Gunstar Super Heroes Gets Name Change in Europe

GBA

August 27, 2005, 5:30 am EDT
Total comments: 8

The new name is Gunstar Future Heroes, and THQ and Sega will co-publish the game.

THQ and SEGA Announce the Multi-Award-Winning Gunstar Future Heroes for Game Boy® Advance

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif., Aug. 26: THQ Inc. and SEGA Europe today announced a co-publishing agreement for Gunstar Future Heroes for the Game Boy® Advance in all territories excluding North America and Asia. Scheduled to ship in Fall 2005, Gunstar Future Heroes is part of THQ and SEGA's multi-title exclusive publishing agreement. Known as Gunstar Super Heroes in North America, the game was received with tremendous critical acclaim at E3 2005, boasting IGN's "GBA Game of E3", "Best GBA Action Game of E3" and "Best GBA Game Graphics of E3" as well as GameSpot's "Best GBA Game of E3".

"We're excited to be working with SEGA to bring Gunstar Future Heroes to PAL territories," said Ian Curran, Senior Vice President, European Publishing. "The game has an incredibly well-respected legacy and with Treasure once again taking charge of the development, we know we that we have a genre-defining product to bring to market."

"THQ continues to be a great partner for SEGA and our outstanding GBA line up," commented Matt Woodley, Creative Director SEGA Europe and America. "Gunstar Future Heroes deserves to be a huge success and with THQ's unrivalled understanding of the GBA market I'm sure it will be."

Talkback

KDR_11kAugust 27, 2005

That name is about as appealing as "Ninja Cop". When will EA catch on and release "American Football 2007", "Realtime Strategy 2" and "James Bond FPS 6"?

Aussie Ben PGCBen Kosmina, Staff AlumnusAugust 27, 2005

It's about as appealing as "Gunstar Super Heroes" (ie, not very). Fans of the first game who see "Gunstar" and "Heroes" in the title will still buy it, what's the problem?

JonLeungAugust 27, 2005

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are called the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe, 'cause they don't like ninjas, apparently.

But this name change is weird. Super to Future? I don't see anything touchy about either word, so why bother with name changes when it's still in English?

MarioAugust 27, 2005

With Sega, rules and logic are thrown out the window, it helps to just not think about it.

Aussie Ben PGCBen Kosmina, Staff AlumnusAugust 27, 2005

Names can also be changed for specific regions due to copyright conflicts. For example, the GBA version of Top Gear Rally had to be retitled to TG Rally in the UK because there was a magazine called "Top Gear Rally" or something that held the copyright in that country.

Bit of history about the "Hero Turtles" business:

The UK title for this game (as well as both the comics and cartoon series), "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles", replaced the original 'ninja' of the title with the less threatening "Hero". This is because the Conservative British government of the time wouldn't allow ANY 'children's product' to include the word 'ninja' at any point during its content, arguing that to do so would encourage the children of this fine country to use violence against each other.

If I remember correctly (and I don't, because I wasn't in the country), I think Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister at the time, and was the one to really enforce this.

KDR_11kAugust 28, 2005

From what I heard it wasn't a law (except Michaelangelo's nunchucks were removed, not from the C64 game, though), just that they thought noone knew what a "Ninja" is.

Infernal MonkeyAugust 28, 2005

'Sup Ninja Gaiden turning into Shadow Warrior for PAL territories.

At least Gunstar SuperFutureRainbowTotalRecall Heroes is getting released soon after America, unlike Astro Boy and Guardian Heroes Advance, which took thousands of years.