History Main / PoisonMushroom

* In ''SuperSmashBros Melee'' and ''Brawl'', Super Mushrooms made your character grow, while Poison Mushrooms made you shrink. The latter could be identified from the former by a slightly darker color and a slightly meaner expression, with its outer corners of the poison mushroom's eyes turned [[{{Tsurime}} upward]] rather than [[{{Tareme}} downward]]. However, this difference may not be obvious when the camera is zoomed out enough.

* In ''SuperSmashBros Melee'' and ''Brawl'', Super Mushrooms made your character grow, while Poison Mushrooms made you shrink. The latter could be identified from the former by a slightly darker color and a slightly meaner expression. However, this difference may not be obvious when the camera is zoomed out enough.

* In ''MarioKart'', there are red item blocks that, if driven into, will knock you out. From a distance they look a lot like the helpful blue item blocks (even though once you get close enough it's obvious, but by then it might be too late)

* The TropeNamer here is the Poison Mushroom from the ''SuperMarioBros'' series, a subtle PaletteSwap of the iconic Super Mushroom. They first appeared in the Japanese ''Super Mario Bros. 2'' (known in the United States as ''The Lost Levels''), where picking one up was the same as touching an enemy.
** The SNES release of "The Lost Levels" made the poison mushrooms a completely and totally unmistakable solid purple with a skull on the cap of the mushroom and gave them angry eyes. If you still picked one of these up, [[TooDumbToLive you deserved it]].
** Subsequent remake on the Game Boy Color , Super Mario Bros Deluxe, retained the skull cap.
** ''The Lost Levels'' also has backwards {{warp zone}}s.

* The Whiskey in ''AloneInTheDark 2'' will mess you up big time (and make the game {{Unwinnable}}) if you drink it. Instead, you have to give it to a certain guy to obtain a Santa Suit, which is critical for entering the house without arousing suspicion (GuideDangIt).
** "Fragments from the Book of Abdul" and "De Vermis Mysteriis" in the first game. The first book drains your health, the second kills you immediately [[spoiler:unless you read them while standing on a very specific spot in a secret room.]]

* ''[=~Sonic 3 & Knuckles~=]'' had the "Robotnik" item, which acted like taking an attack from an enemy if its monitor was opened. These appear first in [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Ice Cap]] zone, where they used the "obstacle" approach.
** They also appeared in the 2-Player mode in ''{{Sonic 2}}''. Particularly evil given that the monitors in 2-Player mode display static until you hit them and find out what they contain.
*** In Casino Night Zone, if you get three Robotniks on a slot machine, you lose [[strike:all your]] 100 rings.
** Hacking also reveals that Robotnik monitors existed in ''SonicTheHedgehog'' (1). They aren't programmed to actually do any damage if you hack one in and break it, but one can assume that they would have if they were actually implemented.
* Several games in the ''{{Castlevania}}'' series had, alongside the usual food items used to restore health, several rotten food items like "Rotten Meat" and "Spoiled Milk". In ''Dawn of Sorrow'', equipping a Ghoul soul allowed Soma to eat them safely. After which, against logic, they would heal full heath- apparently, to a ghoul, spoiled milk is more nutritious than an entire turkey is to a human.

