Mario's Time Machine is an edutainment title and the successor of Mario is Missing! The game is meant to teach younger players basic world history and is the last Mario Discovery Series game before discontinuation. This game and Hotel Mario are the only games in the Mario franchise in which Mario as a protagonist has full lines of dialogue. The objective of the game is to return the historical artifacts to their proper time periods thanks to the central hub. As soon as you enter a certain time period you need to explore and interact with various residents of the area in order to get more information about the artifact, the period itself and the person connected to it.