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  1. Games

What game names really mean

News
By Brett Elston published 9 January 2008

From Katamari to Mass Effect, we reveal games' secret meanings

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

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TimeShift (360, PS3, PC)
Time shifting is the act of recording something to watch it later. Sounds as common as toothpaste by today's standards, but in 1979 Universal filed suit against Sony and its Betamax player, saying its ability to record copyrighted material was "going to send our entire civilization into Satan's cruel embrace, you content-devouring monsters." Perhaps the craziest part of that case is that Sony only won 5-4. We were two old dudes away from not having a collection of dusty old VHS tapes, DVRs and finicky writers who have the balls to ask for money for things they created.

Speedball (NES, PC, Atari, Master System, XBLA)
Other than being an overly aggressive form of paintball, we hear a speedball is heroine mixed with cocaine or an amphetamine. Don't ask us what a Speedball 2 is...

Astyanax (NES, Arcade)
We're quite certain no kid pronounced this properly back in the day - unless they were big into Greek mythology, that is. Ol' Asty is the son of Hector and Andromache, two names you'll recognize from that dizzyingly boring movie from a few years back. It's also a fish. Again with the fish.

Revengers of Vengeance (Sega CD)
"We have no idea what to do or what to call this, so let's just make shit up. Wait, what? Revengers... that's not... that's not even a word. Aw hell it's noon. It's time for lunch. Yeah we'll call it Revenging Avengers or whatever. I'm buying."

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Brett Elston
Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE. 

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