Super Metroid Unauthorized Game Secrets

A larger format black-and-white guide from Prima's usual digest-size publications up to this point. This one has a nifty full-color section in the center, showing some of the game's excellent 16-bit sprite work and backgrounds.

Tom Stratton, Jr. wishes he was Rusel DeMaria and Zach Meston, but unfortunately for him, he's not. This is a fairly bare-bones walkthrough with its share of spelling mistakes and a wonky print job which cursed a number of those early Prima books to slanted text and screencaps on otherwise-straight pages. It doesn't help that my copy of this has some minor water damage to the bottom of the last 20 or so pages, so if you notice any wobbling or warping, that's where that came from. I pulled this off the rack at a Goodwill a few years ago for a buck, so I couldn't complain too much.

They really tried with this one, but there's just no matching Nintendo's own official game guide, which not only came in full colour, but also revealed a number of tricks and secrets that this book does not. If you're going to only get one guide, make sure it's Nintendo's. Prima's isn't awful, and it will still get you through the game, but there are a few technical mistakes in here, and despite the claim on the back cover, it doesn't really tell you how to get the so-called "real" ending. Nor does it reveal the little bonus you can earn by freeing the captive animals before the planet blows up. Boo!

Prima makes some quality guides for sure, I just don't think I'd classify this as one of their better offerings. Nevertheless, this one's pretty uncommon, so it's nice to get it archived here.

Enjoy!