MarkAssPandi (@MarkAssPandi)

@sodiboo @4censord @eri @makuru Personally I would even classify that type of pause as an mechanic, even if very barely.
Going back to the topic, in case of Super Mario Bros, I would classify getting infinite (*) lives, and only doing that as a way to postpone getting between our primitive QTE's in terms of Bowser fights (personally I feel them being easy or not is kinda irrelevant, they still demand some level of reflex, ig with the exception of being able to pretty much learn and skip the section almost instantly with one good jump, but I would say that still constitutes to being like learning a specific QTE sequence), I would constitute that a form of pause, at least in terms of "being able to leave and come back to it later", kinda like pausing in the middle of a regular rhythm game.
But even if we do assume that this doesn't mean it's a pause, games like Osu still can have pretty long periods of inactivity, due to maps being made by community, anyone can just put 10 hour break inside. Still makes the game a rhythm game, even if makes map stupid (yet hilarious I gotta admit) as shit.

Now one could argue that SMB doesn't have custom maps, so it depends entirely on the mechanics that were done specifically at game design level, but I shall say that it's just cus nintendo devs were just silly goobers that wanted to play Osu but were too mid at the game so they had to put in long breaks between their QTE's