Rather, it felt that I was getting killed by seemingly nothing more than by actual enemies when playing on Veteran. (toy-tma.com)
Not lava or spikes (though those are more painful than most actual enemy attacks), but stuff like a giant dragon or out of control train chasing you down. (gamingreinvented.com)
I was a little spectacle of Spike being playable, but if you noticed, Nintendo has been been adding actual enemies as playable characters in their games like Lakitu in mario kart, Kamek, shy guy, and even Bowser Jr in the party series. (mariopartylegacy.com)