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{{trope}}
[[File:
Sequels have a tendency to be burdened with bizarre subtitles or inconsistent naming.
This is sometimes to distance it from more conventionally [[Numbered Sequels]] of low quality or an attempt to avoid scaring off potential viewers who might not watch a sequel when they aren't familiar with the original, but just as often seems to be applied at random.
A subset of the trope is when later installments drop the affix of earlier installments, commonly creating the illusion that a series is smaller than it really is. The reverse of this is, of course, when earlier installments are retroactively renamed to better fit in with their descendants.
Adding multiple subtitles is likely to cause [[Colon Cancer]]. When it is added in translations, it is called [[The Foreign Subtitle]]. May overlap with [[Numbered Sequels]] and [[Revenge of the Sequel]]. Combining [[Colon Cancer]] and [[Numbered Sequels]] can lead to [[Capcom Sequel Stagnation]].
When a bizarre phrase ''is'' the title, see [[Word Salad Title]]. For more literal subtitles, see [[In Which a Trope Is Described]]. For awe-inspiring subtitles, see [[Mad Lib Fantasy Title]]. For odd title changes in an ongoing series, see [[New Season, New Name]].
See also [[Stock Subtitle]] and [[Unusual Chapter Numbers]].
[[What the Heck Is An Aglet?|And just in case you're wondering]]: [[wikipedia:
▲[[What the Heck Is An Aglet?|And just in case you're wondering]]: [[wikipedia:Boogaloo|Boogaloo]].
{{examples}}
== Trope Namer ==
* The trope is named for the movie ''Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo''. The subtitle struck many as hilarious (incidentally, the "electric boogaloo" is an actual style of dance), and since then, "Electric Boogaloo" has been used as a spoof subtitle for a sequel to just about anything, especially a sequel perceived or expected to be of inferior quality, or sequels with unwieldy subtitles.
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** [[The Great Luke Ski]] has a song about [[Bacon Addiction|bacon]], titled [http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=42 “Bacon”]. Devo Spice wrote a parody about [[Kevin Bacon]], titled [http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=1039 “Bacon 2: Electric Boogaloo”].
** An episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' parodies this with the title "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo". It was the second episode to feature time travel. It was also the second episode to feature Phineas and Ferb's giant roller coaster. For the record, the original title the creators wanted to go with was "Time Machine 2: Quantum Boogaloo".
** Parodied [[Overly Long Gag|once again]] in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes:
== [[Anime]]
* The clearest example is ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', which begat a whole host of series and [[Alternate Universe
** Strictly speaking, only ''Z'' and ''ZZ'' are really sequels. The rest are either UC spinoffs (08th MS team, War in the Pocket, 0083, F91); or other universes (G Gundam, Gundam W, SEED, and so on). Turn A is somewhat of a crossover series, but I'd toss it in the 'other' bin too since it isn't strictly UC.
*** It's worth noting that in many cases, the series are named for the latest variant of the eponymous Mobile Suit.
* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' was followed by ''Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu'', which in turn was followed by ''Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid'', making it the ''third'' series, not the second. (On the other hand, ''Fumoffu'' was more of a side story anthology than a true second chapter.)
** Following the manga reveals that the sidestories in "Fumoffu" should have taken place ''during'' the first season, interspersed with the more serious episodes, so it's not really a sequel at all.
* ''[[
* ''[[Saber Marionette J]]'' gave us ''Saber Marionette J Again'' and ''Saber Marionette J To X''. The logical followup ''Saber Marionette X'' never made it to an [[Animated Adaptation]], however. There was also a ''Saber Marionette R''.
** Some of the suffixes actually make sense. The "J" stands for Japoness, one of the six nations (yes, a clone of [[Medieval Japan]]) and the main theater in the first series. The "Again" is just an OVA follow-up. The X stands for "Xian", another nation (representing China), which plays some role in J-X, and the "R" stands for Romana (representing Italy), the center of the R series.
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** The video games were ''Slayers Royal'' for [[Sega Saturn]], ''Slayers Royal 2'' for [[Sega Saturn]] and [[PlayStation]], ''Slayers Wonderful'' for PlayStation).
* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' does this in both original and dub. The series has two sequels, an OVA and a sequel series; in the original Japanese version, the OVA's two parts are titled ''Weiss Kreuz: Verbrechen'' ("crime") and ''Weiss Kreuz: Strafe'' ("punishment"), and the sequel series is ''Weiss Kreuz: Gluhen'' ("glowing" - in German, "weiss gluhen" or "weissgluhend" means "white-hot"). The series was dubbed as ''Knight Hunters,'' and although the OVA has not been licensed, ''Gluhen'' has been released in English as ''Knight Hunters: Eternity''.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' spawned ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]''. It is worth mentioning that while ''GX'' takes place some time after the first series, it has [[Spin-Off|little]] in common with it aside from the card game and a few [[The Ghost|mostly unseen]] cameos from a few characters from the first series (such as Yugi and his grandfather, and Seto Kaiba). On the manga side, there is also ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
** To add confusion, the original name of the anime series known outside Japan as ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' was originally titled ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters'' in Japan, and was the semi-sequel to the unsuccessful anime ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', produced by an entirely different company and adapting the manga from the beginning up to the Pegasus arc. That series, which never made it to English-speaking shores, is referred to as "Season 0" by Western fans.
** And then they followed ''GX'' with ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
*** Which, in turn, is being followed up by ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
* The second series of the ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' TV Series was dubbed ''"[[Ah! My Goddess]]: Sorezore no Tsubasa"'' ("Many Wings"); the English subtitle is ''Flights of Fancy''. The third OVA was subtitled ''Tatakau Tsubasa'', or "Fighting Wings", and was never released outside of Japan.
* The second series of ''[[Ai Yori Aoshi]]'' was ''"[[Ai Yori Aoshi]]: Enishi"'', ''enishi'' being the word for the [[Red String of Fate|bonds]] [[True Companions|between people]].
** [[YMMV]] here. This Troper seen nothing odd about a Japanese sequel series about relationships being given a Japanese sub-title that translates as "Relationships".
* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' tacked on "Pure".
* The various ''[[.hack]]'' installments have suffixed names as well; ''none'' of them are exempt from this, because the first few (''tasogare no udewa densetsu, SIGN'' and the first games) ran at the same time, so there is no true "original".
* The ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' OVA sequel was named ''[[Mai-Otome Zwei]]'', the most obvious rationale for which is because "zwei" (German for two) starts with a Z, allowing the logo designers to superimpose it with the Z-like kanji (ä¹™) in the original title. An oddly named ''prequel'' has also been announced, alternatively titled ''Mai-Otome 0'', ''S.ifl'', or ''S.ifr'' ("sifr" being Arabic for zero).
** In fact, ''Mai-Otome'' itself qualifies despite not strictly being a sequel, if the original Japanese titles for ''[[
* Likewise for the manga versions of ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' and ''Shin Tenchi Muyo'' (New Tenchi Muyo), released in English as "All-New" Tenchi Muyo. This is not to be confused with the ''anime'' versions, which are ''[[Tenchi Muyo! Ryo
* The first season of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' was technically a separate show from seasons two through seven which was called ''Ranma ½ Nettouhen.
