ACDCGAMER
is a Super Mario 64 machinimist on YouTube. He is best known for his Super Mario Trilogy, a crossover series between Super Mario Bros. and Metroid, specifically Super Mario 64 and Metroid Prime, which helped to introduce more drama into the genre.
The first installment, Super Mario: Corruption, takes place after Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, where Dark Samus makes her way to the Mushroom Kingdom through a Phazon meteor and spreads Phazon throughout the levels of the Mushroom Kingdom, corrupting them, including Mario, who journeys out to stop him from assimilating the Mushroom Kingdom.
The second installment, Super Mario: Dark Omen, takes place 6 months later. An intergalactic terrorist organization called the Dark Army invades the Mushroom Kingdom, led by the evil Sage Rozen. The Mario Bros, Samus and an atoning Dark Samus must work together to stop him.
Sadly, the final installment of the trilogy, Super Mario: Atonement, was left unfinished, leaving the trilogy hanging.
The Super Mario Trilogy provides examples of:
- Adaptational Sexuality: Dark Samus is male in this continuity, with it being explained as him starting out as one, and only using Samus' DNA to repair his own when he was reborn as Dark Samus, staying male rather than adopting her gender too.
- Art Evolution: Starting with Dark Omen episode 3, Luigi's model has an L on his cap instead of an M.
- Art Shift: Most of the fights throughout the trilogy are portrayed in Super Smash Bros rather than Super Mario 64.
- The Atoner: Upon being defeated at the end of Corruption and regaining his sanity, Dark Samus realizes he has made many mistakes and joins the heroes once he learns that Rozen and the Dark Army are attacking the Kingdom.
- Back from the Dead:
- Luigi is revived at the end of Corruption by the Power Star as thanks for Mario saving the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Through absorbing Dark Samus' body in order to have enough energy to warp back near Samus' ship, Mario inadvertently brings him back, which is solidified when Mario uses some of his own life energy to revive him and separate them.
- Big Bad:
- Corruption has Phazon Mario, or as he's better known, Dark Samus.
- Dark Omen has Rozen, a corrupt Sage bent on taking over the universe.
- Due to Atonement being Cut Short, it's unknown who the villain would've been, though it was likely meant to be Adrian, a demon who was imprisoned by the Sages for trying to take over the universe.
- Big Brother Instinct: Mario cares a lot for Luigi. Both villain's downfalls happen in part because they hurt him.
- Big "NO!": Mario utters one during both finales in response to the deaths of Luigi and Dark Samus, respectively.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Falco becomes this due to Rozen making him Project Y by injecting him with Phazon. He gets better once Dark Samus beats him and takes his Phazon.
- Broken Pedestal: Dark Samus, due to forgetting his true past, initially worshipped Rozen and was honored to have been chosen to become Project X, but upon learning of Rozen's true nature and role in the destruction of his homeworld, he turns on him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Hypermode is used by Mario and Luigi for mostly mundane things like taking shortcuts through a level or jumping longer in Corruption. In the final episode of Dark Omen, Mario is able to use it again thanks to him absorbing Dark Samus, and it's the only reason he's able to make it back to Samus' ship before Rozen's ship self-destructs.
- The Chosen One: Mario is the "Chosen Hero" of the "Dark Omen" prophecy.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mario's first battle against Phazon Mario has him get easily steamrolled, unable to inflict any damage his doppelganger at all.
- Cut Short: Atonement was ultimately left unfinished at episode 3 in 2009, with ACDC citing him becoming incredibly busy and being burnt out as the main reasons why in 2012.
- Disney Death: Luigi in Corruption Episode 9 and Dark Samus in Dark Omen Episode 13. Both get better.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After enduring a lifetime of suffering, Dark Samus finally atones for his misdeeds and aids Mario indirectly in ending the person responsible for most of his turmoil, saving the universe. When he is revived at the end, the Sages offer him a spot among them, which he happily accepts, becoming the Sage of Honor.
- 11th-Hour Superpower:
- The final episode of Corruption has Mario become Super Mario from absorbing the 10 Power Stars from Luigi as he was dying, giving him the power to defeat Phazon Mario once and for all.
- After Dark Samus sacrifices himself to save Mario at the beginning of episode 13 of Dark Omen, Mario becomes Omega Mario, which allows him to overpower Rozen's final form.
- Empowered Badass Normal: While Mario and Luigi were already pretty strong, them getting corrupted by Phazon greatly enhances their abilities and grants them access to Hypermode. Luigi takes to it better than Mario, being 80% corrupted just from dancing in corrupted flowers while Mario needs the Phazon from many corrupted Power Stars to break even with him.
- Face–Heel Turn: Rozen was once the Sage of Sorrow, but his thirst for power made him turn on his fellow Sages, killing anyone in his way before defeating the Sages and imprisoning them. He then created the Dark Army, becoming the Sage of Darkness.
- Find Out Next Time: Each episode ends with this in the style of the DBZ dub's endings.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Luigi gets himself corrupted in Whomp's Fortress, Samus notes that his abilities have been enhanced even more than Mario's. When Mario fails to defeat Big Whomp, Luigi is the one to step in and handily beat him.
- During the fights against Phazon Mario in Corruption, Dark Samus' battle theme from Metroid Prime 3 plays, hinting at his true identity before episode 8 reveals it.
- Golden Super Mode: Super Mario, a form Mario takes after absorbing all 10 Power Stars in Corruption. He regains the form in Dark Omen episode 12 thanks to the Sages lending him some of their power.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dark Samus after the events of Corruption due to the Phazon in his body running low, allowing him to regain his sanity.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Both Dark Samus and Rozen ensure their defeats through their own actions:
- Dark Samus killing Luigi, then gloating about it right in front of Mario, allows Mario to absorb the 10 Power Stars to become Super Mario.
