Golden Super Mode

"Time to scramble some Eggmen, Super Sonic style!"

Jack: You did it, Sonic! You killed him and yourself just like I knew you would!
Michael: I can't be killed; I'm golden! Wom wom wom wom wom wom wom wom!

— Achievement Hunter, "The Sonic Movie "

A common trend in fiction is to give the character a Super Mode. These tend to come in many shapes, sizes, and colors, but the most common color variation is gold. If a character and/or their weapon turns gold in fiction, he or she gain boatloads of strength, speed, endurance, or anything in-between.

This is because gold has long been associated with greatness. It can mean authority, wealth, divinity, or even all of the above, but the bottom line in many cases is that gold equals power. And thus, a character that glows gold has to be tremendously powerful. This makes it a useful visual cue for a Super Mode.

Sub-Trope of Power Makeover and Law of Chromatic Superiority (and to be specific, Gold-Colored Superiority).

See also: Power Glows and Super Mode. It's often an Eleventh Hour Super Power. It occasionally overlaps with Power Dyes Your Hair.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• In Cross Ange, the Vilkiss activates this for the final battle against Embryo, which takes place in his dimension.
• A small handful of the most powerful evolved forms in the Digimon franchise have gold armor; the most prominent examples being Magnamon, Rapidmon, CresGarurumon, OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon (and by extension Shoutmon DX. Shoutmon X7 has gold accents on it from the aforementioned OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon, and X7 has its own Golden Super Mode in Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode, which turns the entire thing golden). The God Grade Appmon in Digimon Universe: App Monsters are also adorned with plenty of gold accents.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Super Saiyan form introduced in Dragon Ball Z is the Trope Codifier being the most famous example, as well as for giving the Saiyan glowing golden hair and a gold Battle Aura. Interestingly, several transformations beyond regular Super Saiyan use different colors entirely: Super Saiyan 4 and Super Saiyan God are red, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan is blue (to the point where it was officially shortened to "Super Saiyan Blue" after everyone realized what a mouthful the original name was), Legendary Super Saiyan is green and Ultra Instinct is silver.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', Frieza acknowledges this trope by deliberately making his new Super Mode "Golden Frieza"; he concedes that the color might be a bit gaudy, but thought that it was the simplest way to communicate how much more powerful he is now.
  • A downplayed example predating Frieza and the Saiyans would be Launch, whose hair shifts from blue to blonde when she sneezes into her much more capable (and wildly aggressive) self. It's even given a homage in Dragon Ball Xenoverse with a wig that replicates Launch's hairstyle - Going Super Saiyan while wearing it changes it to glowing blonde◊.
• Also being created by Akira Toriyama, Dr. Slump has some references to the Trope Namer:
  • Subverted in Hoyoyo!! Follow the Rescued Shark... where Suppaman gets Super Saiyan-style gold spiky hair and aura in order to stop a runaway Ferris wheel, but it just rolls over him and crushes him anyway.
  • Arale fights Goku in a Dragon Ball Super crossover episode and gets a Super Saiyan type form after taking Dr. Mashirito's drug, Playtine-X.
• The Legend of Koizumi Crosses the Line Twice with a parody of Dragon Ball that's equal parts hilarious and horrific: the main villain of one arc, Adolf Hitler, has the ability to transform into the Legendary SUPER ARYAN, complete with glowing golden hair.
• Inverted in Tenjho Tenge. Soichiro Nagi has blond hair that turns black when he powers up.
• In Saint Seiya when Bronze Saints get upgraded Cloths through the blood of Gold Saints. Then this trope is in full effect as their regular armors take a golden shade to highlight their full power. Also, Seiya, Shiryū, and Hyōga temporary gained Sagittarius, Libra, and Aquarius golden cloths respectively.
• G Gundam could be considered the Trope Namer, since Golden Super Mode is what they call Shining Gundam's strongest form, unlocked after Domon masters Meikyo Shisui. The other Shuffle Alliance members also have it, but for God Gundam and Master Gundam it's simply called Hyper Mode.
• In one of his many amateur manga, Harima Kenji from School Rumble makes himself into a super-saiyan style character, complete with gold shining hair and a kamehameha look-alike.
• In Dance in the Vampire Bund (at least the broadcast anime version therof), Mina's true form is an adult with swirly gold skin, as seen here◊ (slightly NSFW).
• After their Mid Season Upgrade, Teppei and X in B't X are gold-colored.
• GaoGaiGar:
  • Gai's cyborg body is capable of entering a golden "Hyper Mode" which drastically increases his strength and speed, though the auxillary batteries used to power this form last for only three minutes before burning out and needing to be replaced.
  • GaoGaiGar itself turns gold when equipped with the Goldion Hammer. Interestingly, a videogame Spin-Off shows that King J-Der is also capable of wielding the hammer; being much larger than GaoGaiGar, King J-Der does not change color, but the hammer itself turns silver.
  • In GaoGaiGar FINAL, Genesic GaoGaiGar's "hair" is composed of long strings of Hyper Mode batteries, allowing it to enter an upscaled version of the form.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Flame Swordsman's body and clothes turn gold after Joey uses Burning Sword Sword to massively boost his attack.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei's Over Top Clear Mind, which lets him summon his most powerful monster, dyes his entire body and his BIKE gold.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: While the namesake ZEXAL form emulates Super Saiyan hair, the outfit is mostly white and red. ZEXAL II is has even less gold than ZEXAL (even though resembling Super Saiyan 3), but ZEXAL III looks like a combination of Super Saiyan and Gold Cloth.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Upon logging into Link VRAINS or any cyberspace, Yusaku changes his light blue part of his hair into blonde as Playmaker, while the dark blue parts become red and the pink parts change shades.
