History GameBreaker / SuperMarioBros

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld''

** The "Danger Mario" setup focused around the Power Rush badge. It adds two attack when Mario has 5 HP or less, it stacks, and you can buy as many as you want. Add in the stackable badges that make attacks sometimes miss, drop Mario's max HP to 5, and you're permanently superpowered AND nigh-untouchable. Works even better if you add in the Spike Shield and Ice Power badges which make Mario able to jump on enemies safely, as unlike his hammer attacks, Mario's jump attacks usually hit multiple times; Power Bounce with the Danger Mario setup equals a brutal and crushing defeat for all of your enemies. Finally, add a few Life Shrooms in case Mario does get hit and die, and the rest of the game becomes a breeze. This is alleviated somewhat by the fact that you can only drop Mario's max HP to 5 by visiting Chet Rippo, whose shop becomes accessible late in the game, but it's nonetheless useful as hell for the rest of the game, as well as the Pit of 100 Trials.

** This game has possibly one of the most broken accessories in the entire series if not the single most broken one, period. If you go to the beginning of the last dungeon, Neo Bowser Castle, and fight a Flaming Antasmaton (a little purple Antasma robot with wings that spits fire), you have a 1% chance of them dropping their rare item (though this can be boosted by the aformentioned Gift Gloves DX), [[InfinityPlusOneSword the Farmer Boots.]] To make up for the fact that there are considerably fewer beans in this game than previous titles, these boots ''make up for it in spades.'' If someone equipped with these boots jumps on or uses a boot-based special attack on an enemy to defeat it, the enemy has a good chance of dropping ''beans instead of coins.'' This becomes extremely broken when you realize that you can get two pairs of Farmer Boots (one for each brother), go back to early parts of the game with weak enemies that don't have spikes (who are immune to jump attacks), jump on them for a pre-emptive boot attack which at your current level should be [[OneHitKO an instant victory]] and literally [[JustForPun reap what you sow]] when the enemies each drop beans that you can use to increase your stats, including your Stache (which is your luck stat used to determine critical hits), which normally doesn't level up unless you use your level bonus when you level up on it to insane levels. The game and all of its difficulty, including [[ThatOneSidequest the battle arena]] will completely fall apart when you realize that you can do this in earlier dream dungeons where enemies attack in swarms, which means you can get a dozen or more beans per fight.

** There is also a certain badge effect (gained by using the Gold and Miracle badges together) that freezes time and stops enemy movement for about three turns. And the badge slots used to activate it can be filled by fighting weaker enemies beforehand and doing Excellent attacks. So you can literally beat any boss in the game by getting this badge combo, grinding on a bunch of weaker enemies to fill the slots and then freezing time immediately to stop it attacking before blasting it with every Bros. Attack possible. It also completely stops bosses using their special abilities to defend themselves or anything, so you can just use it on the BonusBoss, then not have to worry about[[spoiler: him ducking into the Clown Car to block your attacks.]] The final boss can't protect his weakpoint if you use this badge either. And you can even use it during Pi'illodium's self destruct count down to STOP THE TIMER. This can make the battle very, very easy at that point, since the badge can be used to do this repeatedly in a row. That's without mentioning how the Birthday equips can be stacked on top of this effect, and how those items affect Bros. Attack power. And that you can use this effect up to four times in a row. So you've got 400% attack power, no way for the enemy to fight back and attacks that already do about 500 damage per hit. It can let you beat the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2bLk11mF1M final boss in under a minute!]]

** Mario's starting Jump ability goes up by 1 damage for every two uses, capping out at 250 jumps (giving it a base power of 150, from its original 25), making it Mario's strongest attack despite having the low cost of 3 FP and being easy to use. By consistently using it throughout the game, always choosing the Magic Attack/Defense bonus during level ups, and keeping a few honey or maple syrups handy (which are cheap to buy anywhere) it will guaranteed one-shot almost any enemy and allow you to breeze through any boss (including the final boss and [[BonusBoss Culex]]) unchallenged. Short of a perfectly timed Geno Whirl (see below), Jump is easily the most powerful special in the game. The only drawback to this is that dying and continuing resets the attack counter to zero.

** The GBA port ''Super Mario Advance'' breaks itself with the {{Giant Mook}}s. When you toss a big Shy Guy or Ninji to the ground, they spit out hearts every single time.

*** The Top Secret Area is a secret level accessed through the Donut Ghost House (right at the beginning of the level, fly up). The accessible level includes full item pickups (mushroom/flower/cape), a Yoshi, and a single 1-up. The player can therefore grab extra lives whenever they want.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga'':

