The Super Mario Bros. games have featured a wide variety of power-ups over the years, but some of these enhancements have proven to be more powerful or iconic than others. Starting with the very first Super Mushroom that players pick up in World 1-1 of the original NES game, the power-up lineage includes abilities inspired by animals, elements, enemies, and more. Although each one offers a unique improvement over Mario's default state, players will tend to gravitate toward certain favorites over time.
Some Super Mario Bros. games have had a bigger impact on the power-up canon than others. Super Mario Bros. 3, one of the best Mario games to play before Wonder, has a legacy of pickups that lasts to this day, and the first couple of New Super Mario Bros. titles freshened things up with some exciting new additions. Certain entries power-ups also appear in 3D Mario titles, but options that don't show up in the 2D entries don't meet the official requirements to associate with the Super Mario Bros. name.
10 Super Mushroom
The inclusion of the Super Mushroom on a list of the best Super Mario Bros. power-ups is almost obligatory. This basic power-up is one of the defining features of the series, turning a comparatively regular plumber into the titular Super Mario and giving him the ability to break blocks and take an extra hit. The only real downside of the Super Mushroom is the existence of all the other power-ups, which build on its basic properties while offering their own unique advantages.
9 Hammer Suit
Hammer Bros. are annoying in the original Super Mario Bros. game, but an expanded presence in Super Mario Bros. 3 makes them and their variants a particular menace. The difficulty of dodging Hammer Bros. attacks is what makes the Hammer Suit so cathartic, as Mario can finally employ his enemies' frustrating techniques against them and other foes. This particular power-up never made an appearance in any other games, but its brief time in the sun is fondly remembered by many fans.
8 Goomba's Shoe
Mario in the Goomba's Shoe makes for a particularly iconic image, as the heroic plumber's head poking out of an oversized green boot has an inherent silly charm that most other power-ups don't achieve. The shoe allows Mario to jump on environmental hazards without taking any damage. Its presence in the series was even rarer than the Hammer Suit for decades, appearing only in one level of Super Mario Bros. 3 until its resurrection in the Super Mario Maker games. A number of references and related items in games like Super Mario 3D World and Paper Mario titles, however, show just how fondly remembered it is.
7 Blue Shell
The Blue Shell might be most iconic for its spiked appearance as a powerful Mario Kart item, but it makes for an exciting power-up in New Super Mario Bros. as well. Doubling down on the protection introduced by the Hammer Suit, the Blue Shell providing invulnerability from most attacks when crouched. The real joy of this power-up comes in the form of movement abilities, allowing players to leverage momentum into slides that can carry Mario forward while KOing enemies.
6 Mega Mushroom
The Mega Mushroom is a limited time effect, but it easily makes up for that limitation by turning Mario into a sheer force of destruction for that interval. Growing enormously in size and destroying blocks and enemies with the force of his motion alone, Mega Mario can completely ignore almost all platforming in favor of stomping ahead toward the end of a level. This enormous advantage could also be considered the one downside of the Mega Mushroom, as there isn't very much for the player to do but run while the effect is active.
5 Cape Feather
A variety of power-ups have allowed Mario to take to the skies over the years, but the Cape Feather has them all beat when it comes to pure flying ability. Properly mastering the Cape Feather's abilities requires a bit of a learning curve, but a player with some experience can get serious mileage while airborne. Even if the Cape Feather makes Super Mario World too easy, this power-up also represents the best features of Super Mario World, providing players with an enormous amount of freedom to conquer levels in a fun and fluid way.
4 Fire Flower
Appearing in the iconic box art for the original Super Mario Bros., the Fire Flower is a power-up that any Mario fan is sure to know and love. Recoloring Mario's outfit to a spiffy red-and-white scheme and giving him the ability to toss fireballs at enemies provides a consistent thrill that never gets old no matter how many times it's deployed. Perhaps the plumber should feel some guilt about roasting goombas and koopas with the same method of attack that Bowser himself prefers, but the Fire Flower is simply too fun to second-guess.
3 Super Star
Any power-up that earns its own theme music is likely to be memorable, and the Super Star delivers above and beyond on these expectations. The Super Star paved the way for the Mega Mushroom with a short burst of invulnerability that takes enemies out in a single touch, but it still allows Mario to platform as normal without altering his size. A strobing rainbow effect is almost as iconic as the music, making the Super Star a clear winner in all categories.
2 Ice Flower
The Ice Flower might not be quite as entrenched as the Fire Flower, but it's a fun spin on the classic that manages to offer a little more gameplay variety to boot. Although freezing enemies isn't always as powerful as burning them to a crisp, the ability to create ice blocks makes this a far cry from the most useless Mario power-ups, provide interesting platforming opportunities that are enormous fun to play around with. The adorable Penguin Suit also delivers the Ice Flower's powers with some additional features, but its situational application makes it easy to point to the Ice Flower as the primary star of the show.
1 Tanooki Suit
From frogs to squirrels, Super Mario Bros. has had plenty of fun animal costumes, but none are quite the cultural touchstone that the Tanooki Suit is. The Super Leaf in Super Mario Bros. 3 lets Mario take on the appearance of a raccoon and use his newly-acquired tail to eliminate enemies and take to the skies, and the Tanooki Suit expands this with the ability to turn into a statue that enemies will ignore. As a rare pick-up that players don't easily stumble across, the Tanooki Suit offers the perfect balance of elusive appeal and feature-rich fun that makes it the best Super Mario Bros. power-up in series history.