Best powerup in any game?

[Graedius]

I was talking to a group of devilishly handsome people earlier, and I mentioned a question I'd been thinking of idly~!

What do you think is the best powerup in any game, excluding any powerup who's sole purpose is to provide invincibility? Like, no starman, hyper candy, invulnerability shields, etc. In this instance, invincibility (or temporary invincibility) can be a side effect, providing it's not the primary effect and reason to use it (such as hyper mode from Metroid Prime III.) It can be something temporary or something permanent, such as an item or ability you acquire permanently (such as one of Link's items.)

Any platform, any type of game. :3
Gogo!

[Matoking]

AAAAWWW YEEES. Feels good to unleash the Final Smash.

[Rainbow Yoshi]

The Fierce Deity's Mask from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite powerup-like thing. Too bad you can only use it in Boss Rooms... and you don't even get it until the end of the game. D:

[emvee]

Scatter gun from Contra is the best, no contest.

[Raz Yoshi]

Didn't think my favorite power-up would already be on this list after 3 posts, but the spread-fire gun from the original Contra is the best there is XD

[anjilfan]

The Golden Hammer from Wrecking Crew

The "Speed Booster" from Super Metroid.

[Moot]

Kuribo's Shoe.

Everything else is terrible and you are wrong if you think otherwise.

[Yoshiken]

Building the "Great Pyramids" in Civilization IV, which if you know the game, can only be constructed by one nation at one point in history, and whoever builds it first gets it. It puts an automatic grainery upon construction of any city. Almost too perfect.

[Shoe]

Nov 23, 2009 20:47:25 GMT -5 Moot said:

Kuribo's Shoe.

Everything else is terrible and you are wrong if you think otherwise.

Agreed.

[Brute]

Nov 21, 2009 17:10:37 GMT -5 @emvee said:

Scatter gun from Contra is the best, no contest.

I second that!

[teh yoshi]

[die]http://images.ientrymail.com/wiiblog/blueshell.jpg[/die]

[Matoking]

Nov 24, 2009 6:43:38 GMT -5 teh yoshi said:

[die]http://images.ientrymail.com/wiiblog/blueshell.jpg[/die]

Would have probably chosen that one if it wasn't the most ridiculously unbalanced and powerful power-up in a competitive game as Mario Kart. Seriously, it's the single only thing I hate in the whole game.

I think Gamesradar's feature points weakness of the item out in a perfect light :
www.gamesradar.com/f/the-top-7-worst-parts-of-best-games/a-200806161050968082/p-7

[Swift]

Nov 24, 2009 10:36:22 GMT -5 Matoking said:

Nov 24, 2009 6:43:38 GMT -5 teh yoshi said:

[die]http://images.ientrymail.com/wiiblog/blueshell.jpg[/die]

Would have probably chosen that one if it wasn't the most ridiculously unbalanced and powerful power-up in a competitive game as Mario Kart. Seriously, it's the single only thing I hate in the whole game.

I think Gamesradar's feature points weakness of the item out in a perfect light :
www.gamesradar.com/f/the-top-7-worst-parts-of-best-games/a-200806161050968082/p-7

I agree that it's frustrating to be hit by the blue shell, but I don't think it's unbalanced. What I like about Mario Kart is that most of the items have a huge impact on the race itself and, depending on the level of difficulty or the skill of the players, the leaders of the race can be changing constantly. Any item can completely change the race and throw last place into first, or first into last; It's just the blue shell is the most accurate.

Also, if you know a blue shell is coming and second-place is right behind you, just slow down and move away. Then it becomes more of a help than anything.

As for my vote on a power-up, I can't think of any at the moment, so I'll have to come back to that.

[Graedius]

Nov 24, 2009 6:43:38 GMT -5 teh yoshi said:

[die]http://images.ientrymail.com/wiiblog/blueshell.jpg[/die]

This is why I will never play Battle Mode in Mario Kart Wii ever again in my life. >|
...well, that and the forced team play.

[Matoking]

Nov 24, 2009 14:54:51 GMT -5 Swift said:

Nov 24, 2009 10:36:22 GMT -5 Matoking said:

Would have probably chosen that one if it wasn't the most ridiculously unbalanced and powerful power-up in a competitive game as Mario Kart. Seriously, it's the single only thing I hate in the whole game.

I think Gamesradar's feature points weakness of the item out in a perfect light :
www.gamesradar.com/f/the-top-7-worst-parts-of-best-games/a-200806161050968082/p-7

I agree that it's frustrating to be hit by the blue shell, but I don't think it's unbalanced. What I like about Mario Kart is that most of the items have a huge impact on the race itself and, depending on the level of difficulty or the skill of the players, the leaders of the race can be changing constantly. Any item can completely change the race and throw last place into first, or first into last; It's just the blue shell is the most accurate.

Also, if you know a blue shell is coming and second-place is right behind you, just slow down and move away. Then it becomes more of a help than anything.

