Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Health Pickups

Health pickups are unquestionably an integral part of the videogame medium, there's simply no real way around this fact. If you think about it though, the concept is pretty silly. Players are able to take inordinate amounts of damage and yet be back, good as new, at the press of the button or the touch of an item. Usually this is given very little rational explanation, and often it consist of things being ingested, 'Medkits' being mysterious applied, or simply referred as nothing more THAN a health pickup. This is a list of those notable instances I have encountered, some of them novel, many of them ridiculous, but all of them prominent.

Terminators are machines, machines run on electricity, electricity comes from other machines. This is the basic premise of the Health Pickup in Terminator 3: Redemption. Each of Skynet's humanoid agents that you encounter is a potential boost to your energy. A number of hand-to-hand combos feature in the game result in you stealing health in a variety of cool methods. Knocking the enemy to the ground and then stomping on its head, resulting in a flurry of arcing beams, is perhaps the most memorable. And for those vehicle-based sections the in-game logic is maintained. Carefully placed power-lines can be shot down, leaching their energy to you as you drive or fly past, while ruined enemy tanks littering the wayside will do the same. Well thought-out, well implemented, and done with visually appealing effect.

This metaphysical, psychologically straining, survival horror series features a discordant theme for its Health Pickups indeed. Scattered throughout this nightmare world, brandishing their bright pharmacy-fresh logos and child-proof lids are the ubiquitous "Health Drinks". No one knows what these things are, no one knows how they work, until now probably no one thought to ask. Now that I think about it, the variety of locations in which these items are found is highly suspicious... Could it be that the entire freaky universe we see in Silent Hill is simply the product of "Health Drink" inspired hallucinations!?!? *DUN DUN DUUUN*

We all know that no number of heat-seeking rockets, alien face-grabbers, or evil overlords could ever REALLY hurt the mountain of sardonic flesh that is Duke Nukem. What could bring this mountain of masculine muscle to a halt, however, is a severe blow to his Ego. That's right, since Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, it has been about maintaining Dukes monstrous Ego that mattered, and kept him in the mood to chew bubblegum and kick you-know-what. Collecting Duke merchandise or dipping into the man's own biography in Land of the Babes would keep this meter buoyant, while in Manhattan Project it was based more on actions. Get hit by a bullet and he may receive -2 of ego, but turn around and blast that stinkin' big-cop and you could get +15 back easily. Rescuing the ubiquitous babes scattered throughout the levels would also give you a boost. Overall a well implemented idea that works in the game's humorous world, and in Manhattan Project actually adds another level to game dynamics.

Why does Sonic collect rings again? I think I remember some vague suggestion being made in the original cartoon series, but never did I encounter an explanation in the games. Personally I don't really care what the explanation is, the games are still great, and the more of those sparkling beauties I can get the better, especially when fronting up to Eggman. You have to admit, though, it's pretty weird and certainly notable.

As a space shooter, and like the previous installment, health consisted of two things. Shields which absorbed initial damage to your craft, and restored themselves after a lull in the onslaught, and your Hull, which only took damaged when your shields were depleted, but could not be regenerated. Vengeance added two notable additions to this system. The first, mildly notable one, was the 'Leech Beam'. This was an energy weapon which drained the targeted craft's shields and redistributed the energy to your own, leaving the enemy open for a well placed hull missile. The really notable health system in this game, however, was the presence of a little automated craft called the Repair Pod. This could be fired, like a missile, onto an allied craft at which point it would proceed to fly around them busily repairing it while leaving you free to hunt down whatever enemy was hounding it in the first place. Innovative, rational, and visually agreeable.

The Shinobi remake is perhaps one of the hardest videogames ever made, and this is perhaps largely due to its combined health/damage system. As Hotsuma you possess a soul-stealing blade which must be constantly sated by the souls of your enemies, otherwise it will turn this hunger onto you. The Health Pickups themselves were the flip-side of this coin, and explained within the game as being based on the concept of Yin and Yang, light and dark in the soul. Killing an enemy arouses the hunger of the blade, causing it to do progressively more damage, and also increasing the chances that a portion of Yin (health, represented by one half of the well known symbol) will be left by the enemy. The result is a fine balance between life and death for our hero, and a more than effective impetus to keep the action rolling over at a brisk pace.

