Authors David Wesley and Gloria Barczak associated "Mario's Time Machine" with the recent "flood of ill-conceived "Mario" spin-offs", arguing that these games nearly destroyed the "Mario" license. "The Independent"s Janet Swift discussed "Mario's Time Machine" in her article on the latest generation of educational titles in 1994. She compared it to "Mario Is Missing!" in its execution, which she found "special", praising it for its educational value for children. Allgame's Brett Alan Weiss called the action scenes "dreadfully dull" and the presentation "merely average". He added that while he does not dislike educational games, they must be both "entertaining and enlightening." IGN's Levi Buchanan included it in their assessment of the "other "Mario" games," implying that the premise was boring and criticizing the game for lacking any real platform gameplay. He commented that it had "honorable intentions", but that it was "decidedly shallow". He also criticized the act of putting Mario in realistic time periods, commenting that he "occupies the imagination, a place with Star Festivals and giant piranha plants."