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This article's name is an unofficial translation from official Japanese media
and may not represent the canonical English name, if one exists.
An alternate name from an official source may be required.
Victory Techniques for Metroid (必勝テクニックメトロイド) was an official 2-issue manga/strategy guide that was released by Wanpakku Comics in Japan as number 10 of their Victory Techniques Perfect Version (必勝テクニック完ペキ版) series of strategy guides. It was written by Minazuki Yuu, is humorous in nature, and follows the story of the first Metroid game. While never officially released in English, an unofficial translation has been done by the Metroid Database.
Interestingly, it features the debut of Samus's Log Book (though she already has data downloaded to it) and her Gunship, which is referred to as the "Cosmo Liner". The character of Commander Nemo is introduced, and the Galactic Federation ship which lost the first Metroid specimen to the Space Pirates is named as the Space Research Vessel Marina.
Plot[]
Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.
The manga begins detailing Samus' past adventures, with Samus being called a male (as in the instruction booklet for Metroid) which is later revealed to be a promotional video made by Samus herself. She is called by a woman telling her that Commander Nemo would like to speak to her. He tells her he wants her to go on an important mission, revealing to her the Metroids' history and the outcome of what would happen if the Metroids were not destroyed. Despite Samus' claims that her mission to Zebes will be a cakewalk, but Nemo decides to test her skills by playing against her in a game of Volleyball. He manages to beat her, but she shoots an outline around Nemo, saying that she can only show her true power in actual combat. She leaves, with Nemo asking, "Well, why wouldn't I trust those skills?"
Samus boards the Cosmo Liner, and flies off to Zebes. While flying, it is shown that she is losing at a game of The Legend of Zelda, resolving to finish the game before arriving on Zebes. She arrives there one month later, with the Cosmo Liner warning her about approaching Space Pirate ships. Samus narrowly dodges one crashing into her. She comes out on top of her ship, bragging about how great she is, but the Cosmo Liner gets hit by shots from the other ships. This enrages Samus because she was talking, and interrupted. She commands the Cosmo Liner to initiate V-Max (which amplifies the ship's power three times beyond its normal capacity), and she destroys the ships, only to fall off her own ship and plunge into Zebes' atmosphere. She lands in the beginning point in Brinstar, where a Zoomer falls onto her head. Then she takes out her Logbook and reads information on the Zoomer. She kills one of them, and takes the Energy Capsule it leaves behind. After killing the rest of the Zoomers, she acquires the Maru Mari and continues on.
Samus encounters several Skrees in the next corridor and runs away, before figuring out how to defeat them. Next, she encounters a Door, and after several failed attempts to open it with chants, she shoots it. As Samus ransacks Brinstar in search of the miniboss, she receives a transmission from Nemo saying that she cannot continue into Tourian until she defeats the minibosses Kraid and Ridley, and that their attack power is inferior to the Metroids. He closes the transmission with a suggestion that she search for powerups. She is touched by a Zoomer, which results in her breaking down over needing an Energy Ball. She next encounters a Reo and finishes it off. When she enters the following shaft, she gets hit in the head by a Ripper and falls to the bottom. Climbing back up, she enters another shaft quickly and falls down again.
In Corridor No. 5, Samus encounters an Air Hole and mistakes it for a Warp Pipe from Mario. When she attempts to enter it however she is touched by a Zeb nest and is launched out. Shortly after, she acquires the Missile Launcher and carelessly begins to fire Missiles, resulting in her getting lost. As she enters the next room, she is ambushed by Reo and attempts to open a Red Hatch with her beam. Once she manages to open it, she acquires the Long Beam and uses it to finish the Reo off. In Corridor No. 4, she encounters many Wavers, one of which hits Samus and knocks her into the water. She escapes, and continues on.
Samus acquires her first Energy Tank and the Bombs. Returning to a room in Corridor No. 4, she uncovers a tunnel and enters yet another shaft, which leads to the Ice Beam. After acquiring some more Missiles and Energy Tanks in Corridor No. 3, she finds the elevator to Norfair. Realizing that she has yet to defeat Kraid, she decides to scour Norfair for powerups to make the fight easier. While on her way, she falls in the lava and gets burned. After navigating a shaft, she acquires the High Jump Boots.
Backtracking to Brinstar, she picks up the Varia Suit, and returns to Norfair. Bombing below the room where she acquired the High Jump Boots, she finds another passage with small platforms above a pool of lava, in which Samus falls. Later, she is attacked by Polyps, which damage her helmet. After fighting her way through an army of Gamets, she finds the Screw Attack. Falling in fake lava, she drops into the Hopping-Mad Corridor, which houses a large block that Samus breaks open. After some more exploring, she acquires the Wave Beam.
Continuing on, she finds the elevator to Ridley's Lair and enters an Eerie Cave. In Imago's hideout, she encounters several Zebbos that mangled her face, and "marred her beautiful physique". Later, she comes across a high wall that she cannot cross. Commander Nemo calls her and gives her several strategies to pass. After navigating several more corridors, she comes face to face with Ridley, defeating him.
She then backtracks to Brinstar and enters Kraid's Lair, encountering several new enemies and falling down a shaft. After more exploring, she finds Mini-Kraid. After defeating him, she begins to explore Zebes for the remaining Missile Tanks. Shortly through her course, she encounters the real Kraid, mistaking him for another Kraid, before figuring out that Mini-Kraid was an imposter. After a tougher battle with him, she defeats him and is rewarded with a large expansion of Missiles.
After reobtaining her Ice Beam (it cannot be used simultaneously with the Wave Beam) and obtaining the final Energy Tanks and Missiles, she goes through Corridor No. 2 and discovers the Stone Statues. Panicking at the sight of the Mini-Bosses, she shoots them, accidentally revealing the bridge to Tourian, which she finally enters. In the first shaft, she encounters several Metroids and blasts through them. After navigating the tunnels of Tourian, Samus blasts through the Zebetites and comes face to face with the Mother Brain. Having destroyed her life support, Mother Brain threatens Samus that she won't come back alive. After a bloody battle (and Samus nearly dying in the lava), Samus defeats the Mother Brain and completes her objective. She then successfully escapes to the surface, and is last seen standing on top of her ship, with the guide suggesting that to meet the true Samus, the player must have bravery.
Non-canon warning: Non-canonical information ends here.
Trivia[]
- When Samus is knocked into acid by the Waver, the manga refers to it as water. This matches what was written in the original Metroid NES instruction manual, which likewise referred to the deadly liquid in Brinstar as water. However, water is completely harmless to Samus in all other Metroid games, and Zero Mission corrects the error in the original game by referring to the yellow liquid as acid.
- When Samus comes across a door in the manga for the first time, aside from trying to open it via "Open Sesame", she also uses the phrases "Bamble, bomble, bambopp!" and "Pastel, popple, poppinpa!", referring to the chants used in the Magical Girl genre anime series Magical Angel Creamy Mami and Magical Idol Pastel Yumi, respectively.