Super Metroid: The Official Nintendo Game Guide



Super Metroid: The Official Nintendo Game Guide (Der offizielle Nintendo Spieleberater: Super Metroid in German) is the official German strategy guide for Super Metroid. It was packaged with special releases of Super Metroid in Germany, and is 72 pages long. The book is most notable for its exclusive artwork pages introducing each area of Zebes.

Description
The guide is 72 pages long. It begins with a set of two pages depicting Samus Aran's Gunship flying back to Ceres Space Colony in exclusive artwork. These pages recount the Zero Mission and SR-388 incident events that take place in Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, with screenshots depicting the battles against Kraid, Mother Brain, an Omega Metroid and the Queen Metroid from both games. This follows into a page featuring artwork of the Gunship and Samus herself, summarizing how she took the baby to the Space Science Academy for study, and returns after receiving a distress call.

After this, the guide describes the Options on the Samus Data Screen and the game's controls, before branching into an explanation of the Heads-Up Display, the Shinespark and Wall Jump secret techniques, the Map and Samus Screens, and the various power-ups Samus can acquire. It also details the types of blocks, pickups and doors on Zebes. A full-scale map of Zebes, which is a high quality version of the map in the Super Metroid Players' Guide, can then be seen with details on each sector to the left and a screenshot of Samus in the respective place. There is no such screenshot for Tourian, which uses a black box with a question mark over it, to prevent spoilers.

Next, the Space Pirate generals, minions and bosses are described. This erroneously includes the Torizo, which is implied to be a Chozo sentry, and the Big Metroid, which is not affiliated with the Pirates and is actually their captive. It is incorrectly referred to as an "Alpha-Metroid" in German, when in fact it is not an Alpha Metroid but the baby, having been excessively exposed to Beta-Rays.

The guide consists primarily of blocks of text with screenshots to the side, as well as portions of the in-game environments to act as maps. These maps point out item locations, Energy Charges, Missile Stations and Save Stations.

Each area of Zebes is introduced by a picture drawn by the game artists; these pictures are exclusive to the guide. They feature Samus situationally, and often combating enemies, such as Kraid for Brinstar. They are bordered by a vertical rectangle on the right side, with a computer monitor giving details about the respective area. However, the pictures have occasional inaccuracies with the game, likely for dramatic effect. For example, on the Norfair picture, Samus is depicted grappling above a river of lava against a set of pipes not seen anywhere in the ingame area. The Wrecked Ship picture depicts Botwoon and Draygon within the Wrecked Ship, yet they are only encountered underground in Maridia (which is admittedly quite close to the ship). The Maridia picture depicts Samus swimming in Maridia, although this is not possible ingame. The only other time Samus has been able to swim is in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and then only for limited periods of time. The Tourian picture depicts Samus in a damaged area with fire around her; suggesting that it is set during the countdown after Mother Brain's defeat. The "Secret Passage" picture depicts Samus in a mechanical chamber with three possible exits, highlighting the many paths she can take. Artwork of Samus from Return of Samus and Super Metroid is used throughout the guide.

The guide states that all enemies aboard the Wrecked Ship are the underlings of Mother Brain. Several other sources also state that most, if not all, the wildlife on Zebes have fallen under the control of Mother Brain through her intense brainwaves. Phantoon is also stated to be tapping into Mother Brain's brainwaves. It stops after Samus's encounter with the Big Metroid and does not describe the Mother Brain battle or the escape sequence afterward, presumably expecting players to figure this out for themselves.

The "Geheime Wege" (Secret Passage) section of the book contains ingame maps with all power-up locations, boss names, items and other information for the reader's benefit. The guide ends with an index of terms and publishing and warranty information, as well as a copy of the guide's cover, which is the full version of the game's boxart.