You're a character in a video game, and you need to climb up a cliff. But unfortunately, you have no climbing skills whatsoever. You have no trampolines, jetpacks, or flying animals. So what do you do? Easy, just go find a large mushroom!
In short, mushrooms in video games which can be used as trampolines and springboards. This is a pretty common feature in The Lost Woods, Jungle Japes and, more rarely, the Underground Level.
Usually overlaps with Fungus Humongous. See also Springs, Springs Everywhere, Trampoline Tummy, Cobweb Trampoline, Gelatinous Trampoline and Bouncy Bubbles.
Examples:
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Action-Adventure
- Alice: Madness Returns has the "Amanita Muscaria" within Wonderland of different cosmetic varieties that rigidly shoot Alice upwards almost vertically regardless of the angle of landing onto the mushroom.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Minish Cap: When Link enters a tree stumps and, as he does so gradually shrinks, he bounces from one mushroom to another. The game also features a rare horizontal variation, with elastic mushrooms that Link can pull on to slingshot himself across wide gaps.
- In Tears of the Kingdom, fusing mushrooms onto weapons will give their attacks (or parries in the case of shields) additional knockback, provided that it isn't a puffshroom or muddle bud due to them having their own unique effects.
- Madagascar: There's a minigame where you jump on bouncy, multicolored mushrooms in a certain order. In a later level, Alex chases you and at one point is seen jumping on a mushroom.
- Ratchet & Clank: There are some mushrooms to bounce on in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.
Adventure Game
- Dizzy The Adventurer: There's only one mushroom, which serves this purpose.
Artillery Games
- Angry Birds: Angry Birds: Rio has bouncy mushrooms in the jungle levels, which can be used to modify birds' trajectories by ricocheting them off of the caps and into areas they couldn't get to otherwise.
Metroidvanias
- Hollow Knight: Bouncy mushrooms appear as a gimmick in a few rooms. Remember: to use them you don't just jump on them — you point the nail downwards and hit them.
- Rebel Transmute: Large orange mushrooms will bounce the player upon contact.
Party Games
- In Tweety and the Magic Gems, the "Mushroom Trampoline" mini game has Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and Marc Antony bouncing on mushrooms to reach the goal.
Platformers
- Alpcaca Stacka has giant fly agarics that act as convenient bouncy platforms.
- Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures: Some bouncy mushrooms are found at the start of the Dungeons and Dickholes stage, a likely shout-out to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- Balan Wonderworld: One of the areas features blue mushrooms that bounce the player.
- Berenstain Bears' Camping Adventure: Giant grey mushrooms act like trampolines, which you can use to reach new heights.
- Bug: One of the various types of springs is mushrooms that Bug can jump on. They appear in several levels, including worlds where it's odd for mushrooms to exist in (such as Bur-r-ubs and Arachnia).
- A Bug's Life: The base level of the brown seed produces a mushroom that works as a bouncy platform, though the boost it gives is very small.
- Cavern of Dreams: Fynn can jump on big mushrooms to bounce up high.
- Chicken Journey has brown mushrooms that help to bounce the chicken up higher.
- Dewy's Adventure: Dewy can bounce off mushrooms, and Hip Slam them for extra height.
- Donkey Kong:
- Donkey Kong Country Returns: The Trope Namer is Springy Spores. While most mushrooms are positioned horizontally (allowing you to jump however you need to), others are tilted and will affect the trajectory of your jump, so you must be careful to avoid falling into the pits.
- Donkey Kong 64: Fungi Forest's mushrooms work this way, and are useful to climb onto the much bigger mushroom present.
- Eternal Daughter: Some mushrooms work this way, although there are also fake ones that bite you.
- Garfield's Nightmare: The volcanic levels feature dancing green mushrooms Garfield can jump on for an upward bounce, though this will also make the mushrooms explode into a cluster of noxious gas. Holding the A button will make the bounce even higher, allowing Garfield to dodge the noxious gas more easily.
- Golden Force has giant sunflowers that functions as trampolines, and in several levels you'll need to combine them with your Double Jump to exit an area.
- Gwen The Hen 64: Some areas have red mushrooms that launch player up in the air upon contact.
- A Hat in Time has bioluminescent mushrooms in Subcon Forest that bounce Hat Kid at varying heights.
- Kirby's Epic Yarn has a level called Mushroom Run, featuring plenty of these. Kirby can Ground Pound them to bounce even higher.
- In Lost Home, some levels have giant mushrooms that function as trampolines.
- Lunistice: Pink mushrooms with paw symbols on it will bounce the player upward when jumped on.
- Pizza Tower: A few levels feature big living mushrooms that bounce the player up in the air upon contact.
- Rayman 2: The Great Escape: Several levels feature bouncy, purple mushrooms that can be used to reach higher areas.
- Rocket: Robot on Wheels: A variation. Mushrooms do help you jump higher, but not by jumping on them — they grab you and spit you out to make you jump higher.
