Ikaruga (GC, DC)
It's a bird, a Jไapanese Grosbeak. The game revolves around black and white bullets, the bird is black and white. Pretty straightforward. Ikaruga is also a town in Japan.

Einhander (PSOne)
More or less German for "one handed," re🍌ferring to the game's star ship that uses a giant claw to st🌱eal enemy weapons.

Raiden (SNES, PSOne, PC, Jaguar among many others)
This long-running franchise is Jap𝔍anese for "thunder and lightnin🎀g." The name comes up a lot. You might know it better from Mortal Kombat or Metal Gear. Or maybe even Fatal Fury.

Gradius (NES, SNES, PSOne, PS2, PSP, PC, many others)
This well-known series, as far as we're co🔜ncerned, is a mistranslation of gladius, which is Latin for "sword." Makes perfect Engrish-y s🍬ense to us, as the Vic Viper would appear to be a sword cutting through wave after wave of enemy ships. Or maybe we're really reaching.

Salamander (NES, PSOne, Saturn)
Another reach, but this Gradius spin-off is probably pl🔯aying off the whole salamander/fire relationship so common in the world. Remember, the mana spirit from Secret of Mana? There you go. Concrete proof. Mystery solved.

with 300 Spartans in 408 BC. In the game, Darius is a planet under siege by a swarm of fish-shaped spaceships. You can see the similarities.

Sol-Feace (Sega CD)
Sol is Latin for "sun," and feace, according to the, is slang for poop. Strangely enough, other versions of Sol-Feace were called Sol-Deace, which also has an Urban Dictionary entry, as a combin𒅌ation of deuces and peace. There's no waꦫy in hell that's what developer Wolf Team was going for, but it was weird enough to point out.

Phalanx (SNES)
box art aside, this SNES shooter came and went with little commotion. Well, its meaning isn't all that exciting either, and you probably already know it - a packed, closed formation of troops, ships or whatever it is๊ that's doing the killing.

Next page - Japanese titles that meant more than "cr༒azy word you don't understand."