Mario's Time Machine (Nintendo Entertainment System)
| Mario's Time Machine | |
|---|---|
 For alternate box art, see therelated gallery. | |
| Developers | The Software Toolworks Radical Entertainment |
| Publisher | The Software Toolworks |
| Platform | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release date |  June 1994[1] |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Educational |
| Mode | Single player |
| Format | NES:  Game Pak |
| Input | NES: |
| Serial code | NES-TM |
Mario's Time Machine, stylized asMario's Time Machine! on the title screen, is a remake of theDOS game of the same name released in June 1994. Despite the shared titles, the gameplay is completely different. It is the last game in theMario Discovery Series and also the lastSuper Mario title overall for theNintendo Entertainment System in North America.
Story[edit]
In the year 1993,Bowser uses a time machine called a "Timulator," traveling backwards to different points inhuman history and stealing significant artifacts to place in his personalmuseum inside hiscastle. With his collection nearly completed, Bowser gloats that not even Mario can stop him now. Mario realizes that history will change forever if he does nothing, so it is up to Mario to use Bowser's own device against him by returning the artifacts to their proper places in time.
Bowser plans to destroy his time machine, deliberately planning to irreversibly damage history and send the world back to the Dark Ages.[2] His Museum has been fully built and already established itself with history's greatest artifacts.Yoshi joins Mario in his quest to stop Bowser's plot, but instead gets captured when he scouts ahead. In addition to fixing the timeline, Mario must also rescue Yoshi from peril.
Gameplay[edit]
.png)
UnlikeMario is Missing!, the NES release is virtually a different game with little resemblance to its previous incarnations, traveling to very different time periods and restoring entirely different objects. Bowser's Museum is largely a hall with seven doors ending with Bowser's chamber. Behind each door is aMario Bros.-style mini-game involvingKoopas with a unique item that can be acquired if Mario defeats all of them. The Timulator is in the bottom center of each room, and it is aWarp Pipe with a transparent box. Inside the Timulator, Mario can select pre-determined time periods rather than input them manually, although the location is not disclosed. Once warped across time and space, Mario will arrive at a short platforming land with enemies (Koopas,Bodyslam Koopas, andWalking Turnips) and occasionally indigenous inhabitants of the time period. There are alsoinformation boxes which describe the location. Mario must take the item acquired in the minigame and return it to the appropriate spot - if it is in the incorrect place, then it will return to the clutches of the Koopas via abird (orflying saucer when on themoon), but if Mario is right, then he will complete that area. There are two artifacts in each door, so Mario must enter a door at least twice before he can close that section of the museum. After all the doors of the museum are cleared, the deeper part of the castle is available after Mario passes a random History Test about what he has learned. After beating Bowser, a key will be released and Mario will free Yoshi from his cage. In the end, Mario and Yoshi pose next to a saddened, crying Bowser.
Time periods[edit]
Here is a chart of the location and artifact in chronological order.
- 80M BC —Cretaceous Period (Dinosaur Egg)
- 776 BC —Olympia (Torch)
- 31 BC —Egypt (Cleopatra'sThrone)
- 1192 —Japan (Minamoto no Yoritomo'sSword)
- 1520 — TheTrinidad (Ferdinand Magellan'sSteering Wheel)
- 1602 —United Kingdom (William Shakespeare'sQuill Pen)
- 1687 —Cambridge University (Isaac Newton'sApple)
- 1862 —Gettysburg (Abraham Lincoln'sStovepipe Hat)
- 1879 —Menlo Park (Thomas Edison'sLight Bulb)
- 1903 —Kitty Hawk (theWright brothers'Propeller)
- 1905 —Germany (Albert Einstein'sPhysics Equation)
- 1947 —India (IndianFlag)
- 1969 —Moon (AmericanFlag)
- 1989 —Berlin Wall (Sledgehammer)
Historical inaccuracies and other errors[edit]
DespiteMario's Time Machine being intended as an educational game, the various versions contain many errors in regards to its historical facts. The NES version has:
- Germany (1905)
- Albert Einstein says that he moved to the United States in the 1930s when Mario meets him in 1905. Additionally, Einstein appears to be middle-aged, despite only being 26 years old at the time.
