History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / SuperMarioBros

** The game is, to date, the only 3D game where both the oxygen meter (for swimming) and the health meter were one and same (they get separate meters in ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]]'', the two ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 games]], and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Odyssey]]''). This created a loophole that allowed Mario to regain health simply by jumping into water and coming up for air.

** This is the only game in the ''[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros New]]'' subseries to not have the Koopalings as the main bosses, but unique opponents like Giant Goomba and Petey Piranha. Bowser also appears as early as the end of World 1. In the other games, he doesn't appear until the final boss battle, and in this game he doesn't have a second phase where he turns into a giant. [[OverlordJr Bowser Jr.]] appears as every tower boss, and also lacks his Koopa ClownCar, acting more as an {{expy}} of Boom Boom from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''.

*** It is the only Mario RPG to be a standalone title, but it is still very much the black sheep out of all of them. This is because the game was designed by Square and borrowed heavily from the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' was originally envisioned as a sequel, and while it is still considered to be its spiritual successor, they still have very little in common. And while the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' games developed into their own series, they are similar in tone to the ''Paper Mario'' games and are clearly influenced by them.
*** The ''RPG''-exclusive characters like Geno and Mallow, despite being {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s, [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome have never appeared in the franchise since]] beyond small cameos, which some speculate is because of Creator/SquareEnix [[ScrewedByTheLawyers owning the rights to those characters]].

*** The graphical style is nearly completely different from how it is in the later games. It's not so much noticeable with Mario, Luigi, Bowser, or Fawful, but for the normal enemies the differences are easy to spot. For example, early Dry Bones designs had them as quadrupeds like the Koopas from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', while the Boos looked outright cartoony and the Boomerang Bros were actually tall, birdlike creatures rather than using their standard designs from the main series, and even mushrooms were white with red spots like Toad's head instead of the other way around. Dry Bones were the only enemies that weren't changed in some way in the ''Bowser's Minions'' remake; the Boomerang Bros. kept their designs but were reclassified as a separate type of enemy called Beanerang Bros., while most other classic Mario enemies, such as Hammer Bros., were changed to more standard designs, particularly as they appeared in other 3DS ''Mario & Luigi'' games. Compare that to ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Bowser's Inside Story]]'' where the enemies generally look like they do in other Mario spinoffs. In another choice not seen in any other game before or since, Toadsworth is wearing a blue vest, similar to that of a regular Toad.

*** Beans also worked very differently back then. In the first game, the bros needed to trade them for a coffee in the Starbeans Cafe in order to get a drink that'd give them the stat boost; they couldn't be eaten raw from the item menu. Partners in Time reduced beans to currency for Fawful's shop, which was odd in itself. But in later games, the beans were simply eaten raw like a mushroom or nut, and the whole drinks part of the game was gone.

** The game has five races per cup instead of four like in the later games. It also features Donkey Kong Jr. as one of the playable characters; Franchise/DonkeyKong himself wouldn't appear in the series until ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' (as Creator/{{Rare}} wouldn't create the iconic new Donkey Kong in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' until 2 years after ''Super Mario Kart's'' release). DK Jr. would appear once later in the first ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' game, then vanished until TheBusCameBack in ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour''.

** In the first game, the item boxes ''don't'' regenerate after someone touches them, respawning only after every other item box on the course has been taken (which is especially annoying if one of the boxes is hard to get to, such as in Battle Course 2, which has a few behind walls that you need a Feather to get to).

** The Spiny Shell is so infamous in the ''Mario Kart'' community that it feels just weird that it doesn't appear in the first ''Mario Kart'' game at all. It would make its debut in the second game, where it still has some functional differences compared to ''Double Dash!!'' onward, such as not flying, the impact not being too powerful, and the ability to hold it indefinitely on the back of your kart. While it did become wingless again starting with ''7'', it still flies up and explodes when it reaches whoever's in first place.

** The earliest games, [[VideoGame/MarioParty1 the very first one in particular]], lack many features that would become standard to the series, such as collectible items, segregated story and party modes, and key board-level concepts like banking and dueling.

