With the mascot's 30th Anniversary upon us you can expect to see a lot of words devoted to Mario in the coming days. Of course, for a franchise that's established its reputation on irreverent fun, we can't help but consider some of its sillier features.
Power-ups qualify; yes, they can be integral to gameplay mechanics, absolutely essential to what makes a Mario game tick. In addition, though, they can look utterly bizarre and amazing; Mario's transformations see him take on some awesome forms.
As you can see below, the passing of generations and advancements in technology have seen Mario's look evolve a great deal.
Super Mario Bros.
The original power-up, aside from the Super Mushroom, and a classic still employed to this day. It brings a simple colour change for Mario's standard outfit, but it's undoubtedly snazzy.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Mario got a little more ambitious with his outfits when SMB3 rolled around, deciding that if he's going to have frog-like abilities he may as well go for a full body suit.
Offers the same abilities as the Super Leaf, but with the added bonus of an ability to turn into a statue. A good thing too, as this is an outfit worth immortalising.
This one's simple and more reserved by SMB3 standards, as Mario just dons a protective helmet and a shell on his back. Still, those hammers sure are handy.
Super Mario World
Mario decided that a cape, in all its simplicity, would do the job in his 16-bit adventure. Its abilities included the options to pick up momentum to fly and swoop through stages. Simple and stylish.
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Courtesy of its Game Boy home this was simple in design as a necessity; nevertheless it's Mario with bunny ears, so you can't really go wrong.
Super Mario 64
A little lazy this one considering the 64-bit technology available, as Mario earned the ability to fly by putting a small set of wings on his hat. Hardly one to grace the catwalks of the Mushroom Kingdom.
New Super Mario Bros.
A rather modest design, rather like a blue Hammer Suit without the helmet; not Mario's most exciting design, though the ability to destroy blocks and enemies in shell form was hugely helpful.
Super Mario Galaxy
The spirit of SMB3 was revived in this title, with the Bee Suit being a delightfully fuzzy creation; this writer has an unhealthy fear of bees, however, so it prompts mixed emotions.
Admittedly a transformation rather than an outfit, we just had to bask in the glory of a Boo with a Mario hat and moustache.
A bit of a lazy effort here, with a spring wrapped around Mario; it was also annoying to control. Hm...
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
A cute effort, with the red jumpsuit masking the fact that, realistically, that propeller's probably not big enough to actually work!
Penguins are some of the coolest animals in the world, with their waddling walk and slightly silly appearances; one of Mario's stronger efforts, and it was hoot to slide belly first in ice levels.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
A lovely effort, with a twist on the standard outfit and an extravagant hat, this was also a clever power up in practice.
A neat outfit with a puffy design, while this picture shows Mario looking a little tense as he transforms into a boulder.
Super Mario 3D Land
Rather like the Blue Shell outfit above, this is a bit of an improved effort with a helmet and a neater overall design. Throwing boomerangs around is also great fun.
New Super Mario Bros. U
We love this one, and it was the only 'new' outfit in this title alongside its P-Acorn equivalent. Its neat attached wing arms - inspired by flying squirrels - looked great in action.
Super Mario 3D World
The outfit that delighted cat owners and even melted the heart of this member of Team Dog, Mario ran around on all fours and pounced his way to glory. HD fur is always popular.
Hat tip to Mariowiki's list of power-ups as an awesome source of images.
Comments 28
I HATED the Blue Shell suit in New Super Mario Bros. Difficult to control. Led to many unintentional deaths.
The Flying Squirrel Suit is probably my second-least-favorite in the entire series. Wonky controls and didn't really add anything new.
Super Cape and Super Leaf / Raccoon Mario (oddly missing from the above list) are the best power-ups EVER in any platforming game. Period. (Or full stop if you're British.)
This was a fun article! I've always found Mario's visual transformations quite interesting.
He boomerang suit is my favorite, followed by the blue shell suit and the penguin suit.