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'' has the Warp Pipe. Upon use, you spin a roulette wheel, and swap places with whoever you land on. Previous forms of this item in earlier entries were balanced by it being totally random who you swap with, but this version has a roulette wheel which ''appears'' random, but the timing is possible to learn. This cracks the item wide open, allowing you to take advantage of your opponent's attempts for a star(or Boo). Even better if they try to Mega Mushroom to get closer, as they now burned an item to get YOU closer to the star.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty 3'' has the Reverse Mushroom, an item that, when used, forces the target to move backwards on his next roll. The brokenness comes from the fact that going backwards is actually [[CursedWithAwesome quite handy ]] when you put your mind to it. Firstly, if you use this item on yourself, you can "backtrack" to the Star Space you might have missed or out of an area or path that you may have been unlucky enough to wind up in. Also if used in the right area of a board, you can use it to access Boo multiple turns in a row, or, in some cases, multiple times per turn. It also gives the "afflicted" person the choice to go in any direction at most junctions, even if the path isn't usually treated as a fork in the road. The most game breaking part however, is that this item completely ignores board gimmicks and mechanics like Sushi, Chilly, Evil Woody, and anything on Waluigi's Island, with the exception being the cacti from Spiny Desert. It can also let you reverse into areas that are normally impossible to enter without a Skeleton Key -- which tend to have Chance Spaces and Item Spaces littered everywhere, and this mushroom only costs 5 coins, meaning it's ''always'' available. Oh, and a random Bowser event can inflict ''everyone'' with this status. Simply put, it's not a coincidence that it is one of the ''very'' few items to not ever reappear in any future titles (that isn't tied to the gameplay, that is), even in other forms.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty 4'' has the Warp Pipe. Upon use, you spin a roulette wheel, and swap places with whoever you land on. Previous forms of this item in earlier entries were balanced by it being totally random who you swap with, but this version has a roulette wheel which ''appears'' random, but the timing is possible to learn. This cracks the item wide open, allowing you to take advantage of your opponent's attempts for a star(or Boo). Even better if they try to Mega Mushroom to get closer, as they now burned an item to get YOU closer to the star.
* The ability to buy multiple items in ''Mario Party DS''. It is very easy to get around the board and make it to the star space simply by buying multiple Double or Triple Dice Blocks (which are very cheap). Alternatively, if you have a lot of coins, buy multiple Star Pipes.

** The most powerful leaf in the game however, has to be the Invincibility Leaf and subsequent [[GoldenSuperMode White Tanooki Mario]]. It's basically the game's regular Tanooki form but ''NighInvulnerable to anything that's not a OneHitKill and able to kill roughly any regular enemy on contact with no time limit'' (though it will revert to regular Tanooki suit once the stage is cleared). This is justified though, since [[MercyMode you only receive the leaf if you lose five lives on a given level]], making it the game's easy mode. It appeared in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' (as White Raccoon Mario) and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', with its brokenness in the former being taken UpToEleven for five reasons: 1) it has the same flight abilities as ''2'''s basic Raccoon Suit but the p-meter fills faster while running, 2) it can WalkOnWater, 3) it works just as well on bosses; though it still needs to hit Koopalings three times, it one-shots Bowser's first form, 4) it can be used in Coin Rush mode without having to die at all and 5) the block that gives you the power-up won't disappear once the level is finished or the game is beaten.

** This game has possibly one of the most broken accessories in the entire series if not the single most broken one, period. If you go to the beginning of the last dungeon, Neo Bowser Castle, and fight a Flaming Antasmaton (a little purple Antasma robot with wings that spits fire), you have a 1% chance of them dropping their rare item (though this can be boosted by the aformentioned Gift Gloves DX), [[InfinityPlusOneSword the Farmer Boots.]] To make up for the fact that there are considerably fewer beans in this game than previous titles, these boots ''make up for it in spades.'' If someone equipped with these boots jumps on or uses a boot-based special attack on an enemy to defeat it, the enemy has a good chance of dropping ''beans instead of coins.'' This becomes extremely broken when you realize that you can get two pairs of Farmer Boots (one for each brother), go back to early parts of the game with weak enemies that don't have spikes (who are immune to jump attacks), jump on them for a pre-emptive boot attack which at your current level should be [[OneHitKO an instant victory]] and literally [[JustForPun reap what you sow]] when the enemies each drop beans that you can use to increase your stats, including your Stache (which is your luck stat used to determine critical hits), which normally doesn't level up unless you use your level bonus when you level up on it to insane levels. The game and all of its difficulty, including [[ThatOneSidequest the battle arena]] will completely [[UpToEleven fall apart when you realize that you can do this in earlier dream dungeons]] where enemies attack in swarms, which means you can get a dozen or more beans per fight.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty 3'' has the Reverse Mushroom, an item that, when used, forces the target to move backwards on his next roll. The brokenness comes from the fact that going backwards is actually [[CursedWithAwesome quite handy ]] when you put your mind to it. Firstly, if used this item on yourself, you can "backtrack" to the Star Space you might have missed or out of an area or path that you may have been unlucky enough to wind up in. Also if used in the right area of a board, you can use it to access Boo multiple turns in a row, or, in some cases, multiple times per turn. It also gives the "afflicted" person the choice to go in any direction at most junctions, even if the path isn't usually treated as a fork in the road. The most game breaking part however, is that this item completely ignores board gimmicks and mechanics like Sushi, Chilly, Evil Woody, and anything on Waluigi's Island, with the exception being the cacti from Spiny Desert. It can also let you reverse into areas that are normally impossible to enter without a Skeleton Key -- which tend to have Chance Spaces and Item Spaces littered everywhere, and this mushroom only costs 5 coins, meaning it's ''always'' available. Oh, and a random Bowser event can inflict ''everyone'' with this status. Simply put, it's not a coincidence that it is one of the ''very'' few items to not ever reappear in any future titles (that isn't tied to the gameplay, that is), even in other forms.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty 3'' has the Reverse Mushroom, an item that, when used, forces the target to move backwards on his next roll. The brokenness comes from the fact that going backwards is actually [[CursedWithAwesome quite handy more often than not]]: It can be used on yourself, it can send people off into undesired areas, it allows the "afflicted" person to go in any direction at most junctions -- and thus they can "backtrack" to the Star Space they might have missed or have been unlucky enough to be at another area or path when it respawned. It can also let you go to areas that are normally impossible to enter without a Skeleton Key -- which tend to have Chance Spaces and Item Spaces littered everywhere. Oh, and a random Bowser event can inflict ''everyone'' with this status. Simply put, it's not a coincidence that it is one of the ''very'' few items to not ever reappear in any future titles (that isn't tied to the gameplay, that is), even in other forms.

