The
Spawn of Super Mario Bros. Z
When
Mario & Sonic meeting Dragon Ball Z defined a Generation
The
2000s were an interesting time when it came to the internet as its usage became
more and more mainstream. It became easier to find people that shared similar
interests in things you fancied or discuss your favorite shows and video games.
Beyond that as well, you had certain franchises that defined an entire western
generation, some of the big ones being Dragon Ball Z, Mario and Sonic the
Hedgehog.
So what if, by pure chance, we took all 3 and combined them in one chaotic blender?
You get a web series that not only shook the Newgrounds community at the time –
and at some points even the website to the point that the site was forced to
update itself to accommodate for the demand both viewership wise and the actual
series content.
Now
when you break it down, there are some titbits, crumbs of information that do
in a weird way tie both Mario and Sonic to Dragon Ball Z and the works of the
late great Akira Toriyama.
Would it be a stretch? Possibly
For
starters, both Mario & Sonic have had Japanese voice actors from their
early appearances who were Dragon Ball alumni – Sonic sharing the same VA as
Trunks in the Sega Sonic arcade title and Mario being voiced by Yamcha.
You also had Mario & Sonic productions that were headed by the same studio
that worked on the animated adaptions of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation – said
company handling the 1986 Mario movie at the very least and the opening
cutscene to Sonic CD.
And then you get the very overt stuff, like Super Sonic being a direct homage
to the iconic Super Saiyan and Mario’s run in Super Mario Bros 3 being inspired
by the cartoonish run that Arale from Dr. Slump would frequently do.
 |
| “By the way it’s Super CY-YAN heheheheh" |
So
in a weird way, there were a fair number of correlations between the two
franchises. On top of that there were people that wanted some form of a
crossover between Mario & Sonic, especially after their well-known rivalry
in the 90s
So why not get a crossover that puts the action packed nature of DBZ – and rips
it off too!
And you know what, it actually worked. Debuting in April 2006, the series
kicked off with its first episode…..which was based around racing….
By the way man’s made a whole Godzilla vs. Bowser sprite film.
Actually that allows me to touch on the few SMBZ styled sprite movies that did spawn from this chaotic insanity of 2000s action excitement!
 |
| "Look, people were obsessed with this filler episode" |
Not the most accurate showcase of the nature the series would take place, and as a matter of fact it wasn’t supposed to only focus on the race, but Newgrounds upload limitations at the time forced the creator (Alvin-Earthworm or as he goes by these days, Mark Haynes) to split the episode in two.
Now rather than do an episode by episode analysis, let’s talk about the series
in general. Narratively the series focuses on Sonic and Shadow, who find
themselves transported to Mario’s dimension after a psychotic Metal Sonic fused
with other failed Sonic contraptions created by Dr. Robotnik (Eggman). After
fusing with these contraptions, he dubs himself Mecha Sonic – a character who
was such a joke in his initial appearance that this web series would color many
people’s interpretation and fandom for years and years to come.
It’s amazing how unneeded the vitriol was for the series.
After an excruciating fight, Sonic is defeated but Shadow arrives in the nick of time and teleports the chaos emeralds to another dimension. Mecha Sonic in a fit of rage finds a way to warp to the dimension where the emeralds are and so begins the quest to collect them before it’s too late.
So the series unfortunately never saw a conclusion to the arc, as due to burnout and personal issues, Haynes decided to end it at Episode 8, leaving only the first act of Episode 9 completed, which he would thankfully release in 2012. During the series run, the big things that really stuck out was the choreography that managed to surprisingly capture the comedic vibe that Dragon Ball had but also included the slapstick aspect that both Mario & Sonic would run on in their respective series. Personally speaking I do feel that the best episodes when it came to fights would be the ones that were based on Yoshi’s Island, the 8 bit battle that became an iconic element of the original series and Episode 8’s team battle against Bowser’s Koopa army.
There’s a unique experience that watching this series brought about at the time. Granted some of it has sullied overtime due to its unfinished nature, something that I feel didn’t need to be the case as Haynes would reboot the series in 2016, starting from scratch.
