The Origins of Video Game Names 121
Blogger Drew Mackie has posted a lengthy analysis of the etymology of dozens of names from popular video game characters. It examines the real-life and mythological roots of names from Final Fantasy, Zelda, Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and many other prominent franchises, complete with citations where appropriate. Quoting:
"It's speculated that Street Fighter's Russian wrestler Zangief takes his name from a real-life Russian wrestler, Victor Zangiev. More interesting to me is that the working name for this character was Vodka Gobalsky. This is notable for two reasons — for one, that this name is amazing [and] deserves to enter into the public consciousness and, for another, that it bears a striking resemblance to the name of a Russian boxer in Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series, Vodka Drunkenski. I'm sure this says something about Japanese perception of Russian people. The latter Vodka, by the way, goes by the name Soda Popinski in US translations of the game, presumably because Nintendo of America didn't allow references to booze."
NIntendo is a copycat (Score:1, Funny)
I speculate that Nintendo was named after Chintendo, a well known Chinese manufacturer.
Re:Why is this Games and not Idle? (Score:4, Funny)
Which is a shame considering the seriousness of the topic.
Re:Russia-Japan issue (Score:2, Funny)
"I never intend to go back there again."
Mission accomplished.
An European.
Re:Perception (Score:2, Funny)
Now I know what I missed in GTA IV's story-line.
Sure, I was shocked, and laughed my ass off, at the same time, when...
I came out of a bar, and thought what was being drunk, would be one of the many (many) bugs of the game,
and because of that tried to press some button to get it going again, fell on the ground, accidentally pressed the shoot button,
and shot my girlfriend in the head. She was dead on the place.
Needless to say, that I am very happy that this wasn't real life, and that virtual worlds exist. :D
At least you had a girlfriend, dude.
Re:Perception (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, I can't drink with you. I need to walk my dancing bear through the Red Square.
Re:Donkey (Score:3, Funny)
I see what you did there.
Out of his ass indeed.