History Main / ManualMisprint

* ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'''s manual provides no explanation on how the game's leveling system, listing all the moves that the player can perform in the main game (Mode A) while neglecting to mention that the player has to reach a certain level to perform each of them. On top of that, the input for the elbow punch and spin kick are completely wrong, as neither actually required any tapping motion (the elbow punch is perform automatically by pressing A when an enemy is approaching from behind, while the spin kick replaces the roundhouse as a combo finisher with the B button). On the enemy descriptions, Lopar's name is actually [[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelled differently]] from how it appears in-game (Rowper), Abobo is described as being capable on throwing bombs, despite the fact that he never wields any explosives in-game (in reality, this is a mistranslated reference to his cut ''genbaku nage'' or atomic drop move from the arcade version, in which he grabs and tosses the player around), and Chintai's name was inexplicably shortened from the original Chin Taimei used in the Japanese manual (on the other hand, the misspelling of Linda to [[JapaneseRanguage Rinda]] was corrected).

* ''VideoGame/{{Kid Icarus}}'''s manual makes reference to a high score table. There is no such thing in the NES version. The high score table was only present in the Famicom Disk System version which allowed for the saving of data.
* ''VideoGame/{{The Legend of Zelda|I}}'':

* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'''s manual jokingly claims that pressing X "Turns off Mrs. Schultz's porch light in Germany. So quit pressing it!" (The X button is unused because the game, having been developed first for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, only requires three face buttons.) This even becomes a BrickJoke in the sequel -- one of the trivia questions in The Villi People is "Where does Mrs. Schultz live?" The manual also claims that one way to earn a continue is to find a can of worms. In the second game's manual, they concede that the first game had no such pick-ups (instead you had to earn them by beating the Andy Asteroids {{Bonus Stage}}s between levels by winning against Psy-Crow), but that this game does (which is true).

* ''The UsefulNotes/SuperGameBoy Player's Guide'' features an overview of the icons in the System Window. However, most of the descriptions are paired with the wrong icons. Thus, we get the Border, Controller Set-Up, Custom Color, and Graffiti Icons being described as the Custom Color, Border, Graffiti, and Controller Set-Up Icons respectively. Later in the guide, towards the end of the ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'' section, a screenshot is shown depicting Wario confronting [[BigBad Captain Syrup]] right before she summons the Genie. Nothing wrong here... except for the caption describing the scene: "Wario has succeeded! He triumphed over the pirates and stands in front of the Genie. He is now going to get his reward, but what will it be?" Either the wrong screenshot was used in this instance, or the writer has mistaken Captain Syrup for a genie, since she's standing next to the lamp in the screenshot.

* Some early [=CodeMasters=] games had their manuals lazily recopied with each system a game was ported to, even if some of those ports were radically altered. ''[[http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displaypage.pl?issue=091&page=058&thumbstart=0&magazine=zzap Captain Dynamo]]'' on UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} was a big offender for misinforming players of the high-jump controls and GoombaStomp abilities which were omitted from that version to make it NintendoHard. ''[[{{VideoGame/Dizzy}} Crystal Kingdom Dizzy]]'' had an oddity where the manual mentioned having to walk through a set of doors to load games, when that never happens in any version of ''Crystal Kingdom Dizzy'', though it was used in ''Wild West Seymour''.

* The instruction sheet for the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game ''VideoGame/SoftAndCuddly'' claims that the player "must find the eight spirit keys" and take them to the fridge. The fridge exists, but the keys don't; they might have been taken out of the game prior to release.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3: [[UpdatedRerelease Subsistence]]'' comes with a bonus disc that includes, among other things, a port of ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake''. At one point in that game, the player must decipher a series of tap codes using a chart in the manual in order to decipher a certain character's frequency number in order to proceed through a certain part of the game. However, the manual that actually comes with the game (at least in the North American version) doesn't come with any chart, but instead recommends you to download an online manual on their official website. This by itself is already bad enough if you have no internet connection, but the online manual didn't even had a tap code chart either. Konami later uploaded a revised manual to their site, but instead of actually adding the tap code chart, they simply gave you the number with no context of when to use it.

* ''VideoGame/BombermanGeneration'''s American manual has an example on page 10, which covers the game's worlds. While describing the first world, Tentasia, the manual mentions the ability to use boulders as makeshift river dams (which you need to do at certain points to progress through the level). Unfortunately (and rather [[HilarityEnsues hilariously]]), the writer must have been half-asleep as they let this [[RougeAnglesOfSatin typo]] slip through (a video showing this off, complete with music and the typo as a [[TheReveal reveal]] can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwt7KYsbw2o&pbjreload=10 here]]).