* In the ''StarOcean'' series, item creation often yields items like this, especially to begin with. One particularly annoying example is the Bounced Cheque in ''[=~Star Ocean: The Second Story~=]'', which continually drains your party's money until you get rid of it, which costs money to do since you can't throw items away and its sale value is negative.
* In {{Roguelike}} games like ''{{Nethack}}'' and ''Crawl'', what the different magic items look like varies from one game to the next, so (for example) in one game a square amulet is an Amulet of Lifesaving, while in the next game a square amulet is a cursed Amulet of Strangulation. Part of mastering the game is developing tactics to discover which items are bad without killing yourself.
** Nethack also brings us the loadstone, an object which weighs an obscene amount (more than some characters' suits of armor) but if picked up cannot be dropped unless you cast an uncurse spell on it (and it automatically re-curses itself if you pick it up again). Of course, it looks just like two moderately useful other items when unidentified, and magical identification only works on items you're carrying. . .
*** Hint: [[spoiler:Leave it on the ground and kick it. Loadstones are too heavy to kick, other "gray stone" items are not.]]
** For type 3, NetHack uses actual dungeon elements: the Sink, Fountain, and Throne all have various effects when kicked/quaffed from, quaffed from, and sat upon respectively; most are beneficial, but negative effects are irritatingly common. In the upgrade SLASH'EM, there are also Gypsies, who may cause anything from a free wish to instant death when talked to.
** PS2 Roguelike ''Game/{{Baroque}}'' is full of these. You can be injured, killed, or otherwise negatively affected by certain items in your inventory, but in a more direct example of the trope, certain Meta-Beings will drop Disks upon being [[strike:killed]] purified. Disks that are visually indistinguishable from any other type of Disk. Disks that might, say, turn your sword into a piece of meat, or explode violently when stepped on. And by the time you encounter these enemies, you've probably gotten into the habit of instinctively picking up everything as soon as it hits the floor.
** The original ''{{Rogue}}'' had a Potion of Poison, a hallucinogenic potion, and the infamous [[InterfaceScrew "cloak of darkness"]] potion.

*** Kingdom Of Loathing also has "goofballs". It enhances your skills for a 10 turns, after which it penalizes your character by weakening him for the next 100 turns ("goofball withdrawal"). Only way to avert the penalty? Take more goofballs. And the price of the goofballs? First one's free. Subsequent ones ramp up in price expoentially. And subsequent consumption also causes lost of stat to boot. The moral? DrugsAreBad.

* An old AddamsFamily game, ''Fester's Quest'' for the NES, had red power downs for your gun and whip, as well as the blue powerups.
* ''DeusEx'' lets you smoke and drink booze. Smoking whittles away at your health, while the booze blurs your screen and sways your view for a time. While nothing forces the player to try either booze or cigarettes, the assumption that these droppable items must have some actual ''use'' may draw naive souls in...
** If you're hurt, you can find a safe spot, down beer, wine and/or liquor, and recover some health (it works like any other food item), and just wait for the effects of blurred vision and swaying screen to go away (it's also explained that your nano-machines make you go through the effects of drunkenness much faster than a normal human as well).
** ''{{Fable}}'' also lets the player character drink, with approximately the same effect. He'll even throw up if he gets smashed enough.
** Drugs in ''{{Achaea}}'' include cactus weed, gleam, alcohol and tobacco. Effects range from slurred speech and nausea to crippling withdrawal symptoms, distracting or disturbing hallucinations, and ''death from overdose''.
** Similarly, ''SystemShock 2'' features various alcoholic beverages and cigarettes aboard the ships. The booze would mildly heal you at the cost of some of your [[ManaMeter psychic power points,]] and cigarettes would simply take a point off of your HP.
** And in ''BioShock'', you can eat and drink all sorts of food items lying around. Drinking alcohol restores HP at the cost of EVE, and if you drink too much, you get drunk and the screen blurs for a little while.

* ''Faxanadu'' had vials of poison that looked very similar to health potions.
* In MarioKart, there are red item blocks that, if driven into, will knock you out. From a distance they look a lot like the helpful blue item blocks (even though once you get close enough it's obvious, but by then it might be too late)

* ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic 2'' had the Tax Lien (Makes you lose gold every day), the Hideous Mask (Monsters will never join you), and the Fizbin of Misfortune (Ruins your morale). You can see them on the map and avoid them, but sometimes you'd find them in treasure chests with no warning.
** The Fizbin is at least as old as ''MightAndMagic 3'' (not the "Heroes of" strategy series, but the apparently-lesser-known [=RPGs=]), where it doubled shop prices. It also eradicated you in the Slithercult Saloon if you had it in your inventory and tried one of the slot machines. However, with it you can take a treasure hoard you couldn't otherwise.
** Getting rid of a bad artifact in [=HOMM2=] was easy though. Just recruit a new hero, give him the artifacts and then dismiss him. (Removing him from the game). Did not work in HOMM I, though, giving you a message saying "this item can not be traded".

