Mario vs. Donkey Kong/YMMV

• Awesome Music: The series in general has some pretty awesome tunes, but one of the composer's favorites seems to be first ghost house theme in the first game, which seems to have ended up being the series's standard ghost house music (March of the Minis in particular has multiple variations on that particular track instead of having more than one unique track like the original). The versions from March of the Minis return in Minis March Again! and are joined by a sped-up version of the standard version, with these being used for Plus Mode's version of Magnet Mania in that game.
• Darker and Edgier: In the first game, they managed to make Donkey Kong creepy, as seen in the boxart. Then you get to see him in-game, and yes, he's a menacing villain: he growls, he uses a Shadow Discretion Shot to show his ambush on the poor Toads, and so on. Then It Got Worse since the game itself, as a whole, is pretty darker than your usual Mario game. And in the real final battle, after you destroy his mecha, he shows his pain by screaming at the top of his lungs, resulting in an inhumanly painful-looking death cry. But then there's the ending... and it's simply adorable.
• Fake Longevity: In both March of the Minis and Minis March Again, in order to unlock all the stages, you have to get bronze and silver stars in addition to all those gold stars you worked so hard for. In other words, you have to intentionally take too long to complete each stage; and this is just to unlock the rest of the basement stages (only one is available initially after finishing the game). To unlock the remaining roof stages (only a few are available after you complete the game), you need to complete the game all over again in "Plus" mode.
• Recycled Script: But it's not like they're any more than Excuse Plots in the first place.
• That One Level: oh, hi there, first half of Twilight City stage 3.