• In My Hero Academia, Izuku's skin glows a pale gold after he activates One For All: Full Cowl, as he's channeling One For All's power throughout his entire body.
• Naruto:
  • Naruto Uzumaki gains this after defeating The Nine-Tailed Fox inside their shared consciousness, allowing Naruto to siphon the Fox's power at will. Naruto later achieves perfect control after making peace with Kurama, allowing the two to work in unison. After his meeting with Hagoromo Otsutsuki aka the Sage of Six Paths, he gains a divine transformation called Six Paths Sage Mode, which allows Naruto to use all of his abilities to their absolute peak.
  • Minato Namikaze, Naruto’s father, also has this, thanks him being the Jinchuriki of the Yin half of the Nine-Tails.
• In Kishin Douji Zenki, Zenki gains one as his final transformation.
• Shin Mazinger: Zeus's appearance in peacetime is of a knight in dull iron armor (identical to his Z Mazinger incarnation), but he can power up into a Nigh-Invulnerable golden form which earns him the epithet "Shining Zeus". Mazinger Z inherits this power after docking with the God Scrander, which it uses as part of the Big Bang Punch Finishing Move.
• One Piece:
  • Former Fleet Admiral Sengoku's devil Fruit Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Daibutsu turns him into a massive golden Buddha statue that immensely increases his strength and gives him the ability to launch shock waves like Whitebeard. Interestingly this Devil Fruit is related to the Devil Fruit that Chopper ate which turned him into a human.
  • Borsalino aka Admiral Kizaru has the Pika Pika no Mi a Logia class Devil Fruit which gives him ability to create, control, and transform into golden light at will. And also granting Kizaru unmatched Super-Speed and intangibility.
  • Sanji's Hell Memories attack (which he developed upon remembering his Ironic Hell) is colored gold in the anime, making him eerily similar to the Super Saiyan transformation. There were previous and further examples of Sanji having a DBZ-esque burning Battle Aura when enraged (e.g. Punk Hazard◊) but Fishman Island was the first time he named and weaponized the technique.
  • Gild Tesoro, the antagonist from One Piece movie Film: Gold, has a One-Winged Angel-transformation where he uses his gold bending Devil Fruit to transform into a Gold Humongous Mecha, his underlings Dice, Baccarat and Tanaka also get gold armor.
• God Mars's Super Final Godmars.
  Takeru: Zuul! I'll show you everyone's anger! This is the final fight! I'll put everything on the line!
  (God Mars turns golden while church bells ring in the background.)
  Takeru:MARS FLASH!
  (God Mars summons the Mars Flash.)
  Takeru: FINAL GODMARS!
  (God Mars performs a vertical slash and jams the Mars Flash into Zuul's gut.)
• The first Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart movie had the Golden Power, which turned the Pretty Cures' and Shiny Luminous' clothes a glowing gold and their earrings and brooches into diamonds. (Subsequent movies featured a different super form.)
• The Medicine Peddler of Mononoke has his demon-slaying form, who is robed in gold and covered with golden tattoos. As a bonus, the paper talismans he usually uses are replaced with stronger variations whenever his Super Mode shows up. What color are they? Guess.
• Kill la Kill
  • The upgraded Goku Uniforms have gold accessories instead of silver.
  • In an even more straightforward example, Ryuko and Senketsu effectively become Super Shadow for the final battle.
• In the finale of Little Witch Academia (2017), Akko and Diana's outfits turns a mixture of gold and silver allowing them to fight in space. The final battle is to stop a nuke from crashing into the earth.
• The Fusion Dance between Ramona and her future self in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off gives them a golden shimmering form. Given the amount of video game references in the franchise, comparisons are made in-universe to Super Sonic.
• This seems to be a recurring them in Shinzo as almost every important character able to transform has at least some gold in his transformed form:
  • Mushrambo normally appears as a purple haired samurai. He later gains a Golden Super Mode aptly named Gold Mushrambo, which gives him gold plate armor and turns his hair gold.
  • Insect King Daku appears as a knight with blue insectoid armor. When he powers up, his armor turns gold and becomes more ornate looking.
  • Reptile King Ryuma gains golden chest armor when transforming to his Super Mode. However, he is only seen in this form for a few seconds, as he performs a Fusion Dance with his pet dragon soon after, turning into a largely blue humanoid dragon.
  • The Humongous Mecha Daigo turns gold when at full power.
  • Bird Queen Rusephine is a strange example. Her regular form looks like a golden haired angel, while her transformed state has purple hair, but gains golden chest armor and shoulder pads.
  • During the battle against the Greater-Scope Villain Lanancuras, it is revealed that Mushra is actually an angel. When he remembers this, he transforms into a form that has a gold suit of armor, circlet and a pair of golden wings.
• Symphogear:
  • In the first season, the Nehushtan Armor is silver when used by Chris but gold when used by Finé. It's later revealed that this is the result of Finé upgrading its power, and it returns to its silver colour when out of energy.
  • In GX, the IGNITE Module is a rare metaphorical version of this - a predominantly black form with four levels of power themed after the stages in transmuting lead to gold.
  • In the finale of AXZ, channeling the power of master alchemists into Hibiki's armor causes it to be transmuted into a gleaming golden form.
  • In XV, the Amalgam form is introduced, being a Symphogear with the power of a Faust robe, giving the user golden material in the colored parts of the gear itself. its an evoution of Hibiki's golden form from AXZ, and she manages to give all the other Symphogears this power as well in episode 4.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Karasu's hair turns gold in the Dark Tournament finals. Cue jokes about him turning Super Saiyan. It's even funnier, considering that his voice actors play Vegeta and Son Gohan, respectively.
  • Also, Sensui's Shinobu personality and Sacred Energy. Though it doesn't dye his hair.