- Shovel Knight Dig: Purple mushrooms can be found all over the Mushroom Mines, the starting area of the game, and jumping on them will bounce Shovel Knight in many different directions. Spore Knight, the Warm-Up Boss of the area, can weaponize these as part of her arsenal of mushroom- and spore-based attacks.
- Shrek 2 on the Gameboy Advance: Jumping on a giant mushroom bounces Shrek upwards. At one point, it's Shrek that carries a mushroom, using it to bounce others upwards instead.
- Skylar and Plux: Adventure On Clover Island: The cratered mushrooms give Skylar extra height when she bounces on them. Rocket jumping on them gives Skylar extra speed, allowing her to bounce further and is crucial for freeing one of the Lo'as in Bouncy Bay.
- In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, there are mushrooms you can bounce on around Rajan's jungle base.
- The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf and its sequel has mushrooms that bounce smurfs up higher when jumped on.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles has giant bouncy mushrooms in Mushroom Hill Zone. Unlike springs, the more you bounce on a mushroom, the higher you'll go.
- Sonic Rush Adventure has giant bouncy mushrooms in Plant Kingdom.
- Speedy Gonzales on the Gameboy: Forest zones has short mushrooms with their caps bouncing speedy upwards upon contact.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon has a puzzle where Spyro has to use flower seeds and mushroom seeds to grow platforms to reach the top of a tower. Because Spyro can only glide and not fly upwards, putting all of them in the right place is essential.
- Super Kiwi 64: The forest levels feature giant mushrooms that bounce the kiwi up when landing on them.
- Super Mario Bros.: Less frequent than you might expect given the prevalence of mushrooms in the series, but they do pop up:
- Super Mario Sunshine: Pianta Village has several large mushrooms in the underside, including springy ones.
- New Super Mario Bros.: Some of the aerial Athletic levels have bouncy pink mushroom platforms, accompaining the traditional ones.
- There are square, orange-colored mushroom platforms in Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World that serve this purpose, and can be found in high-altitude levels. They made their way onto the 3D World game style of Super Mario Maker 2 (which also adds a purple version reliant on ON/OFF switches after an update).
- The Way of Cinnamon has big red mushrooms that send Cinnamon rocketing upwards when jumped on.
- Some mushrooms in The Wizard of Oz act as very bouncy springboards.
Puzzle Platformers
- 100 Keys To your Heart has brown mushrooms that bounce the player upwards. At certain locations, a brown key can also grow red mushrooms that also bounce the player.
Racing Games
- Mario Kart Wii: The Mushroom Gorge track in the Mushroom Cup has a large gorge filled with trampoline-like mushrooms you must bounce on to cross the gap. The track returns in Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a Nostalgia Level. 7 also has one bouncy mushroom apiece on Mario Circuit and Rainbow Road, and 8 Deluxe has one on Squeaky-Clean Sprint and one on its remake of GBA Sky Garden.
Real-Time Strategy
- Minecraft Legends: Bouncecaps are mushrooms that let you jump higher when you stand on them. They also make it so you don't take Falling Damage from your jumps, as a Required Secondary Power.
- Pikmin:
- Pikmin 3: The Bouncy Mushrooms cause leaders and Pikmin that jump on them to be launched to a fixed destination.
- Hey! Pikmin: Some springy mushrooms appear in Mushroom Valley.
Role-Playing Games
- Bug Fables: Small green "springshrooms", which can be found scattered throughout the game, will send the part flying a long way into the air if jumped on, and serve as a way to reach otherwise inaccessible ledges and to keep players from becoming permanently stuck in certain pits.
- Riviera: The Promised Land: Downplayed with a certain mushroom in Chapter 3. It doesn't act as a trampoline, but it will save the party from harm if you fall on it from the upper screen. However, if you destroy it beforehand, it won't be here, and you'll lose 15% of your maximum HP.
Simulation Game
- Fae Farm has mushrooms placed near cliffs that allow the player to jump to the top or across as shortcuts.
- Grow: Song of The Evertree: Pink mushrooms with blue spots can be found throughout Alaria and the planted worlds, which can be bounced on to reach higher platforms. Sometimes they come in groups of three.
Sports Game
- The Aquatic Games has a variant of this involving sea sponges used in a gymnastics level.
Web Games
- Poptropica: You can bounce off the giant mushrooms on a planet on Galactic Hot Dogs Island.
Wide-Open Sandbox
- Kogama, there are bouncy mushrooms as a cube material. They are commonly used in parkour maps.
Other Media
- Blue mushrooms show up on one page
of Chapter 2 of Jenny and the Multiverse with Jenny teleporting mid-fall to bounce harmlessly on one after she fell off a rooftop.
- This Touhou fan video, shows Marisa climbing a hill by jumping between abnormally large mushrooms.
- True to some of the games, in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, when Mario arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom, he bounces off a mushroom before landing on the ground.
