Super Mode

Super Mode is an "Overdrive Mode" where a character temporarily becomes much stronger, almost always accompanied by a visible change. Basically, a Dangerous Forbidden Technique or Deadly Upgrade without the dangerous/deadly parts—it may be limited somehow, usually by time or a finite Power Source, but sometimes it's not even that (If it shortens the user's lifespan or similar, it's a Heroic RROD). Very popular in action-based video games. May, or may not have a triggering requirement, but must look awesome via glowing and floating.

These transformations are usually accompanied by either a failure on the part of the other party to intercede, or a temporary "aura of invincibility" that renders them incapable of doing so. Popularized by Dragonball Z, where characters had time to heal, restock, and partake in extended dialogues during such events.

The Super-Trope to Invincibility Power-Up, Limit Break, Super-Powered Evil Side, Unstoppable Rage, Deadly Upgrade, and often regarded as a One-Winged Angel act for heroes. Related to superpowered Animorphism, especially the Big Badass Wolf, and occasionally Super Empowering. Turned Red is the bad guy version of this. Powerup Full-Color Change may be its visual indicator. Fusion Dance sometime result in this trope. When used by character with Multiform Balance, expect the Super Mode to be either All Your Powers Combined or Lightning Bruiser.

Examples of Super Mode include:

Advertising

  • When Super Sugar Crisp changed its name to Super Golden Crisp, its mascot (Sugar Bear) gained the ability to transform into Super Bear. (This powered-up form was anything but endearing, though, and the concept was soon dropped.)

