Power-Up #3: Cloak of Darkness (Wizards & Warriors)

It's the time of the year when the days get shorter, retailers stay open longer, big games are released and there seems to be a holiday every other week. Defunct Games wants to ring in this festive season with a look at back at some of video gaming's most questionable power-ups. Join us from November 28 to December 25 for a month of floating orbs, life extenders and special cloaks.
Cloak of Darkness
[ Game: Wizards & Warriors | Year: 1987 | Console: NES ]
In the long history of video game power-ups, few are as pointless as the Cloak of Darkness. Found deep in Wizards & Warriors, this power-ups makes a big promise. But as you'll see from this video, it has one major flaw.



Cloak of Darkness (Wizards & Warriors)
Cloak of Darkness (Wizards & Warriors)
Purpose: Based on the description, the Cloak of Darkness is meant to turn the player invisible to both the player and the enemies. Unfortunately, in practice, the Cloak of Darkness only masks the player to the human eye. As you can tell from the video above, our invisible hero is still visible to the enemies. This makes the power-up one of the most useless in video game history.

Legacy: Whether it was intentional or a programming error, the Cloak of Darkness was confined to only one Wizards & Warriors game. The developers opted against including the much-maligned power-up, instead choosing to make more straight-forward adventures. These days, there are people who enjoy the developers trolling the player. I am not one of those people.

In Real Life: This is one power-up you can try at home. All you have to do is strip naked and pretend to be invisible. It won't take long for concerned citizens and the police to beat you down. Exactly the same outcome in Wizards & Warriors.