1-Up Mushroom

1-Up Mushroom
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First game appearance:	Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Real-world inspiration:	Mushroom

A 1-Up Mushroom is a fictional type of mushroom in the Mario games. They first appear in Super Mario Bros..

General information

What sets 1-Up Mushrooms apart from other mushrooms in Mario media is its green cap with white spots and the fact that collecting it gives Mario, Luigi, or another character an extra life, or chance, known as a "1-Up," at least in the Super Mario platforming games, where they are found in certain Hidden Blocks, ? Blocks, or sometimes even Brick Blocks.

The two Super Mario platforming games for Game Boy, Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, replace 1-Up Mushrooms with 1-Up Hearts because a Game Boy's four-color screen does not allow for a Super Mushroom to be properly distinguished from a 1-Up Mushroom, although a Super Mushroom is still an item in both games. Super Mario World introduces another life-rewarding item, the 3-Up Moon, which grants three extra lives upon being collected.

Physical appearance

There are instances when 1-Up Mushrooms have a different design than usual, namely during the Nintendo Entertainment System era. In Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (later renamed Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels for the West) their sprites depict a yellow cap with green spots. Super Mario Bros. 2 uses a variation of Super Mario Bros.'s 1-Up Mushroom sprite that gives it a pair of eyes, like the Super Mushroom sprites. Remakes of both games instead use depict them with their general appearance consisting of a green cap with white spots. In both Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2, 1-Up Mushrooms in underground levels have a brown cap with teal spots.

In the West's Super Mario Bros. 2, a 1-Up Mushroom is depicted as having a red mushroom cap with white text that reads 1UP. The general design was retained in remakes, but the sprite is different, as the remakes were released on hardware with better color specifications.

In Super Mario Bros. 3, the palette of the 1-Up Mushroom sprite changes depending on the environment, but the standard palette depicts a white mushroom cap with green spots, the inverse of its usual design. In World 6-3, the 1-Up Mushroom sprite's cap is entirely white.

With the 16-bit graphical enhancements of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario World was able to codify the 1-Up Mushroom's usual appearance in both its sprite and artwork.

Mario game appearances

Super Mario series

Super Mario Bros.

In Super Mario Bros., 1-Up Mushrooms are most often found in Hidden Blocks. The very first 1-Up Mushroom appears in World 1-1, after the first four pipes but before the pit. A 1-Up Mushroom can be found in the first level of each world, but unlike later games, most levels can only have a 1-Up Mushroom appear depending on the criteria. The hidden 1-Up Mushroom found Worlds 2–8 can each only appear if either Mario or Luigi has warped there using a Warp Zone or has collected every coin in the third level of the previous world, although the latter method is slightly different for World 2-1 in that only 21 of the 23 coins need to be collected in World 1-3. In the Game Boy Color remake Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, neither method is necessary for getting a 1-Up Mushroom to appear in Worlds 2–8.

Worlds 1 and 8 have an extra 1-Up Mushroom that can be found in World 1-2 and World 8-2 respectively. Both worlds each have two 1-Up Mushrooms in total, more than the one 1-Up Mushroom in any of the other worlds.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan)

In Super Mario Bros. 2 (titled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in the West since the Super Mario All-Stars remake), 1-Up Mushrooms behave the same as in Super Mario Bros..

Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)

In the West's Super Mario Bros. 2, plucking certain patches of grass can reveal a 1-Up Mushroom. The player's character—either Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach or Toad—can obtain a 1UP by picking it up. Upon doing so, the 1-Up Mushroom then disappears.

The Game Boy Advance remake Super Mario Advance adds some large bubbles that contain a 1-Up Mushroom. To obtain it, the player's character has to throw either three enemies or vegetables at the bubble so that it pops, causing the 1-Up Mushroom to fall out.

Super Mario Bros. 3

In Super Mario Bros. 3, 1-Up Mushrooms themselves behave the same as in Super Mario Bros. and Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2. Three 1-Up Mushrooms can appear in Mega ? Blocks. In the N-Mark Spade Panel's card pair-matching minigame, one of the pairs reads "1UP" but depicts an opened treasure chest instead of a 1-Up Mushroom. Regardless, if the player flips over two of these cards, Mario or Luigi earns a 1-Up.

Super Mario World

In Super Mario World, 1-Up Mushrooms retain their functionality, but there are now more ways to obtain them. If Mario is riding Yoshi and hits a ? Block which Yoshi would have otherwise appeared in, a Yoshi Egg comes out instead, and it breaks open by itself to reveal a 1-Up Mushroom. A few levels have a Fishin' Lakitu, which holds a 1-Up Mushroom at the end of its fishing rod, and if Mario or Luigi obtain it, the Fishin' Lakitu begins to act like a regular Lakitu.

1-Up Mushrooms are the item rewards of the Bonus Game, which can be entered by getting either to or beyond 100 Goal Stars, which gradually up each time Mario or Luigi break through a Giant Gate's tape at the end of a level. In the Bonus Game, Mario or Luigi can earn 1-Up Mushrooms by lining up pictures of Super Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and/or Starmen on nine blocks, eight of which continuously cycle between a Super Mushroom, a Fire Flower, or a Starman, in the manner of slots in gambling. At the end of the minigame, each vertical, horizontal, and diagonal match of three images causes 1-Up Mushrooms to appear from the pipe. The highest number of 1-Up Mushrooms that can be obtained is eight, which occurs if all nine pictures depict the same power-up item.

1-Up Mushrooms are the focus of 1-Up Chambers, which are hidden areas found in certain levels. Within each floor are three O/X Block (blocks that look identically to ? Blocks at first), and only one of them contains a 1-Up Mushroom, which is randomized each time the area is accessed. The player has to guess which O/X Block has the 1-Up Mushroom and have Mario or Luigi jump at one of the three. If the correct O/X Block is selected, a 1-Up Mushroom emerges from it. However, if either of the other two are hit, every O/X Block on that row turns brown, and no 1-Up Mushroom is rewarded for that row.

Mario & Luigi series

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a 1-Up Mushroom is a restorative item that Mario or Luigi can use on the other Mario brother if he has lost all of his health and therefore inflicted with the KO status. A 1-Up Mushroom gets rid of their KO status and revitalizes them with half their HP (health points) restored. This effect would be retained in later Mario & Luigi installments. Mario or Luigi can buy 1-Up Mushrooms at certain stores for 80 coins each.

There is a more powerful variation of a 1-Up Mushroom, the 1-Up Super, which not only revives a KO'd bro but also fully restores both his HP and BP (Bros. Points).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, 1-Up Mushrooms retain their effects from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. They can still be bought at certain stores, now at a reduced price of 60 coins each.

External links

• 1-Up Mushroom on The Mushroom Kingdom