One of the last reliable supporters for the concept that video games should have instruction manuals appears to be backing off. Nintendo has released its first games on its new console without instruction manuals: Nothing on paper and not even a digital manual.
Nintendo’s 1 2 Switch party game has no paper manual inside it, just a visual menu of the mini-games contained on the game cart:
The inside of the box for the company’s flagship Switch game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild simply depicts an illustration of protagonist Link climbing a cliff.
The closest we’ve seen to a printed manual for a Nintendo Switch game is the inside of Konami’s Super Bomberman R box:
Nintendo had backed off creating printed instruction manuals during the lifespan of its Wii U console. But the company had consistently offered digital manuals, which players could access by pausing a game and clicking an option to page through a virtual manual. Games on Nintendo’s 3DS system also all had the digital manual option.
The digital manuals for Wii U and 3DS games weren’t always great, but they were there if you needed them on Nintendo and third-party games. For a time, it seemed Nintendo was even making an effort to make their digital manuals look good.
On the Switch, it doesn’t appear that Nintendo is making the effort to even make these digital manuals any more. In a change from the 3DS and Wii U, there doesn’t appear to be a system-wide option for accessing manuals. Trying to access any possible digital manuals the way we could on Nintendo’s prior systems is futile. If you click the plus button on a Switch controller while highlighting a game’s icon on the system menu, you’ll get a list of options for reading safety warnings and copyright info, but nothing about how to play the game.
We asked Nintendo about this a few times over the last week, while also asking them lots of other questions about the Switch. Some they answered, but we’ve yet to get comment about what Nintendo’s policy is regarding instruction manuals on the system. We’re left to wonder: Maybe Nintendo doesn’t think they’re necessary any more?
It’s possible, of course, that Nintendo refrained from offering manuals for its Switch games due to the nature of those games. 1 2 Switch is fully tutorialised in-game. It doesn’t need a manual. The new Zelda is designed to be mysterious, and perhaps a manual would give too many things away. Of course, for decades many games had instruction manuals that just explained basic controls and modes.
Nintendo has continued to produce digital instruction manuals for most of its recent releases on its other systems, including Tank Troopers, a game released in the US for 3DS in March, the same month as the Switch. That manual walks readers through the game’s controls and basic modes. Notably, the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild technically has something that appears when you click the system’s digital manual option, but the “manual” is a bare-bones breakdown of things like controller support and how to connect an Amiibo to the console — nothing about the game:
Third-party games on Switch also don’t seem to have digital manuals. “You are correct that there isn’t an instruction manual,” Yacht Club Game’s David D’Angelo told Kotaku when we told him we’d went on a quest to find one in either of the company’s Shovel Knight Switch releases and found nothing. Yacht Club did make an online manual for its Switch-first release, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, which can be viewed here.
“We weren’t sure how common they would be used on Nintendo Switch,” D’Angelo said. “It’s possible we may add it in the future, but we chose to focus on making sure the game was done since we were rushing to make launch day!” He noted that Nintendo provides an option for games to have manuals on the system, but that game developers have to manually invoke the option to have manuals in their games. That supports our theory that there is no longer an automatic system-wide digital manual option as there had been on 3DS and Wii U. “We were definitely hemming and hawing about whether to pull more all-nighters to get the manuals in there,” D’Angelo said.
Whether third-parties decide to start using manuals, it will be telling if Nintendo goes back to offering them. Upcoming releases like April’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe might tell that tale. There’s also another option that it’s possible Nintendo is pursuing: Outsourcing. There isn’t technically a Zelda instruction manual, you see, but there is an option in Nintendo’s “My Nintendo” rewards program to redeem the first chapter of a third-party Breath of the Wild official guide:
That free first 25 pages of the guide is full of the kinds of things you’d normally find in an official instruction manual. It’s a PDF you download to your computer — and maybe print out and tuck into the game box, if you’re feeling nostalgic:
Or maybe Nintendo is coming around to the growing consensus that, whether on paper or digital, instruction manuals are just no longer a necessary part of video games.
Comments
23 responses to “Even Nintendo Seems To Be Abandoning Game Instruction Manuals”
Not that big a deal in my view. Having a manual is nice and all, but costs of producing games continues to rise and the publishers have so far continued to eat those costs, instead finding ways to economise. Manuals are one of those ways. Micro-transactions, ‘Special’ editions and DLC are others. No publisher wants to be the first to raise the price of the basic game.
I should add that manuals are now often produced electronically and are available on the game disc or cartridge itself, downloadable or accessible on a website.
Dead to me.
Also, interesting that the US Bomberman box has a different inside to ours: https://p0.ipstatp.com/large/0058aa6a655b00329982
Yup that’s the version i have – from the UK.
Cost me less than AU$50 delivered. Not paying EB’s AU$89.95 or even Big W’s AU$75 (if you can find a copy!)
Got my 75 one. Totally worth it for the colours right? 😛
Hasn’t Nintendo done this with the Wii U already?
No it was mostly electronic manuals.
Manuals are for the trip home from the game store. If you buy online they’re not really needed, especially given how hand-holdy games are. Please don’t take my hand, I can cross the street myself.
Bro! Brooooo! Manuals aren’t about teaching you the controls or how to play the game. They’re about cool extra bits related to the game. That’s what they used to be anyway until powers that be decided to deprive us of the pleasure of flicking through the pages while we eagerly await in anticipation to play the game.
Well… you could always smell random things? Some people do that, weirdos I know, but you should see some of the comments below….
Heh heh😀
↑ This guy gets it.
↓ This guy though? Therapy pls
What the heck am I mean to sniff now when I’m on the can just before I embark on another epic gaming adventure.
There’s nothing quite like the smell of a fresh, newly opened gaming manual. Heck, I’d even be happy with just a leaflet that has warnings and T/Cs on it.
You could lick the cart?
How good was opening the Witcher 3 and having all those goodies! I miss that being the norm.
Only time I ever read the manual was in eager anticipation on the way home from the game shop as a kid, I guess these days you can just play on your Switch in the car! The backstory stuff that was always included fits on the cart now too. I will miss the smell, though..
Preorder cancelled.
I see the waste of case space an opprtunity to put other things in the case… trading cards, stickers, plastic toys to hang off your switch/phone. Diesnt have to be much to feel like a bonus
The only thing I miss about manuals in PC games is the fact that the amount of lore they provided about the game, and at times real historical information. Hell, the manuals of Zeus and AOE2 were basically my introductions to medieval history and greek mythology as an Asian kid which would later shape interests later on in life.
I understand why it’s happening, but dammit I miss the good ol’ days of aesthetically pleasing and comprehensive paper instruction manuals.
literally unplayable
So what justification do they have then for the giant cases? Sony and Microsoft get away with the size of their cases because that’s how big the disc is. A Switch cartridge is not that large and without manuals Nintendo is just wasting space. It’s just as bad as Blizzard putting WOW subscription cards in PC game boxes.
I got a mini poster in my Zelda game case. No manual.
Paper Mario Colour Splash had the best digital manual ever, heaps of extra fun stuff about the development of the game and comments on various bits and pieces. An icon would come up as you play and you could read about something you’d just done/acquired without spoilers (unless you skipped ahead past the warning).