You know what I always love doing when I buy a game? I open up the box, enjoy that creepy-but-beautiful smell of cleanliness perfected, and open up the instruction manual and read it on my way home to play it. It’s even more exciting when companies like Nintendo produce ones of high quality and standard.
If your planning on doing the same with Super Mario 3D Land like I was, you can kiss that goodbye! It has been revealed that the Japanese version of Super Mario 3D Land only includes a paper that directs the consumer to a digital manual that’s built into the cartridge itself that can be accessed on the 3DS. Nintendo isn’t the first to do this, as previous big games like Batman: Arkham City and Madden NFL 12 have done as well.
In this day and age, there’s little incentive to buy a retail game with the digital market offering easier and cheaper ways to purchase video games. For me, the #1 reason to buy a game is for the cool packaging and the instruction manuals. While companies like EA will say it’s because they are ‘going green’, it’s pretty clear that it’s more of a cost-cutting method. Hopefully Nintendo decides not to do this with future big releases like Mario Kart 7 and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
