The Video Game Critic

You all know I have an appreciation for good game instruction manuals.  In the past, some of them have gone beyond the call of duty, incorporating lots of fun information, colorful illustrations, comics, and good humor.

Maybe I should recognize these games with a special icon?  A gold manual or something like that?  Maybe someone can come up with something a little more inventive.  I want to hear your ideas.

I also would like to hear what games you think might deserve this "award".

I'm not sure about the design but Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete deserves this icon if you decide to make it. It has a hard back manual, with glossy full colored pages, and a ribbon to keep track of what page you're on. Throw in a huge bunch of extras that came with this game and you have a contender for this category.

I think that would be a fun icon.

Nominees: 
- Donkey Kong Country (SNES) (I haven't seen it, but the VGC is lyrical about the manual in his review)
- Legend of Zelda (NES) - has a pretty thorough manual for a 8-bit game

I think it's best the icons focus on the games themselves, not the paperwork that comes with it.

I mean, the manual for Warcraft 2 for PC had some excellent illustrations in it, but they don't affect my like/dislike of the game.

[QUOTE=Rev]I'm not sure about the design but Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete deserves this icon if you decide to make it. It has a hard back manual, with glossy full colored pages, and a ribbon to keep track of what page you're on. Throw in a huge bunch of extras that came with this game and you have a contender for this category.[/QUOTE]I was gonna say the same thing. Working Designs really went all out on Lunar.

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

The manual has a nice multipage history of baseball.

Really, though, when I think of nice manuals, I think of older PC games, not anything from a console.

It's hard to remember a lot of the NES manuals I liked as a kid, but I'll never forget the 100-page manual that came with the original Final Fantasy. I carried that thing around everywhere for weeks after I bought the game.

I want to give a shout-out to Rockstar, the one modern company that has had consistently great manuals. The manuals for Manhunt (designed like a photocopied, underground snuff film catalog) and Liberty City Stories (designed like lifestyle magazines) especially deserve praise.

For worst manuals in a game you could put down home improvement for the snes. It has the normal outside of a manual but then when you own it, it says real men don't need instructions... Lol.