* While the North American manual for ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Contra III: The Alien Wars]]'' went with [[DubNameChange newly made-up names]] for almost all of the game's enemy characters, its European counterpart (''Super Probotector: Alien Rebels''), uses very rough translations of the Japanese names from ''Contra Spirits'', revealing that two of the enemy characters listed in the North American manual actually have their names swapped with other characters. The giant tortoise at the end of the first stage is known as Beast Kimkoh in the North American version and Vicious Slave Hawk in the European version, while the winged [[XenomorphXerox xenomorph-like]] sub-boss from the final stage is called the Vicious Slave Hawk in the North American version and the Metal Alien in the European version. This is because "Vicious Slave Hawk" is actually a mistranslation of "Slave Beast Taka", the creature's name "Taka" being pronounced the same way as the Japanese word for Hawk. It seems at some point that the author for the North American manual was working with the same translated names used for the European manual and decided they didn't make sense, hence the name swap. Incidentally, Beast Kimkoh is actually the name of the final stage boss from ''Super C'' (the NES port of ''Super Contra''), who shows as a sub-boss in the final level. The first form of the Wall Walker sub-boss from Stage 3 is also listed separately under the name of "Chrome Dome", which was likely a name that was intended for another enemy character.

* ''VideoGame/Action52'''s manual sometimes describes ''completely different games'' or features that weren't in most games. For instance, "Bits and Pieces" is described as a FallingBlocks game, but it's actually more like a ripoff of ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast''. The description of "Sharks" promises "rare marine creatures" and undersea treasures to collect, and an "electromagnetic base" to hide from sharks in, none of which appear in the game.

* ''Videogame/{{Doom}} 95'', a [[UpdatedRerelease re-release]] of the first ''Doom'' that ran under Windows instead of DOS, shipped with a manual that made many references to ''Doom II''. Apparently, they just copied the ''Doom II'' manual, but tried (unsuccessfully) to remove all information irrelevant to the first game. For example, the Baron of Hell was described as "Like a Hell Knight, but worse," when the Hell Knight is a ''Doom II''-only enemy. Done on purpose in ''The Depths of Doom Trilogy'''s manual, where the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind are marked "in Doom II only" so as not to spoil their boss fights in Doom 1.

* The manual for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' points out that the highest rank you can obtain from completing the game is S. This was only true for the Japanese version of the game. The localized version has A as the highest rank, but the manual still mentions S being the highest. This is due to the manual being translated from the Japanese version and not taking into account that the S rank was removed in the non Japanese version.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'''s strategy guide mentions that the Gutsy Bat is located in the Sea of Eden, {{randomly drop|s}}ped from a Kraken. This is totally untrue; the Gutsy Bat is found in the final dungeon of the game (past the PointOfNoReturn) from a different enemy, the ''Bionic'' Kraken. Made even worse in that the guide explicitly states how rare it is, and there only exist three of those Krakens in the area. An unsuspecting player might try in vain to obsessively reset the game, hoping in vain that one of these three Krakens drops the bat. Of course, it will never happen.

** The manual claims that Pol Voices hate "loud noises." This was intended to be a clue to their weakness in the Famicom version, where they can only be killed by yelling on the built-in microphone on the second controller. But because the NES controller doesn't have any microphone functionality on it, they can only be killed by firing arrows at them in the export version. However, the clue to killing them was not changed to reflect this regional difference and many players mistakenly assumed that Pol Voices could be weakened by playing the flute (or "recorder" to use the in-game term), which actually has no effect against them.

* The instruction manual for the first ''Franchise/MegaMan'' game says that pressing up on the D-pad will make Mega Man jump (the A button actually does this) and that pressing down will make Mega Man crouch (something Mega Man wouldn't be able to do until ''Marvel vs Capcom'').

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'': Not a mistake per se, but the English manual used direct translations for the names of the enemy characters from the Japanese manual. This included enemies (namely the Chibibo, Nokobon and Gira) that were derived from existing ''Super Mario Bros.'' characters (the Kuribo, Nokonoko and Killer) and were given similar names to reflect this. The problem is that the enemies in ''Super Mario Bros.'' had different names in the localized version (Goomba, Koopa Troopa and Bullet Bill), so the play on names got lost between regions. When ''Super Mario Land'' was re-released on the Nintendo [=3DS=]'s Virtual Console, the derivative enemies were given new localized names (Goombo, Bombshell Koopa and Bullet Biff).