* The ''[[Naruto]]'' anime after the time skip has the new name ''Naruto Shippuden'' (roughly translated: Hurricane Chronicles), even though there was no break between the original series in Japan and this one (as opposed to the manga where it was just ''Naruto: Part 2''). Was mostly likely done to notify that the 85 [[Filler]] episodes were over.
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* ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', on the other hand, went with ''Shugo Chara Doki''. "Doki" is the Japanese word for a heartbeat sound.
** Also, ''Shugo Chara Party''
* ''[[
* ''[[Hell Girl]]'' has two follow-up seasons, each with a title incorporating its number.
** Season 2 is ''Hell Girl: Futakomori''. This means something like "The Two Prisoners", but there's no consensus on ''which'' two are intended. They could be Ai and Kikuri, who are both used by {{spoiler|the King of Hell}}; or they could be {{spoiler|Ai's parents, whose souls are held hostage to keep Ai working}}; or they could be "the hater and the hated", a duality that's emphasized in the intro. We don't know.
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* The second and third ''[[Lupin III]]'' TV series were released in Japan as ''New Lupin III'' and ''Lupin III: Part III''. Since the first series was never released anywhere else but Italy, when most people are talking about "Lupin III", they mean the ''second'' series. The US DVD release acknowledges that it's not the original series, even if the title cards don't.
** The ''New Lupin III'' manga was released in English as ''Lupin III: World's Most Wanted'', and was then promptly cancelled halfway through its run.
* ''[[
* Judging from the title, the Japanese name of the new reboot of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is ''Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Fullmetal Alchemist''. They used the English name for the first series as a subtitle for second one. Obviously this would make no sense in English, so it was christened ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]: Brotherhood''.
** Which makes even less sense considering that the first anime [[Overtook the Manga]] and went off on its own tangent about 1/3rd of the way through, and yet carries the same name as the manga, whilst the sequel is based entirely from the manga storyline, but has a different name. Hmm...
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* The ''Galaxy Angel'' sequels are named in this order: ''Z, A, AA, S, X.'' Just try making sense of that. Not that the order you watch them in [[Negative Continuity|matters the slightest]].
* After the TV series ended, ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' has four OVA sequels: ''11'' (pronounced "Double One" instead of "Eleven") ''Zero'', ''Saga'' and ''Sin''. For example, ''11'' refers to [[Mid-Season Upgrade|Asurada's upgrade]] to the even more powerful Super Asurada AKF-11 and the title for 2 consecutive championship wins, and ''Zero'' refers to the [[Super Mode]].
* ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]] 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone''
**
** At the end of the [[DVD Commentary]] for ''[[The End of Evangelion]]'', Taliesin Jaffe and Jason C. Lee joke about the (un)likelihood of ''Eva 2: Electric Boogaloo'', which now that the ''Rebuild'' films and in particular the increasingly popular "sequel theory" exist is particularly [[Hilarious in Hindsight]].
** The Director's cuts of these first three are titled ''Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone'', ''Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance'' and ''Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo''.
* Although not another season, ''[[Tsubasa Chronicle]]'' had two sets of OAVs released. The first was titled ''Tsubasa TOKYO REVELATIONS'', and the second was ''Tsubasa Shunraiki''. Other than to differentiate them from the original animated series another production company had been given the rights to ''Tsubasa'' after [[CLAMP]] was displeased with [[Bee Train]]'s work on the television series.
* ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' was followed by ''[[Macross II]]''. That was logical enough, but since [[Canon Discontinuity|the series' creators were not consulted with Macross II]], to avoid accepting its existence the "official" sequels have followed this trope ever since: ''[[Macross Plus]]'', ''[[Macross 7]]'', ''[[Macross Zero]]'', ''[[Macross Frontier]]''. Yes, that's in order.
** ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' is also something of an in universe example. The ''New Macross Class'' long range colony fleets are numbered at least up to eleven (this is where [[Macross 7]] gets its title) but at some point after that they start naming them, hence the twenty-fifth fleet is the titular [[Macross Frontier]] Colony Fleet, rather than the Macross 25.
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* The second season of ''[[Hidamari Sketch]]'' is "[[Hidamari Sketch]] x365" (pronounced "san-roku-go" or "three-six-five". The third season is "[[Hidamari Sketch]] [[Lucky Charms Title|x***]]" (pronounced "hoshimittsu" or "three stars").
* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's]]'' story is split into several parts, with each one given a very Electric Boogaloo-ish title. Starting from the beginning we have: Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable, Vento Aureo, Stone Ocean, Steel Ball Run, and Jojolion.
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': Seasons 2 through 5 are titled ''Sailor Moon R'' (nobody can agree what this stands for the popular choices are either 'Romance' or 'Returns'), ''Sailor Moon S'' (Super), ''Sailor Moon SuperS'' (i.e. multiple supers), and ''Sailor Moon Sailor Stars''. Also it's not official but many fans call the original series ''Sailor Moon Classic'', to differentiate from its rebbot''[[Sailor Moon Crystal]]''.
* ''[[Vampire Knight]]'', and its second season, ''Vampire Knight Guilty''.
* The second season of [[Yuru-Yuri]] will be named [[Lucky Charms Title|YuruYuri]]♪♪
* ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'''s second season is called ''CLANNAD [[After Story]]'' [[Lucky Charms Title|(tildes mandatory)]].
== Card Games ==▼
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' publishes "Core Sets," collections which provide a foundation of basic cards for players to build off of. These Core Sets were called "Limited," "Unlimited" (which [[Non-Indicative Name|went out of print relatively quickly]]), "Revised," then switched to numbers (4th Edition - 10th Edition), and ''then'' switched to model years ('10, '11, etc). Just to add to the confusion, there is both a 10th edition and a Magic 2010 (though at least one uses the Roman numeral X as its symbol, the other a stylized "M10" icon).▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* The earliest ''[[Tintin]]'' albums went: ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', ''Tintin in the Congo'', ''Tintin in America'' and... ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. From that point on, though, the "Tintin in Geographic Location" formula was discarded for many years until ''Tintin in Tibet''.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The sequel to the ''[[Pokémon]]'' fan fic ''[[Latias' Journey]]'' is called ''[[Brave New World (fanfic)|Brave New World]]''.{{Context}} <!-- MOD: What makes this odd? -->▼
==
▲* The sequel to the [[Pokémon]] fan fic ''[[Latias' Journey]]'' is called ''[[Brave New World (fanfic)|Brave New World]]''.
* Any [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] movie! Except the 3rd and 4th.
* The sequel to ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'' was called ''An Extremely Goofy Movie''.
* The ''[[An American Tail]]'' sequels did this. ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'' wasn't such a bad title, the later direct-to-video titles became just a ''little'' too long; ''An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island'' and ''An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster''.
* The ''[[Rambo]]'' series: ''First Blood'', ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', ''Rambo III'', and ''Rambo'' ([[Market-Based Title|''John Rambo'' in some markets]]). Yes, ''in that order''. In Brazil, the second film is called ''Rambo II - A Missão''. Since then, "A Missão" ("The Mission") has become the Brazilian equivalent of "Electric Boogaloo."▼
▲* The ''[[Rambo]]'' series: ''First Blood'', ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', ''Rambo III'', and ''Rambo''. Yes, ''in that order''. In Brazil, the second film is called ''Rambo II - A Missão''. Since then, "A Missão" ("The Mission") has become the Brazilian equivalent of "Electric Boogaloo."
