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How do you use your powerups in video games?

C

Cerberus87

Done.
Are you an extremely conservative type of player who will refrain from using your most valuable powerups unless you absolutely have to, or are you the kind that wastes powerups left, right and center in the hopes that your efforts will lead you to the end?

The question popped in my mind while watching a Super Mario Bros. 3 LP. The guy was wasting the rarest powerups as if he had an endless supply of them, and I was pissed off at that. I mean, why would you throw away a P-Wing, a Hammer Suit or a Tanooki Suit in regular levels? When playing SMB3 I've always been very conservative with my items, to the point where I would fill up my inventory in no time and still have stuff like Frog Suits in World 8 for example (where Frog Suits are absolutely pointless).

However, I don't know if my approach is the right one. Sure, there are those games in which saving up your supplies for bosses is almost required, but there are others in which you can't advance unless you use your most powerful weapons/equipment even before you meet hard enemies. In FPS games I almost never use powerful weapons, just your run-of-the-mill weapons, and I do just fine, but I could have an easier time if I resorted to more powerful weaponry. In racing games I tend not to use boosts unless I must. In Pokémon games, I won't use my strongest healing items if I have lesser ones, and I think I've used stuff like X-Attack only once, also I never use Ethers, Elixers and PP Ups because you can't buy them.

So, what type of player are you?
 
I'm the type of person that is so into the game and HACKSLASHING that I forget that I have powerups.

That or I forget the button layout and I push the wrong button. I'm looking at YOU Skyrim! I was playing Deus Ex before Skyrim and kept Fusrodahing innocents when I tried to sprint.
 
I don't know if you have ever heard of the Descent series, but in Descent 2, you absolutely HAVE to save the Earthshaker Missiles for the last boss or else you simply can't beat the game since the bastard has a gazillion HP, shoots Earthshakers of his own at you, and is only vulnerable at the back.
 
depends on the game I'm playing and how I'm playing it. if I'm speedrunning a Megaman game, naturally I'll use my weapons as much as possible, but I always try to save the boss' weakness for when I actually get there. Perfect-running the games is another story entirely though; if I'm doing a buster-only no charge-shot rule, then my weapons never see any use until the Wily/Sigma stages.

Racing games I don't really play much, but the few i do practically require boosting in order to come out on top. Like Burnout 3, which encourages boosting and slamming into your opponents in order to keep at top speed. Mario Kart i take a more strategic use with my items; I'll use them when I see that they'll get me further up in position, or to protect myself from green and red shells.

In survival horror games I almost never use weapons, typically saving them for bosses and the like; the only time I ever shoot a monster in Resident Evil is if there's one in a horribly narrow corridor, otherwise I'll just run around them. Silent Hill I just avoid enemies entirely unless I need to get rid of them in order to solve a riddle in peace.

Most other games I'll just use powerups and the like with abandon, especially if I know a way to recharge easily or what have you. The only time I really ever change my approach is with speed/perfect-running or any of the aformentioned scenarios
 
I tell myself I'll save them and then don't and then I buy more.

Case in point: Skyrim! I buy a load of healing potions and they're all gone halfway through the dungeon and I have to subsist off of stolen goat cheese.
 
I like to conserve my powerups till I can't get through a level, then blast through it with them. :D

That said, I rarely play games with saveable power ups...hm.
 
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