Nintendo offered free digital versions with the 2013 Wii U Virtual Console re-release and the Super Nintendo Classic Edition in 2017. It served as both the game manual (back when there was such a thing) and a strategy guide. The document came with copies of Earthbound cartridges when it came out in western countries in 1995.

Users looking around in the Nintendo Online news feed, found on the Nintendo Switch home screen, found a QR code that leads to the PDF.

However, with the game's re-release for the Nintendo Online subscription service, it has been pointing a whole new generation of users to the well-designed guide often commended for its artistic style. It has offered a PDF of the original 1995 guide for free online for a few years. Nintendo must see its 135-page player's guide for Earthbound as highly important. It's a piece of nostalgia that many gamers would like to see for other classic games. Players digging around in the service's menus rediscovered Earthbound's complete player's guide, which Nintendo posted as a free PDF online. Why it matters: One highlight of this week's Nintendo Direct is the rerelease of Earthbound and its prequel on Nintendo's subscription service.

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