Super Mario Bros. + Sonic the Hedgehog + Dragon Ball Z = this series.Super Mario Bros Z is a flash animation series by Alvin-Earthworm. The series is a cross over between the Mario and Sonic universes in a plot that bears great similarity to Dragon Ball Z, in which DBZ-style abilities are granted to each character — their strength, speed, stamina, etc have all gotten a massive upgrade from what is seen in their respective games, shows, comics and other media. Their abilities relative to each other remain largely intact, though (Sonic still runs faster than anybody else, Mario is highly versatile, etc.).Combining references to games both old and new, physical comedy (mostly at Luigi's expense), and some rather spectacular battle sequences, the series has gained quite a following.Hosted onNewgrounds, eight episodes are currently finished out of a planned 15-episode saga. After a 2-year hiatus (made worse by the previous episode's "ending"), the 9th episode is currently under production.The official site — which houses a guide, timeline, and other sundry details along with the episodes proper — can be found here. According to that site, the creator plans to have a total of three 15-episode sagas, meaning there are 37 episodes yet to be produced.
This series has examples of:
Action Bomb: Waluigi shows why these should never be used as grenades.
Apocalypse How: Planetary destruction and implied total extinction of life on Mobius and Regional destruction with Physical Annihilation in regards to Yoshi Island.
Airplane Arms: Mario, Luigi, and Sonic. That is how they run in their games, however.
Arm Cannon: Mecha Sonic's arm contains one of these. He usually uses it as a machine gun (with a shotgun-racking sound effect), but he can also fire missiles out of it (two at once, even!). He doesn't use it very often though, considering that most of his opponents are fast enough/skilled enough to avoid gunfire.
Art Evolution: The difference in quality between Episodes 1 and 5 is staggering, and it has only gotten better since then.
Art Shift: When the characters visit the Minus World, they all appear as 8-bit versions of themselves. This is Handwaved as an effect of the "negative energy" that created the area in the first place.
The most recent culmination of this is in Episode 8, where the art breaks from its pixelated bonds to use actual animated art in certain instances.
This is mostly due Alvin's decision to use Vector as opposed to hi-res sprites. Thankfully, Alvin is a pretty damn good artist in his own right so it all looks good.
In Episode 8, Mario and Luigi briefly get their Hotel Mario artwork, complete with a Lampshade.
Avenging the Villain: Basilisx wants revenge on Mario because he killed his best friend, which by the sound of his description, was an unimportant Koopa in one of the castles of Super Mario World... although some have have noted that the details he provides don't match up with the game, throwing some suspicion on whether his motives are truthful.
Then again, because of the experiments done onto Basilisx to make him super-powerful, maybe the procedure really messed up his memories, and he could be talking about some other Koopa Troopa Mario killed. Another possibility is that the events in question are lies fabricated by Bowser to increase Basilisx's rage.
Then AGAIN, why on Earth would fabrication of such memories even be necessary? God knows Mario has killed enough Troopas in his time...
Badass: Mecha Sonic. Whenever he gets involved in the action, some serious ass-kicking is about to ensue. But then again, everybody has been badassed-up to some extent — even Luigi.
Basilisx, an original character who, in his introductory episode, not only disables Yoshi, Sonic, and Luigi but also defeats Mario in combat.
Anyone else notice one of Shadow's attacks being a backhand as strong as Mario's punch?
Smithy gets a moment despite not actually appearing in the series, when Axem Red states that one of the Chaos Emeralds doesn't have enough power to restore Smithy to his former level of strength. This when one of them is capable of completely turning the tide of battle.
Beam Spam / Bullet Hell: Inverted. With very few exceptions, the more projectiles used in a given attack, the less effectiveness that attack will have. Heroes and villains alike casually wade through a sea of beams or hammers without a scratch, but single projectile attacks nearly always hit.
Beyond the Impossible: Series creator Alvin-Earthworm somehow bypassed the 16K frame cap in Flash in the making of some of these episodes. To repeat, the later episodes of this series are more than 16,000 frames long!. For those of you who are not computer programmers, think fitting 20 cubic feet of stuff into a box that only holds 10.