The costumes after Super Mario World all start to look a bit sh*tty imo. I mean some of them are ok but a lot of them tend to look a bit forced, patronising and twee. After the intial costumes, which I mostly really like, I think really only the Penguin and Boomerang ones work, and the cat one would have been ok if it just didn't look so blatantly girly and designed for girls, or whatever. I mean it looks good but there's something really patronising about it for some reason, like it's trying too hard to be "cute".
Maybe I just really don't like the whole plasticky rendered look of these modern Mario games or something. I wish Nintendo could capture the look it had in that SMB3 character art but just in 3D. I mean that Tanooki suit/character just looks great.
No love for the Metal Cap from SM64? That was a cool one.
This article needs to be extended to a list of all Mario power-ups to date
Always loved the cape, but it was also a shame that you couldn't really utilize it aside from slowing your descend when riding Yoshi. Hope it will return one day though, as well as the Shell power-up. I loved using that power-up and always wondered why they hadn't brought it back.
It may be just me, but Nintendo seems to be out of the spotlight lately. Where are the AAAs? Nintendo Direct? Mario, Zelda, Pokémon? New games and IPs? I don't expect IGN or GameSpot to deliver news about Nintendo, but NLife is talking about galleries, memories, late games coming to e-Shop, indies, opinions for weeks now. Don't take me wrong, I know there are many great indies, but they don't make everyone go insane for 'em. Where are you, Nintendo?
Mario, Mario, Mario... what's with all the Mario here lately?
In all seriousness, some of my favorite power-ups are Fire Mario, Metal Mario, Cat Mario, Double Cherry, and the Squirrel Suit.
I always hated Winged Cap Mario because it really controlled poorly making some stars feel impossible.
@Hero-of-WiiU Most likely because of Super Mario Maker's approaching release, and maybe because there just isn't much Nintendo related news to discuss.
Back to the topic, it's interesting to see how Mario's design has changed over time. He looks more toyish and glossy now; although I personally preferred his older style.
@Aromaiden
I see you didn't catch on to my sarcasm.
Cat suits all the way.
What about the invincible star power? or giant mushroom
I love cat suit the most
@Hero-of-WiiU I guess I didn't, but it's not easy catching on to sarcasm when quickly reading someone's comment. Considering that what you said sounded like a reasonable question and it tends to be difficult to catch on to sarcasm through writing, I reasonably answered your question.
I still miss the good ol' Cloud Flower and Boo Mushroom. sigh
@JJtheTexan Thank you! Finally someone that agrees with me. Ugh, I hate the Blue Shell.
Jesus how I hated the spring costume!
@RenanKJ
Nintendo did release a lot of info about dates for fall games, etc., but lately, yes they've been quiet. Ever since Iwata passed, they've stayed out of the limelight. I'd expect it to stay this way until they've found a new President.
Missing a few.
@Minotaurgamer Agreed. Even though the spring mushroom was really cool it was really hard to control. I dreaded every time I had to use it.
My favorite power-ups are probably the cloud flower and boo mushroom.
Enjoyed this article but oh spring mushroom, how I loath thee.
To be fair even Mario never seemed that pleased with the spring suit. Hell that picture makes it more like an assault than styling
@RenanKJ
Hopefully, making sure that NX (whatever it's going to be) will have enough games for everyones taste.
My personal favorite will always be the Tanooki suit. There are so many uses for that power up!
@Dpishere
this man speaks the truth
My favorites are Ice Mario and Red Star (Flying) Mario from Galaxy! Sad they didn't show either! :/ Also, I agree that this list needs to be updated with all the power ups, that would be awesome!!
I have that cloud mushroom mario picture on a cushion on my bed at home. One of my proudest purchases at a tenner
@claypool agreed. it's an outfit and back in the day was some pretty rad graphics too
Cool article, but since we are talking about costume changes, where is the Ice Flower outfit?
My favorite aesthetically was always the Hammer Bros suit and what, back in the 90's, looked like to me Mario wearing Nike shoes!
I feel like the power-ups in Super Mario Galaxy 2 were a little forced....
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