Topic: Sealed game differences in packaging

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help me find an answer to this.

I have 2 factory sealed copies of Mario Kart DS, one of them has a RED Nintendo strip and the other has a BLACK Nintendo strip through the middle of the wrapping, why are they different?

Thanks.

@maxrpg Some marketing might be specific to regions. I see you're in the UK. I don't know if I've seen that here in the US. It might help to add links to some example pictures.

In the US, later production games sold as "Nintendo Selects" (a lowered price) had differences in the package or art.

Examples of the RED and BLACK strips..

Since around the DS/Wii era Nintendo switched from using red to mostly grey in their branding, perhaps it could be that the red one is an earlier copy than the grey one? Just a guess though.

Yeah that just looks like a branding change. Never seen that in the US though. Cool. That being said with the eshop dead that may mean one has update data that the other hasn’t (kinda why sealed games are less useful now with patches and updates).

That seems likely I think - Mario Kart DS came out in 2005 and Nintendo changed their logo from red to grey in 2006. And the copy with the red logo is definitely older judging by the age rating symbol.

In fact, looking at the PEGI age rating symbols confirms that. The black and white one in the 2nd picture was used before 2009, and that specific coloured one in the 1st picture was only used after 2010, so the biggest surprise for me is that Nintendo was still manufacturing new copies of Mario Kart DS in 2010 or later!