8 of the Oddest Power-ups in Video Games

Ever wondered why Mario keeps eating mushrooms all the time?

September 12 is the National Video Game Day. On this day, we celebrate video and the countless hours of fun they give us.

Did you know that? We sure didn’t, but it’s an excellent excuse to continue our series of articles on strange video game stuff.

So far, we’ve covered:

This time, we thought we’d take a look at some of the power-ups you can get in video games. Enhancing your character’s abilities is a staple of gaming, but some of the things you use to do so are pretty out there.

Here are eight of the oddest power-ups in video games.

1. Mushrooms (Super Mario Bros.)

Let’s kick things off with a real classic. Every gamer (or anyone who’s even seen a video game at a glance) knows that eating a speckled mushroom causes Super Mario to grow in both strength and size.

But have you stopped to ask yourself why?

There’s never been a real solid explanation as to why Super Mario is so mushroom-centric. There have been many theories, ranging from Alice in Wonderland influence to the developers’ (supposed) experiences with real magic mushrooms.

However, according to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, there isn’t necessarily any real reason for it. The developer team simply needed a magic item to make Mario grow and they thought of mushrooms, Miyamoto claims.

2. Hair Care Products (Shantae)

The Shantae series of side-scrolling action games details the colorful adventures of its titular, scantily clad (half) genie. Although Shantae gets many kinds of transformational magic abilities throughout the games, her main mode of attack is always whipping her foes with her flowing purple ponytail.

So, it only makes sense that Shantae powers up her attacks with hair care products. Right?

The Shantae games feature two different ways to keep your whippy hair from getting dry and frizzy. Shampoo improves the damage your hair deals, while Silky Cream makes Shantae whip and nae-nae faster.

3. Prostitutes (Grand Theft Auto III)

The Grand Theft Auto series is notorious for intentionally upsetting moral guardians with exaggerated violence and outrageous themes. It’s no wonder, then, that Grand Theft Auto III introduced a new, questionably way to restore your character to full health.

You can hire a prostitute. That said, the player doesn’t get to witness the action — the lady of the night get in your car and the camera locks to the outside while the vehicle starts a-rockin’.

Of course, you need cash to pay for the prostitutes. There are also completely free health pick-ups floating around in the game world, but come on — if you’re playing a GTA game, you have to embrace the bad taste.

4. Dog Bone (Rise of the Triad)

Rise of the Triad is a well-remembered 1995 first person shooter game. The game’s “story” is a nonsensical mishmash of various themes that’s really just an excuse to get the guns blazing.

As such, the game includes some pretty wacky weapons and power-ups. One of them is a dog bone floating in a class capsule.

Grabbing the bone activated Dog Mode, transforming the player character into a dog. Instead of a gun, your first-person view is now filled by the pooch’s muzzle.

This is no cuddly lapdog, though. In your new canine form, you can easily chew through hordes of enemies or devastate them with the power of your explosive bark.

5. Reverse (Disgaea 3)

Disgaea 3: Absense of Justice is a 2008 entry in the Japanese series of tactical roleplaying games. The Disgaea games are known for being pretty quirky, and the Reverse power-up in Disgaea 3 continues this tradition.

Reverse is an item you can attach to the player characters’ abilities that — as the name implies — reverses their effects. In other words, damaging spells and skills now heal their targets, while health-boosting abilities start hurting.

Sounds pretty useless, right? Well, here’s the catch: you can’t block or dodge healing spells because, well, they’re supposed to heal you.

The Reverse items basically turns the player party’s healing characters into walking nukes that can completely annihilate anything in their path. Of course, being as unhinged as it is, the game expects you to abuse Reverse and has some tricks up its sleeve to keep the player on their toes.

6. Cigarettes (Metal Gear Solid)

The Metal Gear series follows the exploits of special operations agent codenamed Solid Snake through various terrorist plots. Snake is an ultra-capable, genius soldier, but he has his vices.

Most glaringly, Snake is a smoker. He loves a good smoke, whether it’s a cigarette or a cigar — and the game uses them as something of a power-up.

When using a sniper rifle, sucking on a cancer stick will calm Snake’s nerves and steady his aim. Meanwhile, when there are infrared tripwires around, cigarette smoke can reveal the light beam and allow the player to avoid the hazard.

All that said, having a lit cigarette dangling from Snake’s lips constantly drains his health. Keep smoking and you die.

And they say video games don’t teach out anything.

7. Deadly Disease (Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind)

In the legendary fantasy roleplaying game Elders Scroll III: Morrowind, the land of Vvardenfell is plagued by a disease called Corprus. It’s a magical plague that causes its victims to succumb to a mindless, zombie-like state.

As part of the game’s storyline, the player character will eventually catch Corprus. The disease causes the player character’s strength and endurance to grow exponentially, while all of their other attributes begin decreasing.

Being the hero of the realm, the player can cure themselves of the disease. However, there’s a way to use this zombie plague to turn the character into the mightiest musclebound warrior in the land.

Just before talking to the character that cures the player, you can simply go to sleep for, say, 100 days. By the end of it, you’re about to drop dead, but your strength will be ridiculously high.

The thing is, getting healed removes all the negative effects of Corprus, but not the positive ones. So, after getting healed, your character will be back to their usual self — only with a higher strength score than the game can handle.

8. Various Drugs (Narc 2005)

The original Narc game from 1988 was a side-scrolling shoot-em-up that, while tame by today’s standards, was hyper violent for its time. In 2005, the developers came out with a remake/sequel, and they decided to boost the controversial content up to modern standards.

In the game, you control a drug control cop who fights drugs by killing every addict, dealer, and bystander in sight. From the masses you slaughter, you gather their drugs as evidence — but you can also use them to gain various power-ups.

Among the many substances you can ingest are crack, meth, ecstasy, LSD, and weed. Depending on what you smoke, snort, swallow, or inject, the player character may become stronger, more accurate with guns, or get extra health, among other things.

You can also just sell the drugs on the black market to get extra cash for better equipment. Going on a drug-fueled rampage has its downsides, though — the player can develop a fatal addiction or your fellow cops may turn against you.