When the original series was cancelled, Haynes did reveal the entire 18 episode
titles he had planned for the first arc (originally supposed to be 15 episodes)
and there are elements that I do feel mixed about, especially in some cases
where things like the Pit of 100 trials and Mecha Sonic (whose perfect form
would be called Metallix) throwing a tournament would’ve been way too
derivative of DBZ’s Cell arc, especially for a series that by 2012, had only
put out 8 completed episodes, with another 10 planned.
"Windows Movie Maker: Absolutely Useless Since 2000! Comes with Free Crashes!"
 | ||
"Absolutely pathetic, no wonder he got abandoned quicker than a campaign promise"
|
Mecha
Sonic proceeds to go on a bloodthirsty rampage, killing off essentially the
entire cast of the Sonic franchise – yeah did I mention this came out in the
2000s, when people hate this weird hatred for Sonic having friends?
After an excruciating fight, Sonic is defeated but Shadow arrives in the nick of time and teleports the chaos emeralds to another dimension. Mecha Sonic in a fit of rage finds a way to warp to the dimension where the emeralds are and so begins the quest to collect them before it’s too late.
So the series unfortunately never saw a conclusion to the arc, as due to burnout and personal issues, Haynes decided to end it at Episode 8, leaving only the first act of Episode 9 completed, which he would thankfully release in 2012. During the series run, the big things that really stuck out was the choreography that managed to surprisingly capture the comedic vibe that Dragon Ball had but also included the slapstick aspect that both Mario & Sonic would run on in their respective series. Personally speaking I do feel that the best episodes when it came to fights would be the ones that were based on Yoshi’s Island, the 8 bit battle that became an iconic element of the original series and Episode 8’s team battle against Bowser’s Koopa army.
 |
| "also
the hype this bugger generated was wild and really makes me wish we get a
proper action packed crossover game someday." |
There’s a unique experience that watching this series brought about at the time. Granted some of it has sullied overtime due to its unfinished nature, something that I feel didn’t need to be the case as Haynes would reboot the series in 2016, starting from scratch.
While I understand his reasoning for wanting to start fresh, with how things
have been with production on the reboot series being significantly slow , I
would have much preferred a conclusion to the original series. If he wanted to
continue or start fairly fresh, he could always do a new story arc with the
characters which was part of the original plan.
|
"Yeah I got no comment for it, there really was no reason to pad out the entire thing or to copy the Cell arc that closely"
|
"Windows Movie Maker: Absolutely Useless Since 2000! Comes with Free Crashes!"
But
with insistence on so many characters, part of me is relieved that it didn’t
get that far, too much ambition , not enough focus.
That’s also evident since in September 2014, RPGFan2005 would put up a trailer for a Mega Sonic Bros AF movie….which as you can guess never came to be
The movie seemed to take place in a future and would’ve seemingly focused on Sonic and Shadow’s offspring with Silver’s birth being there….and then random Sigma
because focus is something only optometrists look for apparently…
Some other SMBZ like series we’d see spawn at the time would be stuff like Sonic GX which aimed to combine the SatAM series with X itself. Now this series would also see a swift cancellation but I will admit there is a part of me that did find it interesting to see these two different series come together and I found the character interactions were mostly solid. As for the actual plot, this was another one that did drag on a lot and didn’t feel like it was really going anywhere, on top of also continuing the love triangle stuff that ….was a pain in the Archie series and then trying to use that to setup a potential arc of Amy turning on Sonic which…yeah that’s outta character big time.
To be fair even the creator is embarrassed by the quality of the series and for that I do commend it. Growth as a writer is always something wonderful to see, even if you’re not necessarily going forth with writing as a career or interest. It shows growth as a person too which is always a wonderful thing to see.
Once again, it looks like the movie would’ve been a complete narrative mess, especially since now you’re tasking yourself with introducing new original characters not from the Sonic franchise at all, on top of now juggling at least 3-4 other stories. On top of that, it’s not really a wise idea to do a movie when your series had been stuck on hiatus for so long.
While nothing had been heard from the series since 2014, it is a shame that we never got to see more of the mess…..or maybe it’s a blessing, it was already a bit of a chore trying to figure out how to describe the plotline for the series….oh and also Amy was gonna be relegated to housewife after her whole battle….that’s yeah…nah…nahhhh.
Another series was Sonic Advance Z by FFMAY. This one was quite popular in the community for a while as it had some absolutely fantastic sprite animation that flat out rivalled Haynes own work with SMBZ, the only catch for many was how long it took for each episode to come out.