* The first five ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'' sequels are numbered. The sixth is simply titled ''Rocky Balboa''.
* ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'', ''Aliens'', ''Alien<sup>3</sup>'',<ref>Yes, "Alien to the third power", NOT "Alien 3". Some fans still insist it should have been named ''Alienses'' just to maintain the pattern.</ref>
** Followed by the spinoff series (and pseudo-prequels) ''[[Alien vs. Predator (film)|Alien vs. Predator]]'' and ''Alien'''''s''' ''Vs. Predator 2''.
** On the other side of the crossover: ''[[Predator]]'', ''Predator 2'', ''[[Predators]]'', ''Prey''.
* ''The [[Terminator]]'' was followed by rather plain ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' and ''Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines''. The fourth drops the numbers entirely (''Terminator Salvation'').
* For ''[[Star Trek]]'', it started off clear but became a bit confusing later. The movies based on ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|The Original Series]]'' started with ''[[Star Trek: The
** On the early theatrical prints, the second movie's opening title said simply "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", presumably to help people forget the first film. The "II" was added later in the theatrical run (though the film was promoted as "Star Trek II" from fairly early on).
** The ''Next Gen'' films don't continue the numbering to differentiate between their films and the original cast (and also, one suspects, because the numbering was getting a bit high). However, the most recent DVD releases insert the numerals VII through X into the titles.
* This has been taken to the point of absurdity by the movie franchise ''[[The Fast and the Furious]]'', in which no two movies use the same numbering system. The series goes ''The Fast And The Furious'', ''2 Fast 2 Furious'', ''The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift'', ''Fast & Furious'', ''Fast Five'' (known as ''Fast & Furious 5'' in the UK). Just to confuse things further, the fourth and fifth films are [[Midquel
* In order, ''[[Die Hard]]'', ''Die Hard 2'' (with the tagline/unofficial subtitle ''Die Harder''), ''Die Hard: With a Vengeance'', and ''Live Free or Die Hard''
** The fifth movie is currently titled ''A Good Day to Die Hard''.
** The French version of these series inverted this trope by first giving an entirely different title to each episode -- ''Piège de cristal'',<ref>Crystal Trap</ref>
* The ''[[American Pie]]'' films: ''American Pie'', ''American Pie 2'' ... then ''American Wedding''.
** Although the British/Irish release was called ''American Pie: The Wedding''.
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** And now going back to the original cast with ''American Reunion''.
* ''Dominion: Prequel to [[The Exorcist]]'', probably the only movie in history to have a declarative statement in the title informing you that it's a sequel/prequel to another film.
** The sequels themselves fit: ''[[The Exorcist]]'' was followed by ''Exorcist II: The Heretic'' and ''The Exorcist III'', then got prequels in both ''Exorcist: The Beginning'' (done by Renny Harlin after [[Paul Schrader]]'s film was relegated to [[The Shelf of Movie Languishment]]) and ''Dominion'' (Schrader's film).
* The ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' films: ''[[X Men 1|X-Men]]'', ''[[X2: X-Men United]]: X-Men United,'' and ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand]].'' The second film goes by a few different titles, perhaps because "X-men United" sounds like a soccer team to viewers outside the U.S.
** Then there's prequels: ''[[X-Men: First Class|X Men First Class]]'' and ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine]]'', which will be followed by ''The Wolverine'' (though the director said it'll be a standalone film instead of a full-fledged sequel/prequel).
* After two numbered sequels, the fourth ''[[Final Destination]]'' movie - in somewhat of a similar vein to what happened to ''The Fast And The Furious'' series is called '''''The''' Final Destination''. And yes, it's not a [[
* The ''[[Harry Palmer]]'' films used the title of [[Len Deighton]]'s novels, then original names for the 1990s sequels. Oddly, sometimes those 1990s sequels appear as "Len Deighton's" even though they did not adapt any of his novels, and Len Deighton did not even coin the name Harry Palmer.
* The original ''[[Pink Panther]]'' films never used numbers. The first three films all had completely separate titles (''The Pink Panther'', ''A Shot in the Dark'' and ''Inspector Clouseau''). Then the fourth film (''Return of the Pink Panther'') reintroduced the Pink Panther diamond, and after that all the sequels worked the phrase "Pink Panther" into their titles even when the actual Pink Panther diamond didn't figure in their plots. Then the [[Continuity Reboot]] with Steve Martin started numbering its sequels, with no subtitle. Keeping all nine films in order can be tricky.
* Oh dear God, the ''[[Highlander]]'' series. ''[[Highlander II the Quickening]], [[Highlander III the Sorcerer]], [[Highlander Endgame]]'' and ''[[Highlander: The Source|Highlander the Source]]''...
* ''[[The Mummy 1999]]'' was followed by ''[[The Mummy Returns]]'' and then ''[[The Mummy Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor]]''.
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** ''Police Story 3: Supercop'' was similarly released theatrically as simply ''Supercop'', leading to the several other films in the series being re-titled "Supercop 2" through ''Supercop 5'' for home video releases.
** ''Drunken Master 2'' was retitled ''Legend of the Drunken Master'' when released in the US. You could be forgiven for thinking there wasn't a ''Drunken Master 1'', given that nobody these days really associates Jackie Chan with his earliest fare.
* ''[[Alvin and the
* The [[Godzilla]] series has a fairly consistent ''Godzilla vs. Whatever'' or ''Whatever vs. Godzilla'' formula, but strange titles pop up from time to time. In Japan, there are two films called ''Godzilla'', one of which is the original and the other of which is its direct sequel that erases the movies that came in between. Also, some of the later movies replaced the "vs." in the titles with an "X" for no apparent reason.
** Before they settled on the "Vs." format, though, the filmmakers got somewhat... creative... with the titles. The fifth film, ''Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster'' dropped Godzilla from the title entirely, and the international titles for 3 of the next 4 films didn't reference Godzilla at all (Son of Godzilla, the 8th film, being the exception).
* Surprisingly averted for almost the entire run of the ''[[Saw]]'' series, which were simply consistently numbered with successive roman numerals and no subtitles. This lasted until the seventh film, which instead of being ''Saw VII'' is ''Saw 3D''. The DVD release has renamed it ''Saw: The Final Chapter''.
* [[Michael Bay]] said ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' wouldn't have [[Numbered Sequel
* ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]]'' had two numbered sequels. The fourth drops them: ''Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol''.
* The sequel to ''[[Piranha 3D]]'' will apparently be titled ''Piranha 3DD''.
* ''[[A Very Brady Sequel]]''
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* Parodied in an early opening of ''[[Gremlins 2 The New Batch]]'', in which [[Daffy Duck]] attempts to rename the film "[[Long Title|The Return of Super-Daffy Meets Gremlins 2 Part 6: The Movie]]".
* [[Home Alone|Home Alone 2: Lost In New York]]
* From [[Bollywood]], we have the ''Krrish'' franchise, formed by the following films, in order of release: ''Koi... Mil Gaya'', ''Krrish'' and ''Krrish 3''. During the promotion of the latter film, the franchise star [[Hrithik Roshan]] confessed they followed the ''Rambo'' example above when deciding on the title.
