Mushroom (Mario)

The Mushroom is an item found in most Super Mario games.

There are several different types of Mushrooms in these games, listed below.

Early games
The Mushroom caused Mario to grow in size in the earlier games, including Super Mario Bros..

Super Mario 64 DS
In Super Mario 64 DS, the Mushroom caused the character to temporarily grow in size, allowing them to gain extra lives if they break, knock out, or otherwise stomp on enough items for that.

Role-playing games
In the role-playing games in the Mario series, Mushrooms meant a small amount of HP recovered, less than Super, Ultra, or Max Mushrooms, but nonetheless a slight increase of HP.

See the sections of this page on Super, Ultra, and Max Mushrooms for more information.

Early games
In the early Mario games, gaining a Super Mushroom would make Mario grow a bit and be able to be hit by an enemy once without losing a life.

Super Mario World
In Super Mario World, Super Mushrooms would also allow Mario to break Spin Blocks with the spin jump, an important tool for certain levels, such as to access the Red Switch Palace.

Role-playing games
In the Mario role-playing games, a Super Mushroom offers more HP (and is therefore rarer and more expensive) than an ordinary Mushroom.

Role-playing games
The Ultra Mushroom is worth even more points than the Mushroom and Super Mushroom (and is therefore even rarer and more expensive than they are).

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
The Max Mushroom, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, offers the HP of a character to be raised up to the maximum amount possible. It is very rare and very expensive, but it is useful for some of the battles, particularly the final battle with Cackletta, in which both Mario and Luigi lose all but one HP each at the beginning.

Action games
In the Super Mario action/platform games, the 1-Up Mushroom adds an extra life to the character, allowing them to survive longer without getting a Game Over, which would often cause all points earned to be erased.

Role-playing games
In these games, the 1-Up Mushroom allows you to revive your character (or be revived) if you lose all your HP during battle. This is especially useful in Mario & Luigi, where, when you are out of 1-Up Mushrooms and one character loses all HP, the remaining character would have to pick up that character while attacking, making it more difficult to play.