Story wise, it’s a bit hard to really describe much of it as it didn’t get too far with establishing the general narrative. Dr. Robotnik has used the negative energy of the chaos emeralds to create the ultimate Sonic doppelganger. A living creature that resembles Sonic but due to the negative energy, is filled with evil and rage. Honestly the design is very much Dark Spine Sonic inspired – that one cool form from X that got super popular online but in the actual show itself was completely wasted. Also somehow dark versions of other characters like Amy also spawn and yeah….basically it’s Sonic’s own clone wars kinda deal.
Choreography wise the series boasts a lot of great animation but my real sticking point is the word boxes. Sometimes they blend too much into the background and it’s rather hard to read as unlike with most of these shows, FFMAY had decided to give characters their own stylized subtitles rather than character dialogue boxes that you’d see in video games.
While the series has been on indefinite hiatus since 2014, the creator did briefly put out a teaser pitch for another Sonic sprite series that didn’t go anywhere and a fight segment between Shadow and his dark doppelganger
err…darker…this one has yellow stripes.
That is unfortunately the recurring trend with these series, they get started and never really finish. I understand why, animation takes a good amount of time, not to mention a lot of real-life stuff takes over, sort of why it helps to use these series as a caution to keep one’s ambitions in check as you can end up biting more than you can swallow. Granted worth noting these creators were also young adults, and the excitement of helming a series based on franchises you enjoy tremendously can cloud one from making practical decisions.
Another spin off attempt worth noting is Super Mario Bros GT: The Grand Adventure by KingAsylus91. While the series only made it to two episodes - with there not being much to say about the plot since it never went anywhere - this one aimed to do something a little different, that being throwing Kirby into the mix as well as characters from the Right Back At Ya anime, with the villain this time being some Godzilla like super powered creature looking to garner the Crystal Stars.
While it didn’t go anywhere, the creator would go on to make his own Mario sprite series….this one….not being a crossover!
Super
Mario Bros.: Heroes of the Stars takes an interesting approach as rather than
retell a DBZ arc or do its own thing, it serves as an adaption of Paper Mario
and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The series premiered in November 2011
and of the Mario DBZ titles, it’s the one that has managed to last the longest
and in turn produce the most episodes - 11 completed episodes with at least 2
episodes entirely remade and now talks apparently of a reboot? (Aw…mannnnnn not
again)(WAIT what do you mean there were sprite comic made episodes that went up
to Episode 15????).
So the plot of this one is that after a battle with Bowser - because of course we gotta duke it out with old Koopa.
"I have no idea why I made this"
That’s also evident since in September 2014, RPGFan2005 would put up a trailer for a Mega Sonic Bros AF movie….which as you can guess never came to be
 |
| "Okay that was amusing" |
The movie seemed to take place in a future and would’ve seemingly focused on Sonic and Shadow’s offspring with Silver’s birth being there….and then random Sigma
because focus is something only optometrists look for apparently…
Some other SMBZ like series we’d see spawn at the time would be stuff like Sonic GX which aimed to combine the SatAM series with X itself. Now this series would also see a swift cancellation but I will admit there is a part of me that did find it interesting to see these two different series come together and I found the character interactions were mostly solid. As for the actual plot, this was another one that did drag on a lot and didn’t feel like it was really going anywhere, on top of also continuing the love triangle stuff that ….was a pain in the Archie series and then trying to use that to setup a potential arc of Amy turning on Sonic which…yeah that’s outta character big time.
To be fair even the creator is embarrassed by the quality of the series and for that I do commend it. Growth as a writer is always something wonderful to see, even if you’re not necessarily going forth with writing as a career or interest. It shows growth as a person too which is always a wonderful thing to see.
Once again, it looks like the movie would’ve been a complete narrative mess, especially since now you’re tasking yourself with introducing new original characters not from the Sonic franchise at all, on top of now juggling at least 3-4 other stories. On top of that, it’s not really a wise idea to do a movie when your series had been stuck on hiatus for so long.
While nothing had been heard from the series since 2014, it is a shame that we never got to see more of the mess…..or maybe it’s a blessing, it was already a bit of a chore trying to figure out how to describe the plotline for the series….oh and also Amy was gonna be relegated to housewife after her whole battle….that’s yeah…nah…nahhhh.
