History ScrappyMechanic / SuperMarioBros

** Chance Time, for its [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/01/29/ tendency to screw over more skilled players with forced redistribution of coins and stars]]. On that same note, among more skilled players, and especially StopHavingFunGuys, luck/excessive chance is ''always'' the Scrappy (one of the few things where it's possible for them to agree with {{Scrub}}s on something). Chance time was removed after ''Mario Party 6'' to cut back on the excessive luck.

* To unlock Worlds A through D in the original Famicom Disk System version of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', you must beat the entire game ''eight times''. And since there's no saving at all, you have to beat the game eight times ''without shutting the system off''. Even if you do enjoy the SequelDifficultySpike, this is still FakeLongevity at its finest. Fortunately, the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'' version loosens the unlock condition to "just beat the game once".

* To unlock Worlds A through D in the original Famicom Disk System version of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', you must beat the entire game ''eight times''. And since there's no saving at all, you have to beat the game eight times ''without shutting the system off''. FakeLongevity at its finest. Fortunately, the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'' version loosens the unlock condition to "just beat the game once".

** The platforms in ''U'' that shut down once too many objects are on them. TakenUpToEleven in "Red-Hot Elevator Ride", where the platform will only keep moving if Mario is the ''only'' thing on it. So, naturally, the level provides plenty of enemies and even ''coins'' to stop the platform and prevent you from moving up, all while [[RiseToTheChallenge lava fills up the tower]].

** For HundredPercentCompletion, [[BackTracking you must beat every level as every character]]. If you're playing multiplayer, everyone's character counts, but [[spoiler:there's [[SecretCharacter a fifth character]], so you have to backtrack no matter what]] even if you ''can'' find three friends to play ''the entire game'' with.

** [[PowerupLetdown The Spring Mushroom power-up.]] You can't stand still while you're wearing it, the movement is very wobbly, and it requires precise timing in order to do a high jump (and unsurprisingly, the areas in which you find the spring require many such jumps). It doesn't help that it doesn't appear until very late in the game, which means you have to use it on some of the harder levels without having a chance to practice using it in easier levels first.

** [[ForMassiveDamage The boss weakness system]]. The bosses (except perhaps the first) have so much HP and defense, you ''need'' to use the right sticker at the right time to have any hope of defeating any of them. What sticker and what time that is, more often than not, is quite a GuideDangIt, and even if you ''do'' figure out partway through the battle what you need, it will most likely be too late anyway; what are the chances of having that particular sticker already in your album ready to use at that moment, given that most of the weaknesses are of the aforementioned "requires extra inventory space" type? The final boss takes this [[UpToEleven to its ultimate]] [[FromBadToWorse and horrible conclusion]], with a '''[[MarathonBoss FIVE-PART]]''' boss battle, ''each'' of which requires specific stickers to complete. And if you do manage to beat a boss without exploiting its weakness, or simply want to fight it normally, [[WhatTheHellPlayer the game has your helper insult you for not doing what it wanted]].

** There is''no'' level or stat system at all; you can increase your HP with special items, but the game has no experience points of any kind; all enemy battles give you no rewards other than coins, making frequent combat rather pointless.

** For HundredPercentCompletion, [[BackTracking you must beat every level as every character]].

** Coin trails in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''. You know, the ones directed by the D Pad and where you have to hit a P-Switch to turn into temporary blocks.

** [[NotQuiteFlight Fluzzard]]. Full stop. First of all, {{Waggle}} is in full effect - the bird is very annoying to control. Secondly, it is also something of a ReplacementScrappy, of both the Red Star and Manta (which, though sometimes just as irritating, was generally fun to use). Finally, [[UnexpectedGameplayChange one must wonder why exactly something that involves no platforming whatsoever is even included in a platformer]].

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'', the microphone. The player must blow on it to breathe fire during the Giant Bowser parts. If your microphone isn't up to snuff, it can cost you, especially during a boss battle.
** Waiting ten '''real life''' minutes for Bowser's back to heal. What really cinches this is that the DS cannot be closed while this occurs or it'll go to sleep mode.

** In the prequel, getting each character's Star Missions if you want to use their Superstar version. The requirements must be done in Challenge Mode, with a minimum difficulty setting and can range from hitting a homerun, getting MVP or stealing a base, to dropping a squeeze bunt or getting a minimum score in a minigame. Particularily hard were Mario's "Get a Perfect Game" which had you win ''without the oponent getting a single hit'' or Baby Mario's "catch a booted ball" which is a LuckBasedMission consisting in him getting a batted ball hit him and then catching it before it touches the ground.

