What happens when you take Super Smash Bros. and combine it with story elements found in Dragon Ball Z? You get this series, created by machinimator dRage. Set in a world known as "The Convergence," the various characters of Smash Bros. have just finished their annual tournament, and prepare to return to their respective worlds. However, when the more villainous Smashers launch a plan to usurp control of the world, it's up to a band of heroes to save the day.
The series can be watched on YouTube here
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Dragon Brawl Z provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The series builds off of the premise on why the competitors fight, as well as elaborate on some characters previously being spectators before becoming eligible to fight.
- Battle Aura: Several characters have one.
- Cool Gate: One single portal connects to all the various worlds that the fighters come from.
- The Coup: In lieu of a Tournament Arc, the main plot revolves around the heroes quelling a rebellion from the villains.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
- Ganondorf's appearance changes slightly between the first two episodes. While in Episode 1 he looks exactly as he did in Ocarina of Time, from Episode 2 onward his facial features resemble those of his Hyrule Warriors incarnation.
- Similar to Ganondorf, Sheik also shifts from her Brawl design to her Hyrule Warriors design between Episodes 2 and 3.
- Expy: Of various Dragon Ball Z characters, obviously.
- Mewtwo is the machinima's stand-in for Piccolo, an older, stoic, mentor who takes Lucario as a student. He is also the strategist of the group, while his psychic abilities can be akin to Piccolo's own, along with his Psybeam attack resembling the Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon of Piccolo's arsenal.
- Lucario is one to Son Gohan, being a student of the more stoic Mewtwo. The exception is that unlike Gohan, Lucario is more eager and willing to fight.
- Black Shadow and Shadow the Hedgehog fill the role of the Saiyan Saga's Nappa and Vegeta, with Shadow ordering Black Shadow around, while Black Shadow completely No Sells and overpowers all the other fighters on the battlefield. The voice of Black Shadow is even very similar to the one heard in Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
- Fantastic Caste System: Anyone can enter through the portal to The Convergence, but only a select view are chosen to be competitors: the rest are stuck as spectators. The villain's rebellion is an attempt to overthrow this.
- The Good Kingdom: The Mushroom Kingdom, which predictably falls under attack. However, it comes under attack from Ganondorf rather than Bowser—in fact, the Koopa Kingdom is targeted not long after.
- La Résistance: Downplayed in that they aren't fighting back against a villainous regime, but fighting to prevent one from coming into power.
- Mirror Match: To an absurdly literal degree between Captain Falcon and Blood Falcon, where they both use the exact same moves as their opponent, resulting in them clashing, until Sonic breaks up their fight.
- Mythology Gag:
- Fox and Meta Knight are the top fighters in the tournament, a reference to their dominance in Smash Bros. Melee and Smash Bros. Brawl, respectively.
- Fox's "shine," a technique used by competitive Melee players, is used in the tournament.
- Captain Falcon references the time he Falcon Punched Black Shadow so hard it caused a galaxy to explode, a reference to the famous scene from the F-Zero anime.
- Sonic references several times where he's seen incredibly strange things. The footage then cuts to gameplay footage of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) before cutting back to the action.
- Shout-Out:
- The sequence where Blood Falcon attempts to destroy the bridge is accompanied by same button prompts from the Kirby Super Star mini-game, "Megaton Punch". The same music is even used for the scene.
- A random Koopa mook reporting to Bowser is disintegrated into dust, with his last words before his death being "I don't feel so good".
- Tournament Arc: Averted: Unlike most Smash Bros. machinima, where a tournament is usually the cornerstone of the plot, the major tournament has already ended.
