Eh, not really. I've always seen 'party games' Like Mario Party to be 'button bashers'.
Only other game name I can think of here in the UK is 'shoot 'em ups'.
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Genre names in other languages
- Thread starter Orayn
- Start date
Eh, not really. I've always seen 'party games' Like Mario Party to be 'button bashers'.
Only other game name I can think of here in the UK is 'shoot 'em ups'.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Nope, cocos are the ghosts. Ive never heard anyone here call the pills coconuts, in fact they all called them pildoras or pastillas (and for them was simbolic as the drugs you could take at the discos). As I said, el coco is the spanish boogeyman, and it was used to scare kids like ghosts.
Come cocos was also used because it was said that the game ate your brains if you played it too much, making you stupid, as coco is also slang for brain/head in spain. And thats why comecocos was used in general to speak ill of games by society, not only pacman.
Lionel Richie
Member
I love how some people pronounce it as Good of War. I thought it was a myth until the dude that works with me said it like that.
Sir Ilpalazzo
Member
In Japan I think they kind of refer to everything in which you do actions in real-time as an "action game". They seem to use it really broadly.
I'm not sure if this is something that only Capcom does but they have a tendency to just make up "genres" for their games. (Strider was "stunt action", Okami was "nature adventure", Devil May Cry 1, 2, and 3 were "crazy hard action", "crazy high action", and "crazy stylish action" respectively, Dino Crisis was "survival panic", and so on.)
Storm Kyleis
Member
A common Italian term for puzzles - also outside of video games - is "rompicapo". Literally it means "break head".
I wonder where they come from. Calling a genre "shoot everything" is pretty awkward if you think about it.
They're called "rompecabezas" in Spanish too, literally "head breakers."
Well I can give you a few exemples in French, but often we just use the same names than English, like "survival horror" for exemple.
So even if I translate them it doesn't mean we ALWAYS use French names in French, most of people just use the English names because before (many years ago) we just didn't translate them.
FPS/First Person Shooter : Jeu de tir à la première personne (roughly translated by "first person shooter game"
TPS/Third Person Shooter : Jeu de tir à la troisièmre personne (Première/first just become Troisième/third)
RTS/Real Time Stratégie : Stratégie Temps Réel (just a basic translation)
Open World : Monde Ouvert (same)
Sandbox : Bac à sable (same)
RPG : JDR Jeu De Rôle (same)
Action/Action (it's same word in both language)
Well and some are never translated, like Survival horror, or Puzzle game, I never heard someone using a translated name for those genre.
EDIT: But yes we don't change the meaning, it's always just basic translations.
Wow, I never heard other French people using half of those weird-ass names. Especially Bac a sable, lmao
The only French translations I've often heard or read in articles are "Jeux de plateformes" for platformers, "Jeux de role" for RPGs, "Jeux d'aventure" for adventure games and "Jeux de baston" for fighting games. Everything else is just the English names with a French pronunciation.
GOW-like and Diablo-clone are very much used. Or had been earlier on.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, lots of developers do it, but Capcom absolutely loves it.
TheMoon
Member
Nobody believe this pls^^
Some European countries incorrectly refers to fighting games as beat em ups.
Beat Em Up:
Fighting Game:
Know the difference!
Yes, this has been driving me nuts since forever. It's a huge pet peeve of mine.
And that's the correct way to do it.
We do?
DiipuSurotu
Banned
In French there is an actual genre name for Breakout clones, "casse-briques" (which means literally "brick breaker"). In English there's no name so it's just called Breakout clones after the popular arcade game.
GoodMorningPluto
Member
In Russia we used to call platformers "brodilka" which roughly means "wandering game".
It's not that common nowadays with genre fadeout.
Now we're jokingly calling shooters "shootans" and any AAA-game as "YOBA". Don't know how that started.
It's not that common nowadays with genre fadeout.
Now we're jokingly calling shooters "shootans" and any AAA-game as "YOBA". Don't know how that started.
ZiZ
Member
not officially a genre name but I've heard some people casually refer to turn based RPGs in Arabic as طقني وأطقك or "You hit me, I hit you".
FPSs are sometimes called "Aiming Games" though I had a cousin who would call them "Wandering Hand" games (because all you see is the character's hand.
FPSs are sometimes called "Aiming Games" though I had a cousin who would call them "Wandering Hand" games (because all you see is the character's hand.
Button basher in reference to fighting games is a playstyle used by people who don't know how to play properly so they just 'bash buttons'
I get called that all the time
SomedayTheFire
Member
It's English but when I was growing up I knew fighting games as beat em ups and FPS's shoot em ups.