Comic Books

• Fantastic Four: Heralds of Galactus (Apart from Silver Surfer, Firelord, The Destroyer etc) will have their bodies colored gold e.g Frankie Raye◊, and in What If? storylines Superman◊ and Aunt May◊... yes we are serious.
• Ms. Marvel: Carol Danvers was subjected to an evolutionary ray by the Brood which triggered the latent potential of her Human-Kree DNA turning her into the cosmically powered Binary which in the later comics is depicted as giving Carol flaming Super Saiyan hair and a gold aura.
• X-Men: Those chosen (or possessed) by the Phoenix Force will receive a flaming golden aura and near unlimited cosmic power, the primary examples in the canon being Jean Grey Cycolps, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor◊. Others such as Spider-Man◊, Wolverine◊ and Thane◊ (Thanos's son) have been "blessed" by the PF
  • When said outfit is gold and white, that means the wielder controls the full might of the Phoenix (Jean Grey at full power is the White Phoenix of the Crown). Gold and red, on the other hand, means the full might of the Phoenix now controls them.
• Superman:
  • DC One Million: Superman Prime is completely Gold and is quite possibly Superman's strongest form, having become the living embodiment of the sun.
  • In Superman: The Dark Side being given power by the dying Lightray turns Supes' armor gold and makes him strong enough to fight Darkseid.
  • Red Daughter of Krypton: Supergirl's body gives off a blinding golden glow after a literal sunbath has increased her power exponentially.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Linda Lee is surrounded by a golden flaming aura when she is connected to Mr. Mxyzptlk's machine and becomes a goddess briefly.
• The Sentry: The Sentry glows golden when he uses his powers.
• Sonic the Hedgehog's comics, aside from examples that overlap with the games:
  • In Sonic the Comic, Super Sonic was his Superpowered Evil Side, and, later, Enemy Without. The main difference between the main series' Super Sonic and the Comic's Super Sonic in appearance is that Comic Super Sonic's eyes are spiral in shape. He also has prominent spiked fangs and more messy quills, giving him a more feral look which his game counterpart lacks.
  • Neo Metal Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) uses the Master Emerald to become Super Metal Neo, just like Super Mecha Sonic before him. He has a similar golden hue to the real Super Sonic. It doesn't last long, though; After Shadow shows up, Neo Metal Sonic copies his biodata and transforms into an altered version of Metal Overlord called Master Overlord, which returns to the blue colour scheme.

Fan Works

• In the finale of the Enjin Arc in The Bridge, Aria Blaze's magical influence allows Monster X to access Kaizer Ghidorah's power without transforming; causing his armor to gain a golden tint from the glowing, ghidorah-shaped aura covering him.
• Child of the Storm:
  • Harry turns a mixture of gold and white — gold body, white eyes — whenever he's powering up to do something big.
  • Clark, after Harry super-charges him with a massive amount of sunlight in Chapter 58 of the sequel. It wears off.
• Equestria: Across the Multiverse:
  • The mane six meet a group of robotic ponies who can combine together with each other. The native Mane Six's combined form, Harmony.EX, turns gold when in her Rainbow Power form. Their individual Rainbow Forms also gain gold highlights.
  • The My Little Pony Tales main seven get Rainbow Power form. Patch's Element color is gold, so she gets a golden stripe in her mane and a golden aura. She's no more superior to her team mates though.
• Everything Turns to Gold: When wearing Aeor's antlers, Scott starts to glow golden, and becomes significantly stronger. This comes with the caveat that he starts to become more and more dependent on the antlers to function, to the point that he nearly gives up the dragon egg in exchange. When he finally gets them back on his head, however, the antlers themselves take over the fighting for him.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Omake-only character Reel's strongest form as Kamen Rider Skull the Second, shown in the fifth omake chapter, is this. While unnamed in-story, Word of God is that its name is Kamen Rider Skull Gold Xtreme.

