Mechanic · progression

Power-up

An item that changes the player's abilities when collected, for a time, until the next hit, or for the rest of the game.

stubAlso: power-ups, power up, powerup, upgrade itemUpdated 2026-10-23
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A power-up gives the player something new: a bigger body, a new weapon, a stronger shot, or a stretch of invincibility. Games differ in how long it lasts and what a hit takes away.

  • Felix the Cat (1992). A power level from 0 to 3 whose 10 units count down every 300 frames.1
  • Until hitSuper Mario Bros. 3 (1988). The Fire Flower and the four suits last until a hit, which takes Mario back to Super Mario.2,3,4

See also

Mentioned in

Games

GameYearHowNote
Felix the Cat1992a power level from 0 to 3 whose 10 units count down every 300 frames
Super Mario Bros. 31988Until hitthe Fire Flower and the four suits last until a hit, which takes Mario back to Super Mario
Every claim about this mechanic, by game (4)
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels 1986A poison mushroom comes out of a block of its own kind, and stays a poison mushroom whatever the player's size, where an ordinary mushroom block gives a fire flower to a big or fiery player. It slides along like a mushroom. Touching it removes it and runs the injury routine: a small player dies, and a big or fiery one drops straight to small, with the blink that follows any hit. During that blink, or while a star's invincibility lasts, it is removed and does nothing.Code
The poison mushroom is drawn from the same four tiles as the mushroom and the 1-up mushroom ($D8, $DA, $DB, $FF) in sprite palette 3, where the mushroom uses palette 2 and the 1-up palette 1. Like them it keeps its colors, where the fire flower and the star cycle theirs.Code
Cannons, hammers, coins, power-ups and blocks (ProcessCannons through BlockObjMT_Updater) are Super Mario Bros.'s with the poison mushroom added and one player: BumpBlock's contents table gains poison mushroom blocks and MushFlowerBlock gains PoisonMushBlock, which sets power-up type 4; PowerUpObjHandler walks types 4 and 5 like a mushroom; BlockBumpedChk checks 19 block metatiles where Super Mario Bros. checks 14; GiveOneCoin and AddToScore use fixed offsets where Super Mario Bros. indexes by CurrentPlayer; the head-collision and coin checks use the renumbered metatiles. SetupPowerUp is byte for byte Super Mario Bros.'s, though the poison mushroom now passes through it, and so are InitBlock_XY_Pos and SpawnBrickChunks; the cannons, hammers, jumping coins, brick shatter and bouncing blocks differ only in their addresses.Code
Felix the Cat 1992$03C6 holds Felix's power level, 0 to 3 in the 1625M run. While it's above 0, $03C0 counts down one unit every 300 frames (150 odd frames, counted at $03C1); each change of level in the run that left it above 0 set $03C0 back to 10.Code

References

  1. ^$03C6 holds Felix's power level, 0 to 3 in the 1625M run. While it's above 0, $03C0 counts down one unit every 300 frames (150 odd frames, counted at $03C1); each change of level in the run that left it above 0 set $03C0 back to 10.Code“Felix the Cat (USA)” · 1625M, replayed in FCEUX
    How we know

    In the cartridge (“Felix the Cat (USA)”): fixed bank $F787-$F7B0: with $03C6 above 0, on odd frames ($37 bit 0), DEC $03C1; at 0, reload $96 and DEC $03C0, floored at 0. We don't reproduce the bytes.

    every change of $03C6

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-25.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-25.

    In the claim ledger

  2. ^The North American manual lists the items that change Mario's form: the Super Leaf makes him Raccoon Mario (spelled "Racoon" there), the Frog Suit Frog Mario, and the Tanooki Suit Tanooki Mario, besides the Super Mushroom and the Fire Flower.ManualSuper Mario Bros. 3 US manualrevised
    How we know
    Changes Mario into R acoon Mario.
    pp. 23-24 (PDF pp. 24-25), items you can use on the map screen · archived copy ↗
    Frog Suit Changes Mario into Frog Mario. … Tanooki Suit Changes Mario into Tanooki Mario. … Changes Mario into Fire Mario.
    pp. 23-24 (PDF pp. 24-25) · archived copy ↗

    The quote matches our archived copy.