*** Each board in the first two games has its own "story mode" with an ending cutscene showing the winner of the board saving the day and, in the first game's case, the character in fourth place being humiliated, usually by Bowser, in some way.

** In addition to Bowser Spaces in the first game, Bowser himself also appeared somewhere on each board, and any player who passed him would surely end up losing coins or sometimes stars if they had any. What's worse is that sometimes you had to pass (or risk passing) him in order to get to the star, or just might not even have a choice in the matter. In ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'', Koopa Kid replaces him, who may even give out coins if you're lucky (and then throws a tantrum over his Epic Fail), but if a player obtains a Bowser Bomb item or lands on a Bowser Space and gets Bowser's Appearing Act, then at the end of the turn, it causes Koopa Kid to turn into Bowser, who then moves around the board and takes every coin from any player he encounters, before turning back into Koopa Kid. In ''VideoGame/MarioParty3'', neither Bowser nor Koopa Kid appeared on any boards to take coins or stars, but the Bowser Spaces have remained for all the future installments (until ''Super Mario Party'', in which they have been replaced by Bad Luck Spaces as a result of Bowser becoming a playable character).

** The Japanese version of ''Wario Land II'' has an enemy that carries beer in a glass. Should Wario come in contact with the beer, he will get drunk. While versions outside of Japan censor such references, later games have never featured alcohol.

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] with few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioBrosMangaMania'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' and later ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were - notably, they were heavily involved in production of the Illumination film.

** In some respects, the game was an instance of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness for much of 3D gaming. For a lack of other games to compare with, entire levels quite visibly hanging in the middle of nothing were perfectly fine back then, but would have been considered signs of an ObviousBeta mere years later. It was also very cubic, even by later N64 standards, and thus unusual in a series that tends to prefer round shapes whenever possible. Again, ''Super Mario Odyssey'' would revisit this, including the Mushroom Kingdom itself being inexplicably on a floating island.

** ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'' is the only [=GameCube=] ''Mario Party'' qame to not use the Orb system, instead opting for a traditional item store in the vein of ''Mario Party 2'' and ''3''. In addition, an item will always be available for purchase no matter what, so a Warp Pipe will always be available, even if you have only one coin. ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'' was the only other game to bring this back.

** In the first three games, landing on a Bowser Space wasn't always necessarily a bad thing for that player, especially in the first game. Sometimes, all the players would play a Bowser-themed 1 vs 3 minigame (where the player who landed on the Bowser Space is the lone player), and only the losing team would lose coins. You might even play Bowser's Chance Time in the first two games, where the player gets an attempt to choose who will give coins to Bowser. In ''Mario Party 3'', you may even win a free Bowser Phone or Bowser Suit item from him. Starting with ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'', landing on a Bowser space equals to bad luck one way or another 99% of the time (There is a very rare chance that a player in fourth place may end up getting a Bowser suit though).

** In addition to Bowser Spaces in the first game, Bowser himself also appeared somewhere on each board, and any player who passed him would surely end up losing coins or sometimes stars if they had any. What's worse is that sometimes you had to pass (or risk passing) him in order to get to the star, or just might not even have a choice in the matter. In ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'', Koopa Kid replaces him, who may even give out coins if you're lucky (and then throws a tantrum over his Epic Fail), but if a player obtains a Bowser Bomb item or lands on a Bowser Space and gets Bowser's Appearing Act, then at the end of the turn, it causes Koopa Kid to turn into Bowser, who then moves around the board and takes every coin from any player he encounters, before turning back into Koopa Kid. In ''VideoGame/MarioParty3'', neither Bowser nor Koopa Kid appeared on any boards to take coins or stars, but the Bowser Spaces have remained for all the future installments (Until ''Super Mario Party'', in which they have been replaced by Bad Luck Spaces as a result of Bowser becoming a playable character).

*** The first game is the only one to reward you for passing the start of the board (with 10 coins given by Koopa Troopa), though the concept briefly returned in the Duel Mode boards of ''3'', where the Millennium Star provides a coin reward when you return to your specific starting area.