As for my vote on a power-up, I can't think of any at the moment, so I'll have to come back to that.

At least you can balance the items in multi-player modes, but in single player mode, when all you want to is to unlock all the tracks you get slapped into the face for doing good. It would make it at least more logical to make it hard to hit but instead it does everything for you? It's the thing that makes it unbalanced.

It's also not always possible to jump back into the second place when you are too far ahead of everyone.

"Oh, you are doing badly? Here, have a free nuke."

[Swift]

Nov 25, 2009 8:21:55 GMT -5 Matoking said:

Nov 24, 2009 14:54:51 GMT -5 Swift said:

I agree that it's frustrating to be hit by the blue shell, but I don't think it's unbalanced. What I like about Mario Kart is that most of the items have a huge impact on the race itself and, depending on the level of difficulty or the skill of the players, the leaders of the race can be changing constantly. Any item can completely change the race and throw last place into first, or first into last; It's just the blue shell is the most accurate.

Also, if you know a blue shell is coming and second-place is right behind you, just slow down and move away. Then it becomes more of a help than anything.

As for my vote on a power-up, I can't think of any at the moment, so I'll have to come back to that.

At least you can balance the items in multi-player modes, but in single player mode, when all you want to is to unlock all the tracks you get slapped into the face for doing good. It would make it at least more logical to make it hard to hit but instead it does everything for you? It's the thing that makes it unbalanced.

It's also not always possible to jump back into the second place when you are too far ahead of everyone.

"Oh, you are doing badly? Here, have a free nuke."

Games such as Mario Kart are designed to be multi-player. Yes, there is single-player and you have to unlock most stuff in single-player mode, but no one would buy a racing game that's ONLY multi-player (unless it was online, maybe).

I took a look at that article, and I disagree with one of its points, which is that other games don't penalize you for doing well. In most racing games, if you're not in first place, you get a small speed boost to help you take the lead. In the new Call of Duty game, in the multiplayer modes, if you die so many times you get a "death streak" buff to help you even the score. In World of Warcraft, if you kill the same person so many times, you can no longer get honor points from them.

I said jump into second when "second-place is right behind you", not when you're far ahead. And if you're that far ahead anyway, the shell probably won't be too devastating of a blow and you should be able to recover fine.

The draw of Mario Kart is that the race can be completely random, and anyone can win. Of course there will always been those situations where you're hit by a blue shell just as you're about to cross the finish line and you lose the race because of it, but there are also plenty of games where a boss pulls out a one-hit kill move that you didn't even know it had just as you were about to win.

[Matoking]

[Did it become an arguing spree now? FFFUU-]

I'm just saying random luck doesn't go well with single-player, neither does it go with a multi-player game, it's favoring randomness over skill and honesty. Multiplayer games are supposed to be competitive and fun, not simply rolling a dice and seeing who gets the highest score after all.[/arguingspree]

I don't play online with Wii anyway.

Try to guess how this applies to me : xkcd.com/290/

[Swift]

I'm not trying to argue or cause spite, I'm trying to make a discussion, since that's what forums are for. If I'm upsetting you with conversation, you can just ignore me and this thread can die like the rest of them. I'm enjoying myself, and to me this thread's become the most interesting one in the forum to me.

Plenty of games, multiplayer or not, use a random number generator to determine an outcome. Random monster spawns, item drops, events, etc. If you want a literal example of "rolling a dice," just look at Mario Party.

Just take the smash ball you mentioned, for example. Do you suggest that using a smash ball means you have more skill than someone who happened to be on the other side of the map when it appeared?

From my experience, blue shells don't pop up too often anyway, so it's not like you're guarenteed to lose first place once you snatch it.

[Matoking]

Everyone has an equal chance to get the Smash Ball. Blue Shell is given to a player who is at the last place and wouldn't profit from it anyway, seeing it only affects the player at the first place.

[Swift]

That's not true. If you're at a large stage like the old Hyrule Temple, and a smash ball appears next to one person while the other is on the other side of the map, that's an equal chance? On another note, if you die so many times in a row without getting a kill, the game GIVES you a smash ball when you respawn. That's the same concept of being given the blue shell in last place.

Also:

Nov 24, 2009 10:36:22 GMT -5 Matoking said:

Would have probably chosen that one if it wasn't the most ridiculously unbalanced and powerful power-up...

Isn't the point of the thread to list the best power-up? It almost sounds like you're casting your vote for the blue shell as well. ^^


Anyway! Since I can't think of anything else at the moment, here's my vote for best power-up, one from World of Warcraft. It's called Fel Rage, and you can only get it during a specific boss fight (Gurtogg Bloodboil). It goes to a random person, and that person gets these benefits:

- increases armor by 15,000 (a lot)
- increases health by 30,000 (a lot)
- increases healing done by 100%
- increases damage done by 300%
- decreases cost of spells and abilities by 50%
- increases size by 100%

It's incredibly fun, but only lasts for 30 seconds and forces the boss to attack you for the duration. ;D