* The ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' franchise titling isn't particularly cohesive. The first sequel was ''[[The Lost World Jurassic Park]]'', followed by ''[[Jurassic Park III]]'', and then by ''Jurassic World''. The fifth film's title makes it clear it's related to its immediate predecessor: ''Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom''.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s second book, ''The Light Fantastic'', was originally subtitled "The Sequel to ''The Colour of Magic''" in its UK print. As Pratchett became more prolific, it was changed to "A Sequel to ''The Colour of Magic''" and, later, "A [[Discworld]] Novel."▼
** For a while, they were all subtitled as "The nth [[Discworld]] Novel" until the numbers [[Long Runner|got ridiculous]] and "A [[Discworld]] Novel" was born.▼
* Similar to the Discworld example, the [[Dresden Files]] books were labelled "Book n of the Dresden Files" for about the first six books. Since ''Dead Beat'', the seventh installment, they've been "A novel of the Dresden Files".▼
* ''[[American Gods]]'' has a sequel named ''[[Anansi Boys]]''. Narrator in ''[[Anansi Boys]]'' has a fun with this trope at one point.▼
{{quote|'''Narrator:''' Nothing was happening. Still nothing was happening. Another Nothing. The Return Of Nothing. Son Of Nothing. Nothing Strikes Back. Nothing, [[Abbott and Costello]] Meets The Werewolf.}}▼
* Even numbered books in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series all have "Honor" in the title.▼
* While the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] consisted of one comic with [[Numbered Sequels]] planned, the [[Continuity Reboot]] book ''Ciem: Vigilante Centipede'' plans to have sequels dubbed ''Nuclear Crisis'' and ''Condemnation'', which will have similar plots to the canceled ''Ciem 2'' and ''Ciem 3''. It's prequel will still be dubbed ''The Battle for Gerosha''.▼
== [[Live
* While some teams returning to ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]]'' give their robot a [[Numbered Sequels|numbered sequel]] name (Chaos 2, for example, which was [[Adaptation Distillation|much more successful]] than Chaos) others use an
* Each season of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has its own subtitle: 'Signs and Portents', 'The Coming of Shadows', 'Point of No Return', 'No Surrender, No Retreat' and 'The Wheel of Fire'. However, this subtitle does not appear in the credits and was strictly informal until the DVD releases, when the subtitle was included on the front cover packaging.
** The season titles were also the titles of the most significant episodes in that season, which did appear on screen. (Thus Season I was named ''Signs and Portents'' after the episode that introduced Morden and really kicked off the [[Myth Arc]], and so on.)
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* ''Grace and Favour'', the short-lived sequel series to ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'', was marketed in the U.S. as ''Are You Being Served? Again!'' Some believe that this is due to [[Viewers are Morons]], but others argue that if it were more clearly identified as a sequel to ''Are You Being Served?'', it might not have been short-lived.
** Well, it would still have been as short-lived, but you may be right in the sense that it may have been more popular. Billy Burden (Mr. Moulterd) died just after the series ended.
* ''[[
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' was followed by ''[[Power Rangers Zeo]]''. "Zeo" was the name of the crystal that gave the heroes their new powers.
* Parodied by
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s second book, ''The Light Fantastic'', was originally subtitled "The Sequel to ''The Colour of Magic''" in its UK print. As Pratchett became more prolific, it was changed to "A Sequel to ''The Colour of Magic''" and, later, "A [[Discworld]] Novel."
▲** For a while, they were all subtitled as "The nth [[Discworld]] Novel" until the numbers [[Long Runner|got ridiculous]] and "A [[Discworld]] Novel" was born.
▲* Similar to the Discworld example, the [[Dresden Files]] books were labelled "Book n of the Dresden Files" for about the first six books. Since ''Dead Beat'', the seventh installment, they've been "A novel of the Dresden Files".
▲* ''[[American Gods]]'' has a sequel named ''[[Anansi Boys]]''. Narrator in ''[[Anansi Boys]]'' has a fun with this trope at one point.
▲{{quote|'''Narrator:''' Nothing was happening. Still nothing was happening. Another Nothing. The Return Of Nothing. Son Of Nothing. Nothing Strikes Back. Nothing, [[Abbott and Costello]] Meets The Werewolf.}}
▲* Even numbered books in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series all have "Honor" in the title.
▲* While the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] consisted of one comic with [[Numbered Sequels]] planned, the [[Continuity Reboot]] book ''Ciem: Vigilante Centipede'' plans to have sequels dubbed ''Nuclear Crisis'' and ''Condemnation'', which will have similar plots to the canceled ''Ciem 2'' and ''Ciem 3''. It's prequel will still be dubbed ''The Battle for Gerosha''.
▲== Music ==
* [[Five Iron Frenzy]] named one album ''Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo'' after this trope. It was their ''fourth'' full-length studio album, and the only one to be self-titled.
* The first three LPs released by Led Zeppelin were called simply ''Led Zeppelin'', ''Led Zeppelin II'' and ''Led Zeppelin III''. Their fourth album, which has no title aside from a sequence of unpronounceable symbols, is informally referred to as ''Led Zeppelin IV'' in keeping with this pattern.
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** Their second album, ''You Could Have It So Much Better'', was originally going to be called ''You Could Have It So Much Better...with Franz Ferdinand,'' which is [[What Could Have Been|a much better title]].
** Similarly, [[Weezer]] currently has three (out of six) self-titled albums. They're identified by the colors of the cover: blue, green, and red.
** That's most likely a reference to [[The Beatles (band)|The White Album]].
* [[Peter Gabriel]]'s first four solo albums were all named ''Peter Gabriel''. To avoid insanity, they've since been given nicknames based on their covers: ''Car'', ''Scratch'', ''Melt'', and ''Security''.
** Gabriel said he wanted each cover to look like the next issue of a magazine (thus the identical [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typeface]]/layout on those four LPs). His American label regarded this as a marketing nightmare. As a minor concession, Gabriel agreed to allow a sticker reading "Security" to appear on the shrinkwrap of the fourth: a disposable title. The label then unilaterally decided to put the "title" on the spine, the record's label, etc. (Some reissues have conformed with the artist's original intentions.) BTW how would the title "''Security''" correspond to the cover art (a video capture of...[[True Art Is Incomprehensible|something]])?
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* Also boasting two self-titled albums is the band Rancid. The first was released in 1993, the second in 2000.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==▼
▲== Professional Wrestling ==
* In 1985, the World Wrestling Federation held a pay-per-view called [[Wrestlemania]]. Since then, they've bounced back and forth in number conventions for each year's edition of the show. Each show name, in order:
** WWF [[Wrestlemania]]
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* When WCW ran a motorcycle-themed pay-per-view in 1997 called Hog Wild, they ran afoul of a Harley Davidson group which owned that name. All subsequent editions of the show were called Road Wild.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* Due to a disagreement between the game's two creators, ''[[Dungeons
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* Due to a disagreement between the game's two creators, ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' was split into two games, a stripped-down version also called Dungeons & Dragons, and an expanded version called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This was later revised into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, while the second Dungeons & Dragons was still being published in parallel. Then the publisher folded and the rights were bought by Wizards of the Coast, who unified the two lines as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. So is this the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which incorporated a bunch of concepts from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons? Or is it the 3rd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, making it the 4th edition in order (since the original AD&D was a sequel to the original D&D, with the second version of D&D as a [[Gaiden Game]]).
** Then they followed 3rd Edition with a minor rewrite called Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which was not so much "confusing" as "stupid" naming.