Another series was Sonic Advance Z by FFMAY. This one was quite popular in the community for a while as it had some absolutely fantastic sprite animation that flat out rivalled Haynes own work with SMBZ, the only catch for many was how long it took for each episode to come out.
Story wise, it’s a bit hard to really describe much of it as it didn’t get too far with establishing the general narrative. Dr. Robotnik has used the negative energy of the chaos emeralds to create the ultimate Sonic doppelganger. A living creature that resembles Sonic but due to the negative energy, is filled with evil and rage. Honestly the design is very much Dark Spine Sonic inspired – that one cool form from X that got super popular online but in the actual show itself was completely wasted. Also somehow dark versions of other characters like Amy also spawn and yeah….basically it’s Sonic’s own clone wars kinda deal.
Choreography wise the series boasts a lot of great animation but my real sticking point is the word boxes. Sometimes they blend too much into the background and it’s rather hard to read as unlike with most of these shows, FFMAY had decided to give characters their own stylized subtitles rather than character dialogue boxes that you’d see in video games.
While the series has been on indefinite hiatus since 2014, the creator did briefly put out a teaser pitch for another Sonic sprite series that didn’t go anywhere and a fight segment between Shadow and his dark doppelganger
err…darker…this one has yellow stripes.
That is unfortunately the recurring trend with these series, they get started and never really finish. I understand why, animation takes a good amount of time, not to mention a lot of real-life stuff takes over, sort of why it helps to use these series as a caution to keep one’s ambitions in check as you can end up biting more than you can swallow. Granted worth noting these creators were also young adults, and the excitement of helming a series based on franchises you enjoy tremendously can cloud one from making practical decisions.
Another spin off attempt worth noting is Super Mario Bros GT: The Grand Adventure by KingAsylus91. While the series only made it to two episodes - with there not being much to say about the plot since it never went anywhere - this one aimed to do something a little different, that being throwing Kirby into the mix as well as characters from the Right Back At Ya anime, with the villain this time being some Godzilla like super powered creature looking to garner the Crystal Stars.
 |
| "Mmmm...rock candy" |
While it didn’t go anywhere, the creator would go on to make his own Mario sprite series….this one….not being a crossover!
THE PATTERN HAS BEEN BROKEN!
So the plot of this one is that after a battle with Bowser - because of course we gotta duke it out with old Koopa.
"I have no idea why I made this"
From
there on the Shroobs invade, with Princess Shroob to attain the power of the
Dark Star due to their home world dying - oh…this is a retelling of Bowser’s
Inside Story minus the biological study of Bowser’s innards…fair enough.
The fight choreography is once again actually really good, for a while many were
openly praising Asylus’s work as having surpassed Earthworm’s too, that being
pre-reboot. Personally speaking I do find it tricky to compare the two, as both
have different styles, with Haynes stuff also trying to blend in more slapstick
as well while Asylus’s things tend to be a lot more straight faced. While iti s
a shame that we’re going into the reboot territory once, more if there’s a
creator who has proven to have the most consistent track record with these
sprite series, it’s him and hopefully we can see a full series at some point.
Plot wise, while I have seen criticisms on the pacing, admittedly I didn’t feel
it from the actual series, but same time. I can definitely see the markings of
the story being dragged out with random fights with characters from other Mario
RPGs that don’t really serve any narrative purpose other than padding.
Actually that allows me to touch on the few SMBZ styled sprite movies that did spawn from this chaotic insanity of 2000s action excitement!
Lets first start with the ones that didn’t come to be – when SMBZ was
originally cancelled, one of the attempts to continue was a fully animated movie
by Coycoy98 named “Super Mario Bros. Z: Mecha Sonic’s Defeat”
"I wonder if Mecha Sonic will win"
"I wonder if Mecha Sonic will win"
While
this never came to be, at least one preview was made showcasing a defeated
Mecha Sonic being looked down at Shadow, his usual cockiness talking down to
the beaten metallic menace.
Production troubles unfortunately meant that the film would never see the light of day, with the animated previews even falling lost to time. I have attempted to contact the creator and hopefully there might be some hope for their preservation yet.
In the meantime there is a remake that was made based on one of the previews, so it’s at least something. Honestly I am quite curious as to how it would’ve turned out narratively speaking and animation wise, a lot of ambition to go the fully animated route, especially for such an action heavy series.
