Games with 'power up' mechanics

[SecretAsianMan]

I don't think buffs count, since you're you one producing them, power ups are always pick ups. 

 

Eh, I think that's a semantic difference on an already ill-defined concept.

[Tanukitsune]

No, power ups are something of the bygone arcade and platform era of continues and coin-ups, not some spell you cast in an MMO before entering a instance.

 

Not to mention buffs are perks that are usually gained permanently (if not can be gained from a certain place or person with relative ease), but with with temporary effects that can be used again and again, powers are gone for good once you lose them which is how they are different from perks and upgrades.

[Zeusthecat]

Ah, I think I'm starting to understand now. I would say Minecraft actually has something similar to the concept of power ups in their brewing system, granted you have to gather materials to make the potions rather than gain xp. The potions can have varying durations but none are permanent and they offer power ups such as water breathing, fire damage, increased speed, reduced damage, and a multitude of others. Does that fit under the 'power up' criteria?

[SecretAsianMan]

No, power ups are something of the bygone arcade and platform era of continues and coin-ups, not some spell you cast in an MMO before entering a instance.

 

Not to mention buffs are perks that are usually gained permanently (if not can be gained from a certain place or person with relative ease), but with with temporary effects that can be used again and again, powers are gone for good once you lose them which is how they are different from perks and upgrades.

 

See, to me they are kind of the same thing.  When I think of power up, I'm not really thinking about having to actually pick something up but rather a temporary boost to something.  It's the transcient nature that defines it for me, not the action.  Perhaps buff was a poorly chosen word, I wasn't even thinking about MMOs when I said it (I was actually thinking about TF2 items but the mechanics are similar).  Like most video game concepts it's open to interpretation.  Wikipedia even calls perks a variation of the power-up mechanic and Giant Bomb includes permanent in their definition.

 

Back to the original point, Giant Bomb has a list of games that include a perk mechanic.

[Sno]

How about i talk a bit about how i actually really don't like temporary power-up mechanics?

As somebody who still plays 2D shooters, i've seen elaborate power-up systems create a huge disparity between the player's base abilities and the average difficulty the stages are balanced for, and it can make some of those games fucking impossible.

Gradius is a series where dying once can completely ruin a good playthrough, you just have no reasonable chance at recovering quickly enough to escape the horrible death loop that follows. (In that series, only the Treasure-developed Gradius V averts this, and it does so by letting you reclaim your multiples/options after you die. It also happens to be one of my favorite shmups.)

[Tanukitsune]

How about i talk a bit about how i actually really don't like temporary power-up mechanics?

As somebody who still plays 2D shooters, i've seen elaborate power-up systems create a huge disparity between the player's base abilities and the average difficulty the stages are balanced for, and it can make some of those games fucking impossible.

Gradius is a series where dying once can completely ruin a good playthrough, you just have no reasonable chance at recovering quickly enough to escape the horrible death loop that follows. (In that series, only the Treasure-developed Gradius V averts this, and it does so by letting you reclaim your multiples/options after you die. It also happens to be one of my favorite shmups.)

 

 

I think quite a few shooters did the thing where you could pick up the power ups you lost when you died, or at least when you lose a continue?

 

See, to me they are kind of the same thing.  When I think of power up, I'm not really thinking about having to actually pick something up but rather a temporary boost to something.  It's the transcient nature that defines it for me, not the action.  Perhaps buff was a poorly chosen word, I wasn't even thinking about MMOs when I said it (I was actually thinking about TF2 items but the mechanics are similar).  Like most video game concepts it's open to interpretation.  Wikipedia even calls perks a variation of the power-up mechanic and Giant Bomb includes permanent in their definition.

 

Back to the original point, Giant Bomb has a list of games that include a perk mechanic.

 

Oh please, Wikipedia says Splatterhouse is survival horror, which makes me realize this is the completely opposite situation for each term.

 

Survival horror is relatively recent genre and people are constantly insisting that games that existed before the genre are actually from this genre when they aren't, although a few examples are actually valid.

 

The power up is a practically extinct thing in the world of gaming that that everybody is insisting exists in games when they aren't, although a few examples are also valid.

 

Giant Bomb is a wiki and is as valid as Wikipedia...

 

If a pickup is permanent it's an upgrade, the game can call it a power up, but it isn't... an upgrade is usually irreversible, put power, but it's definition is something that can be lost, therefore if you can't lose it, it cannot be a power up. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I realize GB is a wiki, but the reason I brought it and Wikipedia up was to illustrate there's more than one way to define these things.  I'm not saying your definition isn't a valid one, it's just not one I completely agree with.  But in the end we're still quibbling over details and it's not an argument I wish to have so let's just say you feel one way, I feel another, and leave it at that.