*** The first game is the only one to reward you for passing the start of the board (with coins given by Koopa Troopa), though the concept briefly returned in the Duel Mode boards of ''3'', where the Millennium Star provides a coin reward when you return to your specific starting area.

*** In the first game, you would earn 10 coins each time you completed a full loop around the board. This concept was dropped by the next game.

** ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'' is the only [=GameCube=] ''Mario Party'' qame to not use the Orb system, instead opting for a traditional item store in the vein of ''Mario Party 2'' and ''3''.

* The first ''VideoGame/MarioVsDonkeyKong'' game plays quite differently from its sequels. You control Mario, instead of an army of windup Mini-Marios, in what is essentially a SpiritualSuccessor to the UsefulNotes/GameBoy version of ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKong94 Donkey Kong]]'' instead of an indirectly controlled PuzzleGame in the vein of ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}''.

** Story: [[AllThereInTheManual/VideoGames The manual]] offers some lore, most of which is never brought up at all in later games. The Koopa are a tribe of turtles, or Turtle Tribe, known for their black magic, which they use to turn the Mushroom People into stones, bricks and horse-hair plants. The daughter of the Mushroom King, the Princess, can undo this spell, which is why you must rescue her from the Koopa turtle king and save the Mushroom People from the Koopa's black magic (in contrast to future games, where Bowser kidnaps Peach either to lure Mario into traps or because he wants her romantically). The seven Mushroom Retainers (Toads), originally in the Princess' court, have been put under the spell of the Koopa King. Magic Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and the Starman are Mario's friends, and have been turned into bricks or have been turned invisible, referring to invisible blocks; hitting those blocks has the power-ups rewarding you with their power. To make it clear what you'll be facing, the manual explains, "Along the way are mountains, pits, seas, turtle soldiers, and a host of traps and riddles." You are outright told to kill, not [[NeverSayDie just defeat]], the Turtle Tribe, including Little Goomba, a mushroom who betrayed the Mushrooom Kingdom; Koopa Troopa, a soldier of the Turtle Empire; Spiny, a "wild fighter"; Bloobers (later "Bloopers"); man-eating Piranha Plants, and Podoboos who emerge from a lake of fire and protect Bowser the sorcerer king.

*** The lava originally worked very differently: It was originally depicted as essentially [[LavaIsBoilingKoolAid red-tinted water]] drawn over a BottomlessPit, and Mario/Luigi would die by simply falling into it rather that either [[DeathThrows dying and being flung off the screen]] or [[RumpRoast jumping back out and only suffering a little damage]].

** Though Birdo's artwork already despicted her with a red ribbon on top of her head, the ribbon is absent in her in-game sprite, likely due to technical limitations (this was later rectified in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'', which was released on the more powerful SNES). Also, as shown in the Japanese commercial of ''All-Stars'' itself, Birdo was originally paired with Wart, while in later ''Mario'' games she's paired with Yoshi instead (making more sense since both are dinosaurs).

** This is the first game to have the "athletic" levels have a separate theme than the game's normal level theme. But it's also the only game in which the athletic theme is not a remix of the game's main theme.

** Endings and Unlockable Content:
*** The first game didn't have much for an ending. Once you finally rescued the princess, she'd simply say "Thank you Mario! Your quest is over. We present you a new quest. Push button B to select a world." From there, not only you could choose what level you want to start in, but there other differences that made the new quest essentially a hard mode, such as all the Goombas being replaced by the fire proof Buzzy Beetles and many of the floating platforms becoming smaller. You could basically keep playing the game over and over and boosting your score until you either lost all your lives or stopped playing. Later games would have more elaborate endings and unlockable content would be regulated to finding most or all of the game's collectables.

** Yoshi was [[https://i.stack.imgur.com/44Y33.jpg less-anthropomorphized]] in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' compared to how he would look later on. Certain spin-offs, such as ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', also stayed closer to Yoshi's original depiction. Said depicition was dropped starting with the fourth ''Super Smash Bros.'' game however.

