Worst Gaming Manuals

US manuals usually aren't that terrible (they get the job done), it's only once you've seen their Japanese counterparts that it appears so shoddy. SFIII:TS in Japanese has half a page dedicated to a full picture of each character next to their move list, in full color. The US one is b&w, with tiny pictures and smaller move lists. The DC CvSNK2 manual craps all over the DC one as well.

However, I'd just like to toss out that WD's Elemental Gearbolt is the highest quality manual I've ever seen. That thing is so awesome, on such nice paper, with great color, interviews, wonderful paintings, everything.

Worst manuals IMO...

Phantasy Star 4- Appalling cover image, poor paper/printing makes the images inside the booklet a pain to understand.

Mars Matrix- One of the nicest outer packages I've seen for a shooter in the US. However it's really vague on some gameplay details, I learned more about experience cubes on Mode's site than the manual.

Spriggan- 4 pages long, for a game with 20+ weapon combos. If you have 15 minutes the game cycles through the weapons at the title screen, still.... *-neo

Grand Theft Auto 3

Although it is very nice looking manual, it's use of pictures from the beta version of the game, the Maibatsu Monstrosity, Airplanes and Darkel have spawned a countless number of idiotic threads across several message boards.

What aggravates me the most about game manuals is the "notes" section in the back. What the hell for? Back in the day, when passwords were common, it was useful, but what purpose does it serve now? And they don't just give you one, many times there are several pages of empty space where valuable tips could've been provided by the developers. What do they expect me to write? "Tetris log, entry 14: Just discovered that the square blocks don't rotate." Most of them are printed on glossy paper that will smear anyway. Bleh...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kaneda
What aggravates me the most about game manuals is the "notes" section in the back. What the hell for? Back in the day, when passwords were common, it was useful, but what purpose does it serve now? And they don't just give you one, many times there are several pages of empty space where valuable tips could've been provided by the developers. What do they expect me to write? "Tetris log, entry 14: Just discovered that the square blocks don't rotate." Most of them are printed on glossy paper that will smear anyway. Bleh...

---

Probably so that you will write down any secret codes or cheats that you'll find, but even most games are lacking in that category today.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Johnny Undaunted


Probably so that you will write down any secret codes or cheats that you'll find, but even most games are lacking in that category today.

---

Isn't that EXACTLY what Kaneda just said?