Anime and Manga

  • The Super Saiyan (and its variants) from Dragonball Z is easily the Trope Codifier; a legendary warrior with an increasingly ridiculous mane of blond hair who gains an order of magnitude of strength. This is achieved out of a cross between strength, a pure (good or evil) heart, and a really bad day.
    • In the later sagas, Trunks and Goten can transform with no difficulty at all, Goten pulled it off without realizing it, to the shock of Gohan and the adults. Fan speculation indicates that if fathered by someone who can already transform, it swaps the Saiyan tail trait out for easier access to the Super Saiyan form.
      • This seemingly is confirmed in the epilogue of the series, where Goku and Vegeta's descendants go Super Saiyan without even realizing the significance of it, just noting that their hair turns yellow.
  • In Tekkaman Blade, D-Boy undergoes a procedure which has a fifty percent chance of killing him in order to evolve his powered form into "Blastor Mode." Later, his Evil Twin Tekkaman Evil also acquires a Blastor upgrade.
  • Despite several Transformations and Fusions, actual Super Modes are fairly rare in Digimon. The main examples are Imperialdramon Fighter Mode (Humongous Mecha-like Mon goes from dragon to humanoid form) and later Paladin Mode (Fighter Mode gets a Palette Swap based on Omnimon, whose powers he's borrowing.) There's Gallantmon Crimson Mode (his vehicle becomes armor) and Beelzemon Blast Mode (gets wings, new gun) from Digimon Tamers. Although the Burst Mode of Digimon Savers fails to qualify on Health and Safety grounds... at least, if you use it improperly.
    • To be technical about it, Burst Mode actually does qualify (in Savers, at least), the health and safety issues come from triggering the wrong transformation - the V-Pet version of the Burst Mode doesn't qualify, but for Savers, the actual Deadly Upgrade is Ruin Mode, rather than Burst Mode, which in itself doesn't come with negative side effects at all. After learning from the initial mistake, the heroes have no problem avoiding Ruin Mode.
    • Digivolving itself can be considered a Super Mode (particularly the Mega forms), especially since the digimon reverts back after the fight. This is especially the case for Patamon in the first series since its so hard for him to digivolve but when he does its essentially "We've won."
    • Using the Digimentals qualifies, as well; the early premise of the series is that the Digimon Kaiser has established towers that prevent "regular" digivolution, which counteracts digivice-inspired power-ups from the original kids. Enter the Digimentals, which can imbue Digimon with alternate "Armor" forms that bypass the control towers' effects (and are usually powered between Champion and Ultimate). The Digimental of Miracles in particular grants a Golden Super Mode. The Expanded Universe declares these to fall into the Powers as Programs category, which means that the main team of digimon can use all of them.
  • Nanoha's Blaster Mode and Fate's Sonic Drive in Nanoha Striker S.
    • Only seen once is Subaru's yellow-eyed berserk-mode. She practically lost an arm, and didn't notice.
    • Fate's "Overdrive/True Sonic Form", which makes her literally fastest fighter in the Nanohaverse seen so far.
    • A's Portable: TheBattleOfAces has Full Drive modes for everyone, which gives stat boosts, Power Glows and allows usage of the Limit Break.
    • Nanoha Force features the Reacted forms for the Eclipse Drivers.
  • Kazuma's 'Contractor' state from Kaze no Stigma falls under this: Lasts for 5 minutes, and leaves him somewhat weakened when it wears off - but with no permanent side-effects. While it lasts, his eyes turns bright blue, and he's basically unstoppable. If they turn red, be somewhere else!
  • Pretty much every Shinigami in Bleach with their Bankai, and later most of the Arrancar with their Resurrección. And Chad.
    • Soifon and Yoruichi have Shunko, which can be loosely regarded as their super saiyan mode; complete with flaring aura and energy blasts.
    • And the Vizard with their masks.
  • Guyver Gigantic. Pronounced "gih-GAN-tic", it's part power-up and part Humongous Mecha, as the wielder is about nine feet tall.
    • Recently, the main character has attained the ability to transform it into Guyver Gigantic Exceed, which is the size of a skyscraper. Considering the Lensman Arms Race that drives the series, it was only a matter of time.
  • "Hyper Mode" in Angelic Layer. In the manga, it's the result of Kaede's tinkering with her Angel, but in the anime, all the first-run Angels have the ability.
  • GaoGaiGar's Cyborg Guy has an ability explicitly named "Hyper Mode", which hugely enhances his strength and speed for three minutes. It's unknown whether he has the same ability as an Evoluder, but it is implied that his final Humongous Mecha, Genesic GaoGaiGar, has the equipment to do something similar.
    • It actually does so... for about one second, for the very last push on the last attack - it's so quick that it's hard to tell what it is without going frame-by-frame.