Films — Animated

• Po, at the climax of Kung Fu Panda 3, achieves this when his friends and family in the secret panda village give him their chi energy. This transformation is so powerful, that it changes the hue of the Spirit Realm itself from jade green, to gold. Po gets brand new golden robes, and a long, Badass Cape. He then proceeds to craft an enormous golden, chi dragon around himself using his new mastery of chi energy and then proceeds to absolutely curb stomp Kai, taking his life by overloading him with chi.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games: Sunset Shimmer gains this when facing off with Midnight Sparkle when calling upon the Magic of Friendship. Considering that the last time she attempted to channel it transformed her into a demon, she's gone a long way to activate it.

Films — Live-Action

• X-Men: Apocalypse: When Xavier urges Jean Grey to cut loose her Phoenix Force, she manifests golden energy wings, and her powers are amped up to Physical God levels of strength, vaporizing Apocalypse with minimal effort.
• Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (2019) upon activating her Super Mode Binary, probably the closest thing to a live action cinematic depiction of a Super Saiyan we’ll ever get.
• The goal of The Last Dragon is to achieve this, apparently Bruce Lee was the first to do so here.
• Skeletor's armour turns gold when he absorbs The Sorceress' power in Masters of the Universe. Luckily it doesn't last long because He-Man breaks his Magic Staff.
• Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey: Tiga once again activates his Glitte Form with the hopes of the deceased Ultras in R'lyeh in order to defeat Demonzoa.
• Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers: Not only does Tiga once again achieve his Glitter Form (though this one is an Alternate Self of the original) but also Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Gaia and Ultraman Mebius also achieve it with the hopes of humanity in order to vanquish the Giant Silhouette.
• Near the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), Sonic turns into Super Sonic after getting the Chaos Emeralds. Making him an indestructible Flying Brick and implied Reality Warper as he conjures chilli dogs.

Literature

• Drood field agents from the Secret Histories have magic Torques that can cover them in golden Instant Armor that makes them super strong, super fast, Invisible to Normals and Nigh-Invulnerable.

