Manual Mayhem
A lot of people like talking about like, unofficial game guides from prima and Nintendo power magazine, but with the advent of digital games something you don’t really get much anymore is actual game manuals with pieces of artwork and instructions.
So I decided that I would look up a few of them for my own amusement, here’s some highlights from that! They might be a bit hard to read on mobile...
1st up is the OG US Blue Manual
You can tell this one is using prerelease translations because it says “the Brock” instead of brock
There’s a small bit here for pallet town that has lived in my mind ever since I saw it where it’s like “maybe you and your rival can work it out since you used to be good friends” also, rival has a height problem which contributed to the meanness. Funny how that works out since in the end he’s shorter than Red.
Up next is the Yellow Manual, which is nearly identical (minus pikachu stuff), except for this one bit.
Apparently Red didn’t know that his rival was the grandson of Oak in the yellow world or it’s just a strangely translated bit.
It’s kinda funny how the first edition for G/S is nearly the same as the Crystal one but now the Crystal one is like “there’s a girl!” And that's the only major difference. (Note: Seeing Gold and Kris side by side like this really made me realize that aside from the jacket being different (the colors are swapped) Kris has nearly the exact same fit as Gold. Cool.)
Later manuals don't really have many things that stick out aside from changed wording.
FRLG has this pretty funny worded bit. Professor oak just happens to live in the same town as you, what, did the kids never pay attention before?
Other things to note: Different names! Sometimes different starters!
I think they started copy pasting info at some point and by the time BW2 rolls around theyre like “you know what a pokemon game is, look at the game controls”.
Spinoff stuff!
For blue rescue team, instead of pikachu emotes, its squirtle. (I didn't feel like putting it in though.)