    • The cylindrical devices on either side of Cyborg Guy's head when in combat form were batteries storing the energy for his Hyper Mode form. He had 8 of them. Genesic's hair was made up of roughly a million of those things.
  • The Shining Gundam's ace in the hole in Mobile Fighter G Gundam is actually called "Super Mode". The God Gundam has a similar effect, including a halo, called "Hyper Mode" or "Meikyou Shisui (Clear Mirror Still Water)."
    • Shining Gundam also has a Hyper Mode, which is similar to the Super Mode but changes the whole mecha's color to glowing gold. The other Shuffle Alliance members eventually gain this same ability for their Gundams, while the God Gundam has "Golden Hyper Mode", which is the same thing but stronger.
    • Then, there is Mobile Suit Gundam 00 with its Trans-Am system, which triples a Gundam's performance while turning it red.
    • Gundam Seed has SEED Mode. The show's director once described it as the physical representation of a character surpassing his limits. Rather than a super mode for the machine, though, it's for the pilot, who enters a sort of Zen state where they gain hyper-awareness and extreme precision and reflexes. One of the reasons Kira's so tough in Destiny is that he's learned how to activate this state at will (for everyone else who can use it, it's spontaneous).
    • In Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, the titular Unicorn's NT-D (short for Newtype-Destroyer) is described as "the mode in which the Unicorn's performance limiters are disengaged". When activated the suit's armor expands, revealing a glowing red frame underneath. Also doubles as Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam F91 play with this. The titular F91's super mode is actually come from its design flaw, the system generate too much heat and the transformation (radiator fins expand, face opens) is done for better cooling. That being said, the shredding armor layer and heat signal it leave behind when moving do creat after-image which is very useful in battle.
  • Tenjou Tenge has the cute, petite chibi girl Maya Natsume becoming a Huge Schoolgirl when getting ready for fighting.
  • Moka from Rosario + Vampire has two forms: her normal form, which looks like a normal but very Panty Shot-prone schoolgirl, and her Super-Powered Evil Side, which is taller, has bigger tits, and Glowing Eyes of Doom.
    • Inner-Moka is more just extremely arrogant and violent than evil, but she's very much a Super Mode for Moka. Tsukune gets one of his own later in the manga, his eyes change and his expression deadens and he proceeds to kick the ass of everything in the area that isn't Moka.
    • Tsukune himself develops one as a result of his Emergency Transformation. After repeated blood injections, if not for a certain measure, there would be unpleasant consequences.
  • Ranma from Ranma ½ has the "cat-fist" ("neko-ken"), which makes him more agile and gives him invisible claws that can cut through anything. It has two big limitations: 1) it can only be induced by an intense fear of cats, and 2) it gives him the mentality of a cat, making him easy to distract and incapable of using tactics and strategy.
  • Sailor Moon's seasonal upgrades usually just have very minor changes, but in S, she acquires the Holy Grail which gives her an actual Super Mode, with a lovely white and gold trim. SuperS' seasonal upgrade was to make her Super form her permanent form, giving Sailor Mini Moon a similar Super powerup. Eventually, all the other scouts also got a Super form power-up.
    • And then in Sailor Stars, she goes one step further with her Eternal form. It starts off as being so powerful that she can only maintain it for a short time, but a few episodes later it becomes her permanent form.
  • In Tentai Senshi Sunred, Sunred, like any good Sentai hero, has a super mode. His is called Firebird Form, and if the opening (maybe) is anything to go by, it's very impressive.
  • Very common in Soul Eater, with subtropes included. There's the basic Resonance of Souls, the more advanced Chain Resonance, using the power of the Black Blood, Maka's Witch Hunter and Demon Hunter attacks, Black☆Star's Fey Blade mode and the blade modes after unlocking Masamune's true power, Kidd's Lines of Sanju, Free's werewolf form, Mosquito's younger forms, and many others.
    • Kid's Sanzu Lines were temporary due to Brew's influence, they seem intended as some sort of upgrade, possibly the deadly variety due to certain circumstances.
    • And later Black Star and Death the Kid uses the Insanity.
      • Followed by Kid activating two of the Sanzu Lines himself, using his 'killing intent' (and, apparently, his father's power) to destroy Noah. Sort of.
    • As both Maka and Black Star's original super-modes have become standard, they've essentially been replaced by their upgrades - Witch Hunter by Demon Hunter, and the improper version of the fey blade mode with the real one. By extension, Kid will presumably follow suit with his Sanzu Lines.
