Would a time-travelling Mario platformer set on Earth work?

Time Turner

Time Turner

You are filled with determination. (R/GD/TT)
I've been playing Mario's Time Machine lately, mostly to fill in the wiki's gaps, and the more I play, the less I'm impressed. None of the dialogue is believable, the plot is a thinly veiled excuse for Mario to meet historical folks, the fetch quests are overly monotonous, and most of the actual gameplay is when Mario time travels by surfing (really). It's an educational game trying, and failing, to mask itself as a Mario game by sticking in Mario as the protagonist. Still, I can't help but feel a little bit interested in seeing Mario interacting in famous historical periods with contemporary shopkeepers and soldiers, but I also want that Mario flavor of charming enemies and character alongside it. So, if Mario's Time Machine was a proper platformer, in the vein of the series' standards, then maybe it would have stood a better chance. Maybe the plot could involve Bowser and co. actively terrorising history instead of just stealing artifacts to build a museum (again, really). Maybe Mario has to fight Koopas and Goombas dressed for the occasion alongside unique thematic enemies, like a miniature Trojan Horse or angry cherubs. Maybe it could even take a page from other Mario game and instead work as a turn-based RPG. An edutainment game can only be so good, but at the very least, a Mario edutainment/platformer would have been better than what we actually got. Thoughts?
 
My question would be how this can be achieved with Mario and not using original assets. Make it stand out. I don't know if Mario works so well in edutainment since I myself am not too keen on that idea alone. Time traveling is also hard to write and make it convincing, but I'm sure any attempt is probably better than Mario's Time Machine.
 
this may seem random but I would love a time travel related Wario Land game

maybe dr crygor invents a time machine and so wario tries it out for fun but accidentally leaves it on giving whatever villain (lets just say count cannoli for the sake of it) the opportunity to steal it and so he has crygor make another one and he tracks cannoli down throughout time so he doesnt mess anything up but has funny interactions with famous historical figures along the way

like maybe he meets leonardo da vinci painting the mona lisa and he says it looks terrible so he paints his own version of it (with his face)

also i was thinking of a different mario game set on earth where bowser and the koopalings kidnap different world leaders and each world is a different country maybe make japan the last world and have mario and co actually go to nintendo hq and meet up with miyamoto
 
I would think that to put Mario into something different from the normal, we should either have the time-travel setting or the Earth-based setting. I feel that having both at the same time makes it feel too different as to be unfamiliar to what Mario is. There should be at least something familiar to still feel like a Mario-based setting, so for example, a time-based setting could let us explore the Mushroom Kingdom in different time periods, or the Earth-based locations to be infested by Mario enemies.

Thanks for reading.
 
This seems like a good topic to follow and gather notes from. Especially since these ideas could help me make a better game than Mario's Time Machine. But instead of covering a whole lot of time, I think I should stay focused on the rise and later the fall of the Roman Empire. So, pretty much the whole entire time Rome was an Empire I will cover, but not in one game.
 
I'll agree with Magikrazy, I feel it would fit better as a Wario Land game. Wario would go to different periods of time to, you guessed it, steal treasure. Something happens and he has to return the treasure or he loses it or something.
 
Mario has experimented with Earth locations before as the general theme of the level (such as Mario Party 7). It would be interesting to see him and friends in those types of settings again. Maybe the stupid New Super Mario Bros. games can use them as a theme, at the very least it wouldn't be stock cookie cutter level themes.
 
Super Mario Land might as well have been on earth. Every world is based off a real world location.
 
Oh, now you got me thinking 'bout Mario Party 7. We can do a Mario Party based on time-traveling around the world.
 
Due to many gaps in Earth's History (which, if covered, would fill up a Tardis from the Doctor Who series) and/or the possibilities that can arise from using other time lines, any time-traveling Mario platform or RPG or Edutainment platform is possible. This could also go for hiding secrets in the time lines (ie. 5 out of the 7 Koopalings are from Earth's History and 2 from Mario's World; this is done for Mario's Secret Space Station.)
 
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