Newgrounds raised the filesize limit on uploads just so he could submit Episode 8.
The "big four" (Mario, Luigi, Sonic, and Shadow) are depicted in sprites from the rather limited Game Boy Advance games; the former two from Superstar Saga (and only SS, not Partners In Time or Bowser's Inside Story) and the latter two from the GBA Sonic Advance games. Yoshi, Peach, Bowser, and Toadsworth have gotten sprite upgrades, but the big four are pure game sprites and fan edits. Hammmerbro!Mario and Tanooki!Luigi, for example, are in the style of SS but made whole-cloth. Not to mention Fire-Sonic and Basilisx...
Between the two sits the Breaker Beam. Back in Super Mario RPG, it might, oh, take half your HP or so. But when Axem Red hooks up a Chaos Emerald, it levels the mountains on Yoshi's Island from a single shot. That didn't stop Mecha Sonic, though...
Big Bad Ensemble: Mecha Sonic, Bowser, and Smithy, although the latter hasn't personally appeared yet. Also, Eggman is working for Bowser but seems to have his own agenda. Wart shows up in the anime opening, although he hasn't made it into the show itself yet.
Big Damn Heroes: Sonic and Shadow in 2, Yoshi in 5, Shadow in 7.
Goombella mentions no one would remember the first "Over 9000" joke, since it was made a year and a half earlier.
Bullet Time: Mario, Sonic, and Mecha Sonic do this a lot. Particularly notable in Episode 7, where Sonic and Mecha Sonic are fighting so fast that Mario appears to stand still.
Camera Abuse: Waluigi smacks into it while flying around after Wario pokes him with a pin. Bowser cracks it when Mario throws him out of the Grand Prix in Episode 2. This is a reference to what happens to him after defeating Cackletta back in Superstar Saga.
...Aaaand then the lens is completely shattered in Episode 8 by a startled mook.
Chekhov's Gun: Luigi's 1-Up mushroom; Professor Kolorado's Subconian stopwatch.
The former looks ready to be fired again. As hopeless as everything looks, E. Gadd packed the heroes a 1-Up and Sonic won another one killing enemies...
Also, Shadow mentioned in Episode 5 that he could sense Chaos Emerald energy from long distances when explaining why he is suspicious of the "emerald" that was barely 100 yards away. If it is true that Shadow will find at least one Chaos Emerald upon returning to the group, this might explain how he got it.
Cliff Stack: Sonic is a reoccurring victim of this.
Colony Drop: The Death Egg crashes on Mobius, with some incredibly-devastating consequences.
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Koopa Bros. Made infinitely more amusing when one looks back and realizes who fought who in the first battle against them— particularly Red, Green and Black. The same can be said for the Axem Rangers, though they had one extra member.
Combat Pragmatist: Basilisx has absolutely no qualms about using Poison Mushrooms to weaken his opponent or Luigi as a shield/bludgeon.
Subverted because Basilisx has the power of Stone Gaze. He states himself that he could "turn Mario to stone and grind him into dust", and judging by what he did to the others he is not bluffing. Yet he insists on fighting Mario without his Stone Gaze, claiming that killing a flesh-and-blood Mario would be much more satisfying.
Combination Attack: The Koopa Bros.' finishing move; Axem Ranger Green and Black's spinning attack; Sonic and Mario's double attack when empowered by the Super Star.
Most of the fight scenes with more than one of the heroes feature these. Several, in fact, are throwbacks to the myriad Bros. Attacks in the Mario & Luigi series. Of course, due to the nature of this series, the attacks are taken Up to Eleven.
Luigi is particularly fond of these, using the Blue Shell and Tanooki Suits to transform himself into a weapon/vehicle for others to use.
Alvin has admitted this was a kind of compromise, since fully rendering it would be a nightmare. He has tried to say that it has a sort of Narm Charm, since it kind of calls back to the SNES Star Fox graphics.