* The ''[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros1 New]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii Super]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 Mario]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU Bros.]]'' series:

** One of the most common criticisms of the ''Wii'' installment was [[{[Waggle}} having to shake the Wii Remote]] to spin jump, get off Yoshi, and pick up objects, despite them leaving out the B button on the Wii remote. This could cause lags in actions that lead to untimely deaths.

** The Spring Mushroom. In what just might be the worst Mario powerup ever, movement is very wobbly, you can't stand still while you're wearing it, and you have to have pinpoint precise timing in order to execute a high jump.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' and the ''[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros New]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii Super]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 Mario]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU Bros.]]'' series.
** Those God forsaken block platforms/Trains/Snakes. You know, from Roy's Castle, Larry's Castle (Super Mario World), The Seventh Castle, The Second Tower of World 8 (''New Super Mario Bros''), Lemmy's Castle (NSMB Wii), and various stages in [=NSMB2=], 5-Tower, and 7-6 (NSMBU). They go pretty fast, speeding through lots of dangerous obstacles, above bottomless pits and lava, and take the most convoluted paths imaginable, as if the game designers felt extra malicious and wanted to punish the player. [[TheBusCameBack They're back]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', but this time in 3D and with gravity mechanics.

** Then there's the Comet Medals and Green Stars in the Fluzzard levels. You know those rings you went past? You have to go through them all, then catch the medal in mid air at high speed. One of said rings requires about a 90-degree sharp turn into a tunnel from the other side of the level. And Green Stars? They're extremely easy to miss even when Fluzzard is directed straight at them.
** The worst part is that the Fluzzard levels are almost identical to the [[http://www.zeldawiki.org/Fruit_Pop_Flight_Challenge Fruit Pop Flight Challenge]] from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess.'' However, the Fluzzard levels are outclassed by far by the minigame from a game that came out four years earlier. In the Zelda minigame, the game involves actual flight, more mobility, and works off of the Wii's pointer function instead of inaccurate waggle controls. Why they couldn't have simply copied the mechanics whole cloth and come out with a much less frustrating mechanic is anybody's guess.

** Also, when you get a game over in the original Galaxy, you're [[ButThouMust pretty much forced]] to go back to the start menu ("Would you like to save and quit the game?") and find your save file again when you die (possibly a form of AntiPoopSocking?). Every time. This gets pretty annoying and tedious after a while, and was luckily fixed in the sequel: here you just go back to the HubLevel, like it should be.

** The red coin missions and blue coin locations drove just about everyone nuts simply due to the sheer number of them in the game.

*** The F.L.U.D.D.-less levels also draw attention to how downgraded Mario's moveset is in comparison to SuperMario64. He can't long jump, back flip, or change his momentum in mid-air by kicking, and just about the only real attack he has is the ability to jump on things.

** The Boo Ball is, without a doubt, the most useless item in the game. It doesn't help you or hurt you. It's just there.

** The ''VideoGame/{{Rollcage}}'' Leader Missile didn't do this, but instead you got missiles that would lock on to buildings (instead of opponents) and bring them down on your own head.
** In ''MarioKart 7'', the Blue Shell now takes the worst parts of the versions from the earlier games: it flies along the floor until it reaches the first place player, then flies up and blasts them to pieces. Unfortunately, both of these 'attacks' can really easily screw someone up; the players at the back due to them being in the middle of the track on a narrow course (guess where the Blue Shell travels, and you have about four seconds to move out the way or get obliterated) and for the person in the lead, it seems the impact of being hit is random, you fly to the side in some almost arbitary direction and likely fly off the track. If a Blue Shell gets fired on SNES Rainbow Road, someone racing will pay dearly for it.

** The game has the star power mechanic, where the pitcher and the batter can use special powers to gain an advantage, such as tossing the ball really fast or hitting the ball with the bat and splitting the ball in two to confuse outfielders. To get more star power points, up to 5 max, you have to make successful strikes or successfully hit the ball without the ball being caught for an out. However, VideoGame/MarioKart rears its ugly head for this mechanic where the losing team will gain more star points, thus they can effectively spam their special moves over and over again until they can catch up.

** Those God forsaken block platforms/Trains/Snakes. You know, from Roy's Castle, Larry's Castle (Super Mario World), The Seventh Castle, The Second Tower of World 8 (''New Super Mario Bros''), Lemmy's Castle (NSMB Wii), and various stages in [=NSMB2=], 5-Tower, and 7-6 (NSMBU). They go pretty fast, speeding through lots of dangerous obstacles, above bottomless pits and lava, and take the most convoluted paths imaginable, as if the game designers felt extra malicious and wanted to punish the player. [[TheBusCameBack They're back]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''.