* Bunny Mario from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins''. Bunny Mario is essentially taking Princess Peach's already game breaking float ability from ''Super Mario Bros. 2'' and grants players the ability to pretty much stay airborne as long as they please, provided they tap (not hold) the jump button. You are also granted a much higher jump and much easier air control. The advantages of the bunny power more than make up for the slight disadvantage of not being able to spin jump. You'll never worry about platforming in the game ever again.

* [[DivergentCharacterEvolution Luigi]] in most games is quite superior (as far as platformers are concerned). In a platforming series known for its technical jumps and obstacles, being floatier, having greater control over your movements in the air, and being able to jump higher and farther than your redder counterpart goes a long way in curving the actual difficulty of the game in your favor.

** The Hammer Suit has [[DemonicSpiders Hammer Bros]]-style hammers that go through structures and enemies and have a hilariously high damage output; one hit will defeat [[MiniBoss Boom-Boom]] and any of the seven [[BossBattle Koopalings]], and six hammers will take down Bowser himself. Hammers are also capable of killing [[InvincibleMinorMinion otherwise invincible enemies]] such as Fire Lotuses, Boos and even ''Thwomps''. The only enemies they can't kill are the Munchers (tiny, black Piranha Plants) and Jelectro AKA [[FanNickname Immortal Jellyfish]]. And that's only because, on a technical level, Munchers and Jelectro act as ''blocks''.

** The Shroom Badges (Shroom Badge, Shroom Badge A, Shroom Badge AA) increase your attack proportional to the number of mushrooms you're carrying. Ostensibly, this is supposed to have the penalty where healing yourself costs you attack, but it is both cheap and easy to carry almost 99 of all ''four'' kinds of mushrooms and to heal only using Nuts. Since carrying around 30 of each kind of mushroom is enough of a game breaker, just imagine what 396 mushrooms must be like. The damage increase also affects First Strikes. With enough mushrooms, you can instantly kill a lot of enemies without even starting the battle.

** When Bowser hits level 40, he receives the Intruder Fangs, which allow him TWO actions per turn! Combine this with the King's Shell, which is his best defensive armor ''and'' raises his punch's power by 30%, ''then'' use moves like Broggy Bonker twice in a row to see how Game Breaking Bowser can be.

** This game has possibly one of the most broken accessories in the entire series if not the single most broken one, period. If you go to the beginning of the last dungeon, Neo Bowser Castle, and fight a Flaming Antasminion (a little purple Antasma robot with wings that spits fire), you have a 1% chance of them dropping their rare item (though this can be boosted by the aformentioned Gift Gloves DX), [[InfinityPlusOneSword the Farmer Boots.]] To make up for the fact that there are considerably fewer beans in this game than previous titles, these boots ''make up for it in spades.'' If someone equipped with these boots jumps on or uses a boot-based special attack on an enemy to defeat it, the enemy has a good chance of dropping ''beans instead of coins.'' This becomes extremely broken when you realize that you can get two pairs of Farmer Boots (one for each brother), go back to early parts of the game with weak enemies that don't have spikes (who are immune to jump attacks), jump on them for a pre-emptive boot attack which at your current level should be [[OneHitKO an instant victory]] and literally [[JustForPun reap what you sow]] when the enemies each drop beans that you can use to increase your stats, including your Stache (which is your luck stat used to determine critical hits), which normally doesn't level up unless you use your level bonus when you level up on it to insane levels. The game and all of its difficulty, including [[ThatOneSidequest the battle arena]] will completely [[UpToEleven fall apart when you realize that you can do this in earlier dream dungeons]] where enemies attack in swarms, which means you can get a dozen or more beans per fight.

* Peach is usually considered the most useful of the four playable characters in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''. Thanks to her iconic ability to float for a couple of seconds, she completely trivializes all platforming. Funnily enough, the manual declares ''Toad'' to be this, due to his higher speed and power, but his poor jumping actually makes him not very well suited for beginners. Furthermore, because Peach has invincibility frames during her slowest-in-the-game vegetable-pluck animation, this ends up as an advantage instead of a detriment, especially in hectic boss fights.

