[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mariobrothers.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This is not your typical Mario story...]]

''Mario Brothers'' is an epic five-part UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash video series featuring the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series and characters. It was created by Alxlen between 2003 and 2006. The story is a tragedy, using 8-bit sprites and orchestral music to cinematic, intense effect.

One day, King Koopa declares war on the Mushroom Kingdom, with plans to storm the castle and kill the Princess. Mario and Luigi try to stop him, but during the battle, Luigi is hit by a fireball and dies, while Koopa escapes to carry out his invasion.

After a period of mourning, Mario sets off to try and save the Mushroom Kingdom and the Princess, and bring his brother back to life... but it may already be too late.

The series can be viewed [[http://phantasmagoria-crow.newgrounds.com/movies/ here]] on Website/{{Newgrounds}} or [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIrWAkV9YMRqlQNRh0Z9m2opvtxQ-oPyr here]] on Website/YouTube.

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!!This series contains examples of:
* AdaptationalVillainy: Koopa here is ''miles'' worse than his game counterpart, being willing to commit mass murder with no remorse at all and lacking any noble traits.
* AlmostDeadGuy: The one remaining Toad that tells Mario of Koopa's attack on the castle is barely alive. Subverted as Mario is able to heal him with a mushroom first.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Subverted with Luigi, as Mario is unable to revive him with a 1-Up since he'd been dead for too long.]]
* BigBad: King Koopa causes the plot and rules the Koopa Troop. He personally kills Luigi and plans to kill the Princess and Mario.
* BigGood: The Princess is the non-action type. She rules over the Mushroom people and can produce life-giving mushrooms from nothing, but cannot fight on her own.
* BloodlessCarnage: Despite the high body count, there isn't a drop of blood to be seen. In fact, most of the onscreen deaths are done in [[DeathThrows the same manner]] as [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 the game.]]
* BookEnds: The series starts and ends with the same scene of Mario running from something.
* ChangedMyMindKid: Initially, a contingent of Toads are reluctant to take the fight to Koopa and stay behind, but arrive later on to back up their brethren and apologize for refusing to fight before.
* CollapsingLair: Koopa's castle in Part V. A group of Mushroom Retainers brings the ceiling down in one area to grant Mario access across a large lava pit. This causes a chain reaction that brings the whole castle down. [[spoiler: This ends up backfiring on Mario and the Toads horrifically.]]
* DarkFic: The story takes the concept of the first game--Koopa kidnapping the Princess--and plays it deadly serious, giving the events epic scope and a tragic scale, especially by the ending where [[spoiler:everyone is dead]].
* DarkerAndEdgier: Koopa is a completely serious and terrifying villain here, and deaths are treated with the seriousness death entails. The cartoony powerups are treated more seriously here as well, with the Fire Flower being a sacred weapon and the Mushrooms a life-giving magic. Oh, and [[spoiler:Luigi's death is made irreversible by the halfway point of the series, and he's eventually joined by the entire rest of the cast.]]
* DawnAttack: Mario and the Toads' counterattack on Koopa's fortress is set up as this.
* DisasterDominoes: A group of Toads make a ceiling collapse to enable Mario to cross a lava lake, but in doing so start the collapse of Koopa's castle as a whole. Mario, realising that time is against him, rushes through the fight with Koopa and quickly destroys the bridge, [[spoiler:but the collapsing castle makes it so that the Princess can't make it across the bridge before she falls into the lava. A huge eruption then occurs, killing everyone but Mario in the immediate vicinity. Mario then lets himself get caught by the lava, ending the series with no survivors.]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Koopa is dead...but so are the Princess and the battling armies. Mario, left alone, loses all hope and lets himself be overtaken by a giant wave of lava.]]
* TheDreaded: King Koopa, who is portrayed as a terrifying, nigh-unstoppable villain. Justified, given his HeroKiller status and that seemingly neither the Mario Bros. working together or apart can take him down.
* DrivenToSuicide: In the ending, [[spoiler:Mario stops running and lets the lava overtake him]].
* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler:After failing to revive Luigi, the scene cuts to Mario putting a small cross on his brother's grave.]]
* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler:The series ends with all of its characters dead, including Mario himself.]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep:
** The Princess is only referred to by her title, and whether she's named Toadstool or Peach is unknown.
** The same could be said about King Koopa, who is only ever called that or just "Koopa". A confusing case, as even in 1985, there was English material naming the character as "Bowser".
* ExcessiveMourning: Mario mourns Luigi's death for too long, which not only gives Koopa time to carry out his plan, but also causes [[spoiler:the 1-Up used on him later to fail]].