** ''Mario Party DS'' is the first game in the series to include multiple boss battles. Unlike future games in the series, however, bosses all have a certain amount of hit points instead of a health gauge and don't [[TurnsRed Turn Red]] when their health is lowered to half or below, but become harder with each hit instead. Boss battles are also single-player minigames instead of four-player minigames like in most of the sequels.

** Mario and Luigi were originally depicted as being from Brooklyn and getting transported to the Mushroom Kingdom (which seemed to be an alternate universe). As the series went on they [[EarthDrift started ignoring real-world countries]] and ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' shows that the brothers were born in the Mushroom Kingdom. Occasional references to Brooklyn existed (though whether it's a country in-universe or in a separate is not mentioned), until ''Odyssey'' finally did away this piece of lore by introducing Metro Kingdom and New Donk City.
** Peach having a father is referenced in early (English) material, but later games present her as the [[PrincessesRule monarch of the kingdom]]. Her father, the Mushroom King, only appears in person in the ''ComicBook/SuperMarioAdventures'' Magazine/NintendoPower comic.

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] with few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioBrosMangaMania'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' and later an AllCGICartoon film by Creator/{{Illumination}} being greenlit, but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were.

** In the original arcade game, the GoombaStomp didn't work -- you had to knock the enemies on their backs by hitting them through the floor from below before you could take them out. For players coming from later Mario games, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory this could become a problem]] as early enemies include turtles that closely resemble the Koopas in the later games[[note]]They in fact aren't Koopas; they're different turtle-like creatures called Shellcreepers[[/note]]; they can't be stomped in Mario Bros. This is why some {{Nostalgia Level}}s based on ''Mario Bros.'' and the [[VideoGameRemake Remake]] found in various Game Boy Advance ''Mario'' games replace the enemies with TheSpiny, which was firmly established as the standard non-stompable enemy.

** Mario had a blue shirt and red overalls in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', and ''Donkey Kong Jr.''. The NES port of ''VideoGame/MarioBros'' was the first game to give him the standard red cap, red shirt and blue overalls; His in-game sprites in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels The Lost Levels]]'' would depict him with a ''brown'' shirt and red overalls. (Mario's sprites wouldn't accurately reflect his now-iconic modern color palette until ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' came around, although artwork from the game's box art and manual would still depict him with a blue shirt and red overalls.) The blue shirt and red overalls would eventually return in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' as an alternate outfit. Also, promotional artwork for ''Videogame/DonkeyKong'' depicted Mario as a [[http://pm1.narvii.com/6420/4ebcabf8c8495d4c1f2c41aae5d8888fdaf44585_hq.jpg middle-aged balding man]] (which is also how he looked in the [[Film/SuperMarioBros 1993 live-action film]]), but Nintendo has since {{retcon}}ned Mario into a twenty-something and shown him to possess a full head of hair underneath his plumber's cap. Mario's limbs were also [[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/e/e3/SMB2Art2.png much stubbier]] in early artwork, making him appear rather stocky, however modern art gives him [[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/2/21/FortuneStMario.png longer limbs]] which gives the impression that he's actually lost weight in the intervening decades.

* Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the series had many adaptations, with many playing loose with their game accuracy. After the failure of ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, they put a [[NoAdaptationsAllowed stop to the adaptations]] with few exceptions (such as ''Manga/SuperMarioBrosMangaMania'' continuing to run). This slowly began changing in the 2010s with Bowser's cameo in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' and later an AllCGICartoon film by Creator/{{Illumination}} being greenlit, but Nintendo is ''much'' more strict over their ''Mario'' adaptations than they once were.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'':

** ''Super Mario Kart'' and ''Super Circuit'' don't allow you to advance any further in a GP if you get fifth place or lower. If you retry the course you lose one of your three lives, which means four losses is a game over. ''Mario Kart 64'' doesn't let you continue from a low position either, but it does of the life system and you can retry as much as you wanted, though this leads to an odd situation where it's better to get fifth place or lower and retry than to take fourth or higher (in which case the GP will go on with your less-than-perfect score).

