Basic Trope: A Power-Up that doesn't.
- Straight: After beating a boss, Alicia receives a laser gun. However, said gun has a ridiculously small range, making it useless.
- Exaggerated:
- After beating a Superboss, Alicia receives a spike-covered hammer. It breaks after only five uses, and doesn't dish out much damage either.
- Alicia receives an orb that gives her the ability to jump... and there is absolutely nothing in the game that actually requires jumping, making the ability to jump useless.
- Downplayed:
- The gun hits pretty hard, but fires very slowly.
- Though reasonably powerful for the point its acquired, the laser gun doesn't quite compete with some sidequest weapons that can be obtained around the same time.
- Justified:
- The boss was a Dirty Coward who mostly let his minions fight Alicia because he had such a crappy weapon. She took it without thinking.
- The weapon has a dispersal pattern that's unbelievably obtuse, meaning that 90% of the shots fired miss.
- The weapon must be charged between firings by holding down the trigger/using a turn. By the time the charge is released, you would have done more damage by plinking away at an enemy with your weakest gun.
- The weapon is only part one of 5. To make it even halfway effective, you need at least one more piece.
- The weapon has inconsistent damage output.
- The unstable jump power-up comes from an early development build.
- The boss was a Dirty Cop… while they are laser guns, LIDAR guns are not weapons.
- Inverted:
- After beating a Warm-Up Boss, Alicia receives a Disc-One Nuke/the Infinity +1 Sword.
- Alicia receives a wooden sword... which turns out deadlier than most weapons.
- Subverted:
- Shortly after getting the gun, Alicia finds an upgrade that increases its range drastically.
- It's a One-Hit Kill against mechanical enemies, giving it a distinct niche.
- Double Subverted:
- ... and also makes it horribly weak.
- ...but it doesn't work against mechas with Reflective Armor.
- Parodied:
- The weapon is a Nerf gun.
- It turns out Emperor Evulz tampered with the gun earlier. Alicia goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and kills him just for that.
- Zig-Zagged: Some weapons are good, some aren't.
- Averted: All power-ups are equally useful.
- Enforced:
- "We need a way to provide competitive balance!" "Let's make this weapon really bad!"
- The laser gun's damage routines (and a few other things* ) were Christmas Rushed.
- The levels where the laser gun would have been useful as a puzzle item have either been Dummied Out or cut altogether.
- Lampshaded: "What?! This laser is way too weak!"
- Invoked: The boss dials down his gun's power, then tears off the control dial and leaves it around for Alicia to find.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz takes all of Alicia's weapons except the gun, forcing her to use it.
- Defied: Alicia takes the weapon, tries it out for a bit, then decides it's useless and tosses it aside.
- Discussed: "Don't pick up that weapon, Alicia! It's useless!"
- Conversed: "See how horrible this weapon is?"
- Deconstructed: The weapon actually has a hidden function that lets it shoot energy balls, which are much more useful. Unfortunately, since everyone hates the weapon so much, no one uses it, thus no one finds it.
- Reconstructed: A dedicated player decides to play through the game using only the gun, revealing its status as a Lethal Joke Weapon and redeeming it.
- Played For Laughs: The Mooks outright mock Alicia for trying to kill them with the gun.
- Played For Drama: Alicia is swiftly killed by Bob, who shows up immediately afterwards with a superior weapon.
Aw man, I though Power-Up Letdown would be more useful!
