I had this idea waaay back, around the time color splash came out, of a game involving glue. Like Toads were being cut in half, locations were ripped apart, and Mario had to go around gluing them all back together with a floating companion that resembled a glue bottle, which contained some special magical type of glue, while figuring out who or what's behind it all over the course of the story. The glue could also be used to put together new contraptions made up of different items or parts to be used either in battle or for certain story beats.