** The current edition has returned to whole numbers, with a very revised rules system released as the 4th Edition. Meanwhile, former publishing partner Paizo has taken the style of D&D's 3rd Edition and 3.5 rules and slightly revised it into a system they call Pathfinder; the deliberate similarities have earned Pathfinder the nickname "D&D 3.75", especially among players who disdain the alterations made for 4th Edition D&D.
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** In the interest of fairness, 5th edition was an intentional spoof of this very trope.
* The editions of ''[[Traveller]]'' are, in direct line: Traveller, MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, Marc Millar's Traveller, Traveller, Traveller 5. Note that Traveller 5 is the 6th. A completely unrelated science fiction game from the same company was released as Traveller: 2300 - it's actually a sequel to Twilight: 2000. This also doesn't count the ports of the setting to generic rules systems: GURPS Traveller, Traveller 20 and Traveller HERO.
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' publishes "Core Sets," collections which provide a foundation of basic cards for players to build off of. These Core Sets were called "Limited," "Unlimited" (which [[Non-Indicative Name|went out of print relatively quickly]]), "Revised," then switched to numbers (4th Edition - 10th Edition), and ''then'' switched to model years ('10, '11, etc). Just to add to the confusion, there is both a 10th edition and a Magic 2010 (though at least one uses the Roman numeral X as its symbol, the other a stylized "M10" icon).
* The ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield]]'' series goes as thus: ''Battlefield 1942'', ''Battlefield: Vietnam'', ''[[Battlefield 2]]'' (which was spun off onto consoles as ''Battlefield 2: Modern Combat''), ''Battlefield 2142'', ''Battlefield: Bad Company'', ''Battlefield Heroes'', ''Battlefield 1943'', ''Battlefield: Bad Company 2'' (which now has an [[Expansion Pack]] titled ''Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam''), and ''[[Battlefield 3]]''. The numbers don't indicate proper order at all, and there's bound to be a lot of confusion over the two games set in [[The Vietnam War]] now.
== Video Games ==▼
**
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories]]''
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' is a perfect example. Just so you know, that's pronounced Kingdom Hearts Three-Five-Eight Days Over Two.
** Not that the series hadn't gotten itself into trouble with numbers before. Due to the fact that ''[[Chain of Memories]]'' is ''not'' a [[Gaiden Game]] (it's a continuation of the plot, just with a different battle system), ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' is the third game of the series.
** ''Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance'' takes place after Kingdom Hearts II. That it has a "3" in the title helps, but it most certainly isn't the 3rd entry in the franchise.
** ''Kingdom Hearts χ'' may, to the untrained eye, appear to be the 10th game in the franchise, but the χ is actually the Greek character "Chi", and the game is actually a prequel to the main franchise.
** I'm sure that the title of ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue'' was designed to be helpful (it takes place after ''Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix'' but before ''[[Kingdom Hearts III]]'') but is still confusing to the average customer.
* ''[[Halo|Halo 3:ODST]]'' actually takes place concurrent with ''Halo 2'' and has next-to-nothing to do with ''Halo 3'', but because it was built on the ''Halo 3'' engine it got ''Halo 3'''s number.
* The ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series does this for each [[Alternate Continuity]]; ''Super Robot Wars F'', ''Super Robot Wars Alpha'', and ''Super Robot Wars: Original Generation'' are among the variations.
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* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'': the original game was titled ''The Operative in No One Lives Forever'' however for the sequel they turned the original subtitle into the main title, resulting in ''No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way''.
** Let's not even mention the terrible [[Interquel|sequel/prequel]] known simply as ''Contract J.A.C.K.''
* ''[[Metal Gear]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' were followed by ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. The word "Solid" was appended to the third title as a substitute for the number "3" to signify that it was not only the third game in the series, but also the first one in 3D. All the subsequent sequels kept the ''Metal Gear Solid'' title and appended numbers to the title, with subtitles for good measure: ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]], [[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]], [[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]], [[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]...'' Then there's also the ''[[Metal Gear Acid]]'' offshoot.
* ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' was followed by ''Marathon 2: Durandal'' which was followed by ''Marathon Infinity''. ''Infinity'' was then given a joke award by ''MacFormat'' for "largest version number increase." As if this wasn't enough, the game engine for ''Marathon 2'' was subsequently released and developed into an open-source version named ''Aleph One'', thereby restoring/continuing sequential numbering at the expense of not being understandable by anyone who wasn't a math major. (Partially justified in that much of the "plot" of ''Infinity'' was based on [[The Multiverse|universe hopping]] and the game was released with the creators' level-design, physics-editing, and graphics-editing tools so that players could make their own stories, making the game "infinite.")
* ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' was followed by ''Banjo-Tooie'', which made in-game mention of a ''Banjo-Threeie'' that led some people to believe that the third game would be called that. The third game instead ended up being called ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts''.
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* While the standard ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games are regularly named, its side-game names are getting progressively weirder.
** The problem developed when they started making sequels when [[Non-Linear Sequel|they hadn't before]]. The trend started with ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', which is pronounced, according to [[Word of God]], as "Final Fantasy Ten Two."
*** This happened again with ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'', the first sequel to ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. You would think that the final entry in the trilogy would then be Final Fantasy XIII-3, but no, it is of course ''[[Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII]]''.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]: Ring of Fates/My Life as a King/The Crystal Bearers''. Too many subtitles.
** The worst offender is, without a doubt, ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]: Grimoire of the Rift''. It's a [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', which is a spiritual successor to ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''. But because the new game isn't ''on'' the [[Game Boy Advance]] the way [[Super Title 64 Advance|Tactics Advance]] was, they couldn't call it Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, so instead they dropped the -dvance but kept the A, ''[[Serial Escalation|AND THEN]]'' added the subtitle ''Grimoire of the Rift'', leaving us with the absolutely bonkers [[Word Salad Title]] we have today.
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** ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' started off as merely suffering from [[Gratuitous Latin]]. But then the sequel is named ''Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy'' (where ''Dissidias 2'' through ''11'' went we'll never know). Except it's supposed to be pronounced ''Dissidia Duodecim: Final Fantasy'', because once again, [[Gratuitous Latin]]. To really drive the point home and avoid another ''358/2 Days'' confusion, they've helpfully included the correct pronunciation in the game's logo. Only now it actually gets MORE confusing because the logo now reads ''Dissidia [duodecim] 012: Final Fantasy''. ''Just calling it Dissidia 2 would have been perfectly fine, Square-Enix.''
*** The first ''Dissidia'' is ''Dissidia 13''; that is, in ''Dissidia'', the war between Cosmos and Chaos is an endlessly repeating cycle, with the original ''Dissidia'' chronicling the thirteenth repetition of said cycle. ''Duodecim'' is a prequel covering the twelfth repetition. [[Sarcasm Mode|Which is not confusing at all]].
* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'' was followed up with ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', ''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U'', and ''Super Smash Bros.
** The Japanese naming conventions are even weirder. ''Nintendo All-Star: Dairantou Smash Brothers'' [sic], ''Dairantou Smash Bros. DX'' (DX is short for "Deluxe"), and ''Dairantou Smash Bros. X''. All words in English in the title are actually that way, by the way. "Dairantou" roughly translates to "Melee" or "Brawl."