And the fact that fully rendering it would raise the file size, and Newgrounds updated the site just so he could upload Episode 8.
Couch Gag: In the Newgrounds official releases, each episode (after pressing the "Play" button) features Mario gaining some powerup or another.
Or power-down, as the case may be in Episode 6. Poor Mario....
Creator Breakdown: This has happened a couple of times, due to fans pressuring the release date of the next episode. The last time Alvin-Earthworm had one, he canceled the series. Thankfully, he made an apology and uncanceled it the next day.
Critical Hit: Manifested as a double flash and a slight pause.
Curb-Stomp Battle: the series LOVES those, whether it's just one side brutally dominating the other (like Metal Sonic did to Yoshi, though Yoshi did manage to land a couple of hits) either it starts with one side dominating the other, then something miraculous happens and the other side crushes the opposition with equal ease (Mario vs Metal Bowser).
Didn't We Use This Joke Already?: An 'Over 9000' joke gets made twice; the second time, the perpetrating character is called out on it.
Ditto Fighter: Mecha Sonic, again. It is explained that he can download the data of the hedgehogs and others he faces, so he can use the same moves as them.
Makes sense seeing as Metal Sonic, who fused with other Sonic robots to become Mecha, demonstrates this ability in Sonic Heroes and the Sonic Rivals games.
Meant to be a reference to Cell in DBZ and how he knows all the Z Fighters' techniques due to having their genetic material.
The Dragon: Either Basilisx or Eggman to Bowser. It's hard to decide which.
Drop the Hammer: The Mario Bros. and Axem Yellow. Mario gets a hammer barrage as Hammer Bros. Mario.
Mario and Luigi regularly bust out hammers as part of their RPG weaponry. They are just as likely to use them to launch their allies forward as they are to attack with them.
Downer Ending: Half of the series have these. Episodes 3, 4, 6, and 8.
8 however seems more like a ending to get you excited about though.
The End of the World as We Know It: Alvin has pretty much confirmed that Mobius, and everyone still alive in it, are screwed forever. That's what happens when a homicidal robot crashes a space station the size of the freaking moon into the planet...
Evil vs. Evil: The Axem Rangers, Koopa Bros, and our heroes get in a three-sided fight for the Chaos Emeralds. When Mecha Sonic shows up however, it becomes VERY one-sided.
Evil Laugh: By Bowser, obviously. Toadsworth wonders why villains feel compelled to do that.
Expy: Several characters are intentionally reminiscent of characters from Dragon Ball Z as a Shout Out. Shadow is clearly channeling Vegeta, while Mecha Sonic is based partly off of Cell.
The Yoshi tribe seem to be based on the Nameks, right down to their home being destroyed by what was essentially a miniature Sun and then being out-of-place refugees from then on out.
When the series began, Bowser was a expy of Freeza, complete with a powered-up Metal form. In Episode 8, the Koopas are now shown to be similar to the Red Ribbon Army, with Bowser becoming an expy of Commander Red. Better helps that Basilisx is reminiscent of General Blue, right down to having similar powers.
Basilisx also appears to be notably similar to the Shredder.
Eyes of Gold: Sonic gets them after obtaining the Starman (Episode 6) and the Fire Flower (Episode 8) powerups.
Face Fault: Several, including Sonic's death animation standing in for one.
The Faceless: Eggman, though it's obvious who it is... or maybe it's Nega-Eggman from the Sonic Rush games? The shadow may also hide the fact that he's the Robo-Robotnik from the Archie comics.
Family Unfriendly Death: Mecha Sonic is the king of this. During the flashback showing him murdering Sonic's friends, each death is more brutal then the last: he snaps Tails' neck, fills Cream (and Cheese) with lead, beats down Knuckles and then fills him with lead, and what he did to Amy was probably just as bad. Nobody even knows how he killed Rouge, but if his trends are anything to go by it probably wasn't pretty.
Then there's his gruesome killing of the Axem Rangers. It's really saying something when being completely vaporized down to the last atom is the tamest death of a battle, although compared to decapitating Axem Green's head and then crushing it in his hand... anything is tame.