* ''[[VideoGame/FinalFight Mighty Final Fight]]'''s manual describes Abigail as asking trivia questions and attempting to kiss you if you answer wrong. This is actually true, but only in the Japanese version, where he would ask you a series of trivia questions before the fight and award you with a continue if you answered them all correctly. The quiz was removed in the US version, which simply has a pre-fight banter between the player and Abigail.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Life Force]]'' had the names of the bosses Cruiser Tetron/Tetran (the core boss with the four rotating arms) and Intruder (the fire dragon) switched in the US manual.

* ''VideoGame/CaptainSilver'' had content removed from the US version of the game, which include two whole stages and most of the enemy characters. Despite this, the game's manual still list most of the missing enemies and makes references to the removed stages.

* The manual for the Wii game ''Anubis II'' states that you can throw bombs by moving the Wiimote in a throwing motion while holding B. You actually need to hold the A button. Perhaps more egregious is the manual from the extremely similar ''VideoGame/NinjabreadMan'', by the same company. It states that you can throw bombs by moving the Wiimote in a throwing motion while holding A...which would be fine, except that bombs do not exist in this game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'''s manual claims that the player must destroy a "diamond-shaped sensor" to clear the Waterfall stage, which would've been true... if this was the arcade version. On the NES the Waterfall boss is a giant XenomorphXerox whose weak points are the tips of its two tentacles and its mouth when it's open. The stage descriptions were written with multiple versions in mind (as ''Contra'' was also released on Commodore 64 and DOS at the same time in the U.S. and Konami used the same stage descriptions for the PC versions), but the NES version differs significantly from the arcade game and other versions in this respect.

* While the U.S. manual for ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Contra III: The Alien Wars]]'' went with [[DubNameChange newly made-up names]] for almost all of the game's enemy characters, its European counterpart (''Super Probotector: Alien Rebels''), uses very rough translations of the Japanese names from ''Contra Spirits'', revealing that two of the enemy characters listed in the U.S. manual actually have their names swapped with other characters. The giant tortoise at the end of the first stage is known as Beast Kimkoh in the U.S. version and Vicious Slave Hawk in the European version, while the winged [[XenomorphXerox xenomorph-like]] sub-boss from the final stage is called the Vicious Slave Hawk in the U.S. version and the Metal Alien in the European version. This is because "Vicious Slave Hawk" is actually a mistranslation of "Slave Beast Taka", the creature's name "Taka" being pronounced the same way as the Japanese word for Hawk. It seems at some point that the author for the U.S. manual was working with the same translated names used for the European manual and decided they didn't make sense, hence the name swap. Incidentally, Beast Kimkoh is actually the name of the final stage boss from ''Super C'' (the NES port of ''Super Contra''), who shows as a sub-boss in the final level. The first form of the Wall Walker sub-boss from Stage 3 is also listed separately under the name of "Chrome Dome", which was likely a name that was intended for another enemy character.

* The manual for the U.S. version of ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'' uses the wrong artwork for the character of JUNKER agent Jean-Jack Gibson. The character represented in the illustration is actually that of Freddie Nielsen, a murder suspect in the game's first act. The European manual corrected this. However, both versions of the manual used a screenshot of the wrong building for the Konami-Omni Building (the building they used was actually the place where Gillian sees Jaime off before joining JUNKER in the game's prologue).

* The manual for the tie-in game ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron]][[OverlyLongTitle : Forever Free]]'' contains bios for all the human characters. However among them is a bio for one "Bill", who, according to it, is [[BigBad Snakefinger's]] lackey, and performs various tasks such as scouting out new herds of horses, and cleaning Snakefinger's cabin. [[DummiedOut Bill is nowhere to be found within the game.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers]]'' jokingly claims that the Select button "was used to shoot missiles, but Shredder's goons broke it so it no longer works".

* Page 30 of ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'''s American instruction booklet shows Professor E. Gadd speaking in Japanese.

* The 3.0 ''Oriental Adventures'' lists the school of one spell as "alteration". No such school exists in 3rd edition or later. They obviously meant "transmutation", which ''was'' called "alteration" in previous editions.