Topic: Did you ever look at the manuals?

I never bother with them until after I've spent some decent time on a game. The manual typically has some sort of information that will spoil the game for me a little if I read it too early.

I do look at game manuals most of the time to help prepare myself better.

I used to love Nes manuals, especially the 80's/early 90's artwork.
I still have the Manual for Zelda II: Adventure of Link and I prefer the Artwork over the new.

Super Mario bros 2 and Kid Icarus's Manuals kicked ass as well
As of now, I only check out the Manuals if they're in color. Not a fan of the lazy Black and White shrimpy Manuals that alot of companies are coming out with,

The only reason I would look at a manual for any reason is when I buy a fighting game or something and I want to look at the controls or just to look at the colorful pictures

I don't think I've ever bothered looking at a game manual. It seems pointless to me, as I can just learn everything I need to know while playing the games.

For me, modern games don't even need manuals. They have an unnecessary amount of tutorials for little things that won't ever be used at all (like how to jump in an FPS game). However, for classic games I do sometimes need manuals since there are some things that aren't even explained that would make the game a whole lot easier and more fun.

Yes, of course I rarely ever find anything helpful from the manual that the game doesn't tell me. The only time I remember learning something from a game manual was from No More Heroes on perfoming the Dark Step move.

Not all modern games have in-game tutorials or the backstory given within the game.

I used to read manuals... when they were good reading material. Nowadays, manuals are completely useless.

Just look at any recent Nintendo game; the manual is huge, but only because it is in three languages. The manual for Wii Fit Plus, for example, does not provide anything of importance. The game does hold you hand quite a bit, but some things are never explained.

What they said...

I used to read them, but now i do not. I only read them now if for some reason i got a game that i cannot play yet and I just want to do anything related to the game. Im starting to think it would help though... it took me forever to figure out every move in warioland shake it!
Also if it includes some story background ill read that, but i mostly learn that stuff form NL anyway

Manuals are fantastic! Nothing makes the car ride home from the game purchase more exciting than busting open the game box and reading the manual. Boy, was I distraught when manuals ended up being super thin because 2/3 of the manual was in Spanish and French. Seriously, what gives? Totally removes from some potential instructional gold.

This. Except the Spanish & French part. Thats why I live in Australia.

You know what they say: "This is America. Speak Spanish." Sometimes, I wish the government would just go ahead and declare English as the national language. It'd be more helpful than running up the national deficit to a record high.

I would love to know how you figure some not so obvious tricks quickly then.

Well anyway there's allways tricks that is not so obvous ingame but clearly Stated in the instructions.
Without the instructions it might take weeks or even months to figure out some of the more obscured tricks compaire to reading the instructions where it it takes seconds to minutes.

So instructions are very helpfull incuding for quick lerners myself.

I usually keep them at hand while playing the game for the first time.

I looked at the Mario Kart Wii manual, and discovered that the remote's back button is used for drifting in manual.

Sometimes, like when I lose a good game. I flip through the manual a couple of times to remember the good times.

The bad ones? I burn them

My Super Paper Mario manual has two copies of the regular manual in it, and some of the pages are upside down.
Weird.

RTFM!