively obscure title got more popular follow-ups called Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and Shantae and the Seven Sirens.
    • The sixth title, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, has quite an interesting story. It was conceptualized as the true follow-up to the original Shantae game back in 2000s. Thanks to the original GBC game's mediocre sales, Risky Revolution was shelved... only to be brought back decades later for the physical release on Game Boy Advance (which is way past its prime as of 2024) in addition to modern consoles and computers. It now serves as an interquel taking place between the first game and Risky's Revenge.
  • The Shin Megami Tensei series isn't exactly the most understandable in terms of naming, but Persona 2 was released as a duology, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, making Persona 3 and Persona 4 the fourth and fifth titles in the Persona series respectively. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne got the subtitle Lucifer's Call, which admittedly made far more sense. Meanwhile, there's Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, a direct sequel to (the Neutral path of) Shin Megami Tensei IV but not the actual Shin Megami Tensei V (which released years later, after Persona 5, its Updated Re-release, and its Action RPG sequel).
  • Shinobi:
    • Shinobi III may sound like a sensible name for a sequel, until you realize it's not literally the third game in the series at all. note  Although, it is the third Shinobi game for the Sega Genesis, the first two Genesis games were already sequels to previous Shinobi games. The first Genesis game, The Revenge of Shinobi, is a sequel to the Sega Master System version of the first Shinobi, which itself was based on an arcade game, while Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, the second Genesis game, was itself a loose sequel to the arcade's Shadow Dancer, which was the arcade sequel to Shinobi. That's not even counting The Cyber Shinobi: Shinobi Part 2, the European-exclusive Master System sequel to the first Shinobi, or The G.G. Shinobi and The G.G. Shinobi Part II: The Silent Fury, the two Game Gear installments. So which game could be considered the "true Shinobi II"? The game system of Shinobi III is clearly based on The Revenge of Shinobi and the Japanese versions of both games make their relation a lot less ambiguous, since they're titled The Super Shinobi and The Super Shinobi II.
    • In the next installment in the series, Shinobi Legions for the Sega Saturn, didn't help matters at all. While unrelated to the adventures of Joe Musashi (made clearer by the game's Japanese title, Shin Shinobi Dennote ), the title was released in Europe as Shinobi X (which was the game's original title when first announced at the 1994 Tokyo Toy Show). Given the number of Shinobi games released before then, the "X" might actually stand for the number ten as opposed to being there for artistic flair.
    • 2002 saw the series return after a seven-year gap with... another game titled Shinobi. This Soft Reboot was followed a year later with Kunoichi (named so because it marked the debut of the series' first female protagonist in Hibana), released in the NA and PAL markets as Nightshade. To its credit, Kunoichi/Nightshade does feature the kanji 忍 ("shinobi") behind the title, keeping in line with the logo for the 2002 game, but not everyone caught this.
    • And then, in 2011, another game was released for the 3DS. Its title? Why, Shinobi, of course! And it's a prequel to the original trilogy featuring Joe's father Jiro.
  • Among the lesser-known sport franchises, Side Pocket is also quite stingy with its titles.
    • The arcade version had been ported to numerous platforms during the 80s and 90s. However, the true sequel to Side Pocket came out exclusively for Sega consoles — and it bears the name of Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend. The next game after that was simply called Side Pocket 3.
    • Of course, the arcade release spawned its own batch of spin-offs sharing its basic mechanics (Pocket Gal and Pocket Gal Deluxe).
  • The Silent Hill series has Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, then Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill: Ørigins (which is called Silent Hill Zero in Japan), Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and Silent Hill: Downpour.
  • The arcade version of Silent Scope 2 was titled Dark Sillhouette: Silent Scope 2, although the PS2 version switched the titles back around.
  • The Simon the Sorcerer series uses a Roman numeral for the second game, "3D" for the third, and then switches to Arabic numerals for titles 4, 5, and 6 (stuck in Development Hell).
  • In Japan, the Slam Masters (or Muscle Bomber) series is comprised of Muscle Bomber, Muscle Bomber Duo, and Super Muscle Bomber. The corresponding English versions of these three games are Saturday Night Slam Masters, Muscle Bomber Duo, and Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II. In other words, the series got its title changed to Slam Master for the English version of the first game, and then changed back to Muscle Bomber for the second, only to be changed back to Slam Masters for the third.
  • Solomon's Key 2 was subtitled Coolmin Tou Kyuushutsu Sakusen Translation in Japan.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Soul Series:
    • Due to legal issues, the PlayStation version of Soul Edge was renamed Soul Blade in America and Europe. To sidestep this legal hurdle, the sequels were released under the Soul Calibur name instead. Thus Soulcalibur V is actually the sixth game in the series.
