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Not everything can be as simple and straightforward as Pong. Forget the design and the graphics... we're just talking about the title. Pong. So pure. So unadorned. So onomatopoeic. So easy to pronounce, a child or caveman could do it.
Since then, gaming... and the naming of gaming... has only grown more confusing and complicated. Bad translations, bad marketing and sometimes plain old bad education have created a hobby where only the hardcore can make it through a list of new releases without verbally embarrassing themselves.
But perhaps that's just part of the fun. If that's the case, here are the game titles we've had the most fun slaughtering over the years.
Faxanadu
Correct pronunciation: "Fah zan ah doo"
Incorrect pronunciation: "Fax Anna Dew"
The word "Xanadu" has a rich and artistic history. Did you know that it was the name of the ancient Mongolian Empire's capital city? Or that it was the inspiration for English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most famous piece of work, Kubla Khan? Did you realize that it was the main character's mansion in one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane?
Of COURSE you didn't. And, even if you did, the children playing videogames back in the late 1980s sure as hell didn't. Labelling your game just Xanadu would have been enough to make their brains hurt. Combining it with the name of the system it appeared on (the Famicom) to form Faxanadu was just cruel. Cute. But cruel.