Live-Action TV

• God Ryukendo from Madan Senki Ryukendo. He later gets a second Super Mode called Ultimate Ryukendo that adds even more gold trim. Magna/Ultimate Ryugunou and Ultimate Ryujinou get similar makeovers near the end of the series.
• Super Sentai and its adaptation Power Rangers have several of these:
  • Seijuu Sentai Gingaman has the Super Armor Shine, which adds several golden bracelets, anklets and a new golden belt buckle (of all things!) to the suits. Their Humongous Mecha also has access to this upgrade, which adds some golden decorations to its chest and helmet. In Power Rangers Lost Galaxy this upgrade is known as the Lights of Orion.
  • The Super Goseiger forms from Tensou Sentai Goseiger add golden chest armor, bracelets and anklets to the ranger's suits. Adapted as the Ultra Megaforce powers in Power Rangers Megaforce
  • Gai, the Sixth Ranger from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, has access to the Gold Mode. The Gold Mode is a combination of the power of all previous Sixth Rangers and takes the shape of an anchor that folds out to be a suit of golden armor, since this series is pirate-themed. This upgrade is also used in Power Rangers Super Megaforce and named Super Megaforce Gold.
  • Akiba Red of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger briefly turns gold when delivering the killing blow to Prism Ace.
  • Ressha Sentai ToQger: Has Hyper mode, a powered-up form that can only be used by one ranger at a time, except one episode where both of the females used it at once but got stuck together while using. It gives the ranger a golden armor piece over their chest shaped like a train, which greatly increases their abilities and also gives them a new team finisher weapon.
  • In Dobutsu Sentai Zyuohger, one of the auxiliary mecha has this - Cube Kuma can upgrade into the golden Cube Panda, seen in episodes 19 and 30.
  • Avataro Sentai Donbrothers: After Don Momotaro is resurrected, he gains access to a more powerful form called Goldon Momotaro. A version Oni Sister from an alternate timeline also has a Goldon form.
  • Several seasons of PR give the Red Ranger a personal, toy-friendly "Battlizer" upgrade. Unsurprisingly, gold is a major color in several of them.
• Some Heisei Kamen Riders have this, for example:
  • Since Kamen Rider BLACK RX has no definite Super Mode, all three of his forms are equal on the Multiform Balance scale, and so, his RoboRider form (the first of his two upgrades, mind you) will qualify.
  • Kamen Rider Kuuga has an interesting spin on this, as later in the series he gains access to the "Golden Power", which beefs up all of his alternate forms into "Rising" versions, giving them some nice gold trim in the process. Kamen Rider Decade takes this a step further, giving Kuuga a Rising version of his original Super Mode Ultimate Form (which already had some gold, but was still primarily black).
  • Kamen Rider Blade: Both Blade and Garren have access to the Jack Form, which turns parts of their armor and weapon gold. Later on, Blade gains the more powerful King Form, which turns his entire armor into gold.
  • In Kamen Rider Kiva, the eponymous Rider gains the Emperor form halfway through the series, which is primarily bright red and gold, fitting its regal theme.
  • Kamen Rider Double's Super Mode, CycloneJoker Xtreme gets an upgrade in The Movie, turning into CycloneJoker Gold Xtreme.
    • Accel, in his standalone movie, gets a Gaia Memory Enhancement Adapter, creating Accel Booster.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze's Aloof Ally, Kamen Rider Meteor, has Meteor Storm. The Movie has Fourze borrowing Meteor's powers, creating Meteor Fusion States.
  • Kamen Rider Wizard takes this a step further, as his Infinity Style is primarily platinum-colored, with diamond-like accoutrements. And then when it came time to boost its power even further for a movie, it was recolored gold.
  • Kamen Rider Drive: Not the Riders, but the villains can upgrade from Low-Class Roidmudes to Advanced Roidmudes, and then further into a golden Super Evolution State through amplifying a certain emotion (humiliation for Freeze, jealousy for Brain) to extreme levels.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: For the regular Super Mode, the titular hero has the Maximum Gamer form, but for Golden Super Mode, he has Ex-Aid Muteki^note Invincible Gamer form. The latter's design keeps to his Platform Game theme by being a combined Shout-Out to the Super Mario Bros. series's Super Star and Sonic's Super Sonic form.
    ~Shine bright, like a shooting star! The ultimate, golden gamer! Hyper Muteki Ex-Aid!~
• Staring into the heart of the TARDIS in Doctor Who can grant god-like powers and a burning golden aura, however it's a Deadly Upgrade as the 9th Doctor proved when he extracted the power from Rose who absorbed it to defeat the Daleks.
• Ultra Series: Happens in a few instances.
  • Ultraman Tiga: Tiga gains one in the finale of his series called Glitter Tiga, which can only be achieved with the hopes of humanity and uses it to vanquish Gatanozoa.
  • Ultraman Zero: Shining Ultraman Zero is perhaps Zero's most powerful form, capable of warping time and space, and is his last form obtained in Ultra Zero Fight.
  • Ultraman Geed: Geed's most powerful Fusion Riser form, Geed Royal Megamaster, is gold and purple colored with his attacks having a golden aura as well.
  • Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga: As an Alternate Self of Tiga, Trigger has Glitter Trigger Eternity, a gold/silver/orange form created from a fraction of the Eternity Core.
  • Ultraman Decker: In the series finale Decker gains his own Glitter Form (and one akin to Tiga's) in his Flash Type to finally defeat Mother Spheresaurus with a fully powered Selgend Beam.
• Subverted in GARO: The One Who Shines in the Darkness. The GARO suit of armor is normally gold and known to be very powerful. But somewhere before this series start, it lost most of its power and in turn most of its gold coloring, becoming predominantly black. When The Hero managed to unlock its full potential, the suit was restored to its usual golden brilliance. This trope is played straight in the finale, where The Hero manages to share his golden powers with his allies, turning their armor gold as well.

Professional Wrestling

• Tiger King was one to "First" Tiger Mask.

Tabletop Games

• BREAK cards in Pokémon are Golden Super Modes advertised as various non-Mega Pokémon from an Alternate Universe.

Toys

• BIONICLE:
  • The Golden Kanohi and Golden Armor. The former gives the wearer the power of 6 Kanohi in one, while the Golden Armor allows to wearer to destroy all solid Antidermis.
  • In the game BIONICLE Heroes, a Toa's Hero Mode is completely Gold.
• Ninjago:
  • Lloyd has one which functions differently than the other Ninjas' True Potential (which is a more traditional Super Mode unlocked when a Ninja overcomes a psychological barrier). He uses this to defeat the Overlord in Season 2's climax, but the Overlord steals his Golden Power in the next season to become the Golden Master, which nerfs Lloyd from then on out and renders him unable to access this form.