Somewhat subverted with the death of the Koopa Bros. which is not directly shown, but highly implied.
Mario and Luigi often use their hammers to launch Sonic, Shadow, or Luigi with his blue shell armor. Yoshi uses a variation where he eats an ally and spits them out as an attack.
Faux Action Girl: As of Episode 8, Axem Pink was the only female character to participate in a fight. However, she only did one combo move on Luigi and then died. Based on the spoiler opening, however, Wendy may get some action in the future.
Flanderization: Luigi's cowardice and ineptitude. It gets better by Episode 8, although his status as Butt Monkey of the series remains intact regardless.
Flash Step: Mecha Sonic starting with his super form in Episode 6, though it seems to have become a permanent fixture in his arsenal by Episode 7. Shadow can do it, too.
In both cases, it's likely the two of them were using Chaos Control for brief, very short-range teleports. They also used flash steps in Episode 7 while inside the Minus World, which only prevented the "warping space" part of Chaos Control and not the "warping time" part. Either that, or they were using the ability you can do with 20 rings in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's racing minigame.
Sonic does flash steps in both against the battle outside of the Bowser battleship and inside the battleship as Fire Sonic while he was kicking the shit of all those Koopas.
In order to provide cover for their battle plane, Sonic and Mario jump off and perform one long, high-speed Foe Tossing Charge to clear all enemies on deck. And it works.
Yet another one by Sonic after he powers up in the hangar. He probably knocked aside more Mooks than he and Mario did in total on the deck.
Fridge Brilliance: In Episode 7, Luigi jumps out of the water and accidentally hit Kolorado's stopwatch. This activates the negative energy in it. Luigi's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Negative Zone.
Luigi's fighting style is this as well. He's the only one among the main team that's been relegated to the traditional Player 2 position in the past, rather than Player 1. He's by far the best team player among the group, and his most badass moments are when he comes flying in to back one of the others up.
Funny Background Event: Becoming more common as the episodes roll on. Often involving Luigi, his drinking tea animation is quite popular.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Sonic's rolling form is often used for this, or utilized for a Fastball Special. Luigi himself was used (while transformed into stone) by the heroes and the enemy in Episode 8.
Turns funny in Luigi's case, because when he morphs out of his stone form, his inertia carries him into a really long face fault (while still knocking aside a few Koopas), ending with a groan and a flat face.
Humorously, they never have dialogue boxes, their speech being wholly composed of sound effects from the games, mostly the Superstar Saga series. And it works.
Wario and Waluigi also communicate solely out of voice natters.
Although they're not exactly heroic. And they sometimes use pictures too.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Observant fans might recognize Mecha Sonic's voice from Episode 6 onward as Cooler's, although it's just soundclips from the Budokai Tenkaichi games.
Newcomer Basilisx also sports first-form Cell's voice as well.
Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: Both Mario and Sonic are teleported off Yoshi's Island mid-freefall. They both splat into the ground at high speed after the teleport is completed.
Kame Hame Hadoken: In a series based on Dragonball, this had to pop up somewhere. We have Shadow's Chaos Spear, Mario's fireballs (he even goes into the "Kamehameha stance" to throw really big ones), and Mecha Sonic in particular is fond of these (even performing the actual Kamehameha at one point to finish off Axem Red).
Meaningful Name: Basilisx is a reference to the Basilisk, the mythological creature (lizard) that can turn a person into stone by looking at him/her...although the mythical Basilisk's eye-stare actually killed its victims instantly. The author stated that he deliberately invoked Taken for Granite to ensure the heroes didn't die. Of course, as certaingames have been popularizing the stone gaze variant for some time, it's excusable.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Mecha Sonic to the Axems, as well as Mecha Sonic to Yoshi in Episode 3.
Does Mecha Sonic actually do anything else?
Evil Gloating? But, considering the amount of pain he's capable of dishing out on our intrepid heroes (and anyone else who gets in his way for that matter), he's allowed to indulge in it.