    Revised after a check by a second AI model, 2026-10-26.

    In the claim ledger

  3. ^PowerUp_Ability gives each form two flags: bit 0, flight and the tail wag, for the Raccoon and Tanooki suits; bit 1, which keeps Mario from starting a slope slide, for the Frog and Hammer suits. Small, Super, and Fire Mario have neither.CodeSouthbird's SMB3 disassembly
    How we know
    558PowerUp_Ability:
559	;     Small, Big, Fire, Leaf, Frog, Tanooki, Hammer
560	.byte $00,   $00, $00,  $01,  $02,  $01,     $02
    PRG/prg000.asm lines 558–560 at 09b1bd8 · upstream ↗
    583LevelInit_StartSliding:
584	LDY <Player_Suit
585	LDA PowerUp_Ability,Y
586	AND #$02
587	BNE LevelInit_DoNothing	; If this powerup is not able to slide on slopes, jump to LevelInit_DoNothing
⋮
589	INC Player_Slide	 ; Otherwise, begin sliding...
    PRG/prg008.asm lines 583–590 at 09b1bd8 · upstream ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-26.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-26.

    In the claim ledger

  4. ^In this release a hit takes Mario down one step: from the Fire Flower or any suit (Raccoon, Frog, Tanooki, Hammer) back to Super Mario, from Super to small, and as small Mario he dies. In Kuribo's Shoe the hit takes the shoe and he keeps his form. A hit is ignored while he blinks from the last one, is a statue, has a Starman, has just lost a suit, or the game is halted, and while the debug no-hit flag is set.CodeSouthbird's SMB3 disassembly
    How we know
    5620Player_GetHurt:
5621	; If Player is...
5622	LDA Player_FlashInv		; ... flashing invincible ...
5623	ORA Player_Statue		; ... a statue ...
5624	ORA Player_StarInv		; ... invincible by star ...
5625	ORA Player_SuitLost		; ... just lost a power-up suit ...
5626	ORA <Player_HaltGame		; ... gameplay halted ...
5627	ORA Player_HaltTick		; ... Player halted ...
5628	ORA Player_DebugNoHitFlag	; ... debug invincibility flag is set (unused) ...
5629	BNE PRG000_D9B7	 ; ... then jump to PRG000_D9B7 (RTS)
⋮
5631	JMP PRG000_DA15	 ; Jump to PRG000_DA15 (skips lost/dead Japanese version code)
    PRG/prg000.asm lines 5620–5632 at 09b1bd8 · upstream ↗
    5673PRG000_DA15:
5674	LDA Player_Kuribo
5675	BNE PRG000_DA32	 ; If Player is in Kuribo's shoe, jump to PRG000_DA32
⋮
5677	LDA <Player_Suit
5678	CMP #PLAYERSUIT_FIRE		; SB: Change this to "PLAYERSUIT_SUPERSUITBEGIN" and you restore Japanese version's "always shrink" code!!
5679	BLS PRG000_DA4E	 ; If Player is Big or small, jump to PRG000_DA4E
⋮
5690	LDA #$02	; Return to Big (SB: Would be small in Japanese version!!)
5691	JMP PRG000_DA44	 ; Jump to PRG000_DA44
⋮
5705	LDA #$00
5706	STA <Temp_Var1	 ; Temp_Var1 = 0
⋮
5708	JSR Player_LoseKuribo	 ; Setup effect of Kuribo's shoe "flying off"
5709	JMP PRG000_DA47	 ; Jump to PRG000_DA47
⋮
    PRG/prg000.asm lines 5673–5755 at 09b1bd8 · upstream ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-26.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-26.

    In the claim ledger