Extra life

An extra life (also known as a "1-UP", "1-Up" or "1UP") is a term used in video games, especially platforming games, such as those associated with Mario. A 1-UP awards the player with an extra chance to beat the game. If a player dies, they will be able to start unscathed from the beginning of the level (or sometimes, at the level's mid-point, if it has been reached). When a player loses all of their extra lives, the result is a Game Over, and the game must either be played again from the beginning, or be restarted from the last save point. Players typically start with three to five extra lives, and can usually earn more during the course of the game.

Early arcade games, such as Donkey Kong, typically awarded an extra life after a large number of points was acquired by the player. However, the 1-UP independent of score did not emerge until the original Super Mario Bros. In this game, the 1-Up Mushroom was introduced. This special item merely needed to be collected to reward the player an extra life. However, 1-UP Mushrooms were typically hidden and were very hard to acquire. This trend continued in other platforming and adventure games, and as such, extra lives were often seen as the ultimate bonus of early gaming.

Super Mario Bros. also introduced another concept associated with 1-Ups – collection of a hundred objects. In the game, if one hundred coins were collected, the player would be rewarded with an extra life. In many platforming and adventure games, collecting a hundred of a specific item would grant a 1-Up (such as in the Donkey Kong Country series, where collecting a hundred Bananas yields an extra life). The game Super Mario 64 alters this formula - only fifty coins were needed for a 1-Up, but a hundred were required for a much more valuable item, the Power Star, which were needed to complete the game. The extra lives from collecting coins only registered if one of the regular stars in the level were collected. In other games, a low number of items could be collected for an extra life. These include the Dragon Coins of Super Mario World, where five coins would earn an extra life, and the KONG Letters of Donkey Kong Country, where all four letters would grant a 1-UP. However, these collectibles would only grant a 1-Up if a complete set was acquired in a single level, unlike coins and bananas, which had a running total throughout the game. Some games also feature items that award more than one extra life. These include the 3-Up Moon from Super Mario World, and the various colored Extra Life Balloons of Donkey Kong Country, which yield a different amount of extra lives based on color. In some games, 1-Ups award full health, such as in Super Mario Sunshine.

Extra lives can also be obtained by jumping on each enemy consecutively without touching the ground. As the player jumps on each enemy, they earn points. After the player jumps on the eighth enemy, they earn an extra life. This technique can be used in most of the 2D Mario games, and only on the Yoshi Planet in Space Junk Galaxy from the 3D Mario game Super Mario Galaxy (except in the game, the player does not earn points but still earns an extra life after jumping on the eighth Goomba).

Extra lives are only surpassed by the "Continue", which grants an entire new set of extra lives, instead of just one.

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, when Bowser is going through the Super Mario Bros. style levels, it is shown that he has infinite lives, and no matter how many times he dies, he will not run out of lives. This may explain why he always survives each battle with Mario, no matter what fate he suffers at the end of each game. This did obviously not apply to the time when he was temporarily destroyed by Dimentio in Super Paper Mario. However, this is probably simply so that the player doesn't get a Game Over from what is simply a mini-game.

Trivia

 * The term "1UP" originally meant something radically different; it referred to the first player's score in arcade games, while "2UP" referred to the second player's score. Typically, the first player's score would be placed in the upper-left corner of the screen, while the second player's score would be located in the upper-right corner of the screen. The all-time high score was typically located in the middle of these two scores.
 * "1UP" can be seen in a license plate of a truck in the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! course Mushroom City.
 * A six-note tune (E-G-E-C-D-G) has always been heard when a Mario game character has received an Extra Life. Over the years, the tune has sped up.
 * According to Super Paper Mario, when someone runs out of extra lives in the Mario universe, he or she will get a Game Over (i.e. die) and move on to the afterlife, either to The Underwhere or The Overthere. However, in the Mario & Luigi series, Mario and Luigi are said to be knocked-out when they don't have any more HP yet the screen shows a Game Over.
 * Extra Lives, in a way, also appeared in Super Mario Kart, where they were referred to as Karts.

Related Articles

 * 1-Up Mushroom
 * 1-Up Heart
 * 3-Up Moon
 * Coin
 * Dragon Coin
 * Banana
 * Extra Life Balloon
 * KONG Letters