    • It gets even more confusing in terms of capitalization. The "Soulcalibur" series started off as Soul Calibur, and its sequel, Soul Calibur II reflects this. With the game's third entry, the series was renamed Soulcalibur (all one word), so the the title of the game became Soulcalibur III. In addition, the previous two games were retroactively renamed under this system (Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur II, respectively). Thankfully, the nomenclature has remained since III.
    • The Soul series isn't immune to subtitles, too — the arcade revision of Soulcalibur III was named (you guessed it) Soulcalibur III: Arcade Edition. The re-release of Soulcalibur IV for the PSP was titled "Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny."
    • Averted in a different way with Soulcalibur V: Then-series director Daishi Odashima very nearly named the game Soul Edge 2, but was shut down by Namco.
    • If that wasn't confusing enough, Soulcalibur VI (the seventh entry in the Soul series) is a Continuity Reboot set around the time of the original Soulcalibur (the second entry), much like Mortal Kombat 9 before it.
  • A slight example in Space Quest. Each game is consistently named with a Roman numeral followed by a subtitle (except the first game that doesn't feature a number, of course). Starting with the fourth game, the developers have decided to include the main character's name in the subtitles, even when removing it would sound better (e.g. Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers, Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation). The sixth game uses an Arabic numeral out of the blue (Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier). The working title for the cancelled seventh game was Space Quest VII: Return to Roman Numerals as a nod to the break in numbering.
  • The sequel to Speedball was titled Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, where "Brutal Deluxe" was the name of the player team. (The subtitle could have been something like "Electrobounce Boogaloo"; mercifully it wasn't.)
  • Splinter Cell, as the picture on the main page indicates, has some idiosyncratic titling.
    • The series goes as thus: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials (which, despite the name, isn't a remake package with the original games), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
    • Though to their credit, they never tried to mix numbers in with their subtitles. Considering how the naming schemes of some other series turn out, that is probably a good thing.
    • This was actually caused by Executive Meddling. Originally, Chaos Theory was supposed to be the sequel to Splinter Cell and thus known as Splinter Cell 2. Pandora Tomorrow was only supposed to be an expansion pack to the original. When it was decided that Pandora Tomorrow would be a standalone title, they released it without any numbering to avoid confusing people.
  • Spyro the Dragon:
  • Parodied in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. After speaking with the Settings Person in the Epilogue and agreeing to the indefinite creation of sequels for the game, you'll be prompted to choose fragments of phrases to make up the game's new subtitle each time you start it up, which can leave you with silly subtitles such as "Fist Full Of Paperwork" or "The Last Birthday Party".
  • Star Gladiator was followed by Star Gladiator 2: Nightmare of Bilstein... but only if you live in Japan. Not unlike fellow Capcom 3D fighter Rival Schools, the title was changed to something completely different in other territories, Plasma Sword in this case. For added oddity, the full title of the first game is Star Gladiator Episode I: Final Crusade (probably one of the game's many holdovers from its origins as a Star Wars fighting game), whereas Plasma Sword is simply Star Gladiator 2 and not Star Gladiator Episode II.
  • Star Ocean games have Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (simply titled Star Ocean 3 in Japan), Star Ocean: The Last Hope (which includes a "4" in the Japanese title), Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (which, likewise, includes a "5" in the Japanese title), Star Ocean: The Divine Force (same deal in Japanese, but with a "6"), and mobile title Star Ocean: Anamnesis (which first released in Japan about nine months after the fifth game). The first two games were later remade in 2008 for the PlayStation Portable under the titles Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution, with both games later getting the remaster treatment in the form of 2019's Star Ocean: First Departure R and 2023's Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Not to mention The Anime of the Game, Star Ocean EX, which is apparently based on The Second Story.
  • The Starsiege Real Robot simulators began with MetalTech: Earthsiege, then moved to EarthSiege II. The sequel to ES2 was Starsiege. After Starsiege came Starsiege: Tribes, which was related to the previous games In Name Only, dropping the mechs entirely for fast paced infantry combat in which you use Jet Packs and shoot exploding blue frisbees at enemies. The sequel to Starsiege: Tribes dropped the "Starsiege" tag entirely, simply becoming Tribes 2. The prequel (which actually has a plot!) to Starsiege: Tribes is Tribes: Vengeance. The latest Tribes game is Tribes: Ascend, with an MMORPG known as Tribes: Universe currently in Development Hell.
