Being a Crossover, there are plenty of Shout-Outs and fanservice in Super Mario Bros. Z.
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In General
- For starters, it's a Whole-Plot Reference to Dragon Ball Z.
- Basically everyone in the series is an Expy of a DBZ character: Mario is Goku, Luigi is Gohan, Yoshi is Piccolo, Sonic is Future Trunks, Shadow is Vegeta, Metallix is Cell, Bowser is sort of a mix between Frieza and Commander Red, the Axem Rangers X are the Ginyu Force, and Dr. Eggman is Dr. Gero.
- Each of the main cast is shown to have a Super Mode in the intro, which acts as an Expy for Super Saiyans.
- The Metallix Arc revolving around Metallix trying to find the Chaos Emeralds in order to enter his ultimate form is similar to the Android Saga's plot, where Cell's goal to absorb the other Androids to achieve his Perfect form is the focus.
- The initial encounter between Metallix and the Goomba is similar to the scene where Raditz meets the farmer.
- Since Metallix has never appeared in a game that gave him a voice, Alvin supplied him with the voice clips of Final Form Cooler from Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi.
- The Kamehameha is referenced countless times, especially the hands-back charging pose. It is usually used by Fire Mario or Mecha Sonic.
- The Game Boy-style Emerald Radar, which much like the Dragon Radar was designed by a Gadgeteer Genius and even used an Emerald to study for its effects.
- The situation on Mobius (most main heroes dead, the end of the world being imminent) smacks of the Trunks's future in DBZ.
- Especially with the creation of Mecha Sonic in general, a direct homage to the creation of the Androids from Future Trunks' storyline.
- As in their original appearance, the Koopa Bros. continue to be Expies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are even referred to as "King B's ninja heroes in a half shell" at one point.
- The reboot doubles down on this by giving the Koopa Bros. the turtles' iconic weapons.
- Many characters use attacks from Super Smash Bros., such as Mario using his Super Jump Punch and Luigi using his Green Missile and Dash Attack.
- The characters also sometimes mimic moves from completely separate series.
- Mario imitates Neo during the fight with the Yoshi tribe, spinning around a spear and kicking Yoshis away. He later hits an enemy with a Shoryureppa in Episode 8.
- He also uses Ryu's Metsu Shoryuken and Kenshiro's Hokuto Hyakuretsu-Ken Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs on Bowser in the reboot.
- Bowser seems to use some moves reminiscent of Pokémon, such as Seismic Toss and Draco Meteor.
- Sonic performs Ken's Tatsumaki Senpukyaku during several different fights in the series.note
- Mecha Sonic performing Akuma's devastating Shun Goku Satsu attack on Axem Red, and his missile arm cannon using the same missiles and effects as Samus Aran's Missile Launcher.
- Basilisx owes a lot to Wolverine's moveset from the Capcom vs. series, and does Vega's Bloody High Claw attack as a finishing move.
- Mario imitates Neo during the fight with the Yoshi tribe, spinning around a spear and kicking Yoshis away. He later hits an enemy with a Shoryureppa in Episode 8.
- Before using some special attacks, a Twinkle in the Eye appears as they briefly charge up the move. This effect is taken from the Hyper Combos in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, albeit slowed down slightly and with a different sound accompanying it.
- Overall, the sprites used to animate the series are ripped from a wide variety of video games - too many to list here, in fact. Basically everything you see in the series was borrowed from somewhere else. Some prominent examples include the Mario & Luigi games, the Sonic Advance Trilogy, Metal Slug, Paper Mario, and various Mega Man titles.
- The soundtrack is also made up of many recycled songs from other series. These also come from a wide range of media including Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and Dragon Ball Z, but also unrelated series such as Devil May Cry, Metroid, Undertale, and One-Punch Man, among others.