* The poisonous mushrooms in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' shrink Luigi, disable his vacuum, and make him lose some coins. They don't make the game harder, just more annoying.

** Chance Time, for its [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/01/29/ tendency to screw over more skilled players with forced redistribution of coins and stars]]. On that same note, among more skilled players, and especially StopHavingFunGuys, luck/excessive chance is ''always'' the Scrappy (one of the few things where it's possible for them to agree with {{Scrub}}s on something). Chance time was removed after Mario Party 6 to cut back on the excessive luck.

** The cheating AI in general. It gets worse as the series progresses to boot.
** Bowser Time! in Mario Party 7. Every 4 turns, Bowser shows up to cause trouble such as taking a picture of the characters and forcing everyone to pay or temporarily destroying one of the orb shops and setting up his own buisiness where he would sell the first person a Golden Bowser Statue (which has absolutely no impact on the game) or a Koopa Kid orb (both of which get stolen immediately and regarding the latter, adds another Koopa Kid space on the board) to making some changes to the board's environment like destroying bridges either forcing players to take a different route or ending their turn as soon as they reach the bridge.
** The original Mario Party had 2 boards where Toad and Bowser would at times switch places. A player could be near Toad only to have someone step on a Happening Space, and end up meeting Bowser instead, losing quite a number of coins. Wario's Battle Canyon and Peach's Birthday Cake were also more luck based than usual as the former causes players to be blasted out of cannons and land on another island, the problem is that it's difficult landing in just the right spot causing players to potentially land after Toad while the former forces the players to pay a lottery when they reach the board's only split path to determine whether they meet Toad or Bowser.
** Mario Party 3 had Game Guy, who would force you to bet all of your coins in a luck based minigame that would double them if you win or take them all away if you lose. There was also the rare Lucky Charm item that would force another player to play a Game Guy minigame.
** The main issues with Mario Party 5 are the lack of shops forcing players to rely completely on the luck of the draw from the capsule machine, and the fact that you can be hurt by traps you set yourself.
** The fact that all the minigames in any game (except ''Mario Party 9'') are locked at first, having to be randomly unlocked as the players play through the boards.
** Any game with secret star chests. Basically, there is a random chance that at some point (sometimes more) in the game, one player will randomly be given a star. Similar to Chance Time above (but not nearly as extreme) it's frustrating to players to suddenly go from winning to losing because somebody else got something off of pure luck, particularly on maps where getting a single star is a lot of work.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''.

* The poisonous mushrooms in LuigisMansion shrink Luigi, disable his vacuum, and make him lose some coins. They don't make the game harder, just more annoying.

** In MarioKart 7, the Blue Shell now takes the worst parts of the versions from the earlier games: it flies along the floor until it reaches the first place player, then flies up and blasts them to pieces. Unfortunately, both of these 'attacks' can really easily screw someone up; the players at the back due to them being in the middle of the track on a narrow course (guess where the Blue Shell travels, and you have about four seconds to move out the way or get obliterated) and for the person in the lead, it seems the impact of being hit is random, you fly to the side in some almost arbitary direction and likely fly off the track. If a Blue Shell gets fired on SNES Rainbow Road, someone racing will pay dearly for it.

** Mario Kart 7's version of the coin system is more forgiving; the only benefit to having them is a boost in top speed, and not having any will simply keep your kart performing normally. Additionally, you can only lose coins by falling off the track or being attacked by an item, and simply bumping into another kart will let you keep your coins. However, it turned the Lightning Bolt into one of the most hated items in the entire game, as it instantaneously makes every single other racer lose about 4 coins in addition to stopping, shrinking, and slowing them down.
** Mario Kart 7, being like any other game in the series, can get crazy with items. There can be several races where you can go from 10 coins down to 2 due to being hit by several items in a row. Combine this with unlockables requiring coins to be unlocked is a nightmare waiting to happen.
** Mario Kart Wii introduced the [[HotPotato Thunder Cloud]] which caused a lot of misery for players since it can be picked up in ''any position'', even in last place. The contempt for this item is so great that a lot of fans are glad that it hasn't been in any other Mario Kart since then.
** Mario Kart 8 does tone down the Blue Shells and Lightning, and introduces the Super Horn. Unfortunately, items are now awarded based on distance from the leader, not position in the race, meaning even second- and third-place racers can get really awesome items. First place? Expect a lot of coins to come up in that roulette.
** Also, you can now no longer claim a new item from an item box while dragging a shell or banana peel behind you. While one can see what they were aiming for, this means that the first-place racer approaching an item box has to make the excruciating decision to drop the banana peel he's using to block red shells in the hopes of getting a Super Horn... or hold on to it in case s/he would get some useless coins instead.

** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' has a lot of these. ''All'' moves you can perform on the battlefield are done with stickers. Stickers come in a ''finite'' quantity (over the course of the game, you can eventually reach 120 max capacity), and most of the more powerful ones [[InventoryManagementPuzzle take up more space in the Sticker Album]]. If you run out of stickers during battle, however unlikely it may seem, [[{{Unwinnable}} you might as well reload your last saved game]]. There is also ''no'' level or stat system at all; you can increase your HP with special items, but the game has no experience points of any kind; all enemy battles give you no rewards other than coins, making frequent combat rather pointless. But the worst offender ''has'' to be [[ForMassiveDamage the boss weakness system]]. The bosses (except perhaps the first) have so much HP and defense, you ''need'' to use the right sticker at the right time to have any hope of defeating any of them. What sticker and what time that is, more often than not, is quite a GuideDangIt, and even if you ''do'' figure out partway through the battle what you need, it will most likely be too late anyway; what are the chances of having that particular sticker already in your album ready to use at that moment, given that most of the weaknesses are of the aforementioned "requires extra inventory space" type? The final boss takes this [[UpToEleven to its ultimate]] [[FromBadToWorse and horrible conclusion]], with a '''[[MarathonBoss FIVE-PART]]''' boss battle, ''each'' of which requires specific stickers to complete. And if you do manage to beat a boss without exploiting its weakness, or simply want to fight it normally, the game has your helper insult you for not doing what it wanted.
* Perhaps the mother of all Scrappy Mechanics is found in ''ZettaiHeroProject''. If you die, you lose your equipment. This is problematic for two main reasons. The more minor issue is that, as [[CameBackStrong death is an integral part]] of gameplay, it makes items essentially useless until very late in the game when you get the ability to retain a decent number of equipped items on death. This is a Scrappy Mechanic in its own right, but this pales in comparison to how this affects the post-game. Like other Nippon Ichi games, this one is a grindfest post-game, largely centered on improving your items. But you're safe because of that aforementioned item protection mechanic, right? No. The game autosaves and you are not given ANY manual save slots, so if at any time your battery dies or game crashes in a dungeon you lose ALL of your equipped items. Best of all is that the game actually lies about when it is safe to save - just because you're in your home base does NOT mean it is always safe to turn your game off. Cue permanent RageQuit. The severity of a game-breaking bug, somehow made into a deliberate feature and wrecking the game for many players. Nippon Ichi Software [[WhatTheHellHero has lost some previously devoted fans]] over this.
* RandomEncounters ''in general'' can be this. They can range from tolerable to infuriating depending on the encounter rate (and the battle system), but in all cases, you have no way of knowing when you're about to start a battle. If you're in critical condition and need to find a place to heal or save, you can't just avoid battles until you get there; one unlucky strike of the RandomNumberGod could [[TotalPartyKill wipe you out]] and send you back to the last save point (unless you're playing one of the few [=RPGs=] that allow you to save anywhere). And, in some games, if you have returned to an early area from a later one, you will encounter enemies that are laughably easy for your level but give pathetic rewards and only make that part of the game more tedious. Conversely, if you are ''deliberately'' trying to provoke fights with enemies for grinding purposes, you could wander around for a while without activating many battles.
** Also, for fans of a particular battle style, messing with the formula can qualify. Those who prefer strict turn-based gameplay can get annoyed at ATB systems (which, if done poorly, end up [[XMeetsY combining turn-based combat with real-time combat]] while [[MasterOfNone doing the job of neither well]]), while players who prefer more active combat might [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not like]] a sequel or spin-off that switches to turn-based.
* The third and fourth VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy games have a form of AfterCombatRecovery, which is often much-needed - but instead of giving you back your health and mana all at once, it recovers gradually. In the third game it's based on steps taken (which leads to a lot of wandering around aimlessly for no real reason), while the fourth game uses real time (because RewardingInactivity is [[SarcasmMode always a lot of fun]]). Even worse, the fourth game has a very annoying glitch; when you load a save, your health and mana are supposed to be refilled to maximum, but this "maximum" doesn't factor in boosts to Max HP and Max MP from your equipment. So if you have a lot of bonus HP and/or MP from your equips (and late game, you almost certainly will), this leads to sitting around and waiting ''every time you open up the game''.

* ''Mario Super Sluggers''