Living in a german speaking country, I've heard beat'em'up, ego shooter and jump & run a lot too.
This should be the international name.
This should be the international name.
I've seen Arabic websites, especially ones managed by "hardcore" gamers, translate the genre names literally and terribly.
Something like "platforms game" doesn't really roll off the tongue well in Arabic nor make a lot of sense (unless you're familiar with the English term). I personally would have gone for something like "jumping game." It gets worse with RPGs since "Role" and "Turn" share the same word in Arabic, so a lot of people confuse the term with "Turn Playing games" (essentially turn-based-battle games). For an example where it works better: shooters are called "targetting games."
As for mainstream names there are the super broad "adventure" and "fighting" games, both of which can mean anything involving controlling a character that attacks things. "cars games" for racing games involving cars. And I'm not sure, but I believe there are "guns games."
Something like "platforms game" doesn't really roll off the tongue well in Arabic nor make a lot of sense (unless you're familiar with the English term). I personally would have gone for something like "jumping game." It gets worse with RPGs since "Role" and "Turn" share the same word in Arabic, so a lot of people confuse the term with "Turn Playing games" (essentially turn-based-battle games). For an example where it works better: shooters are called "targetting games."
As for mainstream names there are the super broad "adventure" and "fighting" games, both of which can mean anything involving controlling a character that attacks things. "cars games" for racing games involving cars. And I'm not sure, but I believe there are "guns games."
In Arabic it was mostly known as "The Japanese League."
Wonko_C
Member
I don't know if it's exclusive to Mexico but the shoot 'em up genre is called "navecitas" (little spaceships). We don't make distinction between the classic style and bullet hell style, they all are "navecitas" even if you're controlling a girl riding a giant flying beetle.
Most other genres are direct translations of their English counterparts (Carreras, peleas) or we use the same achronyms, we just spell the letters in Spanish instead. (FPS, RPG)
Fun stuff: The Adventure Island games were often referred as "Capulinita" because of the resemblance the character sprite had to a famous comedy actor, Capulina.
Most other genres are direct translations of their English counterparts (Carreras, peleas) or we use the same achronyms, we just spell the letters in Spanish instead. (FPS, RPG)
Fun stuff: The Adventure Island games were often referred as "Capulinita" because of the resemblance the character sprite had to a famous comedy actor, Capulina.
centurion300
Neo Member
Polish language:
Stealth games = "skradanki" ("sneakers")
Fighthing games = "mordobicia" ("facesmashers")
Rail shooters = "celowniczki" ("crosshairs")
The term "hack and slash" is reserved only for Diablo clones.
Stealth games = "skradanki" ("sneakers")
Fighthing games = "mordobicia" ("facesmashers")
Rail shooters = "celowniczki" ("crosshairs")
The term "hack and slash" is reserved only for Diablo clones.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
In French, "RPG" is sometimes used to refer to role-playing video games exclusively, while "JDR" (for "jeu de rôle", which is the literal translation of "role-playing game") is used to refer to pen-and-paper role-playing games exclusively.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
I guess this was a joke, but the actual term is 'Echtzeitstrategie', which is literally 'real time strategy.' So nothing special, really.
A more fun term shooters that's used colloquially is 'Ballerspiele.' It's basically the German version of shootbangs.
What's also interesting is that we have a special term for games centered around finding hidden items: 'Wimmelspiel.' That German article links to an English explanation in case somebody wants further clarification on the genre.
Edit:
That's pretty cool! Is it supposed to refer to the turn-based nature of one opponent hitting the other, and then the other getting his turn to hit him back?
Some European countries incorrectly refers to fighting games as beat em ups.
Beat Em Up:
Fighting Game:
Know the difference!
In France, people say (well, used to say, as the genre itself fell out of fashion) "beat 'em all" instead of "beat 'em ups"... Except me because I'm a sucker for that kind of things.
Yeah, I've always assumed the coco word was used because of their circle shape. The other explanation sounds a bit convoluted to me, to be honest.
I recall when SF4 became popular that Americans referred to fighting games as fighting games whilst us in the uk referred to games like SF, MK, Tekken as well as Final Fight and Double Dragon as beat em ups. Due to constant bitching from North Americans about this I now say it the American way and I haven't forgiven you bastards for it since.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
What did you call beat 'em ups, then? Or was there no distinction between Final Fight and Street Fighter?
In Norwegian, most genre names are very straight-forward, like bilspill (car games), slåssespill (fighting games), rollespill (role-playing game, literally "role games", but the word "rolle" in Norwegian implies the role-playing part), horrorspill (horror games), partyspill (party games, platformere/platformspill (platformers/platforming games). Shooters are literally skytespill (shooting games), with a distinction between tredjeperson (third-person) and førsteperson (first-person).