- Again, many sound effects from many series are also reused here - it's a Flash animation, what do you expect? These include every single voice clip, classic gaming sound effects such as Mario's jump, Sonic's "spring boing" when Sonic jumps, cartoony Stock Sound Effects for comedic moments, and most famously, DBZ fighting effects. Because of SMBZ, most Flash fight scenes now contain at least one or two DBZ sounds.
The Original Series (2006)
- The spoileriffic anime-style opening uses the second opening theme for Megaman NT Warrior, namely "Futatsu No Mirai". This is a Shout-Out to TVTome Adventures, which also used that song for its opening.
- The dancing banana (from the Peanut Butter Jelly Time meme) has made several cameos along with a voice clip of "I LIKE CEREAL!!!" before exploding comically.
- For the first few episodes, Mecha Sonic had the robotic grunts of Sektor and Cyrax from Mortal Kombat 3 instead of Cooler's voice.
- When Kamek gets kicked by Sonic, he says "I'M FLYING! WHEEEEEE~!" It's tough to nail down an exact quote, but it sounds like it's from Inspector Gadget's Corporal Capeman. In the reboot it was replaced with a classic Goofy scream
instead. - Bowser lets out a crazed Tom and Jerry scream when Mario throws him out of the stadium. This was carried over to the reboot as well.
- The team's search for a Chaos Emerald in the Mushroom Kingdom has a few Shout-Outs:
- Sonic runs up a Triangle Block, but he's so fast that it carries him too far up the wall and launches him into the sky for a fall gag.
- Mario enters multiple pipes, and at one point finds himself faced with sprites of himself from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario World.
- Luigi enters a pipe, only to be chased out by a giant Piranha Plant with a Godzilla roar. As it slinks back into the pipe, it grumbles Sylvester gibberish as well.
- Yoshi swallowing the red Chaos Emerald in an attempt to keep it from Mecha Sonic in Episode 3 is a reference to when Goku did the same thing with the Four-Star Dragon Ball while fighting Omega Shenron in Dragon Ball GT.
- Sonic indirectly quotes Bender from Futurama:Sonic: Bite my.... spiney... blue... butt.
- The Koopa Bros. go to play their theme song on a boom box, but accidentally play the WWE's Spirit Squad theme instead for a short gag.
- One Ninjakoopa spouts the "Smell ya later!" line, after their first encounter with the main team, a la Gary Oak/Blue/Green/whatever.
- The Axem Rangers X enslaving the Yoshis and forcing them to get them the Chaos Emeralds is reminiscent of Frieza's army enslaving the Namekians in order to get the Dragon Balls.
- The new bodies the Axem Rangers X are sporting belong to characters from the Mega Man games. Red, Green, and Black's bodies are Zero's (complete with hair) with the colors switched to match their own, while Yellow's and Pink's are the bodies of Gutsman.EXE and Roll.EXE respectively. Their poleaxes (except Yellow's) use the sprite of Zero's Triple Rod with the spearhead replaced by a color-appropriate axehead. Yellow's axe is from a mini-boss in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- Axem Red's BFG was lovingly ripped from Iron Man's moveset in the Capcom vs. series.
- Similarly, Mecha Sonic's final form (and by extension, Metallix's base form in the reboot) is based on the body of Bass from Mega Man & Bass. This in itself is actually a shout-out to Sonic's Quest for Power, which also had an upgraded Mecha Sonic who used modified Bass sprites.
- The sixth episode, Brawl on a Vanishing Island, is named after the DBZ episode Duel on a Vanishing Planet.
- Wario using Waluigi as a life preserver to get to Yoshi's Island might be a Shout-Out to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, where Luigi is used as a surfboard, more or less.
- Axem Red's scouter is a reference to Frieza's army's scouters used in DBZ. Comes complete with an "OVER 9000!!!" joke too.
- The HUD for the scouter also shows Pac-Man being game over'd by Ghosts to represent Mecha Sonic's insane power level.
- 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.
- Mecha Sonic killing Axem Red afterward parallels how Goku defeated Nappa (catching him with his hand, snapping the man's spine in two) and how Vegeta disposed of his helpless comrade afterwards.
