Nintendo releases printable Meteor Prime 4 manual

While physical video games continue to be a thing, the experience of buying a game on disc continues to be more and more painful. For example, most Xbox video games are hard to find physically, if a copy even exists. In the case of Gears of War: Reloaded, there was no physical copy for the Xbox.

Elsewhere, the Nintendo Switch 2 introduced game-key cards, which are so serious that even Japan's National Diet Library said they were not eligible for protection because they were not fully licensed.

A physical copy of Pokémon with a polaroid picture and GameStation in the Steam library in the background.

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Going to get physical games is more inconvenient than ever, but I still do it

The experience is fading, but I'm going to live it as long as I can.

Aside from the pain of either not being able to find specific copies or having to deal with copies that don't actually have any content in them, there's also the element of how inferior these games are.

One of the biggest reasons I'm excited for Grand Theft Auto 6 is to see if Rockstar continues its history of having a physical copy filled with maps and other little pamphlets. If it doesn't happen, I'll be very sad.

Maps, posters and manuals are long gone, and getting something as simple as reversible cover art is considered a “W”.

However, with the long-awaited release of Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch, Nintendo is doing something a little different – providing a manual for gamers, assuming of course you have a printer to print it out.

Perhaps there is a world where manuals are created, and you can print them yourself

As Nintendo Life first spotted on the Japanese Nintendo website, there is an official Metroid Prime 4 databook, or manual. It's 24 pages in total, and is full of information about the story, characters, areas and controls you'll encounter in Prime 4.

In other words, it's literally just a matter of getting the manuals we've decided on the tipi top to before it's no longer cool.

If you grab the full PDF, which Nintendo Life has kindly linked to on their site, then there are instructions on how to print and fold the booklet, so that it fits nice and snug in your physical copy of the game.

There are a few caveats worth noting, including the fact that, as of writing, it is only available in Japanese, with no English copy to be found. That could change, of course, especially if more and more fans find out about this neat little goodie.

Second, you have to do all the legwork yourself, which means having enough color ink to capture all the details in their glory. Finally, you have to be an artistic fellow to follow the instructions and fold it to the exact specifications.

I have neither a color printer nor the artistic skills to cut a sheet of paper, so I won't be participating, but if you have all of those things and don't care about the Japanese language, then, this is for you.

Perhaps this will look like the future of physical sports – a guidebook that you print yourself for ancient purposes. Sure, it will take some ink and some creativity, but it will definitely make all those empty boxes less sad.