Topic: What is up with European DS game packaging?

The European DS cart packaging is nearly twice as thick as North America and Japan's - very annoying. I've given up on shelving my DS games because despite being little more than glorified SD cards the boxes are thicker than DVD keepcases! Why is it that the North American and Japanese releases are in the same slim cases? On the Wii front Japan and Europe have better quality keepcases than North America - Amaray, if you want to get anal about it, as opposed to whatever cheap crap they saddled North America with. Of course if you get broken spindles in a DVD keepcase it's easy enough to get a new one - even a white one if you're so inclined, but you can't really swap out a DS case; especially with a larger size sleeve insert.

Anyway, I just had to vent.

The US DS cases I find to be much harder to open. Swings n roundabouts.

I noticed there was a big difference between them when I bought some DS games on a visit to family in France. I have no idea what all the unnecessary space is for.

That's why I was so relieved to find the 3DS cases were much slimmer. I've got a few NA DS imports and they're much more practical.

That is true.

I think it might be partly to do with the European games sometimes needing several languages in the one manual. I've got a couple, and the manuals are really quite thick.

Having said that, it'd be nice to have all my DS game boxes the same size!

The EU DS cases are terrible. Apart from their unnecessary thickness, the plastic they use is cheap with sharp edges and feels like it could snap pretty easily. I also don't like how they use a white/clear plastic instead of black. Still, as long as the game inside is good then I really don't mind the packaging that much.

@Wheels2050 There's plenty of space for thick multilingual manuals in the US cases. They would just need to expand the manual clip a bit (like in the EU cases), not the entire box.

agreed on all counts. i still can't believe how sharp and hard to open the few EU cases i've got are in comparison to all my normal DS game cases... i also much prefer the look of black vs. the clear-ish plastic, it makes the cover art really stand out IMO. :3

Australian DS cases are, I assume, the same as the US and Japan ones but because we are "EU" we also get some "EU" game cases for smaller third party games. I always thought it was because "EU" games tend to come with phonebook sized manuals...........

I have no idea what you are talking about when you say US Wii game cases are different, how are the US cases different?

Yeah, the sharpness of the EU boxes causes more pain than the tight seal on the US boxes. And I've even had one of the closing clips on an EU box break off from normal use. Not a good sign. |:

@skywake He's probably referring to the recent "recycle logo" Wii DVD cases which are really flimsy and thin. Not all Wii games have them. I don't know if they're using them in the EU, but I'm guessing not. They look like this except white:

If a hole gets punched in some box art then I am throwing them all out and using normal DVD cases. I love me my box art.

The American Wii game cases just feel like a thinner, cheaper grade of plastic and the central disc hubs aren't as good at holding the discs (I had imports come with discs off-spindle or with broken spindles). Japanese and PAL Wii games are all in the same case: spindle is the "yin yang" one which marks it as an Amaray, which I believe was the original DVD keepcase type, and still one of the best.

Contrary to what many have said, I actually much prefer our EU DS cases compared to the NA/Jap DS cases. I like the clear plastic and the added thickness, it just seems a bit neater and bulkier than the NA cases. Also, the NA cases are a pain in the backside to get open.

I like the thinner ones now used for 3DS games more too. Except for the inner holes to reduce needed material that is. But i can easily live with that. And at least that helps to differ 3DS from DS games here in Europe.

I have an game with this kind of case (i cant play the game anymore thanks to the stupid freeloader blocking update) but i hate those boxes and also the 3ds boxes puting holes in is just stupid, if they want to protect the environment they should change the material in some plastic made of wood(yes this exists it made of boiled wood and fully naturaly degradable) but putting holes in the packaging just makes it easier to get punctuatet or even breaked like the wii dvds in that pic the dvd can easily break

because european games have manuals in all languages. therefore some of them are much thicker.

but now the 3DS cases are much smaller!!

They save money on using less material and I think the design is made to tell people; Its made from recycled material.

Now that 3DS manuals aren't multilanguage anymore the cases are much more slim.

Yes that. And I like diversity in gaming boxes. New system, new type of box.

...But of course they also could've just given them another color.

I have no problems with our fat boxes

This reminds me of another difference. . . Wiggling

All of my EU and USA carts have firmly secured chips inside of them. However, last summer when I was in Canada, I noticed that that the chip in one of my friend's carts rattled. He told me that all of his and his DS games and all of his neighbors had cartridges which rattled. Before leaving, I picked up a Canadian copy or Rhythm Heaven. Sure enough, the circuit board inside the cartridge rattled.

the only EU DS game box i have is the one for Flipper, and at first i thought it was some kind of "third party replacement" box or something

I have no problems with the holes in the 3DS boxes, i mean, it's not like anything will happen to the game. And they will save lots of money too