There are plenty of lists and retrospectives out there about the worst titles for games ever made. And there are plenty of terrible ones. Did you know that Spanky's Quest, Divine Divinity, Sticky Balls, Totally Rad, and Columns III: Revenge of Columns are all real official titles for real games? But it's easy to just focus on bad titles for games made by obscure developers back in the 80's.
The following are official titles for Nintendo games that are just awful. In no particular order.
Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland
I could easily write this off as "Tingle is Creepy," but that's not the real problem. Every other part is! How exactly is a freshly picked Tingle any different from the typical Tingle? Is Tingle an obscure type of flower? That would explain the flower motiff going on. But then what is Rupeeland? Somebody unfamiliar with Zelda might think it has to do with flowers, and that this explains the "Rosy" description. So it's some kind of bizzare gardening simulation? Nope, it's an RPG based around accumulating a massive fortune. and Rupeeland is actually a dictatorship run by the evil Uncle Rupee, who is defeated in a space shooter boss fight.
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
When reading this title, one's first thought is "What the hell does that even mean?" It's quite simple really. The "Fire Emblem" was originally a powerful relic capable of sealing dragons. In this continuity though, that relic doesn't seem to exist, so it refers to an emblem used by a duchy. "Thracia" is a country in this fictional setting, Jugdral, and is the setting of barely a third of this game. And 776 is the year the game takes place in, using the Grann calendar, signifying that the game takes place between 757 and 777. In other words, it's a title that only starts to make sense to people who have already mastered the game's backstory.
Kirby's Avalanche, (Kirby's Ghost Trap)
Even back in 1995, Kirby had a history of starring the the ocassional oddball non-platformer. In this case, it was Super Puyo Puyo with a Kirby makeover for a western release. The main problem here is the choice of words. Americans got Avalanche while Europeans got Ghost Trap, but both are confusing. After all, this is a puzzle game about matching colored blobs. Neither falling debris or supernatural shenanigans are easily related to that. And yes, I have the same problem with Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
The poorly named "New Play Control!" series of Wii games were updated versions of GameCube games for the Wii, complete with motion controls and widescreen support. This was a bit of a mouthful regardless of which entry is being discussed, but a special mention goes to the updated Mario Power Tennis. In Japan, this series was called "Play on Wii Selection," and Mario Power Tennis was titled Mario Tennis GC, which obviously stood for GameCube. So that translates roughly to Play on Wii: Mario Tennis GameCube. Okay?
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness
When making a sequel to Pokemon Colosseum, the new game's title was perfectly obvious: Pokemon Colosseum 2. Even back in 2005, XD was an emoticon commonly used to express laughter, and the game's similarities to Colosseum made this change confusing. But this could have been forgiving if XD was an important acronym. As it turns out, the game's signature Pokemon, a Shadowy Lugia, is named "XD001," and XD stands for "Xtra Dimension." Because poor spelling is cool!
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
StarTropics was an NES game starring Mike Jones, a boy with a yoyo on a quest to save his uncle. The game's ultimate antagonist, the evil alien Zoda, is only revealed in the final chapter, but him having a minor role isn't too important. That is until the sequel, when Nintendo chose to put his name and motive in front of the name of the series. Even if people were fans of the original game, how many of them do you figure either never got that far or simply couldn't recall the name of that alien guy at the end?
Love and tolerate.
