If you don’t know what to do with yourself until you can hold Metroid: Samus Returns in your eager hands a few days from now, why not watch Retronauts’ Jeremy Parish chart the original Metroid II: Return of Samus’ map layout on graph paper?
So far, there have been two streams (archived on YouTube) of Jeremy mapping the first few areas (stream one is embedded above, stream two is here). It’s certainly an interesting process to watch as it also comes with the occasional neat insight. This isn’t just for fun, though, as these maps will (very likely) eventually be available for purchase, with some added flourishes of course. See here, for example, a test-print of Parish’s original Metroid map.
If you fancy yourself some design analysis and how the opening areas of Metroid II on the Game Boy compare to Metroid: Samus Returns on the Nintendo 3DS, you can check out Jeremy’s comparative analysis (featuring the same graph paper cartography for the remake) on the Retronauts blog by clicking the source link below. Naturally, be wary of item location/layout spoilers for the opening area.
Source: Retronauts.com