Z Space Blog

I recently got into the speedrunning scene and decided that my first serious speedrunning game would be Metroid Zero Mission. One of the most important aspects of speedrunning Metroid games is planning your route through the game. Logically, it's important to have an accurate and useful map, often more informative than the in-game map. Years ago, I made a simple map for MZM that was designed to be printed and display the expansions, nothing more.

Revisiting it with a new goal for route planning in mind, I present to you the map of Zebes for MZM.

Metroid Zero Mission » Zebes Map (864 × 1216 pixels, 84 KB)

The entire image was self-made except for the Creative Commons license indicator in the bottom right. The only information it's lacking are indicators for which power-ups you need to get past certain areas. To be honest, if I added that information the resolution would be doubled, easily. I have also omitted boss icons (for now), since all speedrunners know where the bosses are. :)

If you want to distribute it, I don't mind as long as the file is unaltered and I'm informed of where it was posted. It's cool to see where it ends up!

2022-12-12 UPDATE: The text that I made for this map ended up inspiring the styling of the 'ZLG' logo! Check out my post on the subject.

Castlevania is a long-running and well-respected franchise from Konami. Throughout its lifetime, it's encountered some difficulties maintaining freshness. When they make a breakthrough, we get games like Symphony of the Night and the Sorrow games. When they're recycling, you get Harmony of Dissonance, better known as "SotN's bastard child on your GBA". Given the success of Symphony of the Night, one would assume Harmony would inherit its strong points. Unfortunately, this is not the case and I would not recommend this game to anyone but the hardcore CV fans.

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