Some genres are described in singular terms, like RTS and RTT are often called strategispill (strategy games). I don't play RTTs enough, so there might be another term but I've never encountered another term for it. I'm not sure if there's a term for beat em ups, but I've used arkadespill (arcade games) for it, and I've heard others use the term as well.
Stealth games could be called snikespill, but I never hear anyone use that term anymore. People just say "stealth" instead. Everything action-based that's not a beat em up, fighter or shooter is called action game or action-adventure (action/action-eventyr). Stuff like MOBAs, MMOs are referred to as such, although calling MOBAs "DOTA clones" is pretty common.
Some genres are described in singular terms, like RTS and RTT are often called strategispill (strategy games). I don't play RTTs enough, so there might be another term but I've never encountered another term for it. I'm not sure if there's a term for beat em ups, but I've used arkadespill (arcade games) for it, and I've heard others use the term as well.
Stealth games could be called snikespill, but I never hear anyone use that term anymore. People just say "stealth" instead. Everything action-based that's not a beat em up, fighter or shooter is called action game or action-adventure (action/action-eventyr). Stuff like MOBAs, MMOs are referred to as such, although calling MOBAs "DOTA clones" is pretty common.
"Ego-Shooter" and "Jump'n'Run" is how I spot Germans on gaming boards.
Yup, that one's even worse because it actually describes a different genre.
I don't know about genres (since I can't read Chinese), but on a stream with a Chinese guy I found it amusing that they literally call health/HP 'blood' in Chinese.
I think more than just genre names, the gaming jargon we use have their rough equivalents too in other languages.
I think more than just genre names, the gaming jargon we use have their rough equivalents too in other languages.
TheMoon
Member
Another thing for strategy games that is particular to Germany and I haven't ever seen with an English equivalent is "Aufbaustrategie" (building strategy) which mainly refers to stuff like Anno (Dawn of Discovery), SimCity etc. Also sometimes called WiSim (Wirtschaftssimulator = Economy Sim). In English I always just seem those referred to as simulations or strategy sims without further specifications.
Ahhahaha yea same here
it's an easy way to spot a German Brick breakers are very much a thing in English. Just not as popular as just saying "breakout clone"
The difference is well knownSome European countries incorrectly refers to fighting games as beat em ups.
Beat Em Up:
Fighting Game:
Know the difference!
in fact to be more precise fighting games are called "match-based beat'em ups"(or something like that, in Italian: "picchiaduro a incontri"), beat'em ups are called "sidescrolling beat'em ups"(in Italian: "picchiaduro a scorrimento")EDIT:
to be even more precise "picchiaduro" literally means "beat hard", so if we want to be precise "sidescrolling beat hard" for beat'em ups and "match based beat hard" for fighting games.
Now that i think about it Shoot'em ups in Italian are called "sparatutto" that literally means "shoot at everything".
They were both beat em ups you'd just clarify or specify in conversation.
ehh, I'm not convinced, I always assumed (and everyone I know) that the cocos referred to the pills.
yeah
ZiZ
Member
yeah, they're basically making fun of the characters just standing there and getting hit while waiting for their turn to make an attack.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
The more you know indeed, interesting thing about cucuy.
As i said, non once in my life ive heard people called them cocos for coconuts. Pastillitas its what they are called. Cocos doesnt make much sense. And ive heard people called the ghosts, cocos. My father for example and he played the original on arcades when it was brought to spain.
And then its the term of using it to talk bad about videogames with coco being head.
BouncyFrag
Member
I thought that was the Angry Video Game Nerd at first, lol.I don't know if it's exclusive to Mexico but the shoot 'em up genre is called "navecitas" (little spaceships). We don't make distinction between the classic style and bullet hell style, they all are "navecitas" even if you're controlling a girl riding a giant flying beetle.
Most other genres are direct translations of their English counterparts (Carreras, peleas) or we use the same achronyms, we just spell the letters in Spanish instead. (FPS, RPG)
Fun stuff: The Adventure Island games were often referred as "Capulinita" because of the resemblance the character sprite had to a famous comedy actor, Capulina.
¯\_(ツ
_/¯ I'm also Spanish, and as I said I've never heard people call the ghosts cocos, must be a regional thing.
Salty Hippo
Member
Still? Seriously? It has been probably 20 years since I last heard something like that.
Santerestil
Banned
And shoot'em up are called "sparatutto", literally "shoot everything".
Edit: Goddamn Parmenide!