  • The Star Wars: Dark Forces games have a strange number sequence. They start with Dark Forces, followed by Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, then Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and finally Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Even worse when you see that LucasArts (and no one else) considers the full titles to all be prefixed with "Star Wars."
  • The numerous Street Fighter installments by Capcom with their various adjectives, suffixes, and subtitles can be a bit confusing to first-time fans of the series. This is because Capcom considers most of the Roman-numbered entries in the franchise to be their own sub-series, making it a bit harder to number specific entries in each sub-series.
    • Ironically enough, only the original Street Fighter exists as a solo installment. Ports for PC Engine and TurboGrafx16, however, had been renamed to Fighting Street — which doesn't help. Things escalated with the arrival of the iconic sequel.
    • Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is the legendary example when it comes to multiple versions. It was followed by Street Fighter II (Dash): Champion Edition, Street Fighter II (Dash Turbo): Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (aka Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge). All five of those titles are just the original arcade releases, mind you. The console-specific variations include: Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES, Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition for the Genesis (both were compilations of Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting), Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival for the GBA (a portable version of Super Turbo), Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition for the PS2 and Xbox (a pseudo-compilation of all five original arcade releases), Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (a totally remixed and enhanced version of said releases), and (at last) Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers for the Switch (definitive Grand Finale-sort of version with the final roster additions and lots of options).
    • Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dream (aka Street Fighter Zero) was followed by Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 in the arcades. Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 both had their share of minor upgrades. Alpha 2 had Alpha 2 Gold for the PS1 and Saturn (aka Zero 2 Dash, which in turn was based on a minor Asia-only arcade upgrade called Zero 2 Alpha), while Alpha 3 was followed by Alpha 3 Upper for the GBA (which took its title from Zero 3 Upper, a Japan-only arcade upgrade with the roster additions from the console ports plus Eagle, Yun, and Maki, fresh off their appearances in Capcom vs. SNK 2) and Alpha 3 MAX (aka Zero 3 Double Upper) for the PSP (which added in Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution as well as a 2-on-1 Variable Battle Mode).
    • The Street Fighter EX series consists of EX, EX Plus, EX Plus Alpha (a PS1 port of the previous game), EX2, EX2 Plus (which also had a PS1 port), and EX3 (a PS2-exclusive).
    • Street Fighter III: New Generation was followed by Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future. Sometimes, the 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike portions of their respective titles are treated as subtitles rather part of the main titles (in such cases, the actual subtitles of Giant Attack and Fight for the Future are omitted).
    • Street Fighter IV was followed by Super Street Fighter IV, which was followed by Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Ultra Street Fighter IV. There's also the 3D Edition of Super for the 3DS.
    • Downplayed with Street Fighter V, which only had two revisions: Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (also known as Type Arcade in Japanese arcades) and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition. After Champion Edition, which marked the beginning of the fifth and final wave of DLC, Capcom instead moved on to the development of Street Fighter 6 (note the Arabic numerals this time), and only time will tell if that game gets into a similar mess to its predecessors.
  • During the 90s, Electronic Arts released a series of helicopter-based shooters named the "Strike series". The series consists of Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, Urban Strike, Soviet Strike and Nuclear Strike.
  • In Japan, the third game of the Strikers 1945 series is called Strikers 1999 to reference the Setting Update. Everywhere else, it's called Strikers 1945 III.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • No less a video game personage than Mario has been responsible for this — multiple times. First off, the sequel to the original game that started it all — Mario Bros. — was named Super Mario Bros. The follow-ups were numbered sanely until the Super Nintendo came along: the fifth console game became known as Super Mario World (although it was actually called Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World in Japan). The following game was called Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (originally known as Super Mario: Yoshi's Island in Japan), and it is a prequel to the whole series; and then the series split — the Yoshi's Island games became their own series, while original Mario series stopped even bothering with numbering their corresponding games in sequence (up until Super Mario Galaxy 2 came along). Something similar to the Yoshi's Island renaming happened to the Super Mario Land games for the Game Boy, in which the third game was called Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, which spun off into the Wario Land series.
    • The initial Super Mario Bros. series is numbered sanely only in the Western markets: the game released in the West as Super Mario Bros. 2 was released as Super Mario USA in Japan — the game known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 was released as part of a compilation game in the West years later under the title Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. The funniest thing about western Super Mario Bros. 2 in general is that it is actually a reworked version of the Japanese game called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Essentially, Super Mario USA is the second version of this game re-released back in Japan as the Mario title.
    • Speaking of The Lost Levels, the Japanese version of Super Mario All-Stars (Super Mario Collection) calls it Super Mario Bros. 2: For Super Players, whose subtitle was the slogan on the original box art. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe also uses this full title, just without the 2. Eventually, Nintendo used their first localized title for the worldwide Virtual Console release, although the title screen is unchanged.
