North America was given a head start probably so that the casual gamers in North America wouldn't become too frustrated in worldwide Wi-Fi against the hundreds of Tetris Japan Finalists who have conquered TGM2's death mode.
Though linguistically the UK is with North America, economically the UK is with the European Union, and Nintendo has to finish translating the text into four other languages seen in your DS settings screen before the game can be published in the UK. Though linguistically Australia and New Zealand are with North America, technologically they are with Europe because they use the same slow TV standard. Modern Tetris is defined in terms of 60 frames per second, and trying to speed it up to run just as fast at 50 fps may affect "synchro" moves.
