NowGamer presents ten of the most satisfying power-ups in videogame history

POWER-UP ORBS
Altered Beast
You start off as a weedy little man – the proverbial nine-stone weakling. But you are still able to kick a wolf to death, which is a good thing, because when you kick a white wolf to death it releases a glowing orb – a power-up. You know it’s a power-up because a big booming voice tells you it is, and your weedy little man suddenly expands in size, rips his clothes and eventually just walks about in his pants. Collect enough power-ups and you’ll transform into a beast, but that’s not half as much fun as being a big man in pants kicking wolves in the face.

BERSERK POWER-UP
Doom
Have you ever read the Doom comic? It’s the most gloriously violent excess of language and art to spawn from a videogame starring a marine who streams off a constant external monologue. “Dynamite!” he bellows as he rips an imp’s spine out with his bare hands. He, of course, gets this ability from the Berserk power-up that you find in the game, which lets you punch everything in the face until it explodes in a hail of blood and gore. You’ll be glad that you checked every single wall for a hidden power-up now.

BLOODY MESS PERK
Fallout 3
In the grand scheme of things, 5 per cent usually isn’t all that much. You wouldn’t be tempted to buy a T-shirt just because it’s got 5 per cent off the price. But when you’re playing Fallout 3 there is too much temptation to get the Bloody Mess perk, because all of a sudden 5 per cent more damage means a lot when you’re shooting a Super Mutant in the head. Of course the real treat is watching said Super Mutant’s head explode with a well-aimed shot in VATS. The great thing about this power-up is that everyone you kill will explode, though it does make scavenging a little tricky.

ZOMBIE
Metal Slug 3
While Metal Slug 2 first introduced the idea of transforming your character into a mummy or getting fat by eating too much, they were definitely power-downs, and this is about powerups. So next up is Metal Slug 3, which took the transforming thing in a different direction. In this game you can be transformed into a zombie, and while that comes with a few disadvantages such as not being able to use guns or jump, the ability to vomit over enemies more than makes up for it. It’s a devastating technicolour yawn.

ZEN BALL
Peggle
We had a discussion on this, took votes, and in the end the Zen Ball won. It was a close thing, because the triple scoring and magic hatting of Warren Rabbit’s Lucky Spin is really handy when you need increasingly high scores in the Challenge mode. But when you fire off a Zen Ball it’s just amazing to see the computer work out what the best shot is, especially when it bounces the ball off the bucket for a few more pegs before going in. That’s zen, and it means you can take a break from carefully planning out your next shot, which is kind of zen too.

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