Five of the Strangest Food Items in Video Games

By Peter Mai Wed., Jun. 22 2011 at 10:17 AM

Food: It's an essential part to sustain most living beings, and it is no exception to the world of video games. Since the very beginning, food has been an integral part of video game design. Items such as pixelated health packs, hearts, and fruits have been iconic items that heal players and can provide them with unique abilities and powers.

Food in video games has taken very interesting forms throughout the years. Some are expected, such as banana items in the Donkey Kong Country games--Donkey Kong is a giant monkey, you know. However, some of the food items used are just plain weird. After the jump: The five strangest food items in video gaming.

Giant Turkey Leg Hidden in Ancient Castle Walls
(Castlevania)

There's absolutely nothing wrong with eating a giant turkey leg. Sure, they cost and arm and a... well, leg at theme parks such as Disneyland, but they're tasty and nutritious. In many video games, most notably in the Castlevania series, players find these giant turkey legs hidden behind the walls of Dracula's castle. So unless they're freshly prepared and hidden away, these food items are probably hundred of years old. Disgusting! However, the fact that they're centuries-old isn't going to stop the Belmont clan from feasting away at these giant legs.

Apple Found in Trash Cans
(Streets of Rage)

According to the fiction of the Streets of Rage game series, the best way to survive punches, kicks, knife stab wounds, and gang fights is to eat apples. Apples found in trash cans and rusty barrels, specifically.

Pot Roast found on the Street
(Final Fight)

Feeling unhealthy? Eat a pot roast off the ground. Similar to the apples found in Streets of Rage, the creepy part about these food power-ups is that they are typically found on the ground of gang-infested streets, and they are consumed in the middle of a fight.

Bell and Key
(Pac-Man)

Pac-Man eats just about anything during his battle with the ghosts. Cherries, pretzels, peaches, and just about any fruit you can think of. He also eventually consumes keys and bells. Keys and bells? Why on Earth would the designers of Pac-Man design him to eat such random items as keys and fruits?

Disembodied Hearts
(Legend of Zelda)

The pixelated hearts in the Zelda universe are iconic in the video game world as a symbol of life. By obtaining these items, players will have more health in order to battle the legions of enemies in the world of Hyrule. However, have you really thought about what these items really are? They're disembodied hearts usually found after killing an enemy. Can you imagine that? Every time Link is low on health, he gorges on these bloody little muscles just to stay alive. How barbaric!

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Sl527

You could bake bread from scratch & include poison in the recipe in Ultima VI (I think, so many U Roman numerals to keep track of.)

Whoops

That "pot roast" is clearly a roast chicken.

Eat

Legend of Zelda hearts are not considered food any more than a health pack is considered food. It's been a while but I don't remember any implication that you eat them rather than 'band-aid up' with them.

Guest

Actually, Donkey Kong is a big APE, not monkey. For weird game food, check out A Boy and His Blob on the NES. You feed jelly beans to the blob to give it abilities, and some of the flavors - like ketchup - are definitely weird.

Krys VanSlyke (VS)

Really, "Crunchy Chick" in fable doesn't even get an honorable mention? Perhaps it's too new for the list.

Jeff Overley

Of course, the most-famous video-game food of all is the Super Mario mushroom. How this low-calorie fungus gave Mario strength is beyond me.

MayhemInTheHood

Random food that is arbitrarily good or bad for you, Root Beer that makes you drunk and raining tomatoes, from Toejam and Earl.

The Soulstorm Brew from Oddworld: Abe's Exodus, which was made out of the Mudokan slave's bones and tears.

Almost everything from Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater. If Snake himself thinks it's disgusting, you know it's bad.

Guest

Kinda lame. I was expecting strange foot items, not strange locations to find perfectly normal food items (with the exception of the last 2), although I don't think Link eats the hearts. :-/