* Luigi in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64 DS''. The game was originally designed around Mario's abilities, and most definitely not with the exaggerated jumping skill of Luigi in mind. Since his backflip allows for infinite gliding, and the Vanish ability is usable from all ? blocks, you can use it to get all the stars in Hazy Maze Cave without going through the poisonous maze, get most of the stars in Rainbow Ride without tricky platforming, and completely skip having to ground pound the pillars in Shifting Sand Land.
** Hell, [[DivergentCharacterEvolution Luigi]] in ''general'' is quite superior (as far as platformers are concerned). In a platforming series known for its technical jumps and obstacles, being floatier, having greater control over your movements in the air, and being able to jump higher and farther than your redder counterpart goes a long way in curving the actual difficulty of the game in your favor.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU'' takes this to new levels. First, Luigi retains his floaty jump, and the Mini Mushroom is still in the game, allowing for even ''higher'' jumps. Taking the Spin Jump into consideration, the end result is a whole lot of distance for not a lot of effort.
*** Another game breaker in ''VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU'' is [[PromotedToPlayable Nabbit]]. He has the same jumping ability as Luigi, can't use powerups, and is invulnerable to any thing that isn't a OneHitKill, plus a few other large enemies that knock him back. You may not be able to fly with squirrel and propeller suits, shoot fire or ice flowers, or slide with penguin suits, but when you're practically invincible, who needs them? And in order to play as him in single-player, all you need to do is hold down a certain button[[note]]B on Wii Remote, ZL otherwise[[/note]] and then you can breeze through the game, ignoring almost every obstacle.

** The Blue Yoshi (which lets you fly when he eats a Koopa shell of any color). You can find this variant in two ways: A) Hatch one in Star World 2 (the water stage) and feed him 5 enemies or 1 power-up to make him mature; or B) Use any breed of Yoshi and catch the pair of Magic Wings on the Cheese Bridge stage, which turns him into the blue variant. Once you have one, you can then bypass entire stages easily: Simply slurp up a Koopa, hold up and right, and wait. It's the easiest way to pass the hardest level in the game, the Special World's [[ThatOneLevel "Tubular"]] level. It's ''that'' useful.
*** Powerups in general are far too easy to get in ''Super Mario World''. Whereas there are a finite number of Hammer Suits, P-Wings and Tanooki Suits in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' (and are a hassle to farm in remakes where they are infinite since you still have to play the levels in that world all the way back to the vendor), you can just backtrack and get another Blue Yoshi or Cape with much greater ease.
*** The Game Boy Advance version makes this even ''worse'', by making Yoshis of a certain color available from ''any'' Eggs spawned from ?-Blocks (once fully grown in the Star World, of course), and also dependent on what power-up you currently have. Essentially, having the cape guarantees that any eggs spawned from ?-Blocks will consistently hatch a Blue Yoshi.
*** The GBA release also allows the player to select Luigi at any time, and tweaked his abilities to differentiate him from Mario. In addition to his trademark Scuttle, he allows Yoshi to hold just about any enemy in his mouth and spit them out like a Koopa shell. This can kill some baddies that are normally invulnerable, like the Urchins in underwater stages.
*** This can be made even [[BuffySpeak Game Breakerier]] if you intently avoid raising the other Yoshis. Compared to one that can ''fly'' by eating any shell, the other various colors... [[PowerupLetdown suck]]. Just hanging onto a Blue Yoshi for the entire Star Road will prevent any others from appearing from eggs elsewhere, meaning if you luck out and get a colored Yoshi it ''will'' be blue.

* Unlike the overpowered cape, the Super Leaf in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', which turns Mario into Raccoon Mario, only allows him to fly for a few seconds, and its spin attack is much slower and much shorter in range. However, the Tanooki Suit, which is essentially an enhanced version of the Super Leaf, simply dominates over that and the other flying powerups for one simple reason: its statue mode. It renders you immobile and it only lasts a few seconds, but you can also slide under gaps that are too narrow for even small Mario if you're on a conveyor belt, as well as being able to kill nearly ''any'' enemy by [[DeathFromAbove statue-stomping them from above]], ''including otherwise-invulnerable enemies like the Rotodisk''.
** The Hammer Suit from the same game has [[DemonicSpiders Hammer Bros]]-style hammers that go through structures and enemies and have a hilariously high damage output; one hit will defeat [[MiniBoss Boom-Boom]] and any of the seven [[BossBattle Koopalings]], and six hammers will take down Bowser himself. Hammers are also capable of killing [[InvincibleMinorMinion otherwise invincible enemies]] such as Fire Lotuses, Boos and even ''Thwomps''. The only enemies they can't kill are the Munchers (tiny, black Piranha Plants) and Jelectro AKA [[FanNickname Immortal Jellyfish]]. And that's only because, on a technical level, Munchers and Jelectro act as ''blocks''.
* ''Super Mario Advance'' breaks itself with the {{Giant Mook}}s. Every time you toss a big Shy Guy or Ninji to the ground, they spit out hearts every single time.
** The 4th and final Advance game in the series (based on ''[=SMB3=]'') can be broken quite easily if you have the [[BribingYourWayToVictory e-Reader and the cards]] that go with the game. You can get many power ups and extra lives by swiping the same cards into the game over and over. And yes, you can even get the Cape from ''Super Mario World'' this way.
*** There's a card which gives you 100 extra lives every time you use it. Just one use will completely break the game's difficulty to zero.
* ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' has the Mini Mushroom. It shrinks Mario down to half his small form's size, and while it makes him a OneHitPointWonder who can't even kill enemies without a ground pound, it makes him floatier, gives you greater control over his movements in the air, lets you jump higher, further, faster, and makes you far harder to hit, in addition to being able to run across water. In short, it essentially trivializes all the platforming in the game; even most bosses are far easier once you get the timing of the ground pound down.[[note]](Which is good, considering you ''need'' to beat two bosses in mini form to unlock two of the worlds.)[[/note]]
** The game's [[LampshadeHanging own playthrough videos]] frequently abuse the Mini Mushroom power-up's inability to GoombaStomp enemies with the standard jumps to ride Bullet Bills across ''entire levels'' for extra lives and profit.