- The huge evil energy sphere that Mecha Sonic uses to destroy Yoshi's Island is an awful lot like Frieza's infamous planet-killing Death Ball.
- Ludwig von Koopa calls Bowser "King Dad", a reference to The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
- The name "Doomship" used for the Omega Doomship comes from the same cartoon, where Bowser's airships are called Doomships. This is the only Mario media where they are referred to as such.
- Dr. Eggman holding his hands in front of his face, with his glasses shining.
- Hal and Jeff from Bowser's Kingdom, another popular Flash series at the time made by one of Alvin's friends, have an extended cameo during the Hard-Work Montage in the Pipe Maze.
- A musical Shout-Out to The Legend of Zelda is used when Mario gets the white Emerald, immediately lampshaded by Professor Kolorado:Kolorado: Uh, Mario... I think that's the wrong video game series, old bean... [Cue Face Fault]
- In an attempt to get out of exploring the Minus World, Luigi tries to hide, 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.
- A whole scene in Episode 8 is a direct reference 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. There's also an Art Shift where Mario and Luigi briefly mimic the CD-i's awkward cutscenes.
- Episode 8 also has "Main Screen turn on." "We get signal."
- There's a similar shout out to a Mook with a thick Scottish accent says he can't fire the Omega Doomship's BFG, because he "jeus' cahn't" push the button, as he doesn't have enough power.
- Basilisx borrows the voice clips of Imperfect Cell.
- Basilisx's underhanded tactics, especially using loved ones as a shield, mirror those of Eis Shenron in Dragon Ball GT.
- When breaching the Omega Doomship in season 8, at one point, Sonic and Mario's rampage across the deck is stopped by their reaching a high wall. Sonic promptly curls into a ball and spins around Mario to create a tornado that lifts Mario up to the higher ground. This is based on a similar animation/mechanic that is used repeatedly throughout Sonic Heroes.
The Reboot Series (2015)
- Mecha Sonic's name in the reboot, Metallix, is the name given to the Metal Sonic robots in the UK's Sonic the Comic.
- Metallix frequently uses sound effects from Killer Instinct (2013)'s Fulgore, such as when he first appears in the Mushroom Kingdom.
- His fight with Yoshi has "Type-03" as the soundtrack, and he even finishes Yoshi off using attacks set to the beat of Fulgore's Ultra Combo.
- Rawk Hawk serves as the SMBZ equivalent to Hercule, right down to using his voice clips.
- The first words out of Rawk Hawk's mouth are "Finally! The Rawk has come back to the Mushroom Kingdom!!!"
- The commentary team also includes a commentator addressed as "King" and another one who says the word "slobberknocker".
- Sonic shouts "Teriaaaaa!" as he kicks Kamek away from Peach, referencing his awkwardly-translated Battle Cry from a scene in Sonic Adventure 2.
- After Wario gets into his vehicle with the white Chaos Emerald, there is a quick, close-up shot of his car before he and Waluigi drive off. This is a direct reference to the opening of Wario Land 4.
- When Wario and Waluigi are driving away with the white Emerald, Wario looks into one of the side mirrors and sees Yoshi approaching behind the car.
- The Big Ball of Violence as Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, and Waluigi squabble over a Chaos Emerald is accompanied by gratuitous Ed, Edd n Eddy sound effects.
- When Wario forcibly converts Waluigi into a bat, he’s given voice clips of Beavis (“Bo-oi-oing! Hee hee heheheh!”).
- Metallix performs Cooler's signature Diving Kick during his assault on Yoshi.
- Yoshi getting grinded against the cliffside by Metallix is similar to what Broly does to Goku in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie.
- Sonic claims there’s "no relation" between him and Shadow.
- During the opening scene of Episode 3, a Clubba accidentelly knocks off two members of the Koopatrol off a platform. One of the screams like Tom and the other sounds like Jarek.
