I thought that it was rather amusing when I received a gift in the form of the PAL version of EyePet & Friends for the PlayStation 3 today: Honey, you always manage to keep things interesting in my life. As you may already know, the PS3 is import-friendly and iss not region-locked so the game plays perfectly on my domestic console. This is the first import game that I own for the console - not that this is anything special because this game also got a domestic release. When it comes to the game case presentation, I prefer the North American release. The Japanese versions always look the best however and the worst of them usually befallen our European brethren. The cover art for this one that I got however doesn't look bad at all - except for that horrid green PEGI eye-sore of a rating box - and interestingly, it is different from the domestic release as you can witness from the images below:
It's all about being adorable and innocent in the North American release.
For the PAL release, they look like cheeky little brats who are ready to commit mischiefs.
We all know that things are edgier in Europe since they are generally more liberal than how things are here in the United States and that is why they were able to get away with a risque image like that - on top of the unmistakenly sinister expressions, it is easy to misinterpret that the EyePet on the left is trying to kiss the other EyePet if one is not paying close attention. If not for that foul rating box I mentioned earlier and the unnecessary blue border that surrounds the central image, the European cover actually looks a lot better between the two. I think developers should always have fun with their physical game covers for art's sake while retail releases still last. But I know that in the end, it's all about the lowest common denominator.
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