Nintendo has released a printable Metorid Prime 4 guide

While physical video games are still relevant, the experience of buying a game on disc is becoming more and more painful. For example, most Xbox video games are pretty hard to physically find, if any copies exist at all. In the case of Gears of War: Reloaded, there was no physical Xbox copy.

The Nintendo Switch 2 introduced game cards, something so terrible that even Japan's National Diet Library declared them unfit for preservation because they weren't fully licensed.

A physical copy of Pokemon with a Gamestation on a polaroid image and a steam library in the background.

Getting to physical games is more inconvenient than ever, but I do it anyway

The experience is fading, but I will continue to live it as best I can.

Aside from the pain of either not finding specific copies or having to deal with copies that don't really have any content, there's also the element of how flimsy 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 a padded physical copy, complete with a map and other little booklets. If not, I will be very sad.

Long gone are the maps, posters, and manuals, and receiving something as simple as a double-sided dust jacket is considered a “W.”

However, with the long-awaited release of Metroid Prime 4 on Switch, Nintendo is doing something a little different – making the manual available to players, provided of course you have a printer to print it.

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

As first spotted by Nintendo Life, there's an official Metroid Prime 4 databook or manual on Nintendo's Japanese website. It's 24 pages long and packed with information about the story, characters, areas, and controls you'll encounter throughout Prime 4.

In other words, it's literally what we used to have before someone at the top decided manuals weren't cool anymore.

If you happen to download the full PDF that Nintendo Life kindly links to on their site, then here are instructions on how to print and fold the booklet to fit inside your physical copy of the game.

There are a few caveats worth noting, including the fact that it's only available in Japanese at the time of writing, and there's no English copy available. Of course, that could change, especially if more and more fans learn about this neat little treat.

Second, you'll need to do all the field work yourself, which means having enough color ink to capture all the details in their beauty. Finally, you'll need to be something of an artist to follow the instructions and assemble it to exact specifications.

I don't have a color printer or the artistic skills to cut a sheet of paper so I won't be participating, but if you have all those things and don't care about Japanese, then this is definitely for you.

Maybe this is what the future of physical gaming might look like — a guidebook you print out for nostalgic purposes. Sure, it will take some ink and creativity, but it will certainly make all those empty boxes less sad.