      • Super Mario All-Stars orders the main Mario games in the order of their first release date, which means that in both the Japanese and American versions, Super Mario Bros. 3 is treated as the fourth game in the series.
    • And then there are the remakes for the GBA... Super Mario Bros. 2 became Super Mario Advance, which was followed by Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3note . The worst offender is the last title called Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. This is a clusterfuck of naming conventions and chronology issues mixed together.note 
    • New Super Mario Bros. has three sequels so far: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and New Super Mario Bros. U. NSMB2 is actually the third game.
    • The Mario Kart series started out with Super Mario Kart, followed by Mario Kart 64. Then it went to subtitles with Mario Kart: Super Circuit (for Game Boy Advance) and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (for Nintendo GameCube). It then returned to Super Title 64 Advance with Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii before finally falling into Numbered Sequels with Mario Kart 7 (for Nintendo 3DS) and Mario Kart 8 (for Wii U), the latter of which received an Updated Re-release for the Nintendo Switch called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
  • Super Robot Wars:
    • The series does this for each Alternate Continuity; Super Robot Wars F, Super Robot Wars Alpha, and Super Robot Wars: Original Generation are among the variations.
    • Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, and Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2 were combined as a remake Super Robot Wars: Original Generations. Now, the combined remake is getting a sequel: 2nd Super Robot Wars: Original Generation. So the second game is the 4th release and set after the one numbered 2. Okay.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • Super Smash Bros. was followed up with Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The fourth game was a Multi-Platform release, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, while the fifth, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is a Dream Match Game that brings back every character who was playable up until that point plus a handful of newcomers.
    • The Japanese naming conventions are even weirder. Nintendo All-Star: Dairantou Smash Brothers [sic], Dairantou Smash Bros. DX (DX is short for "Deluxe"), and Dairantou Smash Bros. X. In other words, the third game's title is essentially the second game's title minus one letter. And Ultimate is Dairantou Smash Bros. Special. All words in English in the title are actually that way, by the way. "Dairantou" roughly translates to "Melee" or "Brawl."
  • Tales series:
  • The Puzzle Game Tant-R had sequels named Ichidant-R and Sando-R. "Ichidan" means "more" and "sando" means "three times."
  • In Japan, Toaplan's sequel to Tatsujin (Truxton elsewhere) was titled Tatsujin-Oh ("Expert King"), written in kanji rather than romaji as with the first game.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • The NES TMNT trilogy has no significant issues. In Japan, however, it's another story. The infamous 1989 title was published there under the name Geki Kame Ninja Den (loosely translated as "Legend of the Radical Ninja Turtles") because the classic 1987 cartoon didn't have an official dub yet. The sequel (which is based on the iconic arcade game by Konami) was simply called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in contrast to its Western title of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. By the time The Manhattan Project arrived on the Famicom, this TMNT title was given the number 2 as opposed to the III of the North American version.
    • While on the subject of arcades, the mentioned above hit got a sequel: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. It was ported to the Super Nintendo with significant changes, amongst which the most obvious one is the addition of number IV to the title; this was made in order to continue the numbering from earlier NES titles. The Sega Genesis got its own version of the game — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, which changed the subtitle to Return of the Shredder in Japan.
    • European policies against depictions of violence forced the publishers to rebrand the games under the moniker Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, as it was done with 1987 series itself. Unfortunately, Hero Turtles 3 doesn't exist — The Manhattan Project was never released in Europe.
    • The 2003 era of Ninja Turtles also has its fair share of confusion, no matter the region. Since the first game came out, it got sequels which were subtitled as Battle Nexus and Mutant Nightmare. The entire trilogy of these beat-em-ups covers the first three seasons of the show. However, the handheld versions of these same games are completely different: they've been remade as side-scrollers in order to circumvent the limitations of the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
  • The second Tetris: The Grand Master game's name is a source of minor confusion; fans have a hard time deciding whether it's Tetris: The Grand Master 2 - The Absolute or Tetris: The Absolute - The Grand Master 2. Then there's Tetris: The Grand Master 3 - Terror-Instinct, Tetris: The Grand Master ACE (a spin-off of TGM), and Tetris: The Grand Master 4 - The Masters of Round (technically the fifth game in the series).
  • Theme Park was Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a management game in which you run a theme park. The title of the Creator-Driven Successor, Theme Hospital, made less sense.