Mushrooms! What!?! I mean they have nutritional value, sure, and they can be made into some truly delicious dishes, but still! Although, given the rest of the bizarre premise in these games, it doesn't sound all that weird at all. Stocky little plumbers who jump on turtles, punch blocks of floating stone, and travel down giant green pipes? What are mushrooms on top of that? My rational explanation for why mushrooms? That's what the design team were on when they made this game. Don't get me started about those the 'Fuzzy' from Yoshi's Island. Most blatant drug trip I've ever seen in a videogame.

Overall this was a fairly respectable, challenging, and enjoyable beat-em-up romp, and certainly not the worst use of this license ever made. There are even some really cool aspects. Fighting as one of two Predators or two human cyborgs, a level set atop a speeding APC stright from Aliens, and some great bosses, including a rogue Predator and the Alien Queen. What Aliens vs Predator Arcade gets #3 position for is the most stupid and poorly thought out Health Pickup ever featured in a game. Been pierced by two many Alien tails? No problem, have a pizza, or a roast turkey, or a can of soft-drink. WHAT!!!!! Sure, Wolfenstein featured such things as well, but at least there's a vague association between Germans and hearty meals. How does this even remotely fit in with the premise?

Kain and Raziel, vampire and Wraith, together at last in one dual-character game. Bringing together Kain's age old blood-letting, and Raziel's ghoulish soul-stealing, Legacy of Kain Defiance upped the edginess with a new variety of ways to feed. Kain can still pursue his trade-mark telekinetic feeding, but if you want that vigorous taste of true fear in your victims he now has the option of taking it straight from the source. Not satisfied with that? Well then, you can also employ his telekinetic powers to perform a truly physics-defying feed. Leap into the air and he slows his descent with his powers, slurping that corpuscular goodness as he floats majestically to the ground. Raziel, on the other hand, can still unveil that gaping maw left to him from the abyss and feed upon the wandering souls. Or, for that personal touch, you can body-slam his opponents before wrenching their soul out of their body with your talon and drawing the stunned specter out of the air and into his gullet before they even know that they are dead. Like Kain, Raziel can also feed while leaping, but given his under-developed powers at that stage, this is much more difficult to do. Legacy of Kain: Defiance gets double points, one thumbs up for sheer visual appeal, and another for actually making health restoration make sense to the storyline.

Three playable races, three styles of playing, three forms of health pickup. The Marines get your stock-standard 'Medkit' and 'Armour' pickups, leaving it to the two extra-terrestrial species to carry the banner for #1 Health Pickup. First of all there are the savage, techno-savvy Predators. These guys are able to absorb small munitions fire like we would sunscreen, but when the damage piles up these guys don't run home to mother (or whatever alien equivalent they have for one). Full of bullets holes? Two razor sharp bladed injectors should fix that! With a shriek and a roar these guys are back to full health, albeit at the cost of a substantial energy loss. As for those wily Xenomorphs which sprang out of artist H.R. Giger's twisted mind over two decades ago, those living lethal weapons? Nothing closes up those dripping acid wounds like a hefty dose of grey matter! Yep, that's right, you not only receive full health for a successful head-bite, but also a substantial boost on top of that. Should you accidentally slay your foe without dentally decapitating him you can still take a chomp on his head to receive a partial upgrade, and tear the remaining pieces of the corpse to shreds for a more meager one. Definitely memorable.

Love or hate how Health Pickups are handled in a game, chances are you won't question taking them in that instant before you meet your virtual maker. Looking at the degree to which games are taking themselves seriously now days, it will be interesting indeed to see how this gaming necessity is treated in the future.

List by The_Necronoir (02/08/2006)