I never got to play it so I picked up a gba cart with the old NES metroid for my ds lite. I didn't expect it to be this hard. Did this game originally come bundled with a physical map or something because i can't help getting lost and going around in circles before getting my ass kicked.

Nope, no map. You were expected to do it on your own or buy Nintendo Power. Here is a map, by the way.

this reminds me of playing La Mulana and reading some stone tablet i wasn't supposed to. The tablet then said basically i was fucked and tough monsters started to appear like everywhere including the very first rooms.

Play the remake Zero Mission which is also on GBA or get an emulator and play Super Metroid.

When Metroid hit there were two camps at my school, the Metroid freaks and the Zelda freaks. I always loved Metroid because while looking and sounding WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY better I also thought it was somewhat easier. Yes at first it's easy to get lost but once you figure out the basic structure and layout it's not nearly as difficult as some others. What I also loved was that you could hit the mini bosses whenever you wanted so if you didn't want a challenge you could snag every energy pack and missile on the planet and just go totally fucking postal! XD

One thing I never forgave it for though was the timed climb at the very end. I think I nailed that one time in all the hundreds of times I actually killed the Mother Brain.

I think he already has that: But you can't go wrong with Zero Mission either. :P Or that (forgot about that release).

One might say it's Nintendo hard even.

Not necessarily. There is always the NES Classics Metroid.

Sweet thanks for the map thing. It's not cheating, is it?
I've never played a metroid game before so I picked up this NES classic series cart for the gba. Figures it's a good opportunity to catch up on some of the classics i missed out on.

Get Screw Attack and forget the rest. :P
Well you need Freeze Ray for the Metroids themselves but that's not until the end.

EDIT:
I just now realized how messed up that sounds. When I was a kid Screw Attack sounded so cool now it makes the game sound like a bad porno. I can't believe they ever got away with that.

While helpful, the map won't magically improve your reflexes. >:-)
Feel free to use it, partly or fully.

I joined the NES party waaay too late, because I wasn't even born when the console came out, so when I got a used one with a few games (including Metroid), I drew a map of the game. Tons of work, but made it a lot easier... I guess.

The map someone else posted looks a lot better though. :D

Imho all NES games are pretty tough, except for Kirby's Adventure (is that the name) maybe. I recently bought Castlevania III. Help.

Metroid (Nes) was such a masterpiece! ^_^ By the time you've finished Metroid your skills will be razor sharp and the journey will be worth the effort. -_^

Also the experience of the original will make Super Metroid (SNES) that much sweeter if you get the chance to play it! ^_^