** A similar item, called the Propeller Box, appears in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand''. In addition to guaranteeing you the golden flag (and extra life) at the end of the level, finishing the level with it will give you ''another'' extra life. There are also several areas (particularly [[NostalgiaLevel 2-3]]) where you can chain jumps together off flying Goombas to get even more lives.
* ''3D Land'' also has the Statue Leaf. The normal Tanooki Suit is already rather useful because of how you can glide, but the statue form lets you kill/stop ''anything'' you fall on or near. Thwomps and Spike Bars get smashed to pieces, flames do nothing, enemies ignore you or die in one hit and even giant Skewers just stop dead on contact.

* The Super Bell in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld''. The ability to climb up walls is immensely useful and can easily save players who accidentally fell down a bottomless pit, and a close-range attack is always a good thing to have. This is somewhat balanced by it having a bit of a learning curve, as it's rather easy to kill yourself by accidentally dive bombing off the stage.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', Bowser seems very broken at first, given the fact that he is twice as powerful as any other character and is capable of killing enemies at range with his fire breath... until you realize he is slow, a big target, and only capable of firing his BreathWeapon from the ground. Reasonably balanced, but by combining Bowser with the Pixl Carrie, who increases movement speed (and note well that Carrie's speed is the same for all characters), we have a LightningBruiser on our hands who gives us little reason to use anyone else unless the platforming requires it, and this is before we even factor in the thing that ''truly'' makes Carrie Bowser great: Carrie is a platform under the character's feet, which means whoever uses Carrie is treated as on the ground even while jumping. To reiterate, Bowser is capable of firing his BreathWeapon only while he is ''on the ground''. The game was very clearly not designed around the possibility of Bowser jumping and killing enemies at range, and it allows Bowser to kill nearly any enemy before they can even get close. The fact that Carrie allows Bowser to jump on most examples of TheSpiny and not take damage is just the icing on the cake.
** Luigi as well, despite his late entrance to being playable. He has Mario's speed, even greater agility than the other characters, and his spring jump does double damage from below, while none of the other characters can attack from below at all. Note that charging the spring jump only increases its height, and it will do double damage no matter how little you charge it. He absolutely tears through most of the bosses he can fight effortlessly, and easily make the jumps the other three have trouble with.
** Similar to Bowser, Peach becomes much more powerful when using Carrie. Her duck grants her complete invulnerability, but as with Bowser's flame breath, she is immobile using it and must be grounded. Again, factor in that Carrie makes Peach grounded all the time and faster, and you can easily move around and attack enemies while remaining completely impenetrable. Many a challenge becomes very easy abusing this.
** While the Pixl Dottie is fairly mediocre in the main game, in the [[BonusDungeon Pit of 100 Trials]], she doesn't so much break the game as destroy it. In a MultiMookMelee, the ability to keep enemies from noticing you're there at all is more than slightly broken. Combine that with ''Bowser'', and absolutely nothing can stop you from dishing out massive fire damage to anything that's not impervious.
** Easy coin farming trick: Go to Yold Town and buy a bunch of Life Shrooms for 50 coins, go to Saffron's and cook them into Roast Shroom Dish, sell it end you gain 46 coins for each Roast Shroom Dish sold, almost double the amount.
* The first ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' game (''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'') has a series of badges called Shroom Badges (Shroom Badge, Shroom Badge A, Shroom Badge AA) that increases your attack proportional to the number of mushrooms you're carrying. Ostensibly, this is supposed to have the penalty where healing yourself costs you attack, but it is both cheap and easy to carry almost 99 of all ''four'' kinds of mushrooms and to heal only using Nuts. Since carrying around 30 of each kind of mushroom is enough of a game breaker, just imagine what 396 mushrooms must be like.
