Game manuals

[Cat333Pokémon]

What are your thoughts on the current trend towards miniaturization of physical game manuals (and in many cases, outright removal of them) and increasing the use of in-game tutorials and digital manuals?

I personally miss them, especially the colorful ones included with many high-budget games and the ones that are clearly parodies of magazines (Grand Theft Auto IV) or look like a book that an in-game character would actually have (often written in second person).

[Yoshi648]

Absolutely I miss gaming manuals. They were great sources for gameplay tips, item descriptions, maps, and all sorts of stuff that you'd have to pay for now in a strategy guide. Don't forget all the nice artwork that came along with it. It was fun buying a new game and reading the manual on the way home to prepare yourself for the adventure ahead of you. And unlike the game (well for console based at least) it was portable so you could "enjoy the game" while at school or in the bathroom on the toilet. While we are at it, let's not forget all the bonus material (poster-sized maps, 3D glasses, stickers, etc) that often accompanied the manuals.

Nowadays you are lucky to get a black and white sheet of paper with just the controls laid out. Another thing (this applies to CD/DVD/cased games more then cartridge based ones) is that the game feels more "empty" without it. I pick up a 1st party GameCube or Nintendo DS game case and I can feel the weight of the booklet inside it. Now I pick up a 3DS case and it feels way to light making me think the manual is missing. Nnope, it's there in all it's one-page glory. I understand that the game publishers want to be more environmental friendly and save some production costs to make the single sheets of paper, but it just doesn't hold that "magic" of getting an entire book with your game purchase.

[blueumbreon]

I definitely miss manuals. I remember when I bought The Legend of Zelda (at a flea market) and flipping through the manual, I was astonished. I wish there was a bit less tutorials and a bit more exciting manuals that are more than the button layouts.

[Twiggy]

I always think of digital manuals as a sort of compromise for me, as I do not expect much material in game boxes these days. Even when it comes to digital, I can sometimes determine the quality of them anyway. It's actually something you can see when you compare digital manuals of 3DS games - some are as generic as it can get, while others are, well, just plain fitting. Or manuals that come with most games that you get on online distribution platforms - sometimes you get what are essentially a full manual, except optimized for a computer. At the other end of the spectrum, though, you get what's essentially the "printing sheet" version - hardly ideal on a monitor, as there's too much wasted space, and a lot of clipping occurs.

There's no perfect manual for me, to be honest. Guess this goes with stuff leaning towards digital, heavily for me...

[TurtwigX]

I remember the days when I'd snag the manual out of the game case and bring it to school; showing it off to all of my friends and reading them in class instead of the work. I don't really know what it was about them. The pictures? The info? The really pretty designs? They were just a joy to see and really helped me whenever I was stuck (and without the internet's gentle arms.) If I ever bought a game without having the system with me (if it was portable) I could always count on the manual to keep me company while I wait to go home.

These days manuals are kinda dull, like as if it's urging you to play the game already. Most of the time I don't mind as manuals never really BLOW MY MIND with info, they're just interesting. But like with Sonic Generations it's literally a small booklet. And even worse, it's only a booklet so it can fit 3 other languages in it, the English portion is a page or two long. Then they fill up the game with angrily annoying tutorials (OMOCHAAAAAAO! ...Okay, they're not ALL that bad) that waste time I could be spending on ENJOYING the game. Like with Sonic Unleashed for the Wii, the "tutorial stage" was a long process that took me almost 30 minutes and I just had to quit after that because it was crazy boring.

[Magmaster12]

I wasn't even ware they stopped printing them until Cat pointed it out so I couldn't care less, they never helped me out as a kid so I don't see how it matters.