Video Games

• This happens quite a bit throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog series:
  • The most recurring example of this is, of course, the transformation Sonic himself undergoes when utilizing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Super Sonic, who may very well be the most famous example of this trope outside of Dragon Ball's Super Saiyans, who served as the inspiration for this form. Sonic's Super Form has been a recurring mainstay of the series since the form's debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and usually either is granted after the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds in special stages or appears at the end of the game to fight the Final Boss. Super Sonic's appearance is very similar amongst both his Classic and Modern versions: His fur turns golden and his spines curl upwards akin to the hair of a Super Saiyan, he gains a golden Battle Aura, and, for Modern Sonic in particular, his eyes turn red. Sonic transforming into Super Sonic provides the page image!
  • Both Shadow and Silver get Super forms in their first appearances - Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), respectively. Notably, while turning golden, the hues of their fur don't match up exactly with Super Sonic's, being more of a pale/whitish-gold as opposed to the pure yellow gold of Super Sonic.
  • In Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania, Super Tails counts as well, though to a lesser extent: His fur color alternates between its usual orange and a golden color, though the Flickies that aid him are gold through and through.. Similarly, Super Ray in Sonic Mania Plus does this as well, though it's a bit harder to notice due to Ray's natural fur color being a bright yellow anyway.
  • In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Mecha Sonic gets one in Knuckles' story after being beaten once - though he uses the Master Emerald instead of the usual Chaos Emeralds method. Like Super Sonic, Mecha Sonic turns gold in this state, albeit a darker shade.
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic gains the form of Excalibur Sonic, which uniquely gives him a suit of golden armor while Caliburn turns into a giant glowing Excalibur.
  • In Sonic Frontiers, Super Sonic returns as a mainstay for fighting the various Titans, but in "The Final Horizon" DLC update, Sonic, in order to combat THE END who has mutated the Titan SUPREME into a new form, uses the Cyber Corruption that's been plaguing him throughout the game to supercharge his Super Form to become "Super Sonic 2", giving him a faint red lightning aura alongside his golden one and turning his red eyes blue.
  • In Sonic Superstars Super Sonic and Super Tails return as usual, and a third one is added: Super Trip, who also marks a drastic departure from the norm of Sonic super forms by being a big fire-breathing dragon, with vast physical differences from Trip's base form. She first unveils the form during her Heel–Face Turn after Fang pushes her too far.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The Master from Paper Mario 64 can be fought in three progressively tougher battles. In the second and third battles, his red clothes turn a golden yellow, while he gains a gold aura in the third.
  • White Tanooki Mario and White Raccoon Mario from Super Mario 3D Land and New Super Mario Bros. 2, respectively. Both forms give Mario a gold and white hue and make him invincible for the remainder of the level.
  • The Golden Fire Flower also in New Super Mario Bros 2 is an upgraded Fire Flower that can blow up not only nigh every enemy in the game, but even blocks too and turn them into a huge pile of coins.
  • Super Mario 3D World has the Lucky Cat Suit, which allows the player to turn into a gold lucky cat statue when ground pounding. It functions exactly like the stone form the Tanooki Suit can do, but you get coins as you fall allowing you to obtain many lives. The Switch port's Bowser's Fury mode gives Mario the Giga Cat powerup, a giant golden lion.
  • More pink gold than gold but Mario Kart 8 introduces Pink Gold Peach. A heavier weight class version of Princess Peach covered in pink gold metal as a Distaff Counterpart to Mario's Metal Mario form.
• The Golden Gun from GoldenEye, and the golden Cougar Magnum from Perfect Dark. To a lesser extent, the golden/silver PP7s from GoldenEye as well.
• In BlazBlue, this happens to Tager in his gag reels, thanks to Kokonoe's modifications. This may be a reference to its predecessor, the Guilty Gear series, which often included golden-shaded character variants that were extremely overpowered.
• In Knights of the Round, Arthur and his friends' armors and swords got bigger and eventually became golden as they leveled up.
• Yet another Arthur can don golden armor in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, greatly powering up his attacks and giving him the ability to cast magic based on his weapon of choice. In his appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, equipping this armor is one of his super moves.
• In Wild Guns, when you activate your Limit Break, your character flashes gold.
• The Warrior Force spell in Skyblazer does this: it makes you invincible and doubles the strength of your attacks for 5 seconds or so.
• In Mega Man X3, X's armor parts can be upgraded further if you find the corresponding chip parts, but normally you can only pick one. If you get the whole armor but pass up the chips, then in the first fortress level you can find a hidden capsule that gives X the benefits of all four chips and more, turning his armor a stunning gold color. The Ultimate Armor in the later games has its own amazing traits, but nothing as absolutely broken as the Gold Armor's combination of two air-dashes, health recovery, a damage-reducing forcefield, and a supply of instant charged shots.
  • Omega of Mega Man Zero 3 inexplicably turns a golden hue when absorbing the Dark Elf.
  • Massimo's Hyper Mode from Command Mission features his armor turning gold.
• Laguna, in Dissidia 012, uses various weapons in battle. In his EX Mode, they all are colored gold, in reference to the Aura spell in Final Fantasy VIII, which turned the whole character gold.
• Final Fantasy XIV did something similar with Gaius van Baelsar, his armor and sword turning gold during the battle against him in the Praetorium. The effect is undone when he's KO'd.
  • In the Unending Coil of Bahamut, Bahamut Prime turns golden in its final phase as it "unleashes its inner rage", and has to be defeated within about three minutes before it wipes out the party.
• Front Mission Evolved plays with this. The EDGE System usable by the player gives a silver sheen to Dylan's Wanzer but the system used by Blood Knight Cornelius colors his Wanzer gold. The 'silver = good' and 'gold = evil' is reinforced by on-off ally Adela's EDGE System: When she is an ally her EDGE glow is silver but when she falls under More than Mind Control in the same cutscene it becomes gold, as does Dylan's when his Wanzer gets taken over.
• Wang Tang in Power Stone, a Shout-Out to DBZ above.
• In Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Goemon's special power turns his hair gold and increases his strength.
• In High Seas Havoc, a game influenced by Sonic, it is the final boss who turns golden and starts summoning bigger meteors.
• In Doom, the Space Marine's eyes become golden when the god-mode cheat is entered.
• In Arfenhouse 3, Housemaster transforms into a Super Saiyan bread, with MS Paint-style yellow hair.
