When my parents took us to Toys R Us to buy a new Nintendo game when we were kids, one of my favorite parts of that trip was the drive home.  Holding the game, looking at the label, exploring the detail and nuance of the box and label art, reading each page of the manual, and even checking out the Nintendo Power special offer cards were all part of the experience of getting a new game.  That experience has changed quite a bit over the last 30 years.



I'm hardly the first person to point it out, but we've never really been offered a reasonable explanation as to why we get so much less than we used to when purchasing physical games (I don't accept the reason of cost).  It's easy to sound like the grumpy old man telling people to get off your lawn when you complain about how much better video game packaging used to be back in the good old days, but I'd like for my kids to have the same experience I did when they open up a  brand new game after they get a good report cart and not be greeted with this::


Why is the instruction manual important?

In the pre-internet era, the manual was sometimes necessary to play the game.  Unless you wanted to shell out $1.95 for the first minute and $3.95 for each additional minute (kids, get your parents permission before calling) you needed to have the manual to learn about enemy types in The Legend of Zelda or how to change weapon type to missiles in Metroid.  Could you figure these things out yourself in the majority of games?  Probably, but the context that the manual provides is much more elegant than mashing buttons like a caveman until the right thing happens.

There are, of course, exceptions.  There are standard editions of new games that come with some sort of pack in like Skyrim's verneer-like map, but more often than not, these extras are included with premium editions of a game.  The debate over value for the money of a premium edition of a game is an entirely different argument, but it is related in that many of the throw-ins of yesteryear make their appearance in the edition that costs from $10-100 more than the standard edition.  And speaking of Collector's Editions, not even THEY are immune to getting the manual cut.

I have here my personal copies of the Collector's Editions of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3  (The Mass Effect 2 CE is in my Top 10 Box Art Hall of Fame, but that's another story)


But when I opened each of the cases up, I saw one major piece that was included with Mass Effect 2 (in full color) and was totally absent from Mass Effect 3.  Yup, you guessed it, the manual.


Now that we have the internet, is the manual still important?

I'll admit that with YouTube streamers, Twitch broadcasters, GameFAQs, and thousands of other gaming related websites, the information that would be found in a manual can be obtained by anyone with an internet connection in just a few minutes.  It doesn't mean that the folks who grew up treasuring every physical component of a game miss those things any less.  Manuals shouldn't be hidden behind the pay gate of a Collector's Edition and a Collector's Edition should not be missing a manual.

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