Worst Mario Power-ups

[2MooglesGaming]

Every Mario game brings a lot of great new characters and worlds to explore, along with some great new abilities for Mario. But some of those new mushrooms are just sucky.

What are your least favorite Mario power-ups?

We go over our five least favorites in this video:

 

[gamerboy]

Yeah most of the power ups that are in this video are horrible and they really take away from the gaming experience. The one that I hate the most is the spring power up.

 

[Johnny Hopkins]

The penguin power up in the newest Super Mario Bros. games. He literally only slides around and is barely useful. He cannot shoot fireballs or ice balls or anything. Obsolete in my opinion.

 

[2MooglesGaming]

@gamerboy Yeah the Spring Mushroom just felt so unwieldy for us! They all do totally take away from the joy of the game :/

@Johnny Hopkins Totally! He doesn't really do anything! Just slides around and looks kinda silly in that suit. Mario dressing up as animals just never really pans out

 

[Demon_skeith]

I agree with the spring power up and the bell, cat mario? No. Maybe I'm old fashion mario, but I don't care for that kind of power up for a plumber, toad or princess.

 

[aboleth_lich]

Super Mario Bros 3 was the only game that I felt the animal costume power-ups worked quite well.

The raccoon tail granted via the Super Leaf, Tanooki Suit, and P-Wing granted Mario flight for the first time, via an interesting and effective running start and tap-tap game mechanic. Moreover, the Tanooki Suit also granted Mario temporary invulnerability by becoming a statue--which I never really understood, is that based upon a Japanese fable about a tanooki?

And then there was the Frog Suit, which made swimming much easier (though was admittedly quite useless on solid ground).

 

[Bloom]

There are some power ups that I have not tried because I don't have the game, but out of the games that I do have, I have to say that the "Penguin Power Up" is the utmost terrible. When I saw it, I thought that I was able to throw ice like I can throw fire with the "Fire Power Up", but no. I can just skate like a professional figure skater around the rink and pounce on bad guys. Not entirely what I thought the Power Up should do. It's definitely made a lot of games in the Mario Galaxy 2 difficult to maneuver because of this Power Up.

 

[2MooglesGaming]

Yeah, the Penguin suit is another example of things taking a very interesting turn. Throwing ice is awesome, but skating is just so particular. Plus jumping on enemies isn't really anything new to Mario. Could definitely be worse, though.

 

[ChilledFlamez]

The Frog suit in Super Mario Bros. 3. It did really well in the water, but felt extremely specific and when paired with other cool power-ups like the Tanooki tail, it seems obsolete.

 

[GunGunW]

I like pretty much all of the Mario power-ups but there are a few I like less than others like the spring suit, cat suit, and mini Mario.

 

[Shimus]

I'm gunna get hate for this, but with the flight powers of the feather in Super Mario World granting flight, and multiple suits from 3 altering specific things (like swimming) I felt the least used and barely helpful powerup was the Fire Flower. Yeah, you heard me. Shooting flaming balls to win through an entire stage felt like cheating and it wasn't any fun to scurry about mashing fireballs everywhere. But I'm probably unique in this.

 

[2MooglesGaming]

Yeah, sometimes the Fire Flower does feel a little OP. And the flight mechanics are never really what you'd want them to be.

 

[Shimus]

Flight mechanics were simple -->You flew as long as Mario was "Going up" and then "Glided" as he came down. It really should just have been a hang-glider! LOL.

 

[aboleth_lich]

The Frog suit in Super Mario Bros. 3. It did really well in the water, but felt extremely specific and when paired with other cool power-ups like the Tanooki tail, it seems obsolete.

This is a good example of the argument of generalization versus specialization. Is it better to have something that generally works well under most scenarios, or something that works extremely well in one specific situation but rather poorly elsewhere? Something like the Power Leaf is a generalized power up, that works quite well for nearly every level in Super Mario Bros 3--save for a few exceptions like the underwater levels. Conversely, the Frog Suit is a specialized power up that's incredibly useful for Super Mario Bros 3's most difficult underwater levels--but is basically useless otherwise. I wouldn't say that a power up not being specialized as such makes it bad, it just needs to be saved for the specific scenario in which it excels.

Super Mario Bros 3 in particular gave the player a broad array of power ups to play with, each of varying generalized versus specialized usefulness. It's up to the player to determine what levels he or she needs to use a given power-up for to make the best use of it, and some decisions are certainly wiser than others (e.g. saving the Frog Suit for a hard underwater level versus wasting it on a random above ground stage).

 

[aboleth_lich]

Speaking of Super Mario Bros 3, I always felt like using the P-Wing to fly over a particularly difficult level, well above the dangers below, was a bit too much like cheating--like something that one would normally only be able to do in a game with the aid of a Game Genie! That doesn't necessarily make it a bad power up though; I can scarcely say that it's too weak and ineffective! (And it's another good example of a power up in Super Mario Bros 3 that should be saved for the levels in which it is most effective. Using it to fly past the ground forces in World 8 would be an excellent use of a P-Wing, whereas using it in a cramped underground level with little room to fly would be a silly waste of it!)

 

[Rain]

The Worst Is The Tiny Mushroom, though it is useful for jump boosts and reaching secret entrances, but it doesn't damage enemies.

 

[ShyGuy16]

Every power up has it's strengths and weaknesses, and I can't really place any as "bad". I do, however, hate that the Fire Flower and Ice Flower in SMG had a time limit. You get tired of walking back and forth to the flower's spawning point.

I also hate it when power ups take away some control, like the Rock Mushroom not being able to stop or move very well. The Speed Flower from Super Paper Mario had the same issue, making it hard to get those bonus points when just tapping the controller makes Mario run into every enemy in sight.

 

[NanoRim]

Frog Suit.

 

[rz3300]

The penguin power up in the newest Super Mario Bros. games. He literally only slides around and is barely useful. He cannot shoot fireballs or ice balls or anything. Obsolete in my opinion.

Yeah this one is dumb, and that was immediately what came to mind for me. I did completely forget about the frog suit though, that one was pretty lame. The penguin ones though was particularly disappointing too, because I thought that it would least have a purpose but it turns out that was not really the case. Oh well, gotta take the good with the bad I suppose.