[BluFire1337]

Yeah...I hate how they started doing this. WAAAAY too much downsizing. I remember Sonic Heroes manual from when I got it for Christmas one year. I opened up the box and read it on the way home and I could NOT WAIT to pop that into my Playstation 2! Ahh...miss the PS & PS2 in general...so glad I got a Wii instead of a PS3...anyways, I also popped in Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube into my Wii and read the manual to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles and they told so much information about the game and literally made me want to play them then and there. Now I look at stuff like Super Mario 3D Land's manual and think "..." and that's it. I mean I don't want a control layout unless it's something super complicated like Street Fighter or Tekken combos, but if it's anything I can find out by playing it and experimenting myself then no, it's just annoying. Or if it's like Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped where they even gave you the code to unlock a demo of one of the Spyro the Dragon games! Ahh...old manuals...

[TurtwigX]

After reading this over, I decided to pull out a few of my older games and compared their manuals to those of my newer games, since I wrote all of that from memory. The older ones had pretty thick manuals and they were filled with colorful designs and artwork for the game along with in-depth explanations of each basic part of the game. How helpful. Only Super Monkey Ball Deluxe and Sonic Mega Collection Plus had slightly dull black and white manuals, but I think that's just a SEGA thing.

I flipped through some of the newer DS games I had, 3DS games, 360 and late Wii game manuals I had to see what those were like. For Rhythm Heaven Fever and Skyward Sword they appeared to be okay and thick at first sight. Until I flipped a couple pages and ran into a new language. The 360 ones that were colorful were alright, but Sonic Generations was still terrible. The two latest DS games I have are Black and Black 2, which were decently sized but kind of boring. The 3DS games... those aren't even manuals. How can you call that foldy thing a manual? It takes all of 15 seconds to read everything it says. From here on out I shall only refer to those as "info posters."

In general, my favorite kinds of manuals are those that are colorful and have details about the game. If they're shorter, in black and white, or have plain designs then I don't consider them all that good.

[Reuniclus]

I think the only times I looked at game manuals were when I played Gamecube games and early DS games. Dunno why, but I always liked Gamecube game manuals.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by TurtwigX

The two latest DS games I have are Black and Black 2, which were decently sized but kind of boring.

The Pokémon games have always had sizable manuals that gave you good information if you were new to the series. Let's hope X and Y keep it up with proper manuals.

[LugiaDialga]

In-game tutorials make me feel dumb when playing the game. I'd rather there be just one sort of tutorial level of sorts, at the beginning of the game, and only add in helpers when something new is presented that is out of the ordinary. But the instruction booklets are horrible these days. They're nothing more than a black and white piece of paper, cheap paper. I remember having a new game and reading the booklet FIRST before I even loaded the game. I could see the basic controls right there in front of me as well as a whole lot of other fun stuff. One of my most favorite games for the pS2 even has backstories on all the characters in the game (when it's already a super confusing one), and that sort of stuff is realllly nice. But... no longer do we see these beautiful extras hardly anymore. Pokemon games are about the only ones I know that still include some form of booklets.

[BigN64]

I do miss them. When I buy a brand new w/o one it feels like I'm missing something. Plus I don't like how some games are coming with "slim down" manuals that provide little info like only game controls.

[Quadcentruo]

With how much hand-holding some games do, it's kind of surprising they still include manuals in video games.

Take for example Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2.
I haven't read the manual for either game, but it doesn't matter because to beat either game's single-player campaign for the first time, you are required to play a level where you are taught how to shoot a gun, throw a grenade, melee a target, sprint, reload, switch weapons, crouch and go prone.
Then you run through a course where they give you a recommended difficulty to play at based on how well you know the course and the controls (Despite the fact that knowing the controls well and running through the beginner's course five times will result in a recommended difficulty of Veteran, so it's not an accurate representation of a player's skill, but that's not the point here).

Even though I never read the manuals for games, cases always seem to be empty without them.
Although, I do recall quickly skimming through Super Mario Sunshine's manual and finding a part where it tells you that you can spray the ground with water and dive on it to speed along the ground (people who've played SMS will know what I mean hopefully), so I thought it was interesting to see a manual tell players a trick that I once thought was a glitch in the game. Maybe it was and Nintendo just rolled with it.

[TurtwigX]

Originally Posted by Quadcentruo

With how much hand-holding some games do, it's kind of surprising they still include manuals in video games.

