Mario has long been the face of video games. While Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, the mustachioed plumber is arguably more recognizable than even Pikachu. However, this popularity comes with some drawbacks. Traditional 2D Mario platformers are often seen as barebones standard for the genre, leaving the character to stand out in spin-offs and more creative 3D platformers like Super Mario Odyssey rather than the likes of the New Super Mario Bros. series.
In his many spin-offs, Mario has partied across immense tabletop boards, mastered an array of sports, and battled against a pantheon of popular video game characters. However, some of his more interesting adventures have come in the shape of RPGs developed by Square and AlphaDream. One especially notable title is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, released for the DS in 2005, in which the Mario brothers go on a time-spanning journey alongside their younger selves. A potential Super Mario Odyssey sequel could take on a similar idea, letting Mario traverse time periods as he could Kingdoms in the 2017 Switch title.
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Mario's History With Time Travel
Partners in Time is not the first instance of Nintendo's poster child messing with temporal matters. In lighter fare, Mario's Time Machine (1993) was an educational title on MS-DOS and SNES that aimed to teach its players about real-world history by letting Mario meet figures including Plato, Isaac Newton, and Mahatma Gandhi. Time travel also played a bizarre part in Yoshi's New Island (2014) on the 3DS. The original Yoshi's Island saw Yoshi reuniting Baby Mario with his brother, but its 3DS follow-up ends with the future King Bowser inexplicably travelling through time and space to do battle.
Baby Mario and Luigi have played roles in other spin-offs with no real explanation, racing Karts and playing baseball alongside their future selves. This has also led to baby versions of Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, and more appearing across different games. However, Partners in Time stands out for building a story around the idea – as flimsy as the conceit of its alien-filled time travel narrative may be. The game was mechanically richer for pairing the Mario brothers with their younger selves in a way that utilized all four DS face buttons, but it also mined a lot of emotional moments out of their interactions. This is where a time-travelling Super Mario Odyssey sequel could take notes.
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Super Mario's Temporal Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey gave the portly plumber his most diverse set of 3D movement mechanics yet, as well as a range of unique environments to explore with them. Mario travels to a seaside paradise with soda water, a traditionally Japanese-themed take on Bowser's Castle, and even the Moon. It also flirts with the idea of time travel via Cascade Kingdom, a small prehistoric-themed region where Mario can capture a realistic T-Rex.
Giving the Odyssey a chance to travel through time (it doesn't particularly matter how) could give Nintendo the opportunity to lean into more ideas like the Cascade Kingdom that would offer new takes on Mario's well-worn tropes. Much like Super Mario Odyssey brought players back to Mario 64's version of Peach's Castle, these new temporal locales could be packed full of references to appease fans. For instance, instead of a generic desert, Mario and Cappy could visit Princess Daisy's Sarasaland from Super Mario Land, perhaps combined with more deep-cut references such as the Yoshi Sphinx from much-maligned Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
Travelling through time also offers Mario the chance to interact with characters like Baby Mario again in a more story-driven environment. Be it the newborn Mario from Yoshi's Island or the combative toddler from Partners in Time, it would be fun to see Nintendo's mascot show a more paternal, protective side again. The possibilities are endless, and it's hard to imagine fans would roll their eyes at cheesy time-travel logic in a Super Mario game. If Mario Odyssey 2 comes to be, it would behoove the developers to stretch its premise further by taking Mario to distant lands in a whole new dimension.
Super Mario Odyssey is available now on Nintendo Switch.
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