Mini Mushroom

Mini Mushroom
Type	Power-Up
Debut	Mario Party 4

The Mini Mushroom is a shrinking power-up appearing in several of the later Mario games.

Background

The Mini Mushroom is a particularly small mushroom, either blue or pink in color, that causes whoever eats it to shrink over half their normal height and makes him or her very susceptible to damage. While this seems bad, being shrunk by a Mini Mushroom will also allow someone to fit in tiny passages and pipes and to make high, gliding jumps.

The Mini Mushroom first appears in Mario Party 4, where a player can use it to shrink and fit through pipes that lead to mini mini-games. However, someone who has used a Mini Mushroom will be forced to roll a dice that only has 1-5 on it instead of 1-10. A Super Mini Mushroom is also available, which will allow a player to roll two dice, and a Mini-Mega Hammer that will randomly make someone small or large. The Mini Mushroom also appears in Mario Pinball Land, where it allows Mario to shrink and fit into certain holes. However, a smaller Mario is more likely to fall into the hole between the flippers.

In New Super Mario Bros., the Mini Mushroom can be found in ? Blocks usually before they're needed (but not always). It will trump most power-ups if stored in the item slot, but collecting a power-up while Mini Mario will cause Mario to upgrade. Mini Mario is light and fast enough to run on water in this instance. Being light though, Mini Mario will bounce off of enemies rather than stomp them, and only a ground pound can actually damage them. Defeating the World 2 and World 5 bosses while Mini Mario will unlock World 4 and World 7 respectively. They item returns in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but is not as important and only useful in accessing a few hidden areas (or giving the game a new challenge).

Mario can also use the Mini Mushroom in certain icy courses of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (in the DS Version) to make himself light enough to not break ice, although Sonic cannot use it. In a certain bowling minigame, panels with Mini Mushrooms will shrink the stones that are used as bowling balls and make them less likely to knock out most of the Goombas.

Trivia

• Its original artwork has a pacifier in its mouth.
• The Poison Mushroom in Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) also makes Mario shrink, though as a result of damage and not an actual gameplay gimmick. However in Luigi's Mansion, the Poison Mushroom temporarily shrinks Luigi.
• In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Luigi can use his hammer to squish Mario into Mini-Mario, who can then squeeze into holes.