So long, paper manuals!

I recently purchased Mortal Kombat 9 – or is it Mortal Kombat (2011), or maybe Mortal Kombat: The Second One, but not II – and noticed there was no instruction booklet that came with it. Thinking that I had been somehow short-changed, I shrugged it off. No huge deal, I guess!

I ended up reading that games are slowly phasing out the paper instruction manuals in favour of online help, perhaps heading in a greener, more cost-effective direction.

I may not have kept all (or pretty much any) of my early video game boxes, which is a damn shame. I did, however, feel the need to keep my instruction booklets for EVERYTHING I could. Being a Francophone – which is just an embellishment of “‘Cuz I’m French” – I learned to read French long before I did English. In fact, it wasn’t school that taught me English reading.

That’s right – I’m self-taught, thanks to instruction manuals and their eye-catching images and tips! You just never knew what you’d find that might help you with the game, or perhaps even just a tidbit on characters.

I’ll re-hash Super Mario Bros. one last time, but that’s it. Check out these two gems from its instruction booklet!

World 1 "Map"

When I wasn’t playing the game, I was thinking about it. When I was reading the manual, I would trace my finger along the map and “pretend play” the game. In a weird way, this simple little overview of the game’s first level gave me a sense of perspective on the Mushroom Kingdom. It was a big place that could be explored, and it just made me want to play it that much more.

Then, there’s this. I never really noticed this one until a few years ago, so I’ll just let you appreciate its brutal honesty.

Well, it's entirely possible.

“It’s not a glitch, per se. It’s just that the Koopa Troopas are more agile when stunned than one might think.”

This is SUPER weird, but there’s a block formation in SMB 1, world 1-1 that looks like a face. The question blocks are eyes, the regular brick below them is the mouth, and beside them, the ears. I would, of course, do my damnedest to break every brick and hit every block for each playthrough.

However, and I’m not sure when this started, after breaking the ‘face’, my mind would envision this huge purple monster behind Mario (meaning ‘to the left’, where you can’t go anymore) chasing him if he didn’t go fast enough.

For whatever reason, that caused me to sort of freak out any time I destroyed the face, like ‘Ohfrigohfrigohfrig!!!GOOOOO!!’. I would recklessly sprint to the end of the level, didn’t care about any enemies, or coins, didn’t care about getting a high score on the flagpole.

Yeah, I was a weird kid.

Control Pad Blues

Life, games, memories.

So long, paper manuals!

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