** ''Mario Kart Wii'', the first ''Mario Kart'' game to feature bikes, locked 50cc to karts only, 100cc to bikes only, and 150cc to either kind of vehicle. When bikes returned to the series in ''Mario Kart 8'', this was done away with and the player can use karts ande bikes (or [=ATVs=]) in any engine class.

** The game had five races per cup instead of four like in the later games. It also featured Donkey Kong Jr. as one of the playable characters; Franchise/DonkeyKong himself wouldn't appear in the series until ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' (as Creator/{{Rare}} wouldn't create the iconic new Donkey Kong in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' until 2 years after ''Super Mario Kart's'' release). DK Jr. would appear once later in the first ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' game and then [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome never be heard from again]].
** ''Super Mario Kart'' featured the Feather item, which allowed players to jump super high and over walls. The item didn't reappear until ''[[UpdatedRerelease Mario Kart 8 Deluxe]]'', and even then it's only used in Battle Mode, most likely because in ''64'' it would have caused problems with the [[GoodBadBugs already-sketchy]] collision detection system and allowed massive shortcuts, and from ''7'' and up the hang-glider portions of the tracks served mostly the same purpose as the Feather, but in a more controlled way.
** The game had the coin system linked to your speed and the mechanic wasn't used again until ''Super Circuit'', and didn't become permanent until ''7''.
** The first game even had the item boxes NOT regenerate after someone takes it, respawning only after every other item box on the course had been taken (which was especially annoying if one of the boxes was hard to get to, such as the second Battle Course that had a few behind walls that you needed a feather to get to).
** 150cc difficulty was locked, whereas it is freely open to players in the later games.
** Tracks all have five laps per race while the rest of the games play with only three laps except in certain cases (such as if a track is very long or very short, as seen with ''Double Dash!!''[='=]s Wario Colosseum having two laps and Baby Park from the same game having more than three laps in all of its appearances). This was due to the tracks in ''Super Mario Kart'' being quite short while the tracks and their retro counterparts in later games were lengthened a bit to accommodate the new racing mechanics. Time Trials in ''Super Mario Kart'' had no item use at all compared to the later games where they allowed the use of Triple Mushrooms in Time Trials.
** The Spiny Shell is so infamous in the ''Mario Kart'' community that it feels just weird that it didn't appear in the first ''Mario Kart'' game at all. It would make its debut in the second game, where it still had some functional differences compared to ''Double Dash!!'' onward, such as not flying, the impact not being too powerful, and the ability to hold it indefinitely on the back of your kart. While it did become wingless again in ''7'', in that game and ''8'' it still flies up and explodes when it reaches whoever's in first place.
** ''Super Mario Kart'' is the only game in the series where the AI has their own items (some of the characters use the normal items you would get, like a Green Shell) and had [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard infinite uses of them]]. The items unique to Yoshi (an unmovable egg), Bowser (a roaming fireball), and Toad and Princess Toadstool (a mushroom that shrinks whoever touches it) have not appeared in any other game. It wasn't until ''Mario Kart 64'' that the AI was regulated to only using items the player could use, though they could still use items without actually having to grab an item box. Yoshi would get an egg as his special weapon in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', but it was functionally a Red Shell that dropped random items when it hit an enemy.
** The first game did not allow the player to trail an item behind them like a shield -- the only way to block an item coming at you was to drop it behind the player with the right timing. Also, items sent behind you were always dropped -- no firing shells backwards like in later games. The second game allowed fake item boxes to act as a shield when trailed behind, which was dropped in subsequent games. ''Double Dash!!'' returned to the first title's idea of no item shielding, but added an alert for when an item was going to hit you from behind so the second player can shoot it backwards.

** ''Super Mario Kart'' and ''Super Circuit'' didn't allow you to advance any further in a GP if you got fifth place or lower. If you retried the course you lost one of your three lives, which meant four losses was a game over. ''Mario Kart 64'' didn't let you continue from a low position either, but they did get rid of the life system and you could retry as much as you wanted, though this led to an odd situation where it was better to get fifth place or lower and retry than to take fourth or higher (in which case the GP would go on with your less-than-perfect score).