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 gives Jin Saotome a hyper named Saotome Shine, which, upon activation (which requires that Jin be the only surviving member of his team, has his feet on the ground, and has roughly only 35% of his health remaining), grants Jin an increase in attack power and defense, as well as super armor.
• In Batman: Return of the Joker for the NES, Batman's Temporary Invincibility power causes his sprite to become golden.
• In Five Nights at Freddy's, most of the really dangerous animatronics are golden.
  • In the first game, a rare event at cam 2b will alter the Freddy poster to show a yellow, eyeless face. After this happens, a slumped-over, eyeless yellowed Freddy will appear in your office, and if you don't quickly de-summon him by returning to the cameras, he'll crash the game. Fans dubbed him 'Golden Freddy', and he continues to return throughout the series.
    • Five Nights at Freddy's 2, Golden Freddy returns beginning on Night 5, where he will randomly appear in your office and you have to quickly put on the Freddy head to hide, or he'll jumpscare you. He also occasionally appears in the halls and cameras as a floating head.
    • In Five Nights at Freddy's 4, Golden Freddy is revealed to originally be Fredbear, the first animatronic Fazbear Entertainment created, with a Nightmare form that takes over trying to kill you for Night 5. And also bites down on the protagonist's head, putting him in a coma and seemingly killing him.
  • In Five Nights at Freddy's 3, Springtrap is this for Bonnie. He was the original Bonnie springlock suit, and performed along with Fredbear. By the time you meet him he's seen better days and looks more greenish than gold, but he's also one of the most aggressive and smartest animatronics in the series (which he needs because he's the only one who can actually catch you).
  • Springtrap appears again in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, though by this point it's been revealed he's actually the serial murderer mentioned in lore, William Afton, who hid in the suit to escape the spirits of the children he killed, was subsequently killed due to getting wet, which caused the suit's locks to activate and crush him, and then returned to life to continue his murders. However, in this version, all the animatronics act the same and don’t have different patterns, so he's really no more dangerous than the other three.
  • This comes to a head in Ultimate Custom Night, where Golden Freddy and both versions of Springtrap appear to make your life miserable. However, one can get Fredbear to jump scare them via an Easter Egg.
• In Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, Sparkster will become Gold Sparkster when the player collects all seven Holy Swords, also resulting in the true ending being shown after the Big Bad, King Gedol, is defeated. Gold Sparkster can charge his jet pack faster, and his attacks do more damage, but unlike Super Sonic, he can still take damage.
• In Breath of Fire III, Kaiser is the ultimate dragon form, but he only transforms fully into a dragon when using Kaiser Breath. Otherwise, the form just appears as Ryuu's normal form, colored gold.
• Ashikaga Yoshiteru from Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi, turn his body golden when using his most powerful form, which increased everything, and stop time briefly.
• Virtual-ON:
  • When Fei-Yen drops below 50% health, she enters her golden Hyper Mode.
  • Z-Gradt both plays this straight and averts it: He turns gold when firing his Sun Cannon, but also takes significantly increased damage.
• In Ōkami, Orochi's true form, in which he exhibits his true power, is covered in golden armor.
• One of the bosses in Kirby's Return to Dream Land is Goriath, a yeti martial artist. When he gets down to half health and Turns Red, his hair turns yellow and stands up. To heighten the obvious homage to Dragon Ball Z, he starts pulling out Kamehame Hadouken attacks and (in EX Mode) an icy Spirit Bomb. He later gets a water variant called Hydriath in the "Magolor Epilogue" of the Deluxe remake, who has the same Dragon Ball homages plus an Instant Transmission move.
• In Persona 3 and Persona 4, the protagonists' ultimate Personae (one of them, in the former case), Orpheus Telos and Izanagi-no-Ookami, which have golden color schemes, are much more powerful variants of their initial Personae (well, potentially more powerful in the case of Orpheus Telos, depending on how you build it).
  • The Royal release of Persona 5 introduces an immensely powerful ultimate Persona, with it and its Persona-user covered in golden armor. However, it's not the protagonist's but the True Final Boss; Adam Kadmon, wielded by none other than Takuto Maruki.
• In Eternal Fighter Zero, Doppel Nanase's Final Memory, called "Maiden Enlightenment", requires her to be on the final round, with less than 1/6 of her life bar and 3 levels of her Super bar; if these requirements are met, she will automatically turn gold, increasing her offense, speed and turning her completely Immune to Flinching.
• Monster Hunter: The dreaded Rajang of Monster Hunter 2 (dos) fame takes pages from the Dragon Ball notebook and sports electrified golden fur when enraged; fittingly, shaving its tail causes it to lose this enhancement and the power that comes with it. ^note Bear in mind that this does not apply to the variant Furious Rajang from Freedom Unite and onward, whose tail is already shaved and is permanently enhanced.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U: The Golden Plains stage in the 3DS version has coins that can be collected by fighters. Collecting 100 coins makes the fighter golden for a period of time, increasing the knockback they deal and stopping them from flinching when attacked.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The Golden Plains stage returns with the same mechanic. The Poké Ball summon Xerneas now turns its summoner golden as well. In this game, being golden does not stop characters from flinching.
• Bullet Audyssey: In the final battle, the spaceship turns gold and has several enhancements, like a bigger absorb radius and more HP.
• WarioWare Gold has Wario transform into Wario Deluxe for the final stage and the Wario Interrupts sub-mode, which gives him a golden tuxedo. Apparently he's not really any more powerful than usual (even his lightning abilities are something he's had before), but Wario Deluxe is a lot quicker to start cheating via Interface Screw using the aforementioned lightning.
• Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon features Ultra Necrozma, who counts, given how it transforms from Necrozma's Dusk Mane or Dawn Wings forms to take on a shining golden form (with wings made practically of pure light) after absorbing light from either its surroundings, or from its Trainer's Z-Power Ring and Z-Crystal to undergo Ultra Burst. According to the backstory, Ultra Necrozma was Necrozma's original form before it the ancient inhabitants of the Ultra Megalopolis gave it a Game-Breaking Injury in a failed attempt to control it, causing it to regress into the bizarre black prism creature it first appeared as in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Averted in OBAKEIDORO with Prime Patches. With a name like that you'd expect him to be really powerful, but nope, his stats are completely unchanged from his normal form. He doesn't even unlock a skill, unless you count being "impossible to conceal" a skill.