Staff[edit]
- Main article:List of Mario's Time Machine staff
Reception[edit]
Since its release,Mario's Time Machine has received negative reception. It holds an aggregate score of 60.25% on Game Rankings based on two reviews. Nintendo Power gave it a 10.6 out of 20, while Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a slightly better rating of 6.75 out of 10. GameSpy's Brian Altano and Brian Miggels criticized the ending of this version for its depiction of Bowser crying.[3] TheAustralian Broadcasting Corporation'sGood Game described it as one of many "awful" games that used theSuper Mario license, and said that it was "too complicated" for its young target audience.[4] Similarly, authors David Wesley and Gloria Barczak include both it andMario is Missing! in the "flood" of poor-quality 1990sSuper Mario games and media made by third parties with no supervision from Nintendo, accusing these two games,Mario's FUNdamentals, and theSuper Mario Bros. film of "nearly destroy[ing]" the entire franchise.[5] Patrick Felicia, who focuses on learning through video games, criticizesMario's Time Machine andMario is Missing! for their "mismatch" between the gameplay and the presentation, while also praisingSuper Mario Bros. due to everything being in service of platforming.[6]
Gallery[edit]
- For this subject's image gallery, seeGallery:Mario's Time Machine.
The game's logo
Title screen
Yoshi
Bowser
Multimedia[edit]
- For the complete list of media files for this subject, seeMultimedia:Mario's Time Machine.
 Title Screen | File info 0:30 |
| Bowser Castle | File info 0:30 |
| 31 BC / 1947 Theme | File info 0:30 |
| 1969 / 1989 Theme | File info 0:30 |
References to other games[edit]
- The titular character makes a cameo as a painting.
- The method of collecting objects involves defeating threeKoopas in a style similar to this game. Unlike in the original game, the pipes are able to be entered by Mario, and can be used to exit to the main part of the museum.
- Bowser's sprite is a modified version of his sprite from this game.
- Most of the other sprites, including those for Mario, Yoshi, and the Koopas, are those from this game, though modified to fit the graphical limitations of the NES.
- A number of other assets directly reference this game, such as the opening where Mario and Yoshi walk up to Bowser's Museum, which is identical to the cutscene shown before Mario enters aGhost House orCastle, except Yoshi runs inside the museum after Mario dismounts him rather than waiting outside.
- TheDinosaur Egg bears a resemblance to aYoshi's egg.
- Mario is Missing! (NES)
- The music used forRome andMontreal is reused in Cambridge University in both games, and the music used during the ending is also the title music.
References in later games[edit]
- Mario's Time Machine can be selected as the player's favorite NES game on their profile.
References[edit]
 | The Cutting Room Floor has an article onMario's Time Machine. |
- ^Nintendo. Complete List of Games (PDF). Retrieved March 21, 2016. (Archived May 1, 2005, 15:00:12 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
- ^Mario's Time Machine NES instruction booklet, page 1.
- ^Altano, Brian; Miggels, Brian (August 14, 2009). "The Worst NES Endings, and Why We Deserved Better".GameSpy. Retrieved December 20, 2017. (Archived August 15, 2009, 22:45:12 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
- ^May 11, 2009."Edutainment" -Good Game.ABC. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
- ^Wesley, David T. A.; Barczak, Gloria (June 28, 2010). "Nintendo's Dark Ages" -Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap.CRC Press. ISBN978-0566091674. Page 40.
- ^Felicia, Patrick (January 31, 2011). "Matching Basic (Cognitive) Activities" -Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches.Information Science Reference. ISBN978-1609604950. Page 334.