** The funny thing with the Shroom Badges is that the damage increase also affects First Strikes. With enough mushrooms, you can instantly kill a lot of enemies without even starting the battle.
** There's also the Bonus Ring, which doubles your experience if you manage to not get hurt in battle. It's available as soon as Starbeans Cafe opens (you need to blend two different drinks for it). Since it's possible to [[NoDamageRun avoid every enemy attack in the game]], you can level up high enough to defeat the final boss by the time you're in the Beanstar FetchQuest if you're good enough.
** In the DS sequel, ''Partners in Time'', there is the inexpensive Practice Badge right from the start, which blesses the bearer(s) with infinite use of attack items at the cost of attacking power. Maybe they're weaker, but with a little practice you'll be able to spam tons of damage using Pocket Chomps, Clone Flowers or Red Shells and not worry about buying any, saving all your money on healing and buff items. You probably won't even have to buy a single of these weapons if you grind enough, and as long as there's at least one available in your inventory, you'll be able to sell them for quite a price (more if you max out your characters' Stache stats).
*** Heck, red shells in general are quite broken in this game. You can keep them going forever as long as you don't miss, which surprisingly isn't that hard thanks to their speed capping out early and at a manageable speed. Although for good reason, red shells aren't available until after Thwomp Volcano.
*** There's also the Ulti-Free Badge, which makes it so that you don't use up Bros. Items, but you need 90 beans in order to get it, which means that it usually can't be obtained before Thwomp Volcano, later in the game.
*** In Thwomp Volcano you can get a potentially unlimited supply of beans through the mini-game. Despite the fact that each time you play costs 100 coins, combine that with some easy ways to get coins really quickly in that same area and, with enough grinding, you can get badges for everyone.
** For ''Bowser's Inside Story'': The Broggy Bonker for Bowser. It's his ultimate attack which does ludicrous amounts of damage as well as being quite easy to pull off, which coupled with the Economy Ring (reduces SP usage by half) makes it incredibly spammable.
*** When Bowser hits level 40, he receives the Intruder Fangs, which allow him TWO actions per turn! Combine this with the King's Shell, which is his best defensive armor ''and'' raises his punch's power by 30%, ''then'' use moves like Broggy Bonker twice in a row to see how Game Breaking Bowser can be.
*** There's the Magic Window ability which allows Mario and Luigi to summon endless clones of themselves as long as you push the correct buttons at the right time. If you're quick enough, most enemies and bosses can be defeated by this single ability alone.
*** Then there is the Mighty Meteor special attack; by the time you get this, you can stock up on the best healing items in the game, as after completing said move successfully, an item pops out based on how strong the enemy was. [[spoiler: Use this move in the Airway section to get Star Candies.]]
*** The best part of the Mighty Meteor? It still drops healing items in the Gauntlet, where you're otherwise limited to a few restoring items in the entire challenge. It makes stocking up on SP a breeze.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' has the Birthday equips, which have unimpressive stats under normal circumstances, but if you play on whatever day you registered as your birthday on the 3DS, their stats ''quadruple'', making them as strong as the endgame equipment, only they're obtainable much earlier and lack the drawbacks some of said equipment possesses (such as having a chance to break upon being used or damaging you along with your enemies). The 3DS allows games that use the date to set an ObviousRulePatch penalty for changing the clock settings, but Dream Team doesn't bother, and if you want to avoid taking the penalty on your other games that do, you can just change ''your birthday''.
** There is also a certain badge effect (gained by using the Gold and Miracle badges together) that freezes time and stops enemy movement for about three turns. And the badge slots used to activate it can be filled by fighting weaker enemies beforehand and doing Excellent attacks. So you can literally beat any boss in the game by getting this badge combo, grinding on a bunch of weaker enemies to fill the slots and then freezing time immediately to stop it attacking before blasting it with every Bros. Attack possible. That's without mentioning how the Birthday equips can be stacked on top of this effect, and how those items affect Bros. Attack power. And that you can use this effect up to four times in a row. So you've got 400% attack power, no way for the enemy to fight back and attacks that already do about 500 damage per hit. It can let you beat the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2bLk11mF1M final boss in under a minute!]]
** Interestingly, it also completely stops bosses using their special abilities to defend themselves or anything, so you can just use it on the BonusBoss, [[spoiler: then not have to worry about him ducking into the Clown Car to block your attacks.]] The final boss can't protect his weakpoint if you use this badge either. And you can even use it during Pi'illodium's self destruct count down to STOP THE TIMER. This can make the battle very, very easy at that point, since the badge can be used to do this repeatedly in a row.
** There are others too, such as...