  • Naruto has "Sage Mode". By drawing on the natural energy around him, he can drastically increase his strength, speed, and endurance, as well as a whole new array of abilities and heightened senses. The visible effects of all this are a pair of red-lidded, golden frog eyes. The only physical drawback is the time limit, however, with proper planning the form can be exploited to handle most combat situations.
      • And now Kabuto has his own version of Sage Mode.
    • There's the "Chakra Gates" used by Lee and Guy, increasing their physical stats humongously. By pushing it to its limit though, the power output will inevitably kill the user.
  • A couple in Mahou Sensei Negima. First, Albireo's Pactio which is completely broken, letting him take on the form of people he has met for limited periods of time. Even people like Nagi. And he was already pretty badass. The kanka technique that Takahata, Asuna and Vanderburg use, which drastically increases speed and power, at a downside of draining magic and ki at what is implied to be a a decent bit faster for both than fighting normally with either alone. Also Negi's black magic, which can have damaging effects on his psyche due to its nature to encompass and accept everything, it also has at least five modes, depending on what spells it's used with. Its also probably going to turn him into a demon (something he has no problems with, considering his master, and has a slight chance of killing him. Although Negi himself mentions that he's really not worried about his odds of survival.
    • And now he actually has gone demon, or at least, partially. Having mastered his super form, he presumably no longer has to deal with the side effects, and he curb stomps Quartum like he was nothing.
  • Kirihara Akaya's Devil Mode in The Prince of Tennis. There's also Muga no Kyouchi ("State of Self-Actualization") and its three doors, especially Ten'i Muhou no Kiwami (literally "The Pinnacle of Perfection").
  • Monkey D. Luffy develops the Gear transformations in the Enies Lobby arc. The first one, Gear Second, pumps blood in his body to strengthen his organs, giving his body a pink hue with purple, glowing veins, while sweat steams on his body, giving an appearance similar to a Battle Aura. He's MUCH faster (able to go supersonic speeds) and MUCH stronger (the mere punches he throws causes the air around him to impact onto his target) and names all of his attacks with the word "Jet" as a prefix for all of them. His Gear Third technique uses air to blow up his body parts to massive sizes, able to destroy entire towers in one punch. However, his speed heavily decreases and afterwards he temporarily shrinks. Obviously, he uses his Gear Second more.
    • To a lesser extent, some of the other members of the crew have super modes too, like Zoro's Asura which spawns an extra 2 heads and 4 extra arms to allow him to use 9 swords at a time, Chopper's Monster Point form (Even though that counts more as a Dangerous Forbidden Technique ( at least pre-Time Skip)), and Sanji's Diable Jambe which literally sets his leg on fire.
  • Several times during the course of Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 01 goes into "berserk" mode where it operates autonomously and becomes much more powerful than it normally is.
  • In Yu Yu Hakusho, after Yusuke dies and comes back to life, he is able to change into his demon form, which gives him access to both spirit and demon energy. Kurama can also revert back to Yoko Kurama (who was much stronger), and Hiei also has his demon form (where multiple eyes sprout on his body, used only once in the series); Hiei can also absorb his Dragon of the Darkness Flame attack, which grants a massive power boost.
    • Toguro also has his transformation to 100% power, which temporarily causes an eclipse and kills half of the audience in the process. It's every bit as cool as the 30+ episode buildup to it implied.
  • The Future GPX Cyber Formula series has the Zero Zone. Similar to the Gundam SEED case above, this particular mode is the representation of surpassing the character's limits, A state where a driver can read one's mind with their car, in which the user can see a bit of the future, look into other driver's thoughts and also predict their movements.
  • When Ryuugu Rena enters "adorable mode", she does not lose.
  • In Fairy Tail the Dragon Slayers has Dragon Force.
  • Kinji's "Hysteria Mode" from Hidan no Aria, which has certain trigger conditions.
  • The two protagonists of Tiger and Bunny have the Good Luck Mode, a modification in their Powered Armor that enhances their power by not a damn bit -- but it sure looks cool, doesn't it?
  • While most Pretty Cure series have different Super Modes being seen only in movies, Fresh Pretty Cure was the first to introduce a Super Mode, the Cure Angel form, though it was for only one Cure at a time. Heartcatch Precure's Super Silhouette would be the first series to give the team a Super Mode.
  • Sebastian's true form in at least the anime version of Black Butler is vastly more powerful than his usual form. Agni also has a super mode, the state of samadhi.

