However, is it not possible for this "show" to be a retelling of Mario's last adventure? It's not entirely implausible.
Not to mention Super Mario World has some of the same things going on (platform and obstacles used by machinery).
As for Paper Mario, I've always felt that Paper Mario is a slightly different continuity from the other Mario games (partly because the characters are represented as flat as paper).
Mario's always had this sort of "showtime" feel about it. Even Mario 64 had a camera man following him around the whole time.
So yeah, my opinion is that they all actually happened. When put into this prospective, I'd say the games are just "retellings" of Mario's latest adventure.
Mario 2 may or may not have really happened though. That was just a dream.
_________________ The Local Video Gaming Lunatic
Recent stuff I'm into:
Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing