Top 10 Terrible Game Names 

Mike Dilisio is the greatest possible addition to The Dice Tower

6 nimmt, does not mean "take 6" (that would be "nimm 6") but "the 6 takes". Does make sense as the 6th card takes the 5 others. Source: I am German.

Mike has seriously been the best addition to the dicetower. Always hilarious!

If Zee and Mike did a stand up tour, I would buy tickets tomorrow.

Hands down, Zee's list is flawless! XD Couldn't stop laughing...

I thought a couple of Mike's picks were bananas but since Buonocore joined them, Mike's picks seem very logical.

For anybody wondering why the name of "Stone Age: Style is the Goal". It's a somewhat bad translation of the German title: "Stone Age: Mit Stil zum Ziel". A better translation would have been "Stone Age: Get to the Goal with Style".

Sad that no one caught Tom's "now you're just PANdering" pun about skillets - perfect!

21:16 Just to be clear calico is plain white, course fabric. It's not the kind of thing you'd use for quilting unless it's a very boring quilt; the cat breed being different as well is bizarre.

In german we call the flower cowslip or primrose "Schlüsselblume". The literal translation would be indeed "Keyflower".

I’m surprised none of them mentioned - Roland Wright - The Dice Game

Zee and Mike...man, those guys are so funny. And their lists are fantastic.

@Stephen, you shouldn't complain about titles in a language you don't understand. "Schottentotten" is a play on "Schotton" and "Hottentotten" (a word that is a bit problematic, but that's beside the point). "6 Nimmt" doesn't mean "Take 6", but "6 Takes", as in the player who places the 6th card has to take all cards.

The German name for "Abandon All Artichokes" is just the German word for artichokes. When I asked the person at my local gaming store whether they had artichokes, I got a long weirded out look, until I specified that I was talking about a card game of that name ...

I'm sorry to say it, but Buonocore has the worst taste in game names. "Battle Line" better than "Schottentotten"!? I can understand that not everyone will like "Let's Make a Bus Route", but "Tokyo Bus System"? Really!? This is exactly the kind of mind that sees a game about getting the right gems to build a friendly magical golem to help you with chores, and thinks "this would be better if it was about trading spices" 😖😖😖

6 nimmt translates to ‘6 takes’, which is literally wjat happens in the game. If you play the 6th card you take the cards on the row

Let's Make a Bus Route is such a fun title - it is definitely a light-hearted name that draws me in. "Bus Route" or similar is beyond dry and boring to me. I am far more interested in "Let's Make a Bus Route" than "Bus Route" as a consumer.

Actually i find americans's missinterpretation for GER: "Die Sieben Siegel" to EN "Die Steven Seagal" as hilarious and best of the list.

Ironically I think naming it “Trading in the Mediterranean” would have made it sell better than “Trade on the Tigris.”

Vaselicious Fishes: Fashion Fist Fight: A Vicious Fishes game: A Friedman Friese collaboration

Sidereal confluence is clearly a pun on cosmic encounter. Cosmic = Sidereal, Encounter = Confluence.

The audio quality here is phenomenal! Would love to see more of these in the future.

This is fantastic! The next list needs to be Bad Cover Art, in which Mike creates his own to remedy them. Thank you for entertaining me today!

Watching Buonocore implode here is amazing. It's ALMOST harder to watch than Scott's Tots. Almost.

878-VIKINGS sounds like a number you would call to hire vikings.

While I’m in the middle of watching Zee roast MonsDRAWsity here, The Dice Tower just published a review from Bryan Drake on a game called “ExeCUTEtion.” I’m going to believe the timing isn’t a coincidence.

Mike's expression during the German Shepherd announcement is classic

"Sacred Heart" is a common Roman Catholic name for all kinds of places. As a kid, the RC kids in the neighborhood went to Sacred Heart Elementary.

Santorini New York. I never realized how dumb that name was until the obvious was pointed out.

Zee's number #1, lol. When I got married I was introduced to Doubles Solitaire. I watched confused as I and 5 others were given decks of cards. Then we played "double" "solitaire" with six people. Basically, it was 6 people playing classic Solitaire but all piles were shared. I left that room a different human being.

So so glad the audio turned out so well. Great work!

The cover for Mike's dog-themed "German Shepherd" game should have been a kid in lederhosen.

This was one of my favorite Top 10s in a long time. Reminds me of the old Overrated One from way back. Classic.

The sequel to Santorini should have been called San2rini.

Zee is a clear winner in my book, the last one, perfect :')

I've always had problems with the name "No Thanks". Its a quick, easy little card game. However most people would rather say the joke and walk away from the table than sit down and play. Its name is sabotaging for my evening.

I’m a big Stone Age fan, but I can never take “Style Is The Goal” seriously.

Zee Garcia nailed it here, every time, with a sense of humor to boot. He's best when he's "light" and removes his "serious" edge, which can come across as nasty. Yes, as others say, Mike is excellent.. his nerdiness is his best quality, which he shouldn't hide... For sure, Mike is closest in taste to my own, followed by Zee. Great - you have to admit - to watch, great for the advance/popularity of board gaming..

also Sacred Heart hospitals (and churches) are named after one of the key Catholic devotions, puzzled how it seems like nobody knew that

First thing I thought of for this was The Game and the next thing was Batman Love Letter. I then wondered if the Stone Age expansion would be on here if they allowed expansions, as well. I wasn't disappointed to see them all here. lol :-) Very fun list.

Thank you Mike for the hilarious cover art!! Wad up Sam🙌🏽

Mike short burst of Human Beatbox (a la The Fat Boys) was just brilliant 😂

I think that Kingdomino is a great name. It's a clever mash-up of Kingdom and Domino. It's essentially a description of the game. You try to built your kingdom with domino-like pieces.

The absolute worse name is 100% "Jurassic Parts" . Not only is it a cheap unoriginal wordplay of a movie title but it literally sounds like a sleezy porn movie title. I literally HATE that name lol. Normally i don't really think twice about game names but this one if just flat out rtarded. How did this game not make this list, much less #1 is beyond me.

That was so much fun to be at and listen to. What a great idea for a humorous top 10 - really kept the audience involved.

Thanks for posting for those of us who could not make it to Gencon. Quality was fantastic!

I don't think "Imperial Settlers" is bad, but "Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North" was a HUGE mistake for a name! For one thing, it sounds like an expansion, when it's a totally different game. And it also ties the game to "the North", which they've already completely abandoned in the expansions (like Egyptian Kings). Just a terrible terrible name.

Professor Pugnacious' Portfolio of Perils, Pugilism, and Perfidy: The Card Game of Victorian Combat I wasn’t expecting it to make any of the lists but I loathe that title.

Agree on both KDM and 878 Vikings, first one cause it's just cool sounding nonsense, and the second because it's confusing at a glance.

Imperial Settlers is referring to the old video game "The Settlers", which was very popular in some countries (including, not surprisingly, Poland). I guess not in the US though :D

how about Atlantis Rising? It's actually the opposite that's happening

"Schotten Totten" is a word play on the German term "Hottentotte" - which has its own deeply problematic racial subtext . "6 nimmt" does not mean "take 6" - it means "6 takes", as in "6 takes it".

Thanks for mentioning CVlizations! It was obviously publisher's decisions to make CV into a series. There were works on a 3rd game, but it got scrapped and eventually Filip published 3rd one called CV pocket. When the prototype was being developed it was under a very bland name "Tribes". I think the name did a lot of good for the quick boost of publicity initially, can't really assess the longterm pros and cons.

'Captain Sonar' killed me... hahaha!! It's like, not bad... but it's also terrible and lazy at the same time. And also, do you, at some point, become 'Admiral Sonar' if you own multiple copies?

I agree that Kingdom Death: Monster is a bad title. I'd be more forgiving if it was a sequel to a game called Kingdom Death or something...

Zee is right on Majesty: For the Realm. I continually would mix that game up with Kashgar, Hadara, and Crown of Emara. The covers don't help the distinction at all either.

Thanks guys! This was great!!! I'm laying in bed sick today and needed the laughs 🥰.

Imperial Settlers always reminds me of the Ubisoft videogame Settlers (especially the 2nd and 3rd installments). Extremely popular in Europe late 90s, the art was very much the same as IS and featured Romans, Asians and Egyptians. The name makes perfect sense in that context.

I am listening to this on the DTV Audio podcast and just needed to come on here to comment and say this is a great panel. Hilarious stuff! Wish I was there!

The guy going before Tom is the king of bad takes

Zee's picks are always spot on for lists like these.

I forgot how much i liked these live big panel shows/lists. And haven't laughed so much in a while :D

Diced Coffee would've been a great name! "Coffee Colons"!!! Lol

This was one of the highlights of Gen Con 2021 for us.

You are some humorous lads. Really enjoy the chemistry and good laughs.

Shocked Terraforming Mars: Venus Next wasn't even an honorable mention.

I can’t wait for the expansion: Duel: the Solo Game.

Zee was in his bag for this, he was so animated

Calico fabric is a plain-woven textile, made from half-processed and unbleached cotton fibres :)

Sacred Heart is the hospital from the show Scrubs. You might not want to go there. They’ll make a musical number of your stool sample.

The sound and presentation is really well done for being at a Con. Thanks for publishing this!

Dear Tom, for years we have had to listen to you complain about the poor naming system of the Valeria games. How could it NOT be on this list?!?!?!

The expansion to Zee's #7 should be "Aztack: (colon) Montezuma's Revenge".

Thanks so much for posting this! Quality is quite good!

I have "Batman: Love Letter" I've always just called it "Love letter: Batman Edition". I mean, it doesn't say "Batman: Love Letter" on the box. Just "love letter" with a picture of Batman. (Also, mine didn't come with a bag).

I'm surprised Nanty Narking didn't get included in this, as for as awful names go it has actively kept me from ever trying what is reputed to be a great re-implementation of the Ankh Morpork Discworld themed game.

For the "too many colons" titles, it's not a board game or anything like that, but my favorite RPG book title has to be Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition: The Making of the Art of the Children of the Revolution.

Will watch later, but "The Game" really should be on the list...

Stephen Buonocore: Schottentotten is a word play on Hottentotten. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hottentotten

My first question was, "Why exactly 878 vikings?" #Buonocoregetstoomuchcrap

1:12:46 Actually, my nana and I used to each play Klondike Solitaire, simultaneously, on the opposite side of the table and we called it “Double Solitaire”.

You don't necessarily take 5 cards in 6 Nimmt... you "take" cards once you are forced to play the sixth card in a row, hence the name - "At 6 cards, you take", or "The 6th card, takes!"

I vaguely remember that "Style is the Goal" was a cultural/translation mismatch. Like there is a common German play on words that translated to this literally, or it rhymed in German. Something like that and the company just translated it literally word for word.

It's funny that one of the ones on my list would be Atlantis Rising, because the game is about Atlantis sinking. I have explained that many times over.

A few others come to mind: - Barenpark. Why not Bear Park? - Factory Funner - HEXplore It - World of Yo-Ho

Flip a Bird is another case of colloquialism not crossing the ocean, but in the other direction. In English in Europe that offensive gesture is called giving someone the finger.

If there are or were 878 Vikings, there would be no beer left on the wall!

For Kingdom Death the name of the game is actually Monster. Kingdom Death was/is a company that makes minis and this was their first (and to date only?) game.

44:29 Zee with his skillet jokes 😆👌

Although its a game that basically no one has heard of, I'm partial to the game titled (Translated from Japanese from BGG): "A game where an enclosed short young lady, a perfect class representative, a slightly elder classy maid, a normal high school girl with the aura of a hamster, among others, try to win an unlucky-looking girl-faced butler with a debt of about 160 million yen. There's cross-dressing, too" That is the genuine title. It's apparently just essentially reverse Old Maid. You want to be the one with the Butler (old maid) at the end.

Tom is bitter that “The Castles of Mad King Ludwig” is ranked higher on BGG than is “Suburbia”. 🤣

The appearance of Sam was awesome and highly appropriate. 😆

TOP NOTCH AUDIO QUALITY.

Dixit... Since my wife had a visible confusion what we will playing with our friends :D

The Batman Who Laughs Rising and (Your Name Here) And the Argonauts better be on someones list.

If "Keyflower" is meant to be based on the Mayflower, they could've called it "Keylonialism".

what about "MonsDrawsorus Aztack MeepleCity, the card drawing game where Dinosaurs attack my people´s city" for a new sequel?

I work in a board game webshop and when I saw the title of this top 10 I instantly thought about “the game” it is horrible to search for.

Can you please explain "Charty Party" to a non-native English speaker?

I'm sorry but I know nothing about quilting and yet I looked at that box and immediately said, "Clearly 'Calico' must be a quilting term." Even if that wasn't enough of a clue, the game has various cat breeds, most of which you don't even use in a game. So if you are sitting there and all you see are tabbies, you SHOULD think, "Oh, MAYBE the name isn't referring to a cat." Furthermore, the game is 100% about quilting, it's not about the cats. You only get a cat if the quilting is done correctly. To say it's about cats is like saying it's about the buttons. Sadly, Button probably would've been a better name because people would've just thought the cat's name was Button. Yes, this annoys me and I don't know why. That said, the publishers sure didn't help things by not including anything in the rules about what 'Calico' actually refers to. Yes, some of us have the ability to acknowledge visual clues and can work Google, but still...