Power-Up Letdown/Playing With

Basic Trope: A Power-Up that... isn't.
 * Straight: After beating a boss, Alicia receives a laser gun. However, said gun has a ridiculously small range, making it useless.
 * Exaggerated: After beating That One Boss, Alicia receives a spike-covered hammer. It breaks after only five uses, and doesn't dish out much damage either.
 * Downplayed: The gun fires rather slow, but hits pretty hard.
 * Justified: The boss was a Dirty Coward who mostly let his minions fight Alicia because he had such a crappy weapon. She took it without thinking.
 * Inverted: After beating a pitifully easy boss, Alicia receives the Infinity+1 Sword.
 * Subverted: Shortly after getting the gun, Alicia finds an upgrade that increases its range drastically.
 * Double Subverted: ... and also makes it horribly weak.
 * Parodied: The weapon is a Nerf gun.
 * Deconstructed: The weapon actually has a hidden function that lets it shoot energy balls, which are much more useful. Unfortunately, since everyone hates the weapon so much, no one uses it, and ergo no one finds it.
 * Reconstructed: A dedicated player decides to play through the game using only the gun, revealing its status as a Lethal Joke Weapon and redeeming the weapon.
 * Zig Zagged: Some weapons are good, some aren't.
 * Averted: All powerups are equally useful.
 * Enforced: "We need a way to provide competitive balance!" "Let's make this weapon really bad!"
 * Lampshaded: "What?! This laser is way too weak!"
 * Invoked: The boss dials down his gun's power, then tears off the control dial and leaves it around for Alicia to find.
 * Exploited: Emperor Evulz takes all of Alicia's weapons except the gun, forcing her to use it.
 * Defied: Alicia takes the weapon, tries it out for a bit, then decides it's useless and tosses it aside.
 * Discussed: "Don't pick up that weapon, Alicia! It's useless!"
 * Conversed: "See how horrible this weapon is?"
 * Played For Laughs: The Mooks outright mock Alicia for trying to kill them with the gun.
 * Played For Drama: Alicia is swiftly killed by Bob, who shows up immediately afterwards with a superior weapon.
 * Plotted A Good Waste: It turns out Emperor Evulz tampered with the gun earlier. Alicia goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and kills him just for that.

Aw, man! I though Power-Up Letdown would be more useful!