Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #2171
Mario's Time Machine  
Education   Social studies

Rating: 8.21 (142 votes)

Mario's Time Machine box cover

Mario's Time Machine screenshot
An edutainment title starring Nintendo's best known game character and friends, Mario's Time Machine features colorful graphics, fun historical factoids from the various eras, but is ultimately bogged down with frustrating action sequences that have little educational value. In his latest evil scheme, Bowser has stolen 14 important items from the past and has placed them in his museum, guarded by Koopas. Bowser then captures Yoshi and before Mario can rescue him, he must find the stolen items and return them to their proper places in history.

Geared toward young children, Mario's Time Machine is set in a museum with eight doors. You can enter the first seven in any order, each of which leads to a side-scrolling world with two of the items hidden in them. After finding an item, you can use a time machine to go back to that item's correct time period and return it to the right place. Once you put all fourteen items in the right place at the right time, you can enter the 8th door at the end and face off against Bowser. The problem is that to get to these items, you must negotiate a series of mini arcade games, each of which isn't that much fun to play. On the prehistorical level, for example, all you need to do is keep moving and jumping to avoid hazardous material from Pterodactyls in the sky, and animals on the ground. Not a task worthy of Mario, to be sure, and unlike the famous Nintendo games, these games get repetitive and boring pretty fast.

Overall, kids who love Mario will probably enjoy Time Machine for a few minutes before realizing that they're neither having a lot of fun, nor are learning anything exciting. Software Toolworks' other Mario titles, Mario is Missing (which is aimed at older kids), and Mario's Early Years series (aimed at younger kids) are much better than this average underdog.

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: Jeff Davies
Developer: Software Toolworks
Publisher: Software Toolworks
Year: 1993
Software Copyright: Software Toolworks
Theme: Licensed, Cartoon
Multiplayer:  
None that we know of
System Requirements: DOS
Where to get it:
Related Links:  
Links:    
If you like this game, try: Mario is Missing, Museum Madness, Time Riders in American History

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.