I thought I’d do a Mario themed blog since a big new game in the series is being released around this time. I first thought about writing on my favorite Mario games and characters, but I just did that when Super Mario 3-D Land came out. And while I have no qualms in revisiting old blog topics, since that was done less than a year ago, I figured it would be too soon to do again. I also thought about doing my favorite Mario villains, but aside from Toad and Luigi, all my favorite Mario characters are bad guys anyway (Koopa Kids, Wario, Capt.Syrup, etc.). So we’ll do my favorite Mario power-ups instead. The best ones are the power-ups that can make or break how well you get through levels, so we’ll go through some of my favorites here. The list isn’t in any particular order or anything.

Fire Flower

This one is especially useful in the old games. When you have the power to toss fireballs, you know that getting through the next level will be a whole lot easier with projectile attacks. Especially in the original Super Mario Bros. They’ve brought back the flower in the modern 3-D games, but it’s more of a way to get through a puzzle, like “light these torches in a given time limit” kind of thing. So not as useful now as it was back then.

Starman

If you can catch one of these bouncing flashing stars, you’ll be able to crash through a portion of the stage unharmed as you are deemed invincible. The Starman has evolved over the years to require more skill to use now. I especially liked how, when you get a Starman in Mario 3, you do ninja flips when you jump. That blew me away when I first saw that. There are whole stages in Mario 3 and Mario World where if you are skilled enough, you can continuously get Starman power-ups chained together for the whole level! And in those games, since you are continuously killing enemies for higher points and eventually extra lives, you can get a ton of 1ups in these stages, too! I also liked how Baby Mario got a cape and could run up walls with the Starman in Yoshi’s Island. And when you get it in Super Paper Mario, your character turns into a huge 8-bit version of themselves and can crash through everything in their path! The Mega Mushroom that was first introduced in New Super Mario Bros. is like an invincibility star, except you grow huge and can plow through everything. It’s really just for show, as it doesn’t require much skill to use.

Superball

Everyone always talks about bringing back the raccoon tail or Kuribo’s Shoe, but NOBODY asks to bring back this little known power. The Superball is a variant of the Fire Flower power found in Super Mario Land for Game Boy. I don’t know if it was the limitations of the handheld or the programmers’ unfamiliarity with the new console, but the Superball works a little differently. Instead of bouncing along the ground, Mario shoots out a black ball that bounces on floors and walls at an angle. So you have to develop new strategies to defeat faraway enemies. But the neat thing about the Superball is that it would collect any coins it touched. In fact, there were whole sections of levels in Super Mario Land designed for that purpose. For that reason, I’m kind of surprised that they haven’t brought back the Superball for New Super Mario Bros. 2, what with the emphasis on coin collecting and all.

Hammer Suit

Everyone always talks about how cool the coveted Tanooki suit is, and the Frog Suit is a necessity for some of the water levels in Mario 3 (but a bit harder to handle on land). But for me, my favorite ‘suit’ power in Mario 3 was the Hammer Suit. When I first saw that, I thought it was so cool how you could ‘be’ the enemy. The trajectory of the hammers was a little harder to defeat enemies with, but you could kill a lot of things you couldn’t with fireballs. Like ghosts and even Bowser! Plus, ducking down made Mario go into the shell and then he was invulnerable to fire attacks! Mario 3 wasn’t my favorite game in the series, but I have to admit it had the most creative power-ups!

Kuribo’s Shoe

This was such a weird one. You only got it in one level of Mario 3. Mario hops inside a big green shoe with a wind up key on its back, and can hop through the level unphased by enemies and dangerous objects from below. It was just strange, and one of the reasons that leads me to believe that Mario 3 was one of the very first truly quirky platformers. When I first saw the name of it, I thought, “What the heck is a Kuribo?” Turns out that Goombas are called Kuribo in Japan. Makes sense because you see the Goombas hopping around in these shoes in that level, too. I always thought it would be funny to have a giant Goomba boss wear those shoes. I don’t know why they didn’t just call it “Goomba’s Shoe” though. Mario 3 did that naming thing a lot. There’s another item you can get called Jugem’s Cloud. What the heck is a Jugem? Again, Japanese name for Lakitu. It’s weird that they did that, especially considering those characters’ names were clearly established by then. But yeah, they should bring back the shoe, there’s so much that could be done with it. You can see how in another game: Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. There is an item in that game that is very similar to Kuribo’s Shoe. It’s a metal shoe with spikes on the bottom, but Kirby hops inside just like how Mario does. Later in that Kirby game, there are some challenging optional goals where you try and use that shoe as far as you can. Check it out if you like Kuribo’s Shoe!

