History ScrappyMechanic / SuperMarioBros

* The weight system. Characters in the game, like the previous 2 games, are separated into different weight classes. Heavyweights are typically very fast, but have low handling and acceleration, effectively making them [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]], meanwhile Lightweights are [[StoneWall Stone Walls]], having laughable speed, but high acceleration and handling. However, this gives heavies a massive advantage over every other weight class, especially in the original Wii U release, where speed was the most important stat (due to drifting mostly negating the handling penalty, and while lightweights have easier mini-turbo buildup and longer mini-turbos, heavyweights can use the infamous fire-hopping technique to extend their mini-turbo, invalidating that upside for lightweights) meaning there was basically no reason to use medium or lightweights. This was mitigated with the removal of fire-hopping in Switch rerelease, and the nerfing of the speed-boosting karts to take a bigger dig at acceleration, handling, and mini-turbo. However, the mini-turbo stat [[GameBreaker became the dominant stat for anyone not a heavyweight]], as well as their only real hope of preforming well, since the speed penalties of the acceleration and mini-turbo boosting karts aren’t as harsh as the speed-boosting karts penalties, making them moreso balance out the heavyweights stats, leaving them with practically no weaknesses, meaning the other weight classes have to really on an overpowered stat (the mini turbo stat) to stand a chance against the heavies.

*** The worst offender in this regard is the stage fog. It can appear without previous warning, lasts two turns and reduces everyone's accuracy to a 50/50 chance. While Bobbery's explosions and Flurrie's Gale Force can immediately get rid of the fog, it still causes them to waste their turn if the attack misses. What's worse is that [[GuideDangIt the game never tells you that you can get rid of the fog this way]].

* ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'':
** As The Runaway Guys found out, whenever the CPU player uses the Snag Bag, it will always target who between the other three players has the highest player number as long as they have items, moving over to the next highest numbered player if they don't have one. This means that they will always steal in the order of P4-P3-P2-P1 even when who they are stealing from has worthless items.

* More generally, the fact that all the minigames in any game are initially locked and there's no way to play them without randomly unlocking them while doing the boards has never sat well with the JustHereForGodzilla crowd who are only interested in the minigames (especially since most other party games allow the players to jump into the minigames right out of the gate). This was fixed in the [=NDCube=] games (with the exception of ''VideoGame/MarioPartyStarRush'' which only has three minigames available by default), and a happy medium was found in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioParty'' and ''VideoGame/MarioPartySuperstars'', which have most of the minigames pre-unlocked.

*** Dull Bones ''never'' give any Star Power no manner how well you do in battle, not only that but they always throw hurtful things at Mario and his friends.

** Switching partners during battle in these games is very cumbersome since partner swapping wastes a turn and doing it at the wrong time can cost you dearly. The Quick Change badge lets you switch allies without using a turn, but the badge itself eats up a good amount of BP to equip, and in the case of ''Paper Mario 64'', you cannot obtain it until you finish the third chapter of the game.

** 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 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]].

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'': The 100-coin stars. Having to collect 100 coins in each of the 15 regular courses to get a star slows the pace of the game to a crawl, and dying at any point resets your coin collection to zero, forcing you to start over. Some courses are plentiful in coins if you choose the right mission, but some courses like Dire Dire Docks are scarce in coins no matter what. Not helping things further is that you only get one chance to get coins from enemies and blue coin blocks, forcing you to start over if you miss them. Tellingly, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWYhzbDZAQ in a popularity survey]], the 100-coin stars consistently perform poorly, and the DS remake adds a mechanic that makes these stars much less painful: Yoshi can swallow an enemy that gives you more than one coin, turn the enemy into an egg, and throw the egg at enemies that only give one coin - each enemy hit will yield the same amount of coins as the enemy he ate.

** The game features several mini-games where a player has to rotate the control stick. Hard enough for many, they ended up causing [[https://crappygames.miraheze.org/wiki/Mario_Party_1_Injuries blisters and other painful side effects]], and often damaged the controllers by players trying to rotate the stick too quickly and having it break. Nintendo received a ton of complaints, and ended up releasing special gloves for players who hurt their hands. It would be 15 years before ''Mario Party: Island Tour'' introduced another "rotate the control stick" mini-game, and when some from the original ''Mario Party'' reappeared in ''Mario Party Superstars'', they came with explicit warnings that players do not rotate the sticks with their palms.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'':

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty7'' has Bowser Time. Every 5 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 business where he sells the first person to pass by a Golden Bowser Statue (which has absolutely no impact on the game) or a Koopa Kid orb (both get stolen immediately, and 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.

* Chance Time, for its 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 in general is this trope (one of the few things where it's possible for them to agree with {{Scrub}}s on something). Chance Time was removed after ''VideoGame/MarioParty6'' to cut back on the excessive luck, though ''VideoGame/MarioParty7'' incorporated some elements of it into the Duel mini-games (rather than choosing what to duel for, the stakes are decided by a roulette after the minigame is finished; it's even possible for the loser to luck out and not have to give anything), and ''Mario Party Superstars'' brought it back in full.