  • The original Tomb Raider series consists of Tomb Raider I, Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider III, then Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider Chronicles and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The Crystal Dynamics Continuity Reboot of the franchise continues this trend, with Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and Tomb Raider: Underworld. Then it was rebooted again in 2013, with just Tomb Raider, which was followed by Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
  • Total War:
  • The European/Japanese-only sequel to Trace Memory (Another Code in those regions) was titled Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories (Gateway of Memory in Japan).
  • TrackMania, TrackMania Sunrise, TrackMania Nations, TrackMania United Forever, TrackMania Nations Forever... and the brand new Trackmania 2! This isn't counting console spin-offs, either.
  • Trails Series:
  • Unreal:
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines contains an In-Universe example and Shout-Out to the Trope Namer: The in-game radio station runs an ad for a movie named Hoover 2: Hydroelectric Boogaloo.
  • Wario Land:
  • Wolfenstein:
  • Wonder Boy probably has the most confusing series of sequels out of all the examples listed here thanks to the numerous alternate titles the games had between different platform ports and regional releases.
    • The first game itself, originally an arcade release, is also known as Super Wonder Boy on the Japanese Master System (since it has a few enhancements from the arcade version and there was also an earlier Wonder Boy port released in Japan for the SG-1000, Sega's first game console) and Revenge of Dracon on the American Game Gear (it was still called Wonder Boy everywhere else).
    • The second entry in the series was Wonder Boy: Monster Land for the arcade, which was ported to the Sega Master System in Japan under the name of Super Wonder Boy: Monster World and that particular version was released in the west as Wonder Boy in Monster Land (the "in" was not present in the arcade version's title).
    • The third and last of the arcade releases was titled Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. The console ports for the TurboGrafx-16 and Mega Drive both kept the same name this time, although the cover artwork for the TG16 version omits the "Wonder Boy III" portion.
    • The fourth entry is when things start to get confusing. The game was released for the Master System in the west as Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (titled as such since it was the third Master System game in the series), which is a distinct game from the aforementioned Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. The Master System version was supposed to be released in Japan as Monster World II, but that version got canceled. Instead, the later Game Gear port (which was simply titled Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap in the west, dropping the numeral altogether) came out there as Monster World II: Dragon no Wana.
    • The next entry was Wonder Boy V: Monster World III for the Mega Drive (simply titled Wonder Boy in Monster World in the west, not to be confused with the aforementioned Super Wonder Boy: Monster World, the Sega Mark III version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land). Despite its Japanese title, Monster World III is actually the fourth game in the series released in Japan, since Monster World II (which fills the position of "Wonder Boy IV") was only released a few months later in Japan, unless we count the Dragon's Curse/Adventure Island remake by Hudson Soft (which opens a whole 'nother can of worms).
    • Monster World IV is the sixth and final game in the series. It drops the Wonder Boy name completely, presumably because the protagonist in this one is a girl. It remained a Japan exclusive until 2012 when the Virtual Console was finally localized to English, but it kept its original title, leading to potential confusions for people unfamiliar with the Japanese titles.
    • Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is the the official seventh game in the series, but it dropped the Monster World title, as Sega no longer owns it. Word of God is that it combined the Monster World and Wonder Boy titles as a concession, but why it didn't just use the Wonder Boy title is anyone's guess.
  • World of Warcraft:
  • The WWF Smackdown games start off with the first one and the second ones using numbers (Smackdown 2: Know Your Role), but as of the third one stopped using numbers, as of the sixth one started using the title "Smackdown vs. Raw" instead, and as of the seventh one started including the year a la Madden.
  • The X-Universe usually uses the structure X#: Subtitle, where the number corresponds to the Game Engine version rather than a direct sequel number. On ye olde "X Engine", we have X: Beyond the Frontier and its Expansion Pack X: Tension. X2: The Threat runs on the "X2" engine, and there was a planned-but-canceled sequel titled X2: The Return. X3: Reunion had the debut of the high-tech "X3 Reality engine", was followed by X3: Terran Conflict and its Expansion Pack X3: Albion Prelude on the same engine. X: Rebirth broke the trend as it is a significant re-imagining of the gameplay and the codebase. However, X4: Foundations went back to the trend despite running on a modified Rebirth engine.
  • All three Xenosaga games take their subtitles from Nietzche: Der wille zur Macht, Jenseits von Gut und Bose, and Also Sprach Zarathustra. They also precisely reversed the order Nietzche originally wrote them in — Also Sprach Zarathustra was first published from 1883-1885, Jenseits von Gut und Bose in 1886, and Der Wille Zur Macht was compiled, edited, and published posthumously by his sister. Presumably, the planned Episodes 4-6 would have continued to borrow from his earlier and earlier works for titles as well.
  • Yoshi's Island:

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