* The old Capcom beat-em-up ''Tiger Road'' had you regain health from gourds. Some gourds cost you health instead of restoring it; these could be identified by one feature - they were upside-down.

** One of the secret levels only reacahable via warp cheats includes large rooms full of the Shrooms powerdown, floors filled with bounce pads and little else. It is aptly named the ''Vomitorium''.

** Though this is VERY dependant on the individual game's list of possible effects, getting the skull could be a GOOD thing. In ''Bomberman 64'', the effects were split 50/50 good to bad, for example, one possible outcome was you would instantly get full power bombs (with blue super sized explosions.) Another one set you on fire, making you able to kill anyone by touching them... but you'd have to move quick cause you would burn to death eventually. Another made you absolutely tiny, but super fast.

* ''Yoshi's Story'' has the peppers, which are similar in size to the fruit your Yoshis need to eat in order to complete the game, and sometimes found in the same bubbles that fruit is often found in. Eating it damages any but the hidden Black and White Yoshis, and even the Black and White Yoshis don't count it as actual fruit (they're just immune to the damage, and it heals them a little.)
* In {{Baldurs Gate}} series, half the unidentified items are actually cursed items, a bottle that looks like a Potion of Mirror eyes (the protects from petrification) may instead turn you into stone, or an obviously magical sword is cursed to put the character in a permament Berserker state. Or the boots of double-speed, Faster then the speed-boots, but causes fatigue and renders the user unable to attack. However, the programmers unintentionally gave a way for savvy players to know what unidentified items are cursed (Hint: even Bards with High Lore can't identify them on the spot)

** It also has an unintentional amusing GoodBadBug use: by equiping it and then getting swarmed by tadpole enemies that also slow you down, Neku's speed loops around to negative, causing him moonwalk backwards away from where you point the stylus.
* In ''Ys Book I and II'', you find an Evil Ring in Darm Tower, which drains your health(or kills you instantly in non-TGCD versions) if you equip it and don't also have the Blue Necklace equipped. It is in fact required to rescue Lair later in the tower. Somewhat of a GuideDangIt.

* In Runescape, there is a classic scam of taking a special sort of fish (the ONLY kind you can cook half-way), and having you cook it. You might think that it is completely cooked, but it ''isn't'' (it's cooked ''half-way'', remember?), and eating it damages you for 30-50 HitPoints, maximum 99, ''and'' poisons you to the tune of ''13 HitPoints every ten seconds''. Needless to say, you are screwed if you eat it, especially if you're in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, the ''only'' hint of the fish's harmful effects is the description "This fish looks rather dodgy", but when you're low on health, the last thing on your mind would be to read the descriptions of every item you have. Finally, the fish is one of the few of its kind in-game, so there's no reason to assume it would kill you. (NOTE: I haven't played in a while, and don't know if this can still be done.)
* The freeware {{Worms}}-esque Liero features a weapon called the Booby Trap, which creates land mines disguised as medikits. They could be distinguished from the real thing because they didn't bounce like the real powerups did.

** ''Twilight Princess'' has Purple Chus, which leave behind Purple Chu Jelly when killed. Other types of Chu Jelly are very useful, either restoring a good amount of health or as a Lantern Oil substitute, so Purple Jelly should have a good effect too, right? Wrong; while they can heal a random amount of Hearts, they can also ''hurt you'', even taking you down to one Heart. The Nasty Soup, which can be gotten where you get the Lantern, has the same effect.

* ''Command and Conquer: Red Alert'' has crates that explode and cause damage when picked up.
* ROMCheckFail has this in the form of the [[SpaceInvaders Space Invaders ship]]. It cannot move up or down, and can only fire one shot at a time - straight upwards. It is often an instant death sentence for unfortunately positioned players.

* [[GrandTheftAuto Grand Theft Auto: Vice City]] allows you to take drugs (large floating discs similar to health pickups and bribes, except bearing an image of a pill), which temporarily slow you down until you get into a vehicle or go to a different area. In some cases, you might take corrosive damage and most likely die.