Production troubles unfortunately meant that the film would never see the light of day, with the animated previews even falling lost to time. I have attempted to contact the creator and hopefully there might be some hope for their preservation yet.
In the meantime there is a remake that was made based on one of the previews, so it’s at least something. Honestly I am quite curious as to how it would’ve turned out narratively speaking and animation wise, a lot of ambition to go the fully animated route, especially for such an action heavy series.
Another
planned movie was planned by YT animator Trevor Nestor – unfortunately seems
like most material regarding this movie has been lost to time for one reason or
another. This was supposed to be another attempt to wrap up the series and
unlike others, this one had a dedicated Kickstarter page put up….
 |
| "Oh...oh dear..." |
Of the SMBZ inspired movies to actually come to light would be a Sonic and
Dragon Ball Z crossover feature called “Sonic the Hedgehog: Two Worlds Collide”.
And this one has a full story! And a conclusion! We finally won!
 |
| "GODDAMNIT" |
In
this movie, Goku and Vegeta end up in Sonic’s dimension, chasing after the
iconic villain, Broly. While causing havoc, the two team up with Sonic and
friends as they hunt down the Chaos Emeralds, looking to attain the power to
take down the Super Saiyan demon.
Plot wise this is a very basic narrative, as to be expected (look even the DBZ
movies were really basic in their structures), but the characters feel on point
here and we even have some great action set pieces and the return of Shadic
(the Sonic/Shadow fusion that another DBZ inspired Sonic animation made).
Also this movie gaslit me into thinking a certain rapper’s remix of the Daft Punk hit “Harder, Faster, Stronger” was hype worthy (it really ain’t, controversy aside).
One more DBZ styled Sonic animation worth noting, but one I didn’t want to go in-depth about is Nazo Unleashed.
I personally feel this short itself is worth its own focus at some point in the near future and I wouldn’t classify it as a SMBZ inspired animation – especially with it debuting roundabout the same time SMBZ dropped. Plus cmon cmooonnnn, I already noted how Sonic and DBZ have that connection.
 |
| "You'll get your time, bootleg Super Sonic" |
That
about wraps up the world of Super Mario Bros Z and the insane amount of sprite
animations that spawned from it. While Haynes himself may be a problematic
person
 |
| "I ain't touching that can of worms" |
The
impact his series left is undeniable, from all the spin offs that spawned to
also being a clear inspiration for other popular online series such as Death
Battle (cmon cmooon the choreography, the sprite based stuff, cmooon). SMBZ was
that internet lightning in a bottle that only happens once a decade and we’re
still feeling the excitement of it to this day – the IDW comics referenced it not
too long ago, each time a new episode drops it gets millions of views and just
look at all the content that still comes out that discusses the series one way
or another….
The series and its spawn is also a testament to the amazing spritework done by the artists that worked at AlphaDreams and Dimps as each one of these series use their sprites as the base for these characters , showcasing not only their durability in actions and expressions, but also highlights the amazing work that went into them and has helped solidify their longevity beyond the respective games they were designed for.
While to talk about SMBZ is one thing, and well worth its own analysis and review, I wanted to give a little look at the stuff that spawned from it, put them a little in the limelight before moving forward to the next thing I’m working on.
Plus admittedly with how some stuff on my schedule has been delayed for one reason or another, I kinda wanted to talk about something that’s filled with schedule slips heh….
The series and its spawn is also a testament to the amazing spritework done by the artists that worked at AlphaDreams and Dimps as each one of these series use their sprites as the base for these characters , showcasing not only their durability in actions and expressions, but also highlights the amazing work that went into them and has helped solidify their longevity beyond the respective games they were designed for.
While to talk about SMBZ is one thing, and well worth its own analysis and review, I wanted to give a little look at the stuff that spawned from it, put them a little in the limelight before moving forward to the next thing I’m working on.
Plus admittedly with how some stuff on my schedule has been delayed for one reason or another, I kinda wanted to talk about something that’s filled with schedule slips heh….
the YouTube video is still on the wayyyyyyy
Thanks once more for the read and if you feel like supporting me, feel free to
check out my Ko-fi
I only barely heard of SMBZ, but this article has given me some interest to it! Kudos!
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