Question:
Up and down, left and right, alive with chime, or death by time

Answer:
Rolling HP Meter or being Mashroomized

Explanation:
Up and down, left and right, - For the rolling HP meter, it can roll up and down, and you have several meters from other party members to the left and right. As for being Mashroomized, you control over the mashroomized character gets flipped around.

alive with chime, - When you heal yourself, it makes a nice chime and your HP meter rolls back up. When you go to a healer after being mashroomized, you won't act like a rabid badger in a funhouse anymore.

or death by time - When your HP meter hits 0, you're out (though it does bounce back to 1 occasionally). As for being mashroomized, well, take for example your first trip to Twoson. It ain't always easy fighting off Ramblin' Evil Mushrooms while you still think your shoes are edible ;-)

CONGRATS!!! Give yourself a pat on the back and a punch in the face!.. err.. uhh.. I guess I never really was that good at those inspirational sayings, heheh. Anyway, I've got some cool news. I can actually get a semester of high school elective credit by updating Plo's HARD Trivia (probably weekly or bi-weekly)! I think I'm in the best school in the world! Bwahahaha!!! Or something maniacal like that. Anyway, good luck!!