* {{Pokemon}} has Effect 3 in the form of an attack, the Metronome.

* Recent Example, DissidiaFinalFantasy has Summon Stones you can equip on your fighters which have various effects when activated. However, a couple of the more nostalgic characters have type 3 effects.

* In the original ''Metal Gear'', [[DrugsAreBad the cigarettes kill you]].

* Warblade has a number of them:

* In ancient Atari 2600 game FastFood, among the delicacies flying at increasingly high speeds towards your disembodied mouth avatar were green pickles and purple pickles. Green pickles were the most valuble food to devour. Purple pickles made you lose a life. Especially hilarious as I played it on a black-and-white tv, so the rule was to avoid all pickles, period.

* Luigi's Mansion's minibosses tossed one of these when they hit low hp. Since they bounce randomly and cut off your vacuum, they'd prevent good runs if you were unlucky.

* The Rotten Egg in ''ResidentEvil 5'' takes off a large amount of health, but [[LethalJokeItem throwing it]] deals a OneHitKill to Majini.

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* ''PathwaysIntoDarkness'' has the poisonous Brown Potion. The Alien Artifact that you need to open the exit also drains your health unless you put it in the Lead Box.

** The original ''{{Rogue}}'' had a Potion of Poison, and the infamous [[InterfaceScrew "cloak of darkness"]] potion.

*** In Casino Night Zone, if you get three Robotniks on a slot machine, you lose all your rings.

* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' brings us the Red Skull pin, which slows down Neku's movement in battle. What the hell is the point of this pin, and why can't we sell it? Well, one mission revolves around [[spoiler:making this pin the next big thing, and to make it so you have to wear it in battle until the Gatito brand becomes #1 on the Scramble Crossing trend charts.]] And then plot-wise, this pin has a much worse effect: [[spoiler:during Kitaniji's [[{{Instrumentality}} super happy fun brainwashing time]], anyone wearing it but not the black Player Pin goes into "To right the countless wrongs of our day" mode.]]

** Though this is VERY dependant on the individual game's list of possible effects, getting the skull could be a GOOD thing. I'm not so familiar with all of the games, but I know in Bomberman 64, the effects were split 50/50 good to bad, for example, one possible outcome was you would INSTANTLY get FULL power bombs (with blue super sized explosions) the only ONLY drawback is that they would otherwise APPEAR normal, unlike the usual powerup with the same effect. However, since pretty much every other effect has a visible sign, you knew you had this when nothing else seemed wrong. Another one set you on fire...making you able to kill anyone by touching them...but you'd have to move quick cause you would burn to death eventually. Another made you absolutely tiny, but super fast, so you were untouchable, if you could adjust to the speed, I could be mistaken, but I remember it having no other ill effect. Again, most of the skull's effects in Bomberman 64 are easily identified but still.

* An unfortunate RealLife example - this is why we have child-proof caps. Not everything that's shiny and bite-sized is tasty candy...

** Fake Blocks in [[MarioKart Super Mario Kart]] do about the same thing, whereas the normal item boxes are rainbow colored and have a "?" while a fake one will be red and have a "¿". Both blocks look exactly the same from a distance (the fake one changing when you get closer), but most players can avoid them by memorizing where real items boxes should appear.

* ''Toejam and Earl'' had these in two ways. First was the food that you could pick up to recover energy. Good food included bacon & eggs, cake, and fudge sundaes. Among this good food is bad food, like moldy cheese and fish bones (and a few which look innocuous at first, like the lettuce, which turns out to be old). These would cause you to LOSE energy. The game was also scattered with gift-wrapped presents -- their contents are at first a mystery, but opening a present (or consulting a [[BunnyEarsLawyer wise-man in a carrot suit]]) will identify all presents which have the same wrapping paper. The presents were mostly good, like weapons, 'vehicles', food and money. Others were not so nice -- instant death, bad food, a sleep spell, or the infamous Randomizer, which makes you start the identification process all over again.

* In ''Lost in Blue'', there are eight different kinds of mushrooms that you can find. Their effects differ from game to game; some will burn your throat and thus make your thirst meter go down faster, some will keep your energy meter from going down, some will induce stomachaches, and some will do nothing.

