Nintendo Official Guide Book for Super Metroid

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The , with the subtitle , is the official Japanese strategy guide for Super Metroid. It is 96 pages long and was released in May 1994, about two months after the game's Japanese release date.
The guide contains a strategy walkthrough for the game, a biography of Samus Aran's early life (from the in-universe Second Office of Trentesse), storyboards of important sequences (such as the Metroid Theft Incident, the Etecoons in Hell, and the Final Conflict), planetary data for Zebes itself along with in-character information logs for each area region, an interview with the development team, and readings of Samus's dreams by fortune teller Ariadne Yuko.
Notably, the biography of Samus refers to her as an "outlaw" Bounty Hunter despite the implicit trust that the Galactic Federation (and the cosmos as a whole) has in her. This likely is not meant as a literal criminal outlaw, and references that as a bounty hunter, Samus operates outside the nominal legal system. The guide also contains information about Zebes, including its day and year cycle and the planet's density; while this is not consistent with the bare-bones information provided via Zebes' Logbook entry in Metroid Prime, it is far more detailed and more consistent with real world science.
Each developer interviewed was asked to reveal a secret of Samus that only they knew. Yasuhiko Fujii replied that the enemies have a few secrets, most likely hinting at a secret message that he programmed into the Evirs' movements. Yoshio Sakamoto revealed that Samus has a birthmark, which would not be rendered in-game until Metroid: Other M. One notable revelation included Samus originally being nude in the Game Over scene with a death scream provided by Minako Hamano; these were removed due to the voice sounding too sexual and Nintendo's policy against nudity in their games. Hirofumi Matsuoka's claim that Samus is a "newhalf" (a Japanese term for a transgender woman) in this interview led to a heated debate in 2015 about the sincerity of his statement.
This guidebook was never officially released in English. The interview and dream readings were translated by the Metroid Database in December 2010.
==See also==
*Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide, the NTSC guide
*Super Metroid Players' Guide, the PAL guide
*Super Metroid: The Official Nintendo Game Guide, the German guide
==Gallery==
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 1.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 2.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 3.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 4.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 5.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 6.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 7.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 8.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 9.jpg
File:Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 10.jpg
Super Metroid JP interview (VGM scans of pages 86-95) 11.jpg
File:Supermetroid 259min94guide-page 16.jpg|Planetary Data of Zebes, page 16
==External links==
*Astrologer Ariadne Yuko's Diagnosis of Samus' Dreams, translated by Metroid Database
*Super Metroid Development Team Interview, translated by Metroid Database
ja:スーパーメトロイド サムス・アランの2時間59分
Category:Books
Category:Strategy Guides
Category:SNES