No Ontological Inertia: Averted; he may have lost the emeralds that helped him create it, but that giant fireball doesn't simply go away, and Mecha Sonic makes sure to launch it before he leaves.
Not so Different: Basilisk invokes this, on how Mario has no right to say that using Luigi's stone body as a shield is unfair, when Mario himself is using the shell of one of Basilisk's comrades against another.
Ocular Gushers: Peach does the full-on fire hydrant wail after the recounting of Sonic's tragic Back Story in Episode 4. Bowser does it with his tantrum.
Oh Crap: Mecha Sonic in Episode 6 causes quite a few of these, including a Mass Oh Crap just by arriving on the battlefield. Luigi reacts this way quite often in nearly every episode, and gets one of the single best expressionseverduring Episode 6. A few Mooks use an fitting image in their Speech Bubble during the assault in Episode 8; see Symbol Swearing.
Mecha Sonic himself gets one in Episode 6. After a powered-up Mario and Sonic bludgeon the Chaos Emeralds out of Mecha Sonic, Sonic prepares to finish him off with an energy blast. For a machine that doesn't show any expressions, Mecha Sonic's Oh Crap face was priceless. He's saved only by an ill-timed Power-Up Letdown
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Given the shortage of audio clips of Italian-accented "Sonic", when Mario says it it sounds distinctly British.
Petting Zoo People: Users of Super Leaves and Tanooki Suits become this.
Mario gets the most variety in his, getting a DBZ styled one with the Cape Feather, a flaming one for the Fire Flower, and DBZ style with sparkles for the Super Star.
Power-Up Letdown: What Luigi seems to think of his Blue Shell upgrade in Episode 5, but before three seconds have passed it proves to be useful.
Rule Of Cool: This series runs on this Trope. For example, Yoshi alone arguably puts up as good as, if not a better fight against Mecha Sonic than Mario and Sonic combined.
Might be a case of Fridge Brilliance, as in his initial Mario appearance (Super Mario World), Yoshi is actually much more powerful than Mario himself.
Plus Shadow is never depicted as being much stronger than any of the others, yet he's the only one ever able to land an effective hit in a square fight on Semi-Super Mecha Sonic in their battle. (Mario manages to interrupt an attack with a chargedd fireball, but he took Mecha Sonic by surprise)
And then a 12-month gap between 7 and 8. This has been attributed to Creator Breakdown, though.
There has now been a full 2-year gap between the 8th and 9th episodes.
Friendly advice to fans of the series: Do not ask when the next episode is coming out. Alvin hates this and it lowers his motivation to work on the show.
And to many other series. The dancing banana has made several cameos, and the characters sometimes mimic other characters when they fight, such as Mario imitating Neo and Sonic doing the Tatsumakisenpuukyaku in Episode 5 or Mecha Sonic performing Akuma's devastating Shun Goku Satsu attack in Episode 6.
Not to forget Futurama:
Sonic: Bite my.... spiney... blue... butt.
In an attempt to get out of exploring a potentially-scary area, Luigi tries to leave, putting a cardboard cut-out of himself in his place. Said cut-out is Weegee (aka the memetic mutated version of him seen in Mario is Missing).
The sound effect Kolorado's stopwatch makes is Lavos' roar.
In Episode 8, a shout out is made to Hotel Mario, when the characters find a letter which Bowser wrote almost word-for-word as in that same game (including a crossed out portion about hotels), with an instruction book containing a lampshading and the terms for Peach's release included!
Episode 8 also features a shout out to Zero Wing "Main Screen Turn On" and also a Star Trek shout out with the minion who "jus' cayn't" push the stuck button to the Omega Doomship's BFG.
As does Axem Red's aformentioned BFG, which was lovingly ripped from Iron Man's moveset.
Another one from Episode 8 comes from Basilisx's final attack on Mario after the Poison Mushroom attack. It looks exactly like Vega's Ultra Special from Street Fighter IV, "Bloody High Claw".
Not to mention Sonic doing the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, from the same series, several times. Also, Mario doing the Shoryuu Reppa in Episode 8.
