Map

One of Samus Aran's most crucial features in her missions has been her ability to create a Map of the current area she is in. The Power Suit maps out rooms as Samus progresses, but Samus can download full-fledged maps from Map Stations she comes across (except in Metroid Prime Hunters).

2-D games and Other M
The original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus did not feature maps, thereby making gameplay somewhat difficult. Super Metroid was the first game to feature a map for all areas (except Ceres Space Colony) and this has been a feature ever since. Super Metroid marked bosses on the map as well using skeleton heads, placing a red X and square around the head when the boss was killed. Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Other M will display item tallies and clear time on the map screen. The top right corner of all four of these games displays a Minimap. In later games, specific locations are pointed out, such as areas Adam Malkovich orders Samus to. In Zero Mission, the Chozo Statues reveal the locations of upgrades, but Samus is not restricted on her path and forced to seek out these upgrades, rather, she can do so whenever she prefers.

Prime series
The map in the Prime series functions mostly like the 2-D games, but with a major difference: rooms are displayed in holographic shapes and there is a legend and control display, but no clear time or tallies (these are left to other areas of the Pause Menu or Samus Data Screen). In all four games visited rooms are displayed in orange while non-visited rooms are blue. Samus' location is represented by a pulsating green arrow with a red tip. The interface for the map in Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is mainly identical, but changed in Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

All three Metroid Prime Trilogy games (Hunters excluded) feature Level and World Maps. Level focuses on the area Samus is currently in, while World Map allows her to examine maps of other areas. This resembles the map of Zebes seen in Super Metroid as both featured all areas in different colors, in shapes resembling clusters of honeycombs. Echoes features the ability to switch to the Dark Aether or Aether counterpart of the current room/area in the map viewer. The Dark room will be colored deep red. In Corruption, Samus can also examine maps of other planets from anywhere in the game, and in her Gunship, pilot to different places.

The Hint system in all three games causes some rooms to appear on the map before they are visited, and names them while placing a question mark on the room's hologram and whatever objective is required (for example, a Half-pipe found in Tallon Canyon). Downloaded, unvisited rooms that appear on the map do not display the room name until Samus has visited them, except in Corruption.

The Metroid Prime 3: Corruption key lists a purple "Grapple Voltage Door", though no such doors exist in the game. This may have been a scrapped gameplay element, though there are terminals that must be energized or drained using the Grapple Voltage. Additionally, the yellow Multi-Lock Blast Shield door is featured in the key despite only being featured in one instance in the game.

In Corruption, the Chozo Observatory features a series of puzzles that utilize Elysian satellites to download Logbook entries on Tallon IV and Aether, and also marking locations of expansions in almost all areas of the game (except the G.F.S. Valhalla) similar to the 2-D games. The Pirate Homeworld satellite requires the X-Ray Visor and Nova Beam as the panel to trigger the satellite launch is blocked by Phazite.

Metroid Prime manual
Minimap: "This area shows a small section of the current map. If you press the Z Button, you'll call up the full-screen map (see page 24)."

"By pressing the Z Button during game play, you can call up a three-dimensional map display of the region Samus is currently in. Unless Samus has downloaded the full map for that particular region by finding a Map Room, the only areas that will appear will be ones that she has explored already. Once she downloads the map, however, rooms she has explored will glow orange while those yet to be explored will appear without color.

''The coloured dots on the map are exits-the colours indicate which weapons will open the doors. Samus herself will appear as an arrow pointing in the direction she currently faces. You can zoom in or out with the L and R Buttons, move around with the C Stick, or rotate the 3-D display with the Control Stick. To view the World Map, press the A Button. To toggle the map key on and off, press the Y Button."''