Power Ups We Wish We Had

One last hurrah for Issue 9! Six brand new power ups that would make our lives easier.

By Francisco Naranjo. Posted 08/09/2010 08:24 5 Comments     ShareThis

Who doesn’t like running through a group of goombas while using a Starman, or spamming fireballs until every enemy on the screen is eliminated? Power ups not only make theĀ game easier, but also more fun. Here’s a brief list of power ups that would make their respective games even more awesome.

The Yellow Shell. Imagine you’re about to finish a heated race – you managed to outspeed your opponents with your great use of items and shortcuts. You’re in first place, and the finish line is so close you can see it! Then, suddenly, you hear that sound… the sound of the evil Blue Shell. It doesn’t matter how good of a race it was for you, you’re doomed to lose your first place because of the Blue Shell. Wouldn’t you be happy to take revenge on those bad, bad Blue Shell users? That’s what the Yellow Shell is for. It can only be obtained if you’re in first place, automatically targeting the player in last place, smashing everyone on its path.

The ability to gain your enemy’s power after you beat it is a pretty good one. Mega Man must have tons and tons of useless elemental attacks at his disposal, so how about something more useful for everyday life? How about Coffee Man? It’d totally work – you could have a cup of nice, steamy coffee at any time, inside your own arm cannon. Having a cup of coffee early in the morning gives you that extra energy boost you need to beat those annoying Robot Masters. Also, if you think this would be completely useless against Mega Man’s enemies, you clearly haven’t spilled coffee on a machine.

Pac-Man’s only weapon against the particularly colored ghosts is the Power Pill. Once you take it, you can eat them and forget about them for a while. Sure, it’s very effective, but you’re in trouble if you forget to take it. That’s why the Power Patch would be a much better option – Pac-Man would have to apply it on his skin and have the time of his life eating ghosts for 7 days, and then he’d need to replace it. Still, this power up would probably be better suited for Ms. Pac-Man.

Pit’s first game, Kid Icarus, was a tough game. Part of it was the fact that no matter how many times you killed the enemies, they would invariably appear again once the hearts (the game currency) disappeared or were taken by Pit. The solution? the Pesticide Suit, of course. Using a very powerful gaseous pesticide, Pit would get rid of those snakes and assorted flying monsters for longer periods of time. With his very own Celestial Gas Mask, he’d be free of any possible harm caused by the pesticide.

Excitebike is a fun little game. One thing that has always been a problem, though, it’s how easily the driver falls off the bike. Seriously, it doesn’t matter if you’re jumping a huge ramp or passing over a tiny bump in the track; you can fall off the bike in a rather humiliating way. That’s why Excitebike would benefit from this power up: the Training Wheels. They’d be pink, with the driver gaining a quite flashy baby blue outfit that would scream “hey, look! he’s using training wheels!”. Sure, it’d still be humiliating, but you won’t have to watch that weird animation of the driver running back to his bike again.

Mario’s Fire Flower is a gaming icon. It’s fun to use, useful and stylish. It’s definitely a great power up, but if only Mario could have water instead of fire, those tricky Bowser’s castles would be much easier to beat. Remember those fireballs suddenly jumping from the lava, and other fire-based obstacles? One simple squirt of water would take care of them. Same with Bowser’s fire breath. It’d be practically useless when used in water levels, but it’d be a fair trade.

Do you have an idea for a cool, game-breaking power up? Be sure to let us know!.

5 Responses to “Power Ups We Wish We Had”

  • 1332 points
    Andrew Hsieh says...

    Oh, man. That Yellow Shell just sounds like a nasty piece of work. As if MK players don’t hate whoever’s in first place already … and oft have I wished for a Water Flower, definitely.

    Also, I’m loving the spritework! Good timessss.

  • 697 points
    Adam Sorice says...

    Pretty sweet article and Andrew’s right, the sprite artwork is badass. You dabble in spriting a lot?

  • 0 points
    Skull says...

    looks like the water flower gives Mario really sweaty armpits XD

  • 183 points
    Williaint says...

    -Wasn’t the ice flower better than the water flower? I’m just sayin’. It sounds like Mario’s Water flower was his FLUDD suit. :P
    -I don’t get the Yellow Shell… Is it a shell that you hold out behind you and Specifically targets attacks?

    (Here’s something I thought was in NEW super Mario DS)
    I’d like to see Mario gradually grow, every time he gets a mushroom, instead of 1000 points. There’d have to be a limit, like 5, or something (so he doesn’t take up the entire screen).

    • 1332 points
      Andrew Hsieh says...

      I was just playing World 8 in NSMB:Wii, actually, and though the Ice Flower was pretty useful for Podobos and stuff, it was harmless versus the fireballs in the final boss sequence– not to mention versus the boss itself. A Water Flower seems like it’d be much more helpful, though yeah, I hadn’t noticed that the F.L.U.D.D. is pretty much Water Flower tech. Oh Sunshine, forgive me.

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