Literature

  • The Star Wars franchise has a Super Mode called Oneness, a state of perfect harmony with The Force. While this is normally only possible after death, there are a few cases of Force-sensitives achieving this state in life. As a living extension of The Force itself, a person in Oneness can perform feats far beyond even the strongest Jedi and Sith. It's actually impossible for a Dark Side practitioner to enter this state given that it requires the one thing no Dark Sider user would ever consider: complete and total surrender to the Will of The Force. The most awesome example of Oneness is Ganner Rhysode's You Shall Not Pass moment.
    • Or Dorsk 81's throwing 17 star destroyers half-way across the star-system.
  • Mune Shinri has the Sage's trance (given the nature of the work, it's likely inspired by Naruto).

Live Action TV

  • Buffyverse vampires going Game Face, especially if the vampire is Angel. For him, this is really a super-charged version of The Coats Are Off; in the sense that he can still fight effectively enough beforehand, but when his fangs extend, his opponent(s) are in very serious trouble.
  • KITT's Super Pursuit Mode in the last season of Knight Rider.
    • ...and KI3T in the 2008 TV movie and (just about) every episode in the resulting TV series.
  • Super Sentai and Power Rangers have two standard variations: those originating in Sentai are usually lightly-armored upgrades available to the whole team, while Rangers' adds "Battlizer" modes that are heavily armored and armed to the teeth, usually only for the Red Rangers (though other male Rangers usually get their own battlized versions in the toyline).
    • The Super Shinkengers/Super Samurai Rangers are quite an odd example, as there's only one Super Mode Trinket to go around; so everyone can use the upgrade but not all at once. Red does later get a near-exclusive Super Mode called Hyper ShinkenRed/Shark Attack Mode, a red version of the "Super" upgrade with a special sword. Subverted with Mega Mode and apparently Shogun Mode (which would otherwise be the Battlizer-style upgrade) as well; though more armored and visually impressive than the regular Ranger suits, they're only used to pilot the Megazords, not for fighting.
  • In the Kamen Rider franchise, Stronger and all of the Heisei-era main Riders, plus several secondary ones, get more powerful forms near the end of their series. Naturally, a lot of these include new merchandise (usually a large sword) to sell with them.
    • For extra fun, Decade Complete Form can summon copies of his nine predecessors' Super Modes to perform tandem versions of their Finishing Moves.
  • Madan Senki Ryukendo's eponymous hero has 9 different forms, including his default one. One of them is titled "God Ryukendo", and that's not even his most powerful form.
  • Riser Shirogane in Gen Sei Shin Justiriser, a powered-up form of Riser Glen.
  • R1 Max in Tomica Hero Rescue Force
  • Fire-1 X in Tomica Hero Rescue Fire
  • Ultraman Mebius has four super modes - Mebius Brave, achieved when Ultraman Hikari lends him his Transformation Trinket, Mebius Burning Brave, which is fueled by The Power of Friendship, Mebius Phoenix Brave, which is gained when he does a Fusion Dance with his teammates, and Mebius Infinity, a form gained by a Fusion Dance with the Ultra Brothers.
  • From other Ultra Series...
  • The USS Prometheus in Star Trek: Voyager had one of these.
    • So did the future version of Voyager itself in the Grand Finale. It could don super armor capable of shrugging off the best efforts of the Borg (for a time.)
  • Buffy receives one of these via a spell, which aids her in defeating Adam.

Multiple Media

  • Axonn's super mode in Bionicle is essentially the combination of a very controlled version of an Unstoppable Rage and The Juggernaut. He becomes immune to every attack his foes can toss at him, and the effect wears out after he has delivered a spectacular beating in them. It can be accessed by making him very mad.

Mythology and Religion

  • This is Older Than Print: Cuchulain, Irish folkloric hero, when particularly angry, would enter a super mode where he was stronger, faster, tougher, etc. On the down side, he changed into a terrible monster. His muscles bulged and twisted around in his body, and some joints would reverse, hence the name "Warp Spasm". Additionally, one eye would grow as big as a goblet, the other eye would shrink to a pinhole and recede into his skill, his mouth would grow and his hair would stand on end. And given that in his "normal" mode he can throw spears into the clouds and have them come down on his enemy minutes later, or leap clear over fortress walls, his Super Mode was pretty damn super indeed.

Tabletop Games

  • Clerics, Druids and Wizards can all do this in DnD with the right feats.
    • Feats or spells. Clerics in 3rd and 3.5 Ed can do it with the right domain choices, if available (Destruction + Strength. A smite that already has a good bonus getting an additional bonus from the Feat of Strength power. Yeah, Can you say "cleaved in 'twain"?)
    • Or any of those three classes when using the Shapechange spell. With the right choice of form, the power-up can be exceedingly impressive.
    • And let's not forget the Barbarian's Rage, which makes him all around meaner and tougher to his enemies for about half a dozen game rounds. It may however be argued that this is a Charles Atlas Superpower, because it is pretty much done by further adrenalizing an already trained and powerful body. The Super Mode is powerful enough that the barbarian ignores all wounds, including incapacitating and fatal ones, while it is active. Afterwards, however ...
      • The Barbarian (Rage mode or not) doesn't ignore damage. The Frenzied Berserker after gaining level 4 in the Pr C does while in their Super Mode.
      • Now, in 4e, it is explicitly supernatural. It's the result of temporary, willing possession by primal spirits, some of which are subtle enough you might not even notice the feats performed aren't possible. Others set you on fire. Wardens also get super modes that last for the whole combat as daily powers, temporarily transforming themselves into part-spirit beings with varying powers.
    • Another one is sort of implied for dragons, or at least dragons who prefer to stay in humanoid forms rather than their natural state (such as song dragons). When they revert, they're going from an average humanoid to a giant dragon with claws, wings, armoured scales and very, very sharp teeth.
  • Building these is fairly simple in GURPS but a particularly funny example appears in the Biotech supplement where the Felicia parahuman template has a Super Mode that causes their libido to go into overdrive afterward.
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game, certain Synchro monsters get "Assault Modes" where they become more powerful stat-wise, and get stronger effects. Stardust and Red Archfiend also have Majestic forms and Accel Sychro forms too [1]
    • And, in the anime series' finale, they go even further with Shooting Quasar Dragon, a form of Stardust achieved by entering the golden Over Top Clear Mind Super Mode. Note: The card DOES exist in reality. Holy crap...
  • Game mechanic of Privateer Press's Monsterpocalypse. Here called Hyper Mode (and with Ultra, Mega, and Quantum variants, depending on rarity), you attempt to accumulate Power Dice by securing (or crushing) buildings, holding power zones, destroying units, etc. When you have enough, your monster can go Hyper, gaining different stats. Generally, these are improved, though some have lower defense or health and drastically altered powers, resulting less in a power up and more in a significant strategy change. You can be dropped out of Hyper Mode by certain attacks (including a Headbutt) or drop out willingly (useful if your Alpha has higher defense). You also enter Hyper Mode automatically when your Alpha mode is depleted of health, resulting in something like Turns Red.
  • Various groups in Exalted can do this. Among the most prominent are Lunars using the Deadly Beastman Transformation Knack and Infernals using Shintai Charms.
  • This is why Big Eyes, Small Mouth has the Alternate Form power. It's not hugely powerful - without modifiers you spend nine points on something to give you +10 points - and it's required that there's some drawback (even if it's only social) to prevent you from simply morphing into Omnikill Form and spending the rest of your life there.


