Power Up Food

A trope I find interesting is the Power-Up Food trope. The basic concept that eating a food or power-up will instantly heal or charge up a character. Most often seen in video games where healing is often a core gameplay mechanic. But also seen in cartoons, such as Popeye, where spinach was his power-up food. Giving Popeye super strength immediately after eating the food. This is nothing new to the video game world however. With early games such as Pacman revolving around eating fruit to increase your score, and pellets which charge up Pacman to eat the ghosts. This is clearly a very basic example of an idea that had not been fully fleshed out yet, but in the years to come game designers would play with their food and create new ways to incorporate this idea. 

Pacman eating a Power-Up Pellet

Only five short years after Pacman’s pellets first hit the scene, Super Mario Bros was released with new power-up foods and new ways to implement them. It was no longer as simple as a magic pellet solving all of your problems. A basic magic mushroom would double your lifespan and size to defeat all Gombas in your path. And honestly, I think it’s a great way to encourage a younger audience to eat healthily. If you see your favourite characters eating fruits and vegetables to become strong and healthy you’ll be sure to follow suit. We also start to dabble into what can be used as “power-up food” A flower being used to give fire powers. While not traditionally a food, it still works and was the start of a new theme in gaming.

Even in more modern games like Call Of Duty and Far Cry we can see the power-up foods and items that carry on the tradition of the foods. In the latest installment of Call Of Duty Zombies we can see food items (bananas, apples, cookies, cakes, etc.) being used to instantly heal players from the brink of death. After a player is thrown from a building and mauled by zombies, all it takes is a few bananas and we’re just as good as new. In the Far Cry series it is less direct but the same themes can be seen. Often after being shot many times or attacked by wild animals, our character will begin to heal themselves. Regardless of the injury the same piece of gauze is brought out to wrap a cut on our arm. Shot in the head? Gauze to the arm. Have your legs been eaten off? Gauze to the arm. And while it's not food, the theme of instant health or power in reality mocking ways clearly carries on. If you’d like to see specific examples of Far Cry’s hilarious health mechanics I would recommend THIS Gamology video where a doctor talks about how unrealistic the healing is. 

Why do these power-up foods exist? One could argue that they are a lazy placeholder for a game developer not wanting to put the time in to make a proper healing system. That if a character is damaged they will need healing and you need something to heal them. But I think the truth is a more wholesome conspiracy. I think that since the start of power-up foods in cartoons, people were looking for a way to make the target audience think fondly of healthy food. Seeing your favourite character eat healthily and get stronger, whether it's Mario’s mushrooms or Popeye’s spinach, you’ll believe the foods will be just as great for you. 

So next time your character grabs an apple to heal themselves two hearts. Thank our old friend Pacman, for setting the trend.