*** To add to this... badge effects don't use up a turn. You can use infinite amounts in one turn. And what happens if you use this effect? The badge slots you used come back! So just set the Gold/Miracle Badge, a Guard Shield Badge and the POW Up effect up before you start a battle. Then use them all. Once this is done... use the rewind effect, and voila! All three used badge slots are full again, giving you another round of time freezing/POW boosting/impenetrable shields! Finally, the Miracle/Silver badge combo charges super quickly in battle, so you can theoretically do this up to five or even ten times in one fight if you're lucky.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', Peach is practically a game breaker by herself, and that's just the start of it. She's the only character possessing full party heal and resurrection spells, making any party with her extremely hard to kill as long as she's alive. This becomes doubly broken once you get the Lazy Shell armor, which in turn for weakening the wearer's attack powers highly buffs their defense. On Peach, this results in a minimal reduction to her healing abilities in exchange for making her almost impossible to kill, turning her into a WhiteMagicianGirl who can heal the entire party at once -- status effects and all -- for 4 MP, revive party members to (almost) full health (if you get a Timed Hit) for only TWO, and is herself immune to pretty much everything except HPToOne and OneHitKill moves. Then give her the Quartz Charm you receive for beating Culex to significantly raise her stats, as well as making her immune to pretty much every status condition in the book for true Game Breaking ability.
** By the way, she tanks relatively well once she starts gaining levels, even without the Lazy Shell, and gets some pretty awesome weapons, so not only can she heal, she can bust out some massive damage herself. It's not as good as Bowser, Mario or Geno, but good enough to get her by without Psycho Bomb.
** By the same token, Mario equipped with the Super Suit is an unstoppable tank. It has virtually the same effects as the Lazy Shell Armor but with better stats (and no attack penalty). The Super Suit can be obtained as soon as you reach Monstro Town if you're skilled at timing your Super Jump attacks. You can practically take Mario into any battle alone (letting the other two party members die or otherwise make them block), and to further pile on the overkill, equip him with the Lazy Shell weapon and Attack Scarf. Once you have these three items, no boss in the game can stand up to you. This is balanced out by the fact that 100 Super Jumps is absurdly difficult to pull off, and the armor itself can't be obtained until the game is 3/4th over.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', equip Mario with the Power Bounce badge (which lets you jump on an enemy repeatedly, provided that you nail the ActionCommands) and the Charge badge. The Charge ability ups Mario's attack power and can be stacked. Thus, all you have to do is keep charging Mario for about 4 turns, then unleash a Power Bounce. Get the timing right, and you can do 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then boom. You just did 55 damage, in a game where the most powerful boss has 100 HP. The fact that one of Mario's partners can pull off the same exact strategy helps.
** ''The Thousand-Year Door'' takes this up a notch: Mario can do the same thing as the first game, and has a Yoshi partner who can also charge and pull off a multi-hit attack - but said partner has another multi-hit attack that hits ALL enemies on or near the ground. With enough Charge P badges, even most of the more dangerous enemies in the game can be reduced to a two-turn victory.
** If you're particularly good at keeping your Power Bounces going you can take down any enemy, bosses included, just by bouncing forever. The sequel caps the amount of times you can bounce.
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has a good number too, generally centered around turning Mario into a GlassCannon. The craziest is the "Danger Mario" setup focused around the Power Rush badge. It adds two attack when Mario has 5 HP or less, it stacks, and you can buy as many as you want. Add in the stackable badges that make attacks sometimes miss, drop Mario's max HP to 5, and you're permanently superpowered AND nigh-untouchable. Works even better if you add in the Spike Shield and Ice Power badges which make Mario able to jump on enemies safely, as unlike his hammer attacks, Mario's jump attacks usually hit multiple times; Power Bounce with the Danger Mario setup equals a brutal and crushing defeat for all of your enemies. Finally, add a few Life Shrooms in case Mario does get hit and die, and the rest of the game becomes a breeze. This is alleviated somewhat by the fact that you can only drop Mario's max HP to 5 by visiting Chet Rippo, whose shop becomes accessible late in the game, but it's nonetheless useful as hell for the rest of the game, as well as the Pit of 100 Trials.
** With the Spike Shield and Jumpman badges Mario can completely eliminate all need for the hammer and get a decent attack boost on the jump, which can now be used on (almost) all enemies. Add in one of the two or three items that allows you to hit flaming enemies, two or three Power Plus badges, and a couple of P-Up, D-Downs, and Mario is a killing machine who can do damage above and beyond that possible in the original game's method with just a charge or two combined with Power Jump. Even better, so long as Mario has about 15 HP just in case, it doesn't matter how bad his defense is -- ''The Thousand-Year Door'' introduces a very easily exploitable ability to have one of your partners serve as an impenetrable StoneWall. And one of those partners has a move called Rally Wink that will give your super killing machine Mario another turn each time it's used.
*** The only problem with this is that Mario can't hit enemies on the ceiling, although there are several partners who can, and that usually knocks them off.

** The Cape earns its game breaker status with flying colors. It not only allows Mario to perform sustained flight (which, given a few minutes' practice, allows you to bypass most levels by taking a running jump and hitting the left directional button every few seconds), but it also gives him a spin attack powerful enough to kill most enemies. Even worse, when he is flying is the only instance where Mario does not lose his power if he gets hit by an enemy. It also allows you to fall much more slowly than you normally would, so you can control where you'll land. To top it all off, slamming into the ground while flying creates an earthquake that damages everything onscreen..

*** There's also Vanilla Secret 2. The first half of the stage is filled with dozens of hopping Paratroopas, but directly after the mid-point is one of the silver P Switches. These switches turn all enemies into silver coins, which add up when collected like successive stomps on enemies without landing. All you have to do is carry the P Switch over to where the Koopas start, stomp it, and haul plumber ass towards the right side of the stage. This method takes awhile to rack up the lives, though....mostly because you get so many in that 20 seconds or so that ''the game needs a couple of minutes to catch up.''