Take for example Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2.
I haven't read the manual for either game, but it doesn't matter because to beat either game's single-player campaign for the first time, you are required to play a level where you are taught how to shoot a gun, throw a grenade, melee a target, sprint, reload, switch weapons, crouch and go prone.
Then you run through a course where they give you a recommended difficulty to play at based on how well you know the course and the controls (Despite the fact that knowing the controls well and running through the beginner's course five times will result in a recommended difficulty of Veteran, so it's not an accurate representation of a player's skill, but that's not the point here).

Even though I never read the manuals for games, cases always seem to be empty without them.
Although, I do recall quickly skimming through Super Mario Sunshine's manual and finding a part where it tells you that you can spray the ground with water and dive on it to speed along the ground (people who've played SMS will know what I mean hopefully), so I thought it was interesting to see a manual tell players a trick that I once thought was a glitch in the game. Maybe it was and Nintendo just rolled with it.

I just so happen to have MW2 because of a Buy two, one free deal at Target. Manual breakdown:

-9 pages total, game info is from 2-6
-Solid black and white
-Generic Xbox controller picture and controls matched to buttons
-Basic summary of the menus (One or two sentences)
-(Poorly drawn) HUD and description of it
-Brief description of other aspects of the game (Health, Pausing, Multiplayer, Options, Sstats)
-How to connect to Xbox Live

So yeah, really nothing deep about the game, it just scratches the surface at what you're working with. I would chalk this up to "sequel-syndrome," but it's too common of a thing for that excuse.

The water front-slide in SMS might've started out as a glitch and kept as a really neat trick. Like the stuck Mr. Saturn that Itoi liked, so he gave it lines. Glitch or not, it's a very handy trick for going down straight paths quickly. I didn't even know the manual told you about it.

[Sub-zero]

NO! Bad tutorials! Get'em out! Hard copy Game Manuals FTW! Seriously though, it's just part of what comes with the game. Nintendo does it right by allowing us to put in points to get free stuff. Oh wait, that's not about Game Manuals.. Umm, I like them. I like looking at the art and I do use the Notes section from time to time.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Nintendo has finally killed the manuals in their games:
http://www.vooks.net/manuals-in-nint...k-guides-gone/
It's a sad day.

[TurtwigX]

I know they're officially dead, but they even got lazy (or green, choose your pick) with the Pokemon. X and Y don't get their own manuals, they're indistinguishable. They just... share the cover... how wrong.

[Cat333Pokémon]

It's kind of funny, too. Game Freak was the one company who always had huge manuals, and now they were scared off by Nintendo.

[Yoshi648]

Oh this thread reminds me, here is what recent PS3 games are doing:



Eeyup, just printing the controls right on the back of the artwork. Literally only thing in the case was the disc (and yes I bought this new). Only remainder for instructions would be the plastic tabs in the case which are now just decoration. There are digital instructions available on the disc. Also keep in mind this is for a 1st party game, those are usually the ones with the best manuals.

In addition, Rockstar (who always had great and funny manuals) joined the down-sizing party with GTA V. Just a small 4 page booklet that is just warning/health information and controls. They do provide a full interactive manual for download on their site, and the game is still at least packaged with the full color town map.

[Cat333Pokémon]

I really don't know if this is being green or what, but they really should still have some kind of option for physical manuals. I almost never look at digital manuals, unless the controls are bad.

[TurtwigX]

Although that's the laziest/greenest idea I've ever seen, I think that actually looks pretty good. I still dislike it compared to the detail and depth of old school manuals.

The eRevolution has started. If it can be posted on the internet, it won't be printed.

[Charizard98]

When I got Resident Evil 6, (back when $60 new) Capcom didn't even bother to have a manual unless you looked online through a PDF or somewhere else (didn't even have a digital manual either), all it had was the disc and a card advertising two of the RE movies to buy on Blu-Ray, that was it. Serious laziness imho.

[Dragonite]

I remember me and my siblings reading the manuals in the back of my mom's car when we'd come home from some store or another with a new video game. Good times.

I can't object to being green, though. but I do wish the EShop version of X / Y had a more comprehensive digital manual at least.