Joystiq [Nintendo]

Mario's Time Machine

platforms: PC, SNES, NES
U.S. release: 1993/1994

Grading Scale:

pass -- The boxart calls upon history's hard-hitters like Honest Abe and Shakespeare, which is kind of cheap, but also kind of amazing to see Mario among their accomplished ranks. We also appreciate the time machine visible here, somewhat reminiscent of the paddle controlled in Alleyway. Too bad it didn't include a mounted machine gun that could have been used to rewrite history.

fail -- The game (if you can call it that) is a stale world history lesson in disguise, taking the form of a bad episode of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

14/11/08