* ''Mario Party 9'' and ''10'' having linear maps and all players traveling together in a vehicle is this to some fans, as they felt it was too far a deviation from the original series and that being together in a vehicle robs any sense of control from the players.
* ''Mario Party 9'' also has at least one obstacle per board (aside from Toad Road) that will remove half of your Mini-Stars, which might as well be a death sentence for anyone who wants to win. If that wasn’t bad enough, Bowser might ''DOUBLE'' the Mini Stars of whomever's in last, handing them the win.
* ''Mario Party 10'' has Toys/{{amiibo}} Party, a mode designed as a simplistic throwback to earlier ''Mario Party'' games. The most obvious complaint is that you have to purchase compatible amiibo just to play the mode. But even when you get past that, there remains one insanely annoying mechanic: if you're playing as an amiibo (and at least one person must be), you cannot roll the die, pick up items, use them, or stop a spinner without physically touching your amiibo to the gamepad. Every time. It only gets more crowded when multiple players use amiibo.
* Bowser Party in ''Mario Party 10'' stacks the entire game unfavorably against the team running from Bowser. It allows Bowser to reroll his dice if his roll doesn't reach the team as well as gain a bonus when the team reaches the home stretch. Furthermore, the end of the board has tons of Bowser Jr. spaces ready to send the team back or take their hearts. Winning isn't impossible for the team, but it'll certainly take a lot of luck, which makes it an infuriating game to play for some players.
* More generally, the fact that all the minigames in any game are initially locked and there's no way to play them without randomly unlocking them while doing the boards has never sat well with the JustHereForGodzilla crowd who are only interested in the minigames. (Especially since most other party games allow the players to jump into the minigames right out of the gate.) This was fixed in the [=NDCube=] games (with the exception of ''Mario Party: Star Rush'' which only has three minigames available by default), and a happy medium was found in ''Super Mario Party'' and ''Mario Party Superstars'', which have most of the minigames pre-unlocked.

The Mario Bros. have ended up in countless game genres, making more games and spinoffs than one could imagine. With Nintendo's need to innovate and Mario starring in so many games, it's eventual that there would be some growing pains and mechanics that haven't aged well. Here are the more prominent ones in the franchise.

** The Bullet Bill is a big one: It turns you into a super fast giant torpedo that you don't even have to steer. Plus, anyone you hit bounces twice in a random direction, guaranteeing that they are catapulted off the stage on smaller levels. You'll only get it when you're nearly dead last, so it's not an issue for guys in first and second place. However, tell that to the player in 5th place who just got passed because the game decided to reward the 8th place player for being worse at the game.

** The game features several mini-games where a player has to rotate the control stick. Hard enough for many, they ended up causing [[https://crappygames.miraheze.org/wiki/Mario_Party_1_Injuries blisters and other painful side effects]], and often damaged the controllers by players trying to rotate the stick too quickly and having it break. Nintendo received a ton of complaints, and ended up releasing special gloves for players who hurt their hands. It would be 15 years before ''Mario Party: Island Tour'' introduced another "rotate the control stick" mini-game, and when some from the original ''Mario Party'' reappeared in ''Mario Party Superstars'', they came with explicit warnings that players not rotate the sticks with their palms.

** The game increases the number of [[NonStandardGameOver Non Standard Game Overs]]. While these have shown up before, the ones in this game have a tendency to come out with little warning (like the giant Chain Chomp that chases you in Marmalade Valley) or with little idea of what to do to avoid getting a game over (again, the above mentioned chomp). Some also show up in places where there was not a game over in a similar situation in a previous game (this game's quiz show does kill you instead of making you fight some [[DemonicSpider Demonic Spiders]] like the past games).
** Unlike in ''Sticker Star'', you are forced to use Things on the main bosses at points in their fights. If you [[SelfImposedChallenge try fighting them normally anyways]], they'll auto-dodge all attacks that aren't their weakness, even if the attack would hit them otherwise. In addition, Replicas of Things will not solve the boss puzzles. This means you only get one shot per fight. The only silver lining is that the game is much better than its predecessor about telegraphing what you'll need well in advance…Although that might not being saying much.
** The new Enemy Cards that can summon the enemy on the card to act as a pseudo-party member in battle seems to be an AuthorsSavingThrow at the removal of partners, however they're here because how near useless they are. For starters they're all generic enemies that you have no control over and all deal pathetic amounts of damage. In addition, They only last about one turn because on enemy turns, they act as meat shields that are easily defeated in one or two hits. Thanks to UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay, it is also possible for some cards (mainly shelled enemies) to ricochet off of the far walls of an enclosed arena and hit ''you'' after they have damaged the enemies. To make things worse, they are ''completely useless'' in boss fights, as they run away the moment they're summoned, which means you just wasted a card slot. The Koopalings can be gathered as rare Enemy Cards, but in addition to also being useless in boss fights, they're nothing more than Fright Jars, as they do nothing but chase away the enemy with ''no'' variation between each Koopaling. The only thing Enemy Cards seem to be good for is completing the Museum, but other than that they're almost useless in the main game.