* ''[[Bubble Bobble]]'': More a case of
** ''[[Bubble Bobble|Puzzle Bobble]]'' aka Bust-A-Move, <nowiki>PB2 aka Bust-A-Move Again, PB3 = BAM '99, PB4=BAM4</nowiki>. Not to mention an [[Updated Rerelease]] [[No Export for You|of Puzzle Bobble 2 named 2X]].
* In North America, the sequel to ''[[Rival Schools]]: United By Fate'' was named simply ''Project Justice''. In all other regions, the connection was made more clear - in Japan, the game was titled ''Moero! Justice Gakuen'' (the original game was ''Shiritsu Justice Gakuen'') while other regions used the ''Project Justice'' name but tacked on ''Rival Schools 2'' at the end.
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** (Add the fact that ''Symphonia'' is a [[Prequel]] to ''Phantasia'' and we start entering [[Mind Screw]] territory.)
** Another interesting issue is that there is a [[Tales of Destiny]] II and a [[Tales of Destiny]] 2; the former is the North American rename of [[Tales of Eternia]] for purposes of [[Writing Around Trademarks]], and the latter is the actual sequel to [[Tales of Destiny]].
* Despite five entries (split in 19 games) in the main series, there has never been a ''[[Pokémon]]'' 2, let alone 3, 4 or 5, despite the fact that the second generation was indeed a direct sequel to the first one, and that the Sinnoh games (Generation IV) were a semisequel to Generation II. Every game after the first generation (whose games were named after colors) is merely titled "Pokémon" plus a precious material (gold, silver, crystal, ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond, pearl and platinum) for subtitle. Since Pokemon games come in pairs (and by the end of the generation they end up being a trio), non-hard-core fans might have a hard time when trying to figure out which versions are paired with each other and distinguish the generations. Generation V switching back to colors (Black and White) sort of made things easier, but still is a non-indicative name (and after three generations of metal/jewel based titles, it becomes itself an odd theme). For those wondering, terms like the "second generation" or "Generation V" are only [[Fan Nickname
** Among the spinoffs, the original ''[[Pokémon Ranger]]'' is followed by ''Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia'' and ''Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs'', ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' had its ''first'' games bear the subtitles "Red Rescue Team" and "Blue Rescue Team: (which, even more confusingly, aren't even on the same system as one another), followed up by "Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky" and then the [[No Export for You|Japan-exclusive]] "Adventure Squad", and ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'''s sequel is called ''Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness]]''.
** Within the series' context, the main series titles have their own Oddly Named Sequels in the form of ''[[Numbered Sequels|Black 2 & White 2]]''.
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* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' has this. While the Japanese sequels are ''Gyakuten Saiban 2-4'' and ''Gyakuten Kenji'' for the spinoff, they were translated as ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All'', ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations'', ''Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney'', and ''Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth''. [[Colon Cancer|We may need an oncologist in here.]]
** Probably has to do with the fact that the localization staff chose the title for the first game before learning that the fourth game would have a new protagonist. Thus, the ''Ace Attorney'' part was promoted as the main title for the rest of the series, while ''Phoenix Wright'' was demoted to a subtitle in the sequels.
* No less a video game personnage than [[Mario]] has been responsible for this, multiple times. First, the sequel to ''[[Mario Bros.]].'' was named ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]].'' This was numbered sanely until the [[Super Nintendo]] came along, when his fifth console game became ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' (although it was actually known as ''Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World'' in Japan). The sequel to that was called ''Super Mario World 2: [[Yoshi's Island]]'', and then the series split - the ''Yoshi's Island'' games became their own series, while Mario stopped even bothering with numbering them in sequence (until ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]''). Something similar to the ''Yoshi's Island'' rename happened to the ''[[Super Mario Land]]'' games for the [[Game Boy]], in which the third game was ''Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land'', which spun off into the ''[[Wario Land]]'' series.
** The initial ''Super Mario Bros.'' series is numbered sanely only in the Western markets: the game released in the West as ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' was released as "Super Mario Bros. USA" in
*** And then there are the remakes for the GBA. Super Mario Bros. 2 became Super Mario Advance. The worst offender is the GBA remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, titled "Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3".
* ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica]]'' was intended to be the true sequel to ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'', but since the game was originally being developed on the [[Dreamcast]] instead of the [[PlayStation]] like the previous games, Sony threw a hissy fit, forcing Capcom to relabel the game as a spin-off and leave it off the numbered series. At the same time, ''Resident Evil: Nemesis'', a side-story game that was being developed on the ''Resident Evil 2'' engine, ended up being released as ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'' instead. Funnily enough, ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' ended up being developed for the [[Nintendo GameCube]] when Capcom eventually got around to making it.
** Another oddity is that the logo of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' actually gives the number first, making it technically "4 Resident Evil."
* The game series now known as ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' started with the game ''Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain'' with the weighting making it apparent the 'Legacy of Kain' part was a subtitle. A few years later the next game came out called ''Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'' (blood no longer being much of a big deal to the wraithlike new hero Raziel). It was followed by ''Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2''...but then came ''Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2'', which thoroughly confused everyone. The 2 sub-series finally converged in the final game, ''Legacy of Kain: Defiance''- to everyone's great relief.
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* The sequel to ''[[Galaga]]'' was called ''Gaplus'', then was rereleased under the name ''[[Market-Based Title|Galaga 3]]''. There is no ''Galaga 2''.
** And then, of course, ''Galaga '88''. Does the absence of intervening numbers need to be brought up again?
* The virtually unknown [[Real Time Strategy]] ''Earth 2140'' has a much more successful sequel named ''[[Earth 2150]]'' (or ''Earth 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet''), which itself has 2 stand-alone [[Expansion Pack
* ''[[Mushihime-sama]]'''s sequel is called ''Mushihime-sama Futari''. "Futari" means "''two'' people."
* The "Divinity" series gets to be oddly named from the very beginning, but the sequels make their own kind of nonsense. In order: ''[[Divine Divinity]]'', ''Beyond Divinity'', and third: ''[[Divinity 2|Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga]]'' (which is itself made up of Divinity 2: Ego Draconis and Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance. Divine Divinity was meant to be Divinity: Sword of Lies, and Beyond Divinity was a spinoff; Ego Draconis was the original Divinity 2 game, which was rereleased as The Dragon Knight Saga as a bundle or as just the expansion, Flames of Vengeance.
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** [[Wonder Boy (video game)|The first game]] itself, originally an arcade release, is also known as ''Super Wonder Boy'' on the Japanese [[Master System]] (since it has a few enhancements from the arcade version and there was also an earlier ''Wonder Boy'' port released in Japan for the SG-1000, Sega's first game console) and ''Revenge of Dracon'' on the American [[Game Gear]] (it was still called ''Wonder Boy'' everywhere else).
** The second entry in the series was ''Wonder Boy: Monster Land'' for the arcade, which was ported to the [[Master System]] in Japan under the name of ''Super Wonder Boy: Monster World'' and that particular version was released in the west as ''[[Wonder Boy in Monster Land]]'' (the "in" was not present in the arcade version's title).
** The third and last of the arcade releases was titled ''[[Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair]]''. The console ports for the [[TurboGrafx-16]] and [[Mega Drive]] both kept the same name this time, although the cover artwork for the TG16 version omits the "Wonder Boy III" portion.
