Super Mushroom
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Super Mushrooms
The Super Mushroom is a power-up from the Mario series of video games. It is, traditionally, about the size of "regular" Mario, and has a white stalk below a red and white (originally red and orange) spotted cap.It debuted in Super Mario Bros. for the NES/Famicom, and the powers it grants the player lent itself to the game's title. (In Super Mario Bros. only, these mushrooms were called, "Magic Mushrooms".) It emerges from flashing blocks marked with a '?' when they are bumped from below (a convention carried over from Mario Bros., where bumping platforms was the main form of attack). Upon emerging, it then begins to slide to the right (this was later changed for Super Mario Bros. 3, where, depending on what side of the block was hit, the mushroom would head toward the opposite side.) If the player catches it, they become Super Mario: it doubles Mario's size and allows him to take an extra hit. If Mario was already 'big' when he comes across a red mushroom the game will instead give a secondary item, such as a fire flower or leaf. These allow him to gain better powers, such as Fire Mario (shoot bouncing fire balls) and Caped Mario (which allows you to fly and glide). Furthermore, Super Mario can break bricks, whereas regular Mario can't. In Super Mario World, Super Mushrooms would also allow Mario to break Spin Blocks with the spin jump, an important tool for certain levels, such as to access the Red Switch Palace. Also depending on the way you were facing when you hit the block containig the mushroom it will move the opposite way you are facing.
In some Mario games, it heals Mario and friends, such as in Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi. In the Mario Kart series of racing games, it gives the player a short boost of speed. In Super Mario 64 DS, the Super Mushroom causes the player's character to grow immense and become virtually invincible, capable of plowing through many obstacles with ease, but the effect is only temporary. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, a player will grow immense after touching a Super Mushroom.
Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that this item was created by chance. The first sketches of Mario turned out to be too big, for which they were forced to shrink them. Then they thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow and shrink by eating a magic mushroom, just like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. [link] In the novel, Alice eats pieces of mushroom to change her size.
Because the Mushroom is the most basic power-up, without which other powers can't be granted, it is occasionally used in the Mario series to denote basic rewards or easier skill levels. Winning three consecutive Mushroom cards from the slot-machine goal boxes at the end of each level in Super Mario Bros. 3 will earn the player two extra lives, whereas winning three consecutive Fire Flower cards earns three extra lives, and winning three consecutive Starman cards will earn them five. In Mario Kart games, the first (and easiest) tracks belong to the Mushroom Cup.
Other mushrooms
The 1-up Mushroom is a green palette swap of the Super Mushroom, which gives the player an extra life. They appear in most of the Mario games, usually in hidden places. In the Super Mario action/platform games, the 1-Up Mushroom adds an extra life to the character, allowing them to survive longer without getting a Game Over, which would often cause all points earned to be erased. In the RPG games, the 1-Up Mushroom allows you to revive your character (or be revived) if you lose all your HP during battle. This is especially useful in Mario & Luigi, where, when you are out of 1-Up Mushrooms and one character loses all HP, the remaining character would have to pick up that character while defending, making it more difficult to play. Simply put, by having a 1-up Mushroom in your collection, the character who is loses all their HP automatically revives the moment the character loses said HP. In Paper Mario, the Life Mushroom revives you with 10 HP (automatically). In SuperStar Saga, you are revived with only 1/2 HP, but a 1-Up Plus Mushroom gives you full HP.
Poison Mushrooms
The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (also known as ') features Poison Mushrooms, which have the same effect as being touched by an enemy. It was originally a brown palette swap of the typically red Super Mushroom, but in enhanced remakes of the game, it was given a different sprite. The only games since The Lost Levels to have Poison Mushrooms as items are Super Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros. Melee, ', and some Mario Party games. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Poison Mushrooms bear a very close resemblance to Super Mushrooms, but are darker and have "angry" eyes, causing the player to shrink in size. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Poison Mushrooms are known simply as "Poison Shrooms" and are small, green mushrooms (they have no eyes) with purple spots. They are made by having Zess T. mix you up a Slow Shroom and Inky sauce. In the Mario Party series, they are purple and limit the maximum roll on the dice block to 3 or 5, depending on the game and situation. In the original Mario Party, finding a Poison Mushroom caused a player to miss a turn.
Golden Mushrooms
Golden Mushrooms in the Mario Party series let players hit 3 dice blocks in one turn. In the Mario Kart series, the Golden Mushroom gives the player an unlimited amount of boosts for a short time. It is usually only available to racers in low positions, or in the case of only to gamers playing as Toad and Toadette or Petey Piranha and King Boo as it was their special item. In , the Golden Mushroom is an object which completely restores health points and Bros. points, which can only be acquired by defeating Fawful in the one-before-last battle.Ultra Mushrooms
The Ultra Mushroom is worth even more points than the Mushroom and Super Mushroom (and is therefore even rarer and more expensive than they are).Max Mushrooms
The Max Mushroom, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, offers the HP of a character to be raised up to the maximum amount possible. It is very rare and very expensive, but it is useful for some of the battles, particularly the final battle.Reverse Mushrooms
Reverse Mushrooms appear in Mario Party 3, and make players move backwards instead of forwards. Mushrooms with question marks on them appeared in the Battle Game in the Super Mario All Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3, and would make the two players either switch positions, or, if one player was big and one player was small, it would make them switch sizes.Mini Mushrooms
In Mario Party 4 there are Mini Mushrooms that make anyone smaller. With this they can fit through small pipes, although you can only roll a dice block from 1-5. There were also Mega Mushrooms that made anyone bigger and allowed one to roll two dice blocks from 1-10 and steal 10 coins from anybody that he or she passes. However, the user is also forced to skip board events, like buying items or stars.Misc.
New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS features Mega Mushrooms as well as Super Mushrooms and Mini Mushrooms. The Mega Mushrooms cause Mario or Luigi to grow to the size of the entire screen for a limited amount of time, destroying anything in their path including warp pipes, enemies, blocks, and even the end-level flagpoles. At the top of the screen, a meter is featured, and is filled up by destroying the various objects. If the meter becomes completely full, the player is awarded five 1-Up Mushrooms.Some of the Mario RPGs also featured "nuts" which had virtually the same effect but healed all the party members (albeit for slightly less than a mushroom would have given individually).
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