P-Wing

Mario 3 isn’t really my favorite game in the series (I like Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Mario 2, and Mario 64 more). But I do have a lot of respect for Mario 3 regardless. However, I do have to admit something. I’m really not very good at it. Mario 3 is hard! That’s why I’m glad there’s the P-Wing. It was basically the raccoon tail power with unlimited flight. When I first beat Mario 3, I saved a bunch of P-Wings to get through Bowser’s Castle! You could even beat Bowser easily with a P-Wing, though they ‘fixed’ that cheat in later versions of Mario 3 on the SNES and GBA. Speaking of the GBA, I loved how using the e-Reader let you swipe more power-ups to use in that version of Mario 3. I really liked the e-Reader.

Cape

When it comes to flight, most people probably prefer the raccoon tail. I have to admit, it certainly is creative. Who would’ve thought “Hey, let’s make Mario fly by putting a raccoon tail on his butt!” Actually, technically it’s a Tanuki tail, and if you know anything about Tanukis in Japanese legends and folklore, it seems kind of weird to associate them with Mario. But maybe not so weird to the Japanese. Anyway, back on topic. Others may also have fond memories of exhilarating 3-D flight with the Wing Cap from Mario 64. But for me, my favorite way to fly was with the cape from Super Mario World. It was nowhere near as creative as a raccoon tail, but it was so much more fun and easy to fly with the cape. You could even fly through whole stages, which seems like cheating but it still required some skill, and certain stages wouldn’t let you fly through them anyway. The Cape had other uses as well. You could swat away enemies with the raccoon tail, but it was slow so you had to time it right. But with the cape, you spun so fast that hitting enemies and blocks, even while jumping, was a breeze. To glide down with the raccoon tail, you had to constantly press the button. But with the cape, you could just hold down the button to glide with ease. The cape was so versatile that it was a deal breaker to me when getting past levels!

Yoshi

You might say, “Hey, Yoshi’s a character, not a power-up.” But in Super Mario World, he was really treated more like one. Similar to the cape, Yoshi was also a very versatile power-up, and made it much easier to pass levels. He could eat almost anything, even lava monsters and giant missiles three times bigger than his head! Some shells would also give Yoshi special powers when he ate them, like fire breath or flight. He could stomp most enemies, even spiky ones. And if you were about to fall into a pit, you could do a dirty trick and hop off of Yoshi’s back for an extra boost. But don’t worry, Yoshi is tough and he was always ready to help again if you found another egg. I also liked that weird “bree-burp” SNES sound effect Yoshi made when you hopped on his back. I hated it when they gave Yoshi a real voice on the N64.

Metal Mario

Back when Super Mario World came out, Nintendo Power published a strategy guide for it called “Mario Mania.” But it was more than just a guide, as the beginning pages had a very well-written history of Mario. In fact, this book is a must-have for any Mario fan if you can find it. It had an interview with Miyamoto, creator of Mario, in the book. One of the things he said was, “Who know how Mario will look in the future. Maybe he’ll wear metallic clothes!” Was Miyamoto foretelling the future of Mario 64? Who knows? But the Metal Mario power-up was very cool. It made him invulnerable to any danger, and he sank like a stone in water. Plus the techno invincible remix they played while he was metal was really rockin’. And he just looked plain cool, like the liquid metal Terminator. The metal texture effect was pretty neat back then. The metal power-up was so cool they brought it back for the Smash Bros. games!

Propeller Suit

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was very hard, at least I thought so. But the power-ups made things easier. You know you’d ace that ice level with the penguin suit, and the propeller suit was great for jumping obstacles. Flying made clever use of the Wii remote, even if it wasn’t as good as the cape or raccoon tail. But my favorite thing about this suit is that it made Mario and Luigi look really dorky while wearing it. In fact, when my brother Jeff and I would complete stages and both characters were wearing the prop suit at the end, we’d always yell out, “The Dork Squad!”

Conclusions

And that’s my top favorite Mario power-ups. In the comments section, tell me your favorites! –Cary

Tags: Misc