** The fourth entry is when things start to get confusing. The game was released for the Master System in the west as ''[[Wonder Boy III the Dragons Trap]]'' (titled as such since it was the third Master System game in the series), which is a distinct game from the aforementioned ''Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair''. The Master System version was supposed to be released in Japan as ''Monster World II'', but that version got canceled. Instead, the later [[Game Gear]] port (which was simply titled ''Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap'' in the west, dropping the numeral altogether) came out there as ''Monster World II: Dragon no Wana''.
** The next entry was ''Wonder Boy V: Monster World III'' for the [[Mega Drive]] (simply titled ''[[Wonder Boy in Monster World]]'' in the west, not to be confused with the aforementioned ''Super Wonder Boy: Monster World'', the Sega Mark III version of ''Wonder Boy in Monster Land''). Despite its Japanese title, ''Monster World III'' is actually the fourth game in the series released in Japan, since ''Monster World II'' (which fills the position of "Wonder Boy IV") [[Sequel First|was only released a few months later in Japan]], unless we count the ''Dragon's Curse''/''Adventure Island'' remake by Hudson Soft (which opens a whole 'nother can of worms).
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** To be fair, that sorta thing happens in real life, such as World War One would never have been know as such until the second one came along 20 years later.
* Sega's ''[[House of the Dead]]'' series played off Romero's ''Dawn of the Dead'' series, including ''Typing of the Dead'' and ''Pinball of the Dead''.
** Well, that's for the side games only. The main series has always had [[Numbered Sequel
* The ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Dark Forces Saga|Dark Forces]]'' games have a strange number sequence. They start with ''Dark Forces'', followed by ''Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II'', then ''Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'' and finally ''Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy''. [[Colon Cancer|Even worse]] when you see that LucasArts (and no one else) considers the full titles to all be prefixed with "Star Wars."
* The first sequel to ''[[Myst]]'' was called ''Riven: The Sequel to Myst''. Later games adopted a more conventional numbering scheme, resulting in ''Myst III: Exile'', ''Myst IV: Revelation'', and ''Myst V: End of Ages''. A spinoff also exists, which went through enough name changes between its development, release, the cancellation of its online component, the resurrection of its online component through GameTap and its second cancellation that it probably deserves its own trope. The last name it had was ''Myst Online: Uru Live''.
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** You missed "Grand Theft Auto: 1969", "Grand Theft Auto: 1961", "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and The Damned" and "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony." However, this naming convention has some sense; each numbered title started on a new engine9Until GTA V), while the rest were considered to be very large expansion packs. Each numbered title is also the beginning of a new story, with completely new characters, while games without numbered titles just act as prequels and reuse characters (so as to give them bigger backstories).
* The original ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' series consists of ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', ''Tomb Raider II'', ''Tomb Raider III'', then ''Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation'', ''Tomb Raider Chronicles'' and ''Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness''. The Crystal Dynamics [[Continuity Reboot]] of the franchise continues this trend, with ''Tomb Raider: Legend'', ''Tomb Raider: Anniversary'', and ''Tomb Raider: Underworld''. Then it was rebooted ''again'', with just "Tomb Raider".
* The ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series has ''[[Silent Hill]]'', ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'', then ''[[Silent Hill 4|Silent Hill 4: The Room]]'', ''[[Silent Hill Origins|Silent Hill: Ørigins]]'' (which is called ''Silent Hill Zero'' in Japan), ''[[Silent Hill
* ''[[Prince of Persia]]''. The first game was followed by the Sequel ''Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame'' then ''Prince of Persia [[Third Is 3D|3D]]'' followed, when the series [[Polygon Ceiling|jumped to 3D]] and a new story was begun. Four years later came ''Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'', starting a new story yet again, which continues in the direct sequels ''Prince of Persia: Warrior Within'' and ''Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones''. Then, the story resets again, with ''Prince of Persia'' in 2008, to be continued in another two sequels apparently, the first of which is supposed to be called ''Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands''.
** Per [[wikipedia:Forgotten sands|The Other Wiki,]] ''Forgotten Sands'' is actually an [[Interquel]] set in the ''Sands of Time'' 'verse, taking place between that game and ''Warrior Within''. The timing of the game's release and the cover art both suggest that this decision was made to make the game and the [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473075/ film] more closely related.
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* The Shin Megami Tensei series isn't exactly the most understandable in terms of naming, but Persona 2 was released as a duology, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, making Persona 3 and 4 the 4th and 5th in the series respectively
* ''Theme Park'' was [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: a management game in which you run a theme park. The title of the [[Spiritual Successor]], ''Theme Hospital'', made less sense.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Mario Kart]]'' series started out with ''[[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super]] Mario Kart'', followed by ''Mario Kart [[Nintendo 64|64]]''. Then it went to subtitles with ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' (for [[Game Boy Advance]]) and ''Mario Kart: [[Exicted Episode Title|Double Dash!!]]'' (for [[Nintendo GameCube]]). It then returned to [[Super Title 64 Advance]] with ''Mario Kart [[Nintendo DS|DS]]'' and ''Mario Kart [[Wii]]'' before finally falling into [[Numbered Sequels]] with ''Mario Kart 7'' (for [[Nintendo 3DS]]).
* ''[[Assassin's Creed (video game)|Assassin's Creed
* ''[[Gex]]'' was followed up by ''Gex[[Sequel Number Snarl|:]] Enter the Gecko'' and then ''Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko''.
** In Europe, the later two games were titled ''Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko'' and ''Gex: Deep Cover Gecko'', leaving the ordering even more confusing.
* The [[Puzzle Game]] ''Tant-R'' had sequels named ''Ichidant-R'' and ''Sando-R''. "Ichidan" means "more" and "sando" means "three times."
* The ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* During the 90s, [[Electronic Arts]] released a series of helicopter-based shooters named the "Strike series". The series consists of ''[[Desert Strike]]'', ''Jungle Strike'', ''Urban Strike'', ''Soviet Strike'' and ''Nuclear Strike''.
* Not counting the [[Spin-Off|spinoffs]] Sonic seemed to make sense with ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' [[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|1]], [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2|2]] and [[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|3]]. Then ''Sonic & Knuckles'' came out which was basically [[One Game for the Price of Two|the second half]] of Sonic 3. Then things got confusing when they jumped over into 3D it was ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' and then ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]''; however the Adventure title got dropped when ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' appeared which was then followed up by [[Shadow the Hedgehog]] and [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* The ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' series started off with fairly standard numbering, even if it did switch from Roman Numerals to numbers between the second and third games, but it became more and more this trope as the series went on. The main games are: ''[[Mortal Kombat (video game)|Mortal Kombat]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat 2|Mortal Kombat II]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat 3]]'' (re-released as ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3'', and then the first three games were combined to make ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy''), ''[[Mortal Kombat 4]]'' (re-released as ''Mortal Kombat Gold''), ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deception]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe]]''. The most recent game in the series is just called ''[[Mortal Kombat 9|Mortal Kombat]]'', as it's a [[Continuity Reboot]]. This, of course isn't getting into the side-games, ''[[Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero]]'', ''[[Mortal Kombat: Special Forces|Mortal Kombat Special Forces]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks]]'', which only serve to create even more confusion for new fans of the series. To further increase the problem, the [[Mortal Kombat (film)|film]], and [[Mortal Kombat the Journey Begins|it's]] [[Mortal Kombat: Annihilation|sequels]] all had their own (number free) names, as did the [[Mortal Kombat: Conquest|live-action series]], the [[Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm|animated seires]] and the [[Mortal Kombat: Legacy|web series]].