** Retro circuits as we know them today didn't exist until ''DS''. ''Super Mario Kart'' and ''64'' understandably didn't have any, and while the first retro circuits came in ''Super Circuit'' it took the form of every ''Super Mario Kart'' track being included as an EmbeddedPrecursor. After that, retro circuits were completely absent from ''Double Dash!!'', indicating a possibility that it could've remained a one-off feature. ''DS'' properly introduces the now-familiar format: Four Cups of new circuits, and four Cups of remakes of circuits from past games.

** Mario does not have a companion join him in this game, unlike ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]]'' (F.L.U.D.D.), ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' (Luma), ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Odyssey]]'' (Cappy), or ''VideoGame/BowsersFury'' (Bowser Jr.). Because of this, his main attack methods are simply punching or diving.
** Some of Mario's moves from this game are missing in later ones, most notably the ability to punch and other physical attacks on command.

** Mario had a blue shirt and red overalls in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''Donkey Kong Jr.'', ''VideoGame/MarioBros'', and ''VideoGame/WreckingCrew''; the colors wouldn't be swapped around until ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', though his in-game sprites in ''[=SMB1=]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels The Lost Levels]]'' had ''brown'' overalls. (Mario's sprites wouldn't accurately reflect his now-iconic color palette in artwork until ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' came around.) The blue shirt and red overalls would eventually return in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' as an alternate outfit. Also, promotional artwork for ''Videogame/DonkeyKong'' depicted Mario as a [[http://pm1.narvii.com/6420/4ebcabf8c8495d4c1f2c41aae5d8888fdaf44585_hq.jpg middle-aged balding man]] (which is also how he looked in the [[Film/SuperMarioBros 1993 live-action film]]), but Nintendo has since {{retcon}}ned Mario into a twenty-something and shown him to possess a full head of hair underneath his plumber's cap. Mario's limbs were also [[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/e/e3/SMB2Art2.png much stubbier]] in early artwork, making him appear rather stocky, however modern art gives him [[https://www.mariowiki.com/images/2/21/FortuneStMario.png longer limbs]] which gives the impression that he's actually lost weight in the intervening decades.

** In the first game, the computers follow each other in a straight line and clip through hazards. In addition, they won't attack each other directly, instead focusing all their attacks on you if you're close enough to them, and even stick to a predetermined rank order based on what character you're playing as. If you spin out a character so they they fall out of their "assigned" position, the RubberBandAI will kick in and they will race at a higher speed until they get back to their assigned position. The only way you can disrupt this is to spin out someone late enough in the race that they won't have time to catch up before they reach the finish line.

** This is the only game where Wario is depicted using a Fire Flower, like Mario. Later games either gave him a [[NiceHat hat that spits fire]][[note]]a seadragon for just fire or a traditional dragon for fire and flight[[/note]] or [[IncendiaryExponent set his whole body on fire]].

** ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'' is the only [=GameCube=] ''Mario Party'' qame to not use the Orb system, instead opting for a traditional item store in the vein of ''Mario Party 2'' and ''3''. Also, while it is the first game to employ fully 3D boards to depart from the sprite-based 2D designs for the previous games' boards, their paths are still relatively flat and retain the same metallic aesthetic in all boards. The fifth game became the first to provide a more organic portrayal of the paths, and the boards themselves also became more vertical.

** In the first three games, all the boards were sprite backgrounds and only the character models and (most) minigames used 3D models. Starting with ''Mario Party 4'', all the boards are fully modeled in 3D. In the first three games, the 3D character models would shrink if it was not their turn. Relatedly, while ''Mario Party 4'' was the first ''Mario Party'' to feature fully modeled boards, all the paths the players could run on were the exact same four-direction metal walkway. Starting with ''Mario Party 5'', the paths are incorporated into the boards themselves and now allow players to move diagonally.