- Rozen killing Dark Samus, taunting Mario with it and then threatening to finish off Luigi drives Mario to become Omega Mario. Felix lampshades this when he arrives on the battlefield.Felix: Thanks to you, Mario found his true power.
- Nuke 'em: When Dark Samus' original colony ends up overpowering the Dark Army, Rozen recalls all the soldiers and nukes the planet in response, killing everyone that wasn't captured. He plans to do this again to the Mushroom Kingdom in the present day, with it being powerful enough that Felix believes it could take out the entire Mushroom Galaxy, and maybe the Lylat System.
- Origins Episode: The multi-part episode 9 of Dark Omen is dedicated to Dark Samus and how he became who he is.
- The Prophecy: The titular "Dark Omen", in which the Sages would have one of their own turn evil and capture them before the "Chosen Hero" would free them and rise against the evil Sage.
- Redemption Demotion: Dark Samus loses a lot of his abilities after becoming a good guy as a consequence of Mario defeating him at the end of Corruption.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Rozen's eyes are completely red.
- Running Gag: Mario yelling "Die!" and killing random mooks that show up.
- Sanity Slippage: As a result of the Phazon in him corrupting his mind and being in isolation, Dark Samus in his backstory quickly turned insane and grew hateful toward everyone.
- Scenery Gorn: All of the places corrupted by Phazon are this, having corrupted textures all over the land and even in the sky.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Rozen has one set up on his ship, which is triggered by his death, giving the heroes only 2 minutes to escape.
- So Last Season: Super Mario, which gave Mario the power to defeat Phazon Mario, proves to be no match against Rozen in his final form. In no time flat, Mario is quickly outmatched and overwhelmed. It takes an upgraded mode, Omega Mario, to give Mario the edge needed against Rozen.
- Special Thanks: Each video starting with the finale of Corruption has this, with names including fellow veteran machinimists MATTHEWGU4 and Nikkonolasco (creator of Wrath of the Ice God) among others.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills:
- The Metal Boots Mario gets in episode 2 of Corruption allow him to breathe underwater thanks to developing a symbiotic relationship with the Phazon inside of him, though it doesn't work on the ship in Jolly Roger Bay due to a Phazon energy field inside cancelling its effects.
- Luigi gets the Varia Suit from Zor in episode 3 of Dark Omen, allowing him to traverse the Flooded Ruins and breathe underwater.
- Taking the Bullet: Dark Samus throws Mario out of the way of Rozen's finishing attack at the beginning of episode 13, taking the lethal attack in the process.
- Tempting Fate:
- In episode 4 of Corruption, Mario brags about the fight against Big Whomp being easy, and immediately crushed by him right after before getting his butt kicked.
- When Dark Samus was being hauled off to a star to be destroyed, one of the soldiers reassures another that the Metroid can't hurt them. Dark Samus quickly proves him wrong.
- Time Skip: Dark Omen starts 6 months after the events of Corruption.
- Tragic Villain: Despite having been a threatening villain in his own right throughout the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Corruption, Dark Samus is entirely this. Originally an ordinary human boy, his peaceful colony, L-TX, was invaded by Rozen and his Dark Army when he was only 10. After his soldiers laid waste to the villages and towns, Rozen found the boy and took him in, before nuking the planet, keeping the boy ignorant of his involvement. He raises proto-Dark Samus as a member of the Dark Army, and eventually enlists him as a test subject for Phazon, which he actually created. The young man is infused with Phazon and becomes their super-soldier, Project X. Project X goes on to raid other colonies in the name of the Dark Army before he becomes aware of Rozen's involvement in L-TX's destruction, horrified at what he has been made into. Confronting his master over this in rage, Rozen merely mocks his former home, saying they were weak and deserved their demise, before beating down Project X for defying him, and transforming him into a Metroid as punishment for his betrayal. Being loaded onto a cargo ship to be shipped off and executed, while the dark soldiers mock him, Project X's rage unlocks his true abilities, killing the guards and telepathically crashing the ship on the planet that would become Phaaze. The explosion of the impact spreads Phazon across the planet, causing mutations that he could control. Over time, Project X begins to evolve and grow more powerful until he becomes the terrifying Metroid Prime, and due to the overwhelming amount of Phazon he emanates, is driven insane into a Eldritch Abomination.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Episode 6 of Corruption plays out like this, jumping between Mario and Luigi going after their respective corrupted Power Stars.
- Was Once a Man: Dark Samus was formerly a human taken by Rozen as the Sole Survivor of his colony and used in his Phazon experiments. Rozen transforms him into a Metroid after he turns against after learning the truth and loses against him. Eventually, after evolving into Metroid Prime and being defeated by Samus, he absorbs Samus' DNA and thus becomes Dark Samus, though staying male due to just using her DNA to repair his own.
- Wham Episode: Dark Omen Episode 10: The episode is mostly normal, with Mario managing to free The Sage of Truth, until the very end has the others reveal that they were attacked while Mario was gone... and Luigi was severely injured to the point of being in a coma. Mario is understandably heartbroken over this.
- Wham Line: Dark Omen Episode 5: Dark Samus and Rozen making it clear they already know each other.Rozen: You two have been causing me enough trouble today! Do you guy have any idea who I am?!
Samus: Huh?
Dark Samus: I do. Do you know who I am?
Rozen: ... ...so it really is you. - You Have Failed Me: Rozen kills one of the soldiers in charge of protecting Zor, the Sage of Liberty, after the heroes rescue him.
