Did you know that pizza gives you ability to spin wildly while holding a sharp object and gain invincibility against hordes of robotic ninjas? Neither did we? Why doesn't Dominoes put that in their ads?
Nintendo came upon a brilliant idea in the last couple of years. "Why don't we just let them become giant sized for a few seconds and wreak complete havoc?" They started with Mario, but our favorite incarnation of this was the mallet that made your Kirby army supersized. Mostly because for some reason it reminds us of the giant Mr. Fluffers in Night of the Lepus.
You show me a boy who doesn't want a robotic terrier and we will show you a person devoid of human emotion. After building the little guy from scratch he makes tracking down extras and puzzles incredibly easy. Also, wook at his widdle metal ears!
Remember how we said they just left mech armor laying around for the taking in Mega Man X? Well Contra III left tanks just waiting for the right soldier to somersault in and begin the ruining of shit. Just in case you're wondering why we rated tanks higher than mech armor, it's because you actually got to kill a mini boss with this thing in addition to just running over everything in your path.
No Mario Game before or since has had the ball slapping insano-awesomeness of the power-ups in SMB 3. Raccoons that can fly, better raccoons that can become statues, giant shoes to stomp with, and becoming a god damned Hammer Bros. We'd trade our souls for any of those abilities in real life. Well, maybe not ours, but definitely yours.
