I've been holding on to this idea for a week when we couldn't get the rights to something, and lo that time has come. The thought occurred to me that, in games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, why does eating a giant ham hock out of the bottom of a trash can improve your health? Shouldn't that decrease it?
So, what if real life had power ups that worked like video games, particularly but not limited to the classics? That's our open-ended concept for this week. That isn't a source image above (it's the notorious Castlevania Wall Turkey, as prepared by Gourmet Gaming back in April.) You're free to use any video game power-up in a real life image, or use a real-life representation of something as a power-up in a video game. Think on it some, before entering, we have quite a wide playing field here.
Remember, you have to post submissions in the new forum for the Kotaku 'Shop Contest. I know it's not as fun as seeing everyone's creations underneath this post, but this way automatically displays them in chronological order, which everyone seems to prefer.
Because of this, comments are disabled in this post to avoid confusion. You must visit the 'Shop Contest Forum to participate or to see this week's subissions. After you create your 'Shop, you'll need to post it there. Here are the rest of the guidelines for doing so.
1. Go to the 'Shop Contest Forum
2. Click "Add Image" in the upper right above the comment window.
3. Click "Upload an Image Instead." Then click the "Choose File" button. Browse your desktop, find the image, and click "open."
4. If you prefer, you can upload the 'Shop to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. Then click "Add image" in the upper right above the comment window. Paste the image URL into the field that says "Image URL."
5. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
6. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. If you're still having trouble uploading the image, try to keep its longest dimension (horizontal or vertical) under 1000 pixels.
All set? Great. Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!