Favorite power-up

[teh_Canape]

So yeah as the title says, what is your favorite power-up?
be they characters themselves (such as the DMC Devil Trigger) or items (like the Contra Spread Gun)

my favorites are the Rage in God of War 1, which was really dumbed down in presentation in GoW 2
I mean, in the first one, there was a lightning strike while Athena said a couple of ominous words that felt really badass, while in the second one all there was is just a *poof* now you're on fire, and that's it

and the Dragon Soul in Blades of Time, which looked really cool and allowed you to finally tear apart the demon bastard that haunted you throughout the game (something that Lords of Shadow 2 should've really taken a note from. Seriously, you're powerful enough to take on Satan one on one but still have to avoid the damn Tank Jr guards?)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When you get fat in the Metal Slug games and the narrator goes "Whoa, big!". And even your ammo becomes fat. Pretty awesome.

 

[Zhukov]

Huh. I'm actually having trouble thinking of one.

Guess I'll go with the Ubercharge from TF2. Back in my TF2 days I mostly played the Heavy and damn if I didn't grin like an idiot every time my pocket medic delivered those beautiful words, "Uber is ready".

Oh, for something more recent I'll give a mention to the 'Radiant Sweep' from Infamous Second Son. Mechanically it just amounts to 'Press X to auto-insta-kill every nearby enemy', but damn if it doesn't look awfully pretty.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Can I have the latter stages of Half Life 2 - where your gravity gun is attempted to be destroyed, but it survives the process?

This is one of my most memorable moments in gaming, when you are left in a room with no objects or anything to use with your gravity gun and there are soldiers charging down the only corridor towards you shooting.

I can still feel the 'OH SH** OH SH**! WHAT DO I DO?!?' moment I had when I was at that point.

And then, with nothing else to do, I just panicked.. and clicked 'fire'.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

The Authority Augmenter from "Rage". It was basically a very clever way that ID Software worked the old "Quad Damage" power up into Rage. When you activate it, it makes this cool charging up sound, and then every shot you make is accompanied with what I can only describe as heavy metal guitar rift. Bad-ass power-up and highly effective, especially against the heavily armored gear heads.

 

[Poetic Nova]

GTA2, when you got the invisibility power up for half a minute and use your silenced uzi. Second place goes to 'Electric Fingers' in the same game,punching AND frying someone w/ melee? count me in.

 

[teh_Canape]

The Authority Augmenter from "Rage". It was basically a very clever way that ID Software worked the old "Quad Damage" power up into Rage. When you activate it, it makes this cool charging up sound, and then every shot you make is accompanied with what I can only describe as heavy metal guitar rift. Bad-ass power-up and highly effective, especially against the heavily armored gear heads.

when you put it like that it makes me think that I should've used it
it just sat on my inventory since my rebar launcher already busted everything in just one shot

 

[Ihateregistering1]

The Authority Augmenter from "Rage". It was basically a very clever way that ID Software worked the old "Quad Damage" power up into Rage. When you activate it, it makes this cool charging up sound, and then every shot you make is accompanied with what I can only describe as heavy metal guitar rift. Bad-ass power-up and highly effective, especially against the heavily armored gear heads.

when you put it like that it makes me think that I should've used it
it just sat on my inventory since my rebar launcher already busted everything in just one shot

Well, Rage was easy as hell unless you played on "Nightmare" or above, I honestly sometimes forgot I had the Rebar launcher, and you've got to dump a freakin' munitions factory into those armored gearheads without it.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm a sucker for Sniper-Bullets which you control from gun to target. This was what kept me playing Jericho (please, stop laughing) and, when you scale it up to the level of Tanks, it's one of the favorite features of Battle Tanx on the 64 (admittedly in that game they were guided missiles). I know there are other games that use similar mechanics too and I absolutely love it, silly and impractical though it is.

 

[teh_Canape]

The Authority Augmenter from "Rage". It was basically a very clever way that ID Software worked the old "Quad Damage" power up into Rage. When you activate it, it makes this cool charging up sound, and then every shot you make is accompanied with what I can only describe as heavy metal guitar rift. Bad-ass power-up and highly effective, especially against the heavily armored gear heads.

when you put it like that it makes me think that I should've used it
it just sat on my inventory since my rebar launcher already busted everything in just one shot

Well, Rage was easy as hell unless you played on "Nightmare" or above, I honestly sometimes forgot I had the Rebar launcher, and you've got to dump a freakin' munitions factory into those armored gearheads without it.

yeah I beat it on Ultranightmare
with exception of mutants and heavy enemies, I used the rebar for everyone
for mutants, shotguns or the brass knuckles since rebars can't be salvaged from them, for the heavies, armor piercing ammo or just circling around them and punching them in the face with the brass knuckles

the assault rifles felt pretty pointless, like they were just some glorified peashooters

 

[Malbourne]

Maybe not my favorite today but it is one that comes easily to mind: at the end of Spyro: Ripto's Rage, you can unlock an amusement park/resort. The real attraction, though, was getting past a door requiring a ton of collectibles and obtaining the ability to launch FIREBALLS! You're not a true dragon until you can rain incendiary punishment on baddies from halfway across the map.

 

[Headsprouter]

Speed was fun in Timesplitters. I like that little "nnn-pyoing!" noise it made when you picked it up, and then how your arm/weapon would jerk quickly from side to side as you ran around the map. It's similar to the satisfaction I get from the Scout in Team Fortress. I've always loved being able to move fast and bewilder my enemies. Harks back to sprinting and boost platforms in Crash as well as the supercharge powerup in Spyro.

Shrink made you feel faster, but it was only to compensate for your reduced ground coverage as a tiny, high-pitched version of your character.

Speaking of Spyro, in the final battle with Ripto in the second game, the entire battle was powerups! Felt amazing!

 

[Ratty]

The Holy Water in Castlevania 1. It's the only way to beat the Frankenstein and Grim Reaper bosses reliably. Get them in stun locks before they start moving and BAM! Some say it's cheating, but I don't buy that. The level designers wouldn't have put it in the level if they didn't want you to have the option of using it, not to mention stun locking the Grim Reaper is a suggested strategy in the manual for the second game. You can also temporarily stun and do a good amount of damage to the other bosses with it (including Dracula's second form) but it's more essential for those two.

 

[teh_Canape]

The Nanosuit from the Crysis trilogy, especially in Crysis 2. There's nothing cooler than switching on the fly between sprinting like a cheetah, short term invulnerability and a cloaking system. It's the only thing that keeps me interested in those games, the story is pretty dreadful.

well that one doesn't actually count, since you start off with the suit
closest, I think, would be the supercharge in Crysis 3

 

[RedDeadFred]

Pretty much any game where you get access to a double jump upgrade. Don't know why. Strangely enough, double jump upgrades excite me more than jet pack upgrades.

 

[Kaisharga]

I'ma have to go with the Velocithor V2-10 in Iji. It may not be possible to fire that weapon without yelling.