* Deadly poison mushrooms appear in a number of levels of ''Crystal Caves''.

A [[UniversalPoison poisoned]] item which harms the player who picks it up or uses it instead of helping them. Differs from PowerUpLetdown in that the harm it causes is direct and intentional, rather than from a design flaw.

There is also a very large mushroom that [[TheDeadliestMushroom is even more deadly]].

** "Fragments from the Book of Abdul" and "De Vermis Mysteriis" in the first game. The first book drains your health, the second kills you immediately.
*** ... unless you read them while standing on a very specific spot in a secret room.

*** Indeed, hacking also reveals that Robotnik monitors existed in Sonic The Hedgehog (1). They aren't programmed to actually do any damage if you hack one in and break it, but one can assume that they would have if they were actually implemented.

** Have you ever tried to eat an ''entire turkey''? After a certain point, it would probably hurt you.

** Actually, while cigarettes have no benefit, you're told your nano-machines can convert the energy in alcohol into health (it's small, but every bit helps). If you're hurt, you can find a safe spot, down beer, wine and/or liquor, and recover some health (it works like any other food item), and just wait for the effects of blurred vision and swaying screen to go away (it's also explained that your nano-machines make you go through the effects of drunkenness much faster than a normal human as well).

** Similarly, SystemShock 2 features various alcoholic beverages and cigarettes aboard the ships. The booze would mildly heal you at the cost of some of your [[ManaMeter psychic power points,]] and cigarettes would simply take a point off of your HP.

** The Fizbin is at least as old as MightAndMagic 3 (not the "Heroes of" strategy series, but the apparently-lesser-known [=RPGs=]). If my memory serves me correctly, it doubled shop prices.
*** It also eradicated you in the Slithercult Saloon if you had it in your inventory and tried one of the slot machines. However, with it you can take a treasure hoard you couldn't otherwise.
**** Getting rid of a bad artifact in [=HOMM2=] was easy though. Just recruit a new hero, give him the artifacts and then dismiss him. (Removing him from the game). Did not work in HOMM I, though, giving you a message saying "this item can not be traded".

* ''KingdomHearts'' allowed you to have abilities that reduced the number of hits in a combo. This could be a subversion, as it has the benefit of reaching a finishing move faster.
** There is a ''reason'' that the reward for beating Sephiroth is the Keyblade with this ability.

* Fan game example: In ''[[SuperMarioLand Super]] [[{{Touhou}} Marisa]] [[SuperMarioLand Land]]'''s unlockable "Alice Mode", all of the mushrooms that previously served as power-ups now serve as {{Poison Mushroom}}s. ''All of them.'' You have to complete the ''entire game'' without powering up. At least you have the dolls to throw...
* Non-videogame example: In the ''LoneWolf'' series of gamebooks the hero can gather quite a few items; some useful, others not so much. And then there are the items that will make Lone Wolf's adventure harder down the line (or outright ''kill'' him) if he was dumb enough to pick them up. These items ''usually'' have very ''evil'' sounding names to warn the player that they're better off leaving them alone. One of the earliest examples in the series is [[spoiler: the Glowing Crystal]] from Book 3 [[spoiler: which is actually one of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Doomstones]]]]. Ironically enough, due to Dever's attempts to make the series more balanced, the ''[[InfinityPlusOneSword Sommerswerd]]'' can act like a PoisonMushroom; making Lone Wolf's life harder than it would be if he didn't bring it with him [[NintendoHard (especially in Books 9 and 11)]].

** However, the good effects last longer than the negative ones, and the negative ones can often be dodged with enough defense.

*** Kingdom Of Loathing also has "goofballs". It enhances your skills for a 10 turns, after which it penalizes your character by weakening him for the next 100 turns ("goofball withdrawal"). Only way to avert the penalty? Either live through the withdrawal Take more goofballs. And the price of the goofballs? First one's free. Subsequent ones ramp up in price expoentially. And subsequent consumption also causes lost of stat to boot. The moral? DrugsAreBad.