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler:Shortly before retrieving the 1-Up Mushroom to revive Luigi, Mario is warned that the mushroom won't work if he's been dead for too long. Sure enough, it doesn't.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler:The very first scene shows Mario running from something, and stating that everyone's dead. Alxlen regrets having done that first scene, as it made the DownerEnding inevitable.]]
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Along with everyone else.]]
* HopeSpot:
** Mario finds the 1-Up Mushroom to revive Luigi... [[spoiler:but he's been dead too long for it to work, making his death permanent]].
** Part V has a triumphant feeling up until the very end, as Mario wields a Fire Flower, the Toads successfully siege Koopa's castle, and despite losing the power-up Mario traps Koopa under some rubble and pulls the axe. [[spoiler:Then the Princess falls in the lava with him]].[[spoiler:Cue the EverybodyDiesEnding.]]
* HowWeGotHere: The series starts with Mario running from something while lamenting his failures, and flashes back to show what occurred. Alxlen later said he regretted doing this because it locked the story into a ForegoneConclusion.
* InsistentTerminology: Everyone uses their names from the media circa 1985, this includes King Koopa, who was always known as Bowser even in the manual of the original game. Princess Toadstool gets a pass due to her full name not being revealed yet.
* MediumBlending: Koopa's fireballs are 16-bit, and the 8-bit armies are seen in layers with Flash animation.
* MoodWhiplash: The dark, serious movies end with the cheery underwater theme for the credits.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:The Princess dies because Mario destroys the bridge before she can make it safely across, and causes the lava pit to erupt from the resulting YinYangBomb. As Mario retreats from the castle, the few words he can muster in his horrified state include "What have I done?!"]]
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: After Luigi's death, the Princess comments she feels a part of her has just died.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Happens a few times.
** Mario mourns Luigi's death for too long, which not only gives Koopa time to carry out his plan (and the Mushroom Retainers no time to prepare), but also [[spoiler:causes the 1-Up used on him later to fail.]]
** A group of Mushroom Retainers bring down a portion of the ceiling in Koopa's castle for Mario to cross an otherwise impassible lava pit. This causes the rest of the ceiling to gradually give way, injuring and killing fighters on both sides and [[spoiler:providing too many obstructions for the Princess to make it across the bridge safely before its collapse. Koopa ends up pinned under some of the rubble beforehand and dragged into the lava, but because he and the Princess fell in at the same time, [[YinYangBomb their combined magic causes the lava pit they fell into to erupt, which kills everyone, including Mario.]] This is Mario's fault as well, because he failed to make sure the Princess was safely across the bridge before destroying it.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: All character sprites are from the original ''VideoGame/{{Super Mario Bros|1}}'' with the exception of the Toads, whose sprites are from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and have a slightly different artstyle (most notably, being outlined in blue while no other sprites have outlines). This is likely due to Toad's only sprite in the original game not exactly lending itself well to all the action required by the Toads in this series.
* OminousLatinChanting: This music underscores most of the series, driving the feel of the epic tragedy home
* OnceMoreWithClarity: [[spoiler:In the beginning scene, Mario is running and crying about how "everyone is dead" while an ominous red glow appears behind him. By the end, we know not only ''why'' everyone's dead, but that that red glow is the result of an oncoming lava wave that will soon take Mario's own life.]]
* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:King Koopa and his army are defeated once and for all... at the cost of the lives of Princess Toadstool, the Toads, and even the Mario Brothers themselves. The Mushroom Kingdom itself may even be doomed to destruction, since the last we see is the land being overtaken by the lava erupting from Koopa's castle.]]
* RelativeButton: In their final confrontation, [[spoiler:Koopa taunts Mario by saying he'd meet the same fate as Luigi.]] This angers Mario even more and [[spoiler:causes him to fight recklessly, ultimately leading to the deaths of the Princess and everyone else.]]
* SacrificialLamb: Luigi. His almost immediate death helps drive home the grittier nature of this series.
* SingleTear: Mario [[spoiler:as he prepares to let the lava wave consume him at the end.]]
* StormingTheCastle: Koopa's army in part II to kidnap the Princess, and Mario and the Toads in part V to kill him and rescue her.
* WhamShot:
** In the first episode, Koopa spews a fireball that mortally wounds Luigi.
** In the final episode, [[spoiler: while the Princess is trying to escape across the bridge, a chunk of debris from the collapsing fortress knocks her back into the lava pit.]]
* YinYangBomb: Alxlen confirmed that [[spoiler:the lava unnaturally erupting from Koopa's castle was the devastating result of Koopa's dark magic and Toadstool's own magic mixing when they both fell into the lava]].
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