Video Games

  • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while some of the characters' hyper-combos are transformations (i.e., Dante's Devil Trigger and Phoenix's evil version, Dark Phoenix), the most notable transformation isn't even a hyper-combo at all: The X-Factor, which increases in quality depending on how many teammates were knocked-out in the fight.
    • The expanded rerelease, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, added several more characters with Super Modes, most notably Phoenix Wright (not the same as the above Phoenix) with his ability to become an unstoppable justice juggernaut after collecting enough evidence, easily able to kill anyone in the game with a simple combo ending with his Turnabout Mode-only Hyper Combo. The powered up lawyer glows gold, and a mere wave of his arm summons a massive simulacrum of his extended arm, smiting his foe.
  • In ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman, the player can activate "Unlosing Mode" after gathering enough power. Unlosing Mode greatly boosts one of the player's stats for a set number of turns.
  • Kratos' Rage Of The Gods/Titans/Sparta from the God of War games.
  • Keats' Transcend Mode, from Folklore.
  • Sora's Drive Forms (particularly the Final Form) in Kingdom Hearts II, with the exception of Anti Form, which is more of a Super-Powered Evil Side. The Command Styles in Birth by Sleep may also count.
  • Robot Alchemic Drive: Each of the controllable robots has a super mode (Vavel starts with its own super mode that gets upgraded halfway through the game, while Glangg and Lagioule have to earn their's). The trade-off is that activating the super mode puts the player on a three-minute time limit: exceeding that limit will destroy the robot, resulting in a game over.
  • Super Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog, obtained after collecting all the Chaos Emeralds. There's also Hyper Sonic, with all the Super Emeralds, which can cause a huge flash when jumping that causes all enemies on-screen to be destroyed.
    • In this mode, his eyes turn red, and his fur stands up and glows yellow. It's highly reminiscent of Dragon Ball, which, considering creator Yuji Naka is a huge fan of, isn't surprising.
    • Furthermore, several other characters have gone into "super" forms over the course of the story. Most notable would be Super Ix from Sonic Chronicles, for being one of only two super transformations that used the Master Emerald and the first humanoid villain to use a super transformation. There's also Super Mecha Sonic, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the other Super form achieved through the Master Emerald, a robot that used a super transformation - and in a boss fight where the player is not.
    • Shadow also features a Super transformation, featuring a lemon yellow color, to date he's achieved it with the Chaos Emeralds three times.
      • Silver is also given a Super form by Super Sonic himself in Sonic 06.
    • Knuckles, like Sonic, is also able to use the Chaos Emeralds to gain a Super form, and use the Super Emeralds to achive Hyper Sonic. Both forms have him glow pink. His hyper form can kill everybody on screen simply by gliding into walls at a high speed.
    • Tails also gets a super form, but only with the Super Emeralds from Sonic & Knuckles combined with Sonic 3. Among the usual increased speed and invincibility, but has four birds that he shares his power with, who fly around killing things on their own.
    • And let's not forget Darkspine- and Excalibur Sonic from his Storybook Series.
    • There's also Burning Blaze from the Rush games.
  • Dante's various demonic forms in the Devil May Cry series—particularly his ultra-powerful "Sparda" form, which is actually an Eleventh-Hour Superpower courtesy of his father. Overlaps with One-Winged Angel and Limit Break.
  • Jaster Rogue's "Star King" form in Rogue Galaxy. It doesn't actually seem to make you any stronger, in-game, but you DO get some fairly impressive Cutscene Superpowers, and it looks undeniably Badass.
    • Actually, it increases his maximum Hit Points by a certain percentage, but by the time you first get to it, you'll probably be very close to max Hit Points anyway.
  • R-Type 3 has a Hyper Mode which replaces your Wave Motion Gun with a Spam Attack.
  • The Super-charged Gravity Gun at the end of Half-Life 2 and the beginning of Half-Life 2: Episode One, which allowed the player to pick up almost anything (including enemy soldiers and APCs) and throw it.
  • Terra's Trance/Morph mode in Final Fantasy VI.
  • Nariko gets one of these at the end of Heavenly Sword.
  • Crimzon Clover has Break Mode, activated by pressing the bomb button at 100% Break Gauge. It increases your firepower, doubles your Break Rate, and causes stars to shower while damaging enemes. During Break Mode, if you fill the gauge before Break Mode runs out, you can activate Double Break Mode, which gives you even more firepower and doubles your Break Rate again.
  • From all of Mega Man X's armors, the Ultimate Armor stands out, a secret armor accessed only through a cheat code, or, in some games, beating the game under special circumstances. It's the most broken armor in the series, having several abilities that make some of the games much easier.
