It's no secret that Germany has some very specific, very peculiar rules about the content of video games. What's good enough for the rest of the European Union is often not found suitable for der Deutchland. The usual triggers for a ban or a refusal of rating are intense violence and Nazi references, and the old joke is that the easiest remedies are to just swap in robots and green blood where necessary. Apparently these standards apply to box art too. As reported by Kotaku, here's the Left 4 Dead box as the rest of the world will see it.
And here's the German-approved version.
Yup, apparently Germany would rather keep its thumbs attached, thankyouverymuch. If this is all they can show of the box art, I cannot even fathom what the game itself will look like to our Bavarian brethren. "We've gotta take these filthy, mindless, bloodthirsty zombies out...on a field trip to the local science museum!" Coincidentally, it kind of ruins the magic of the original Left 4 Dead box art for me, having evidence that the model was just counting to four. It's a shame, because I'm profoundly amused by the 1:1 ratio of words to visual puns they've got going on. It's like I'm playing Classic Concentration, except that every solution revolves around Alex Trebek's insane desire to devour my brains.
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