Whats with PAL getting weird stuff?

[McBacon]

Its been happening for ages:

- Genesis:
Ours was called the same as the Japanese version.

-Super NES:
The whole console's look was of the Super Famicon

-Nintendo 64:
Our boxes got horrible black borders around the artwork

-Playstation:
Boxes are double the size

-Dremacast:
Same as playstation. Also, everything is blue, unlike your NTSC Orange.

-Gamecube:
Box spines are different (americans get logo at bottom, europeans get logo at top)

-Nintendo DS:
Our boxes are about 1/2 bigger, and have the text in Black on White while americans get full colour logos.

-Neo Geo Pocket Colour
Wahey, this one works in our favour! We get tiny genesis boxes, while you guys get tiny cardboard boxes.

So whats with all this? Why are we given a completely different treatment?

[Logicdustbin]

ya, but don't we get games, like, 8 years before you :P

[anagrama]

- Genesis:
Ours was called the same as the Japanese version.


It's called Genesis in the US because there already was a registered 'Mega Drive' trademark.



-Super NES:
The whole console's look was of the Super Famicon


The US design was chosen to more closely match the NES. Sensibly, Nintendo Europe gave us the much nicer-looking Japanese design.



-Playstation:
Boxes are double the size


Wanna try fitting a 5-language manual in a standard CD case?



-Dremacast:
Same as playstation. Also, everything is blue, unlike your NTSC Orange.


Ditto. Also, the blue swirl was used because an orange swirl trademark was already registered in Europe. Presumably the cases etc. were all blue to maintain consistency.



So whats with all this? Why are we given a completely different treatment?

No conspiracy, just that different approaches were chosen in different areas, mainly for marketing reasons. You could just as easily ask why the US gets "wierd" treatment.

[robotriot]

Don't forget that on PS2 US covers, the artwork wraps around the spine, while in PAL territories, it's white with a black font for the title.

Concerning the SNES, I think we got the better deal, the US version looks pretty ugly imo :) And I also kind of like the PAL DC boxes, although they break easily.

JAP GBA boxes and GC covers are way cooler though imo, I don't like the arc with the logo in it that we get.

[jajaja]

Don't forget that on PS2 US covers, the artwork wraps around the spine, while in PAL territories, it's white with a black font for the title.

Concerning the SNES, I think we got the better deal, the US version looks pretty ugly imo :) And I also kind of like the PAL DC boxes, although they break easily.

JAP GBA boxes and GC covers are way cooler though imo, I don't like the arc with the logo in it that we get.

Agree, the US SNES looks damn horrible compared to the PAL versjon and Super Famicom. Same goes for the SNES cartridges. I also like the PAL PSX boxes better than just a normal CD jewel case :)

[Gemini-Phoenix]

PS2 - Our box spines are (Almost) always just plain white (With a very ew exceptions, like Super Bust A Move)

Our spine logo is also the opposite colour to the American ones - As if ours was in negative / positive.


PAL PLayStation and DC game cases are very unique. But I guess they have to be bigger for the bigger manuals. Bigger manuals obviously because PAL games are more often than not in multi-languages.


GameBoy / N64 / Cube games - We have the red Nintendo tear strip.


PSone / PS2 - We have the official PlayStation tear strips


The DC logo is a different colour due to conflicting with another company's logo who had the orange swirl already patented in Europe.

Not all our N64 box's had black outlines - The last few handful's of games released had full box art.

[Steempy]

The cool obscurities and occasionally better packaging and console designs make up for the way we're boned on many other releases - both at all (Katamari Damacy, Parasite Eve 1, etc etc.. the examples are legion) and in timely fashions.
Not to mention the whole shoddy-PAL-conversions-slowdown-with-borders annoyance.

[Haoie]

There are so many titles we never got. I'll just name a few I want to eventually add.

Saga Frontier, Parasite Eve, Monster Rancher [the first 1], Clock Tower: The Struggle Within, Tales of Destiny, Echo Night 1+2 [I think], Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Dragon Warrior 7, etc etc etc!!

Oh oh, don't forget Silent Hill. We got the game, but lost the demon kiddies.

Angries up the blood.

[Cauterize]

-Dremacast:
Same as playstation. Also, everything is blue, unlike your NTSC Orange.

Dont forget we still have the Orange Light ;)

Unless you changed it to a cool blue like i did :P

[sharp]

There are more systems with different packaging. The Saturn got much smaller boxes then the USA-versions (except for SF: The Movie which had a USA-style box and the EA-games which came in a VHS-like box), sadly the early carton only cover closed really bad and the later plastic ones with insert were sometimes hard to open, as the cd's fell out when you opened it.

A really like the Euro Sega/Mega-CD games, instead of the big boxes (except for a few Sony games) we got a nice double cd-case which was easy to replace and the games even came with spinecards. I really prefer the european mega-cd boxes above the American ones.

Anyway, every part of the world always got their own version and own unique games, so why bitching about it.

[dreamcaster]

-Nintendo 64:
Our boxes got horrible black borders around the artwork

Only you chumps in Europe. In Australia, our first- and second-party boxes are almost identical to the US ones. :P

http://www.playersc.com/supermario64box.JPG
US box

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/chriscubed/sm64pal.jpg
Australian PAL box

http://www.classicgaming.com/tmk/images/box/box_sm64_pal.jpg
European PAL box (haha)

[McBacon]

Gaaah, luckly I have a Hong Kong SM64 (US box), but its so annoying that my whole N64 colletion looks crappy except for MM.

I think, aside from NGPC, we are worse off on everything!

[Lord Contaminous]

Y'all had it good when it came to Sega Master System.

As well as Terranigma.

[youruglyclone]

you guys in europe got doshin the giant, and some other stuff I can't remember...so just remeber we all are screwed over when we compare outselves to the japanese...so let's do that.

[KJN]

The European PS2 games also got blue DVD cases after a year or so.