** ''The Thousand Year Door'' takes this up a notch: Mario can do the same thing as the first game, and has a Yoshi partner who can also charge and pull off a multi-hit attack - but said partner has another multi-hit attack that hits ALL enemies on or near the ground. With enough Charge P badges, even most of the more dangerous enemies in the game can be reduced to a two-turn victory.

** With the Spike Shield and Jumpman badges Mario can completely eliminate all need for the hammer and get a decent attack boost on the jump, which can now be used on (almost) all enemies. Add in one of the two or three items that allows you to hit flaming enemies, two or three Power Plus badges, and a couple of P-Up, D-Downs, and Mario is a killing machine who can do damage above and beyond that possible in the original game's method with just a charge or two combined with Power Jump. Even better, so long as Mario has about 15 HP just in case, it doesn't matter how bad his defense is -- ''The Thousand Year Door'' introduces a very easily exploitable ability to have one of your partners serve as an impenetrable StoneWall. And one of those partners has a move called Rally Wink that will give your super killing machine Mario another turn each time it's used.

* Peach is usually considered the most useful of the four playable characters in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''. Thanks to her iconic ability to float for a couple of seconds, she completely trivializes all platforming. Funnily enough, the manual declares ''Toad'' to be this, due to his higher speed and power, but his poor jumping actually makes him not very well suited for beginners. Furthermore, because Peach has invincibility frames during her slow vegetable-pluck animation, this ends up as an advantage instead of a detriment, especially in hectic boss fights. Peach has the most invincibility frames since her plucking animation takes the longest.
** Where Peach breaks distance jumping, Luigi breaks vertical jumping, and his characteristic fluttery jump makes platforming every bit as easy. Entire sections of levels can be skipped with a charged jump and, if needed, a boost from a hapless Shy Guy.

*** Another game breaker in ''VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU'' is [[PromotedToPlayable Nabbit.]] He has the same jumping ability has Luigi, can't use powerups, and is invulnerable to any thing that isn't a OneHitKill, plus a few other large enemies that knock him back. You may not be able to fly with squirrel and propeller suits, shoot fire or ice flowers, or slide with penguin suits, but when you're practically invincible, who needs them? And in order to play as him in single-player, all you need to do is hold down a certain button[[note]]B on Wii Remote, ZL otherwise[[/note]] and then you can breeze through the game, ignoring almost every obstacle.

*** Powerups in general are far too easy to get in Super Mario World. Whereas there are a finite number of Hammer Suits, P-Wings and Tanooki Suits in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' (and are a hassle to farm in remakes where they are infinite since you still have to play the levels in that world all the way back to the vendor), you can just backtrack and get another Blue Yoshi or Cape with much greater ease.

*** The GBA release also allows the player to select Luigi at any time, and tweaked his abilities to differentiate him from Mario. In addition to his trademark fluttery jumping, he allows Yoshi to hold just about any enemy in his mouth and spit them out like a Koopa shell. This can kill some baddies that are normally invulnerable, like the Urchins in underwater stages.

* ''3D Land'' also has the Statue Leaf. The normal Tanooki Suit is already rather useful because of how you can glide, but the statue form lets you kill/stop ''anything'' you fall on or near. Thwomps get smashed to pieces, flames do nothing, enemies ignore you or die in one hit and even giant Skewers just stop dead on contact.

* In ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'', the Gold Flower is this. Turns Mario into gold, doubles his coin haul from pretty much everything that gives out coins and can kill nearly all enemies in one hit (and hit a whole screen full at once). Bowser's first form? Down in one hit. [[spoiler: Dry Bowser?]] Down in one hit. Multiple Reznors? Down in one hit. Sure it goes away once you beat a level with it, but you can bring them into any level in the game...

** The Cape earns its game breaker status with flying colors. It not only allows Mario to perform sustained flight (which, given a few minutes practice, allows you to bypass most levels by taking a running jump and hitting the left directional button every few seconds), but it also gives him a spin attack powerful enough to kill most enemies. Even worse, when he is flying is the only instance where Mario does not lose his power if he gets hit by an enemy. It also allows you to fall much more slowly than you normally would, so you can control where you'll land. To top it all off, slamming into the ground while flying creates an earthquake that damages everything onscreen..

* Peach is usually considered the most useful of the four playable characters in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''. Thanks to her iconic ability to float for a couple of seconds, she completely trivializes all platforming. Funnily enough, the manual declares ''Toad'' to be this, due to his higher speed and power, but his poor jumping actually makes him not very well suited for beginners.
** Furthermore, because Peach has invincibility frames during her slow vegetable-pluck animation, this ends up as an advantage instead of a detriment, especially in hectic boss fights. Peach has the most invincibility frames since her plucking animation takes the longest.

** While the Pixl Dottie is fairly mediocre in the main game, in the [[BonusDungeon Pit of 100 Trials]], she doesn't so much break the game as destroy it. In a MultiMookMelee, the ability to keep enemies from noticing you're there at all is more than slightly broken.