What is your favourite Sonic power-up/item?

[EzSonic01]

While the Sonic series is not known for its power-up items, in contrast with franchises such as Mario, it's still a somewhat important and fun part of the franchise. You can't choose more than two! Super Rings, 1-Ups, Wisps and Red Star Rings also count! For me, it would be the Invincibility and Speed Shoes; challenging but at the same time, rewarding to use. What are yours?

 

[Osmium]

It would be the three elemental shields as these are what aided to make Sonic stand on his own against Tails and Knuckles. 

Tails and Knuckles had vertical advantages over Sonic. Tails could move in any direction and Knuckles kept air for a great period of time. The thing is though they were slow, cumbersome, and vulnerable in these positions. The elemental shields allowed Sonic to move in a specified air direction. Distance is compromised for speed and invulnerability, and so instead of a slow air motion, you get a quick blast in one direction that could be manipulated and spammed quickly. I always felt it was an excellent balance between Sonic and the others. 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

41 minutes ago, Osmium said:

It would be the three elemental shields as these are what aided to make Sonic stand on his own against Tails and Knuckles. 

Tails and Knuckles had vertical advantages over Sonic. Tails could move in any direction and Knuckles kept air for a great period of time. The thing is though they were slow, cumbersome, and vulnerable in these positions. The elemental shields allowed Sonic to move in a specified air direction. Distance is compromised for speed and invulnerability, and so instead of a slow air motion, you get a quick blast in one direction that could be manipulated and spammed quickly. I always felt it was an excellent balance between Sonic and the others. 

Totally agreed, and I'm very thankful for this post because I never knew quite how to express why I liked Sonic's shield abilities so much until reading this! To me, the shield abilities are so great that they actually make Sonic much more fun for me to play than Tails or Knuckles in games with the shields.

Apart from that, shout-out to the speed shoes. Yes, sometimes they actually do more harm than good, but I just really like the insane speed they give, especially in a game that's pretty good at accommodating that speed boost, such as Sonic 2 (not so much in, say, Sonic 3D Blast!).

[Forte-Metallix]

Assuming Super forms don't count (If so, then "Hyper" Tails), I'm gonna go with the Green Hover Wisp. Controls well, has great music, and it lets you float around at your own leisure, giving you total control over the terrain for just a few precious moments. Even the Wispon version from Forces kept the power-up's charm (Minus the music), in addition to letting you literally blow your enemies away with shockwaves!

[SpongicX]

For Sonic 3, I always loved the water shield, but for the Adventure games, I like the ring magnet shield.

[Sephy]

Electric Shield/Ring Magnet Shield.

I really miss those times where they were other power-ups instead of wisps.

[dbzfan7]

Electric Shield as it allowed rings to come to me and a very useful double jump. I found bubble shield kinda a worse electric shield, and fire shield just caused more harm than good as the screen can't keep up with the dash move. So electric takes it. Outside the shields...the power ups pretty much suck honestly. I despise all the wisps and just think like the Mario Galaxy power ups, they're pace breakers and tend to suck.

Though if it counts as a power up the jet anklet and ribbon for Tails were really kick ass, and probably the only good power ups in the adventure games except for some handy ones for the gun stages which I never play anyways as I don't like em as much as speed stages/action stages. But the Jet Anklet let Tails move ridiculously fast in the air making platforming (And mod platforming ala character mod) a lot of fun. The ribbon also was good as you could just hold the button down and break dance to win as Tails. The other power up equips were far too situational in comparison to these two, but more so the jet anklet.

Not counting Super forms as that's too obvious and easy to pick.

[Red Hot Jack]

I thought the elemental shields were clever and smart, but I'm kinda sick of seeing the usual 3, give me new ones please in a future Mania game, like fangame Sonic Nexus tried to do before it got cancelled, give me the light shield, wind shield, earth shield, ice shield, or something along the lines.

[superman43]

36 minutes ago, Dr. Jack said:

I thought the elemental shields were clever and smart, but I'm kinda sick of seeing the usual 3, give me new ones please in a future Mania game, like fangame Sonic Nexus tried to do before it got cancelled, give me the light shield, wind shield, earth shield, ice shield, or something along the lines.

Or Sonic Time Twisted.

[Osmium]

2 hours ago, Dr. Jack said:

I thought the elemental shields were clever and smart, but I'm kinda sick of seeing the usual 3, give me new ones please in a future Mania game, like fangame Sonic Nexus tried to do before it got cancelled, give me the light shield, wind shield, earth shield, ice shield, or something along the lines.

What would be the point of those in the set parameter of what the elemental shields set out to do? Bubble took vertical vector, flame took horizontal vector, and lightning gave your jump a boost which could count as a diagonal vector. There aren't any directions left for 2D that are feasible. 

[EzSonic01]

4 hours ago, Sephy said:

Electric Shield/Ring Magnet Shield.

I really miss those times where they were other power-ups instead of wisps.

I think most non-Wisp power-ups today appear in games where the Boost formula is not used. Excluding Forces, at least Super Rings and 1-Ups are still around... 

[Maxtiis]

I'm going to be the odd man out and say that my favorite power up is actually the speed shoes. I always try and see just how fast I can run through a level, so of course my routes are structured to allow me to get them. The sheer increase in speed accompanied by the thrill of completing a level in less than a minute makes for a very satisfying experience, and one that is almost unique to Sonic in how the extra speed and mastery of the game's physics allows for a plethora of shortcuts.

[BlossomHaze]

My favorites would have to be Invincibility and the Speed Shoes. Invincibility because the music change gets me pumped up (especially when I was a kid) and the Speed Shoes because going even faster is pretty cool, I guess... even though I'm not terribly good at controlling Sonic (or Tails in Sonic 2) and will constantly run into walls.

[ClassicKnuckles]

Shields by far. As people have said, it gives Sonic an ability on par with Tails and Knuckles. I also like the Speed Shoes because of da sanic sped

[molul]

Elemental shields, hands down.

[ClassicKnuckles]

I dunno if this counts, but I also enjoy the Insta-Shield from Sonic 3. It's my favorite ability in the series ever. (In comparison the Drop Dash is utter trash.)

[Salamander]

On 19/12/2017 at 1:02 PM, Osmium said:

What would be the point of those in the set parameter of what the elemental shields set out to do? Bubble took vertical vector, flame took horizontal vector, and lightning gave your jump a boost which could count as a diagonal vector. There aren't any directions left for 2D that are feasible. 

Conceivably, you could swap them out for entirely new shields which approach the same vectors in new and original ways.  There's no real need to, but it might be fun if the ideas are worth it.

[Cuz]

Hope I'm not restricted to the classic item boxes?

Bounce bracelet anyone? All the fun of the bubble shield's ability but it 3D space! I love bouncing around at the speed of sound. Not to mention how it can be cleverly used to convert horizontal momentum to vertical to super bounce to great heights,  scale walls, and nearly break the game.  It even makes Crazy Gadget a hundred times better when you can ignore most of the gravity switches and stay on the ceiling for most of the level.