The Super Mushroom is a power-up from the Mario series of video games. It is, traditionally, about the size of "regular" Mario, and has a white stalk below a red and white (originally red and orange) spotted cap.

It debuted in Super Mario Bros. for the NES/Famicom, and the powers it grants the player lent itself to the game's title. (In Super Mario Bros. only, these mushrooms were called "Magic Mushrooms".) It emerges from flashing blocks marked with a '?' when they are bumped from below (a convention carried over from Mario Bros., where bumping platforms was the main form of attack). Upon emerging, it then begins to slide to the right (this was later changed for Super Mario Bros. 3, where, depending on what side of the block was hit, the mushroom would head toward the opposite side.) If the player touches it, "regular" Mario becomes Super Mario: he doubles in size and is able to take an extra hit. Furthermore, Super Mario can break bricks, whereas regular Mario can't. If Super Mario comes across a Super Mushroom the game will instead give a secondary item, such as a fire flower or leaf. These allow him to gain better powers, such as the ability to shoot bouncing fireballs as Fire Mario and the ability to fly and glide as Caped Mario. In Super Mario World, Super Mushrooms would also allow Mario to break Spin Blocks with the spin jump, an important tool for certain levels.

In some Mario games, the Super Mushroom heals Mario and friends, such as in Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi. It gives the player a short boost of speed in the Mario Kart series of racing games. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Super Mushroom causes the player's character to grow to an immense size.

Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that the Super Mushroom was created by chance. The first sketches of Mario turned out to be too big, for which they were forced to shrink them. Then the development team thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow and shrink by eating a magic mushroom, just like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. * In the novel, Alice eats pieces of mushroom to change her size.

The Super Mushroom resembles Amanita muscaria, a common psychoactive mushroom.


Because the Mushroom is the most basic power-up, without which other powers can't be granted, it is occasionally used in the Mario series to denote basic rewards or easier skill levels. Winning three consecutive Mushroom cards from the slot-machine goal boxes at the end of each level in Super Mario Bros. 3 will earn the player two extra lives, whereas winning three consecutive Fire Flower cards earns three extra lives, and winning three consecutive Starman cards will earn them five. In Mario Kart games, the first (and easiest) tracks belong to the Mushroom Cup.

The Super Mushroom makes a cameo appearance in Nintendo game Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo DS, on the top of a mushroom-like creature.

The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (also known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) features Poison Mushrooms, which have the same effect as being touched by an enemy. It was originally a brown palette swap of the typically red Super Mushroom, but in enhanced remakes of the game, it was given a different sprite. The only games since The Lost Levels to have Poison Mushrooms as items are Super Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros. Melee, , and some Mario Party games. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Poison Mushrooms bear a very close resemblance to Super Mushrooms, but are darker and have "angry" eyes, causing the player to shrink in size. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Poison Mushrooms are known simply as "Poison Shrooms" and are small, green mushrooms (they have no eyes) with purple spots. They are made by having Zess T. mix you up a Slow Shroom and Inky sauce. In the Mario Party series, they are purple and limit the maximum roll on the dice block to 3 or 5, depending on the game and situation. In the original Mario Party, finding a Poison Mushroom caused a player to miss a turn.