Pocket Fighter/Items

Collecting Items
In addition to Gems, there are other types of items that appear on-screen. The items that can be dropped are Food (which restores life; the bigger the Food, the more life restored), and Item Balls. You collect items by passing over them. There are two ways of collecting items:
 * Treasure Boxes - One appears at the start of the match, and more will appear by beating up your opponent. These can hold Gems, Food, or Item Balls.
 * Item Carrier - Little guys in clouds will fly by, and will drop Item Balls or Food if you hit them. Beware of the red one (Kaminari), as he'll shock you if you attack him.

Item Carriers
The item carriers all represent characters from Capcom's SonSon game, and it's sequel. Just as in the Journey to the West legend, a monkey (Sonson) accompanied a monk (Sanjou) and his horse, and they were joined by a pig (Tonton) and a turtle (Kappa). The Kaminari (or lightning monster) appears in the stages of SonSon II when a player takes too long and shocks them. Kaminari has the ability to do the same to each fighter in the game if they attack him at the wrong time.

Item Balls
You begin each battle with one, and can hold up to three at a time. When you have one in stock, you can press to throw it, or use a direction as well:

A thrown item ball will then cause damage to your opponent if it hits them, or inflict some other unwanted effect: Item Balls work immediately if they hit, otherwise, they usually go into effect after a moment, causing anyone in their immediate vicinity to be affected (for example, a missed Petrify Ball will fire a petrifying ray after a while). Note that you can juggle opponents with multiple Item Balls (easiest with the Banana Item Balls).