Does Not Illustrate: Poison Mushroom

Poison Mushroom is a trope about video game items that are harmful rather than a powerup. The image is a much-upscaled sprite of... something. It's a blue orb with a white part and some angry eyes on it, and it's not clear from the image what exactly it is, or (more importantly) that it harms the player character.

That's a closeup of a poison 'shroom from one of the later Mario games, if I'm not mistaken...needs to be replaced.

Yeah, Trope Namer. Any good suggestions?

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

Maybe a 2-paneler of Mario and the poison 'shroom together and then Mario after touching it? I haven't played any of those games so I dunno what the on-screen effect looks like.

You shrink (if big mario) or die (if small mario). Having a before-and-after shot sounds good.

Another classic "poison mushroom" are the potions in Prince of Persia (the original 2D version, not the 3D). Most potions refill your health, and then there's a subtly differently colored one that harms you instead.

It still doesn't really explain the trope but here's a clearer picture of the same item.◊ You can at least see the skull clearly.

What about if we found a higher version of this◊ or this?◊

edited 28th Feb '12 1:06:51 PM by abk0100

Of your three links, the second goes straight to the funny-junk main site and the third is a broken link.

I think the first is fine. It has a skull on it; skulls mean bad medicine! Seriously though, skulls are pretty strongly associated with poison, and that's reasonably good. At the very least we may as well swap to it for now; we can still keep looking after doing so, of course.

edited 28th Feb '12 7:14:18 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

I don't think it should be swapped "for now", that is a different picture (illustration vs. in-game sprite) not a quality upgrade.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

I do think that the high-quality skull mushroom is way clearer than what's up there now.

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Here's a wiki-size version of the mushroom.

gah, I should really check links after I post them. Here◊ is what I was trying to link to.

I was thinking it was a model from one of the New Super Mario Bros games, but now I'm not so sure.

edited 28th Feb '12 8:32:37 PM by abk0100

That's not bad.

Okay, that's pretty good as well, and it doesn't require the reader to be familiar with Super Mario powerups.

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I wouldn't mind a screenshot from, say, Super Mario 3 D Land. In the Special worlds you'll tend to find both normal and Poison mushrooms in the same area.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

A Shout-Out?

edited 28th Feb '12 9:33:27 PM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

I like it, I just don't think it should be swapped just because.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

Is #11 a photograph of a TV screen? Either way, I like that idea better than the Trope Namer. It's less literal.

Where's that from?

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

It looks like it is. I'd rather not use that unless we can find a better quality picture.

A One Shot Gag in Negima Second Season they come across it looking for real shrooms (when they find it standard videogame gameover style bleeps are heard as a sound effect)

edited 29th Feb '12 2:07:51 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

I prefer the Negima pic: it has context, not Just A Shroom And A Caption.

What context?

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

The context, for me, is confusing, at least in the two-parter. Without knowing what happens next, the girl could be refusing the mushroom or expressing astonishment that it was found.

I'm not calling it a quality upgrade, I was suggesting it as a tentative improvement until we make a (relatively) more permanent decision.

Anyway, the one with the mushroom giving off purple fumes is good too, but I don't like the two-panel version; the second panel just adds confusion.

edited 29th Feb '12 6:59:56 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

I'd prefer an item that isn't a poisonous mushroom, since it could lead to confusion with the trope name (I briefly thought this was about poisonous mushrooms in general, not video game items that confer penalties).

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

I think we should try to get a higher quality version of the Zelda pic, especially since it's not a literal poisonous mushroom.