    • The same could be said for Zero's own Ultimate upgrade in Mega Man Zero. It increases all his stats, and executing certain button combinations allow him to use Charge Attacks without, y'know, actually charging them.
    • All playable characters in Mega Man X Command Mission has unique Hyper Mode.
      • For X, it's X Fire, and after defeat certain Bonus Boss, the aforemention Ultimate X.
      • Zero start with Black Zero, and like X, defeating certain Bonus Boss give him Absolute Zero.
      • Axl's Stealth Form.
      • Spider's Trickstar.
      • Massimo's Glint Armor.
      • Marino's Quicksilver.
      • Cinnamon's Iron Maiden.
    • Any EM Wave Change in Mega Man Star Force, which transforms people from "random guy on the street" to "electromagnetic engine of destruction". 2 gives secondary, tertiary and even quaternary Super Modes in the forms of Tribe On (one element), Double Tribe (two elements), and the obscenely powerful Tribe King (which requires One Game for the Price of Two). There's also the Element + Void tertiary mode known as Mega Man Rogue, which can't even be accessed until you've beaten the game and is somewhat Awesome but Impractical.
  • Shatterhand has a mode activated by getting the same sets of robot powerups twice in a row.
  • In Persona 3, Aigis is able use "Orgia mode" which releasing her limiter upon the order by MC which increase her performance alot. In FES her sister Metis also able to use a somewhat improve version call "Neo Orgia Mode" since Aigis own one been fried after the battle with Metis
  • Asura has five revealed so far: Vajra Asura, Six Armed Vajra Asura, Berserker Asura, Wrath Asura and Mantra Asura.
  • While Mario's powerup forms tend to be more along the lines of Swiss Army Hero; the Fire Flower is treated as his Super Mode in the Super Mario Bros Super Show. Many of the major bosses have their own Super Mode, as well.
    • The Super Star or Starman item in the game series are also super modes for the Mario Bros. The item makes them invincible and flash a bunch of different colors, sparkle, flash in rainbow colors, or something else, depending on the game. Super Paper Mario has the characters become giant 8-bit pixel version of themselves and flatten anyone that gets in the way.
  • Some Original Generation in Super Robot Wars use this.
    • Cybuster can power up by being possessed by the spirit of wind Cyfis, culminating in the godlike Full Possession Mode.
    • In Endless Frontier, Alteisen Nacht and Weisritter Abend will enter Rage Mode when they use Overdrive attack.
    • In Super Robot Wars Z, Gunleon transform into Magna Mode to perform its two strongest attack.
  • In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, "Reckoning" Mode is this for the Fateless One. Everything but the Fateless One goes into slow motion as he/she fights with weapons empowered by the Weave of Fate. "Reckoning" also allows Finishers which consist of the Fateless One ripping out opponents' fate and beating them to death with it.
  • Overlimit and its renamed variations throughout the Tales (series). It generally allows arts to be used rapidly, the temporary use of some special arts, and some degree of protection from enemy attacks.
  • Averted in a Yu Yu Hakusho game for the Genesis where Hiei would reach Super Mode by unleashing his special on himself. Played straight for other transformations and other YYH fighting games like the ones for the SNES. One interesting thing about YYH branch of videogames though is that many special moves are this prior to the modern consoles. This often made for many innovative power-ups especially as YYH's transformations are not just color changes.
  • The Kairo Soft games for the Android/Iphones also make a habit of making this for their games. Basically if you're playing blindly, how to achieve auras are one of the first things players try to figure out. Some auras are so deceptive that it's the only way to achieve a super level of a concept. One game for example, Grand Prix Story, improves on the Super Robot Wars form of bar upgrades by requiring both payment to upgrade the bars for increasing the stats but also requiring sacrificing the ultimate aura to reach the best stats. If you even wasted one lower level aura or just upgraded without auras, you'd have to reset to ever unlock the full potential of your cars. Only the best cars can beat the last stage with less than the best golden aura. This often resulted in a common guidedangit strategy of using silver auras for equipments you don't plan on bringing for the New Game+ and saving golden auras for one specific car or equipment. To add to the challenge, it's impossible to fully upgrade any thing with one golden aura in a single playthrough and if you're not min-maxing, it's impossible for the 2nd playthrough either.


Web Original

  • Dash of the Whateley Universe can use his Energizer power to make himself much, much faster and stronger. For ten minutes. And it takes him about ten minutes to crank himself up first. And he can only do it a couple times a day without completely exhausting himself.


Western Animation

  1. ↑ "Shooting Star Dragon" and "Red Nova Dragon" for Stardust and Red Archfiend, respectively.
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