Harnessing the power of games in themselves is easy - unlocking potential in the real world is much more difficult. However, according to Dr. Hans P. Pseudonym of the University of Hyrule, answers may be closer than we realize. "Our team has been working around the clock to unlock the secret potential of video games, and it hasn't been easy," he told The Clik from his research lab in Hyrule. "By sending our researchers into games to get artifacts from their worlds, we're better able to study them and see if they have utility in the real world."

While Pseudonym wasn't able to divulge the classified process by which his team sends researchers into games, he was allowed to tell us a little bit about his findings, the most impressive of which was the secret of the save point. "Oh yes, when we discovered the Save Point, we were overjoyed," he said. "Getting this particular artifact out of a game was particularly dangerous as they really only exist within Role-Playing Games of dangerous monsters and particularly edgy protagonists." According to the Doctor, Save Points allow humans to save their memories of their life up to that point in time and then reboot their brains back to that particular point. "In this way, regular, normal people have a way to forget a particularly disastrous event in their lives," he said. "What, you thought a Save Point would reverse time? Time travel is impossible!"

Unfortunately for Pseudonym and his team, the results of the extra life have been spotty at best. "We were able to procure a number of volunteers from the scientific community, but some of the treatments have been...unfortunate," he said. As it turns out, there are a number of different ways to earn an extra life in games, be it an actual power-up or earning an extra life through points. "Our first attempt at getting these volunteers another life came in the form of the mushroom from the Mario Bros game," explained Pseudonym. "Unfortunately, many of the volunteers had allergic reactions to the mushroom and came down with a condition where they reverted to an Italian stereotype that could jump very high." The testing of the mushroom on animals was much more successful. "We tested the mushroom on animals and waited until they had...expired," the Doctor explained. "They would vanish and reappear just as when they were alive. However, they did not reappear as a baby, simply as they were right before death, which means that they died again immediately, so this discovery may have no practical application. We have yet to test it on humans."

Fortunately, the experiments that Pseudonym has conducted are not all a total loss. "We have discovered that many of the enemies in gameworlds do not negatively affect humans in any way. With this amazing discovery, we have begun testing the enemies for intelligence and the possibility of domestication for small children." I was then shown to a small pen where all species of enemies were walking around, bumping into the pen walls, then turning around and walking in the exact opposite direction. "So far, the samples have shown remarkably low intelligence, only really desiring to walk into walls, turn around, and walk the other way. We have seen that in the real world they seem to be just as mortal as there are in their games, as jumping on their heads just makes them vanish. If we could perfect their intelligence, they would make the perfect type of domesticated pets."

Pseudonym and his team aren't done exploring gameworlds yet. With a very special contract, they are currently going into games and procuring power-ups in a big way. "The invincibility power-up is at the top of our priority list," he said. "We're hopeful for the results, but have no current plans to market it to the public. Much more likely would be a growth power-up for..." At this point, Pseudonym became overcome with a terrible coughing fit. "Let's just say, it would be for people who have challenges with height, length or girth."