There's a shout out to both Peanut Butter Jelly Time and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends when Wario and Waluigi are exploring the Pipe Maze in Episode 7. They go down a pipe that Mario and friends just went down into. They try to go down the pipe when the PBJT Banana comes out, yelling out "I LIKE CEREAL!!!" It results in a massive explosion that makes Wario and Waluigi crash into the two main characters from Bowsers Kingdom (a now-canceled flash series made by one of Alvin-Earthworm's friends), Hal and Jeff.
The song played on Episode 8 during the argument comes from Skies Of Arcadia. It's the song played when you enter Valua City.
Wario using Waluigi to get to Yoshi's Island (as a life preserver) might be a Shout Out to Superstar Saga, where Luigi is used as a surfboard, more or less.
While we're on the topic, the situation on Mobius ( most main heroes dead, the end of the world being imminent) smacks of the Trunks's future in DBZ.
I'm probably stretching this, but one Koopa Bro (I think it might have been Red, ironically...) spouts the "Smell ya later!" line, after their first encounter with the main team, a la Gary Oak/Blue/Green/whatever.
Semi-Super Mecha Sonic's response to Red's "You Monster!" remark is a direct paraphrase to Broly's infamous "I am the Devil" line.
Basilisx's underhanded tactics, especially using loved ones as a shield, mirror those of Eis Shenron in Dragon Ball GT.
Spoiler Opening: The anime-style opening was released after Episode 6. A number of characters appeared in it that hadn't shown up in the series at that time. That includes the Koopalings, Eggman, Wart, and the Star Spirits and Twink.
Yoshi, Mario, and Luigi all have super speed too, but not to the same degree as the aforementioned hedgehogs.
Super Star: Apparently has the power of seven Chaos Emeralds, since it simultaneously made Mario invincible and allowed Sonic to go Super Sonic, but only for a short time.
Symbol Swearing: Variation in Episode 8; when Mario kicks a Bob-Omb into a cannon, the operators all simultaneously scream and a picture bubble appears above their heads showing...a warm turd.
Throwing Your Hammer Always Works: Used and Subverted all at once. A few times, when a single hammer is thrown (Usually by one of the Mario Brothers), it works rather effectively. However, if anyone attemps a mass-hammer spam, it never works, with the hammers typically destroyed at the handle just below the head.
Trying To Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Basilisx does this to Mario in their fight when he uses Luigi (whom he had turned to stone using his power) as a shield/weapon to gain an advantage over Mario. He then justifies it by claiming that Mario did something similar to a friend of his in the past.
Twitchy Eye: Yoshi when surrounded by mooks they hadn't seen earlier.
The Omega Doomship sports one as well in Episode 8.
What Measure Is A Robot: The Axems are the only characters to be killed on screen so far - Mecha Sonic simply ripped them apart. It wasn't pleasant to watch. Still, they didn't bleed, and Smithy can always rebuild them.
Basilisx does the same to Mario later, recounting how gruesome his best friend's death was at Mario's feet — it was pretty normal as far as Koopas go in Mario games, but the way he words it turns it into Accidental Nightmare Fuel. As stated above, Mario just doesn't remember.
"So, it ends. And I am the last one standing. (Mario tries to get up) You sniveling pedlar. You have no right to be angry that I used your friend to my advantage, especially when you did the exact same thing with my friend's shell against him and his comrades that day. I couldn't even mourn him properly because he was burnt to cinders. Well, I'll make sure no one will be able to mourn you properly either. Your disgusting hypocrisy will vanish along with your hopes. Think about my words after I toss your severed head into your grave!"
Of course, granted, whether Mario actually did this or not is debatable, as the koopa friend that Basilisx mentioned was "koopa #3 in Room 2 in Bowser's Castle", of which Room 2 doesn't even contain lava, and the only koopas in there are crawling on wire panels over a spiked pit.
Alvin Earthworm confirmed he didn't bother researching, and only did this to state a random Koopa Mario never heard of before.
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