Webcomics

• In El Goonish Shive, Greg associates gaining a Super Mode with golden spiky hair due to Dragon Ball codifying this trope.

Web Animation

• Jeff gets this after ingesting a Chaos Emerald in the Easter Egg of Bowser's Kingdom episode 8.
• Like his canon counterpart, Mecha Sonic of Super Mario Bros. Z has one. Instead of using the Master Emerald, however, he attains it from using four of the Chaos Emeralds, and he doesn't drop out of it naturally, instead losing the form when the Chaos Emeralds are forcibly knocked out of him.

Web Original

• Discussed in Linkara's review of The Technis Imperative. He notes how Teen Titans characters seem to be reincarnated into more powerful golden forms (Raven's golden spirit form and Cyborg's Omegadrome body) and jokes that had Gandalf been a member of the team, he would have been resurrected as Gandalf the Gold.
• When The Angry Video Game Nerd first reviewed Superman 64, he hurled the cartridge into the sun. When he decided to revisit the game, the cartridge returned to Earth now gold and covered in spikes reminiscent of Nuclear Man's costume from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Western Animation

• In the Adventure Time episode "Power Animal", Jake is empowered by the Party God with the energy of a thousand partying demons to save Finn from the gnomes. His super-mode is a glowing golden-yellow with technicolor stars for eyes, which can be seen in contrast with his typical brownish-yellow when he runs out of steam.
• Ninjago: When Lloyd is empowered by Zane, Cole, Jay, and Kai, he transforms from the Green Ninja into the Golden Ninja.
• The Transformers has Electrum, a golden liquid with the special property of turning any metal that touches it temporarily Nigh-Invulnerable. Transformers augmented by this material will also turn gold until it wears off.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: At the climax of the season 3 episode "Toffee", Star enters one of these immediately after undoing the corruption that had stopped all the magic in Mewni and returning from...wherever she was after she "died".
• Adora when she transforms in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power emits a heavenly golden glow. Though interestingly the glow isn’t ever-present and will disappear, especially when She-Ra is doing mundane tasks besides fighting.
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart spoofs this. Mao Mao is achieves a ridiculously powerful "Golden Truth" form by finally admitting how much he loves eating cobbler. Since he doesn't exactly have a second lifetime of suppressed love for cobbler, this was likely a one-time deal.

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