* ''[[New Super Mario Bros.]]'' has two sequels: ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'', and the recently announced ''New Super Mario Bros. 2''. ''[[NSMB 2]]'' is actually the third game.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied in [
* Parodied in [http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=314 this] ''[[Hark! A Vagrant]]''. Kate Beaton apparently wants "The Legend of Curly's Gold" to be the next "Electric Boogaloo".
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'''s parody of such trends was ''Dangeresque 2: This Time, It's Not Dangeresque 1''
** And ''Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective'', which was released as part of ''Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People''. Not forgetting the original, which was titled ''Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too?'' and the prequel ''Dangeresque 0: The Prequel Begins''.
* ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'' has a few novels with such titles. ''[[Non-Linear Sequel|Chaos Fighters II]]'' is a major offender with subtitles ''Cyberion Strike'' and its sequel ''Chemical Siege''. However, it helps that the former is {{spoiler|the name of the final attack launched by the big bad of the novel}} while the latter refers to the chemical hollows which pollutes the city of Murio. Both titles are set as a [[Time Skip]] to the ''main series''.
* [[The Angry Video Game Nerd]] gives [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEVzPCY2T-g a long diatribe] about both this topic and [[Market-Based Title]].
*
{{quote|Mario/Peter Griffin: By the way Mallow, which movie had the exploding arrows?"
Mallow/Chris Griffin: [[Rambo]]
Mario: Rambo, ok it was Rambo, and then was Rambo 2, right?
Geno/Brian Griffin: Actually its full title is Rambo:First Blood Part 2
Mario:First Blood Part 2? That doesn't make any
Mallow: Yeah they should have called it Second Blood
Mario:
Geno: You mean how [[Call of Duty]] [[Modern Warfare]] 2 is actually Call of Duty 5?
Mario: Yeah, exactly. }}
**That Modern Warfare 2 is actually Call of Duty 6 and not 5 shows, intentionally or not, the pitfalls of this trope.
* From ''[[Teen Girl Squad]]'':
{{quote|"ARROW'D 2! [[Lampshade Hanging|ELECTRIC BOOGA-]] wait a sec..."}}
* In an [[Out of Character|OOC]] Q&A, [[Ben Drowned|Jadusable]] replied to a question asking about the name of the movie he's filming with "ben 2: electric boogaloo." [https://web.archive.org/web/20120517123456/http://jadusable.wikia.com/wiki/1/28/12_Chatango_Q%26A Here] is a transcript of that Q&A if you want it.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* The sequel to ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' was going to be called ''The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra''. Not only did it make no sense whatsoever because Korra isn't the last Airbender (she's not even a native airbender), it's a mouthful. Stranger yet, it was originally going to be called ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' (which would have made a lot more sense), but they had to change it due to legal issues with [[
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* The sequel to ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' was going to be called ''The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra''. Not only did it make no sense whatsoever because Korra isn't the last Airbender (she's not even a native airbender), it's a mouthful. Stranger yet, it was originally going to be called ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' (which would have made a lot more sense), but they had to change it due to legal issues with [[James Camerons Avatar|a certain movie]]. Prior to release, it was shortened down to simply ''[[The Legend of Korra]]''.
* Happened to ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'' in Japan; while ''[[Transformers Headmasters|Headmasters]]'' had sense, there's no excuse for ''[[Transformers Masterforce|Super-God Masterforce]]'' or ''[[Transformers Victory|Victory]]''. They did this very often, spawning no less than ''fourteen'' differently named series (not all televised, or even given fiction at all; Operation Combination is a toyline only, for example.) in Japan, though "only" seven in English-speaking countries.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. When the family temporarily get filthy rich, they move. Jack wants to call their new home "Fenton Works 2: This Time, it's Personal".
* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'''s second season was called ''Total Drama Action'' (shift to movie-themed challenges on an abandoned film lot) and the third season was named ''Total Drama World Tour'' (traveling the world ''and'' spoofing musicals). Season four will be titled ''Total Drama Revenge of the Island'' (original location, different cast).
* [[CS Toys|CSToys The Alternatives]] is an oddly named [[Spin-Off]] of a live show done by a toystore in Japan.
* Microsoft ''Windows 7'' is an oddly numbered release. Since Windows 3.x, Microsoft abandoned the numbering system but released more than four iterations of Windows, including Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, Millennium Edition, XP, Server 2003, Vista before returning to the numbering system with Windows 7. Even if we are selective in which editions we count as actual significant releases, the latest Windows should still be higher than the 7th major release.
Line 503 ⟶ 495:
*** Actually, it would be NT 4.1 - NT was first released as ''3.1'', to match the version number of the regular Windows releases(the codebase had also started as ''OS/2'' version 3).
*** Maybe 7 was simply chosen because it is a deliberate lucky number in many states.
** Windows 7 was followed by Windows 8, then Windows 10 - with no "Windows 9".
* The Xbox, followed by the Xbox 360, probably to suggest equivalence to the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii (at the time still known by its code name, Revolution).
** And of course the Nintendo series of consoles: Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Nintendo [[Game Cube]], and Nintendo Wii. And then there's the portables (Nintendo [[Game Boy]] Advance SP Micro [[D Si]] Lite XL?).
** Microsoft inexplicably decided to call the follow up to the 360 (and the third Xbox console) "Xbox One". This is a large part of why the "Xbone" nickname stuck.
* Similarly, try to figure out how old a camera is by model numbers. Sometimes these model numbers will change ''depending on what country the camera is being sold in''. Even for the more expensive Digital SLR cameras such as the Rebels, the 60D, and the 1DmkIV, the model numbers don't seem to do much to tell you the cameras' relation to eachother, aside from additional digits in the EOS model numbers implying that the camera is progressively cheaper (A few years ago, a Canon Rebel EOS 450D ran for about seven or eight hundred bucks. The Canon 1DmkII at the time ran for something close to ''five thousand'' dollars.)
** Canon's release scheme is: the more numbers in a name, the cheaper the camera (the 1000D or XS is the cheapest option, where the 1D is the most expensive); the higher the number in the series, the newer (20D is older than the 60D). The single-digit cameras are the top of the line pro-bodies with top of the line tech at the time of the release, many of which have had multiple iterations (7D; 5D vs. 5D Mk. II; 1D vs. 1D Mk. IV vs. 1Ds Mk. III)
Line 512 ⟶ 505:
* The Palm pilot series of handheld organizers: "Pilot" "Palm Pilot" "Palm III" "Palm V" and ''then'' "Palm IV"
** Similarly, the Voodoo line of graphics accelerators also skipped 4 and then went back to it as a budget variation of the Voodoo 5 (and then there's the Voodoo Banshee).
* Desktop IBM and compatible computers. The early versions were named based on their Intel microprocessor chip [[Numbered Sequel|number]]: 8086 and 8088, followed by the 80186 (which almost nobody ever even heard of), superceeded almost immediately by
** 80286-80486 also came in "SX" versions, the SX being a cheaper (and less powerful) version - except that it was exactly the same chip, it just had some of the programming deactivated.
* Ubuntu uses a version name based on the year and month of release, with major releases every six months. This is then followed by an alliterative adjective-noun name with the first letters going up through alphabetical order for each release. For example, 10.10 Maverick Meerkat was released in October
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