Super Mario Bros. Z (Original Series 4K REMASTER)

It's the series that started it all and inspired a whole new generation of artists and animators. (And made Mecha Sonic a total badass).

Even though this iteration of the series has been discontinued in favor of the SMBZ reboot. I cannot ignore the impact it has had on both me and the viewers who grew up watching it. As a way to send it off properly, the entire 8 episode run will be uploaded onto my channel in Ultra HD and Dolby support for everyone's viewing and listening pleasure. Unfortunately due to the original aspect ratio that I created the series in, you won't be able to see it in 16:9. But, it's better than nothing.

Many thanks to Alen Alic and TruExtent for helping with compiling and rendering this marathon run of my original series. This wouldn't have been possible without their help:

On a side note. Production of episode 2 for the reboot series is going smoothly. Please give me a follow on my Twitter account and I'll try to post updates as frequently as I can.

Thank you so much for your continued support. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Super Mario Bros. Z!

DISCLAIMER: Super Mario Bros. Z is a non-profit fan crossover movie project based on the Super Mario Bros. series of video games by Nintendo and the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games by Sega, featuring characters from both of the aforementioned series and music from various artists and composers. Characters and songs remain the property and copyright of their respective owners. This is a non-profit project made by Alvin-Earthworm for fans of the Mario and Sonic series, and is in no way affiliated to or sponsored by any of the aforementioned companies.

[AlvinEarthworm]

Episode Timestamps:


Anime intro: 0:44

Episode 1 (Bowser's Return): 2:21

Episode 2 (Warriors from Another Dimension): 10:01

Episode 3 (The New Threat): 19:52

Episode 4 (Here Come the Koopa Bros.): 32:44

Episode 5 (Troubles on Yoshi's Island): 53:33

Episode 6 (Brawl on a Vanishing Island): 1:22:20

Episode 7 (Secret of the Pipe Maze): 1:49:26

Episode 8 (The Great Doomship Offensive): 2:47:21

[hapyjoy]

DBZA ends and SMBZ returns.

A soul for a soul.

[apertureAI-jwiz]

OGs were terrified of Mecha Sonic back in the day.

[Pachonko]

Shoutouts to all the fellow kids-now-turned-adults who grew up watching this, one of them being me. Welcome back Mark you absolute legend! We never gave up on you, and we'll be supporting you throughout the reboot and for whatever may come next! The hype is REAL!

[HyperWarioBros]

RIP Akira Toriyama, without you we would not have this

[JO-kosc]

You knew how good this guy was at showing emotion with those sprites when a non-english speaking kid understood the whole story

[MasterKiller]

Even 13 years later, Episode 6 is still one of the greatest pieces of animation I've seen.

[TheLateMrBones]

Episode 8’s ending is the biggest cliffhanger blue ball of all time.

[teleportedbreadfordays]

Mark was ahead of his time when he made SMBZ. With the remake, he shows us that he still is. I won’t lie, the man is a genius and a wellspring of talent.

[superoxas]

This series aged like fine wine, the inspiration for an entire generation of animators and the source that made Cooler's voice Mecha Sonic's voice

[Slug_ssbm]

Remastered Battle on a Vanishing Island is going to be sheer Heaven for the eyes

[gasparguruoftime]

As I've gotten older, the quality of this series only becomes more evident. The animation and the choreography are on-point even today, the music choices are really great, the references to Mario and Sonic games mid-battle are handled perfectly, the references to other games are handled in a way that don't detract from the fights, and even though the dialogue (which was never the point anyway) hasn't aged beautifully, the story in general does a great job of setting up stakes.

And not to mention, maybe the most unappreciated part: All the characters act impressively close to how they do in their own games, but Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi's characterization in particular is quite literally perfect. It feels like an official work of Nintendo. They act like they did when Mario and Luigi's characterization was at its peak in Superstar Saga, Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story. Just crazy how consistent that part always was.

Also...episode 6 remains a masterpiece. Thank you for this series.

[silviox]

The fact that some animations today look like this if not worse really makes you understand how ahead of its time this animation was.

[Cteklite]

"I'll CRUSH YOU!!" in hd is more then I can handle.

[michaelbrandon]

I gotta say man, we can talk all we want about the fight scenes but I think the writing, direction and just downright the resourcefulness of how Mark uses the sprites to tell the story is criminally underrated. He perfectly captures every characters personality and how they interact with each other and the audience. We couldn't have a better creator for such a series....

[IDesireToUpliftOthers]

OH MY GOD I KNEW I WASNT CRAZY I KNEW THIS SERIES EXISTED AND I FINALLY FOUND IT AGAIN!!!

[CallMeDean]

“So what kind of anime do you like?”
“It’s complicated...”

[FGoing]

It doesnt matter how many times i hear this one line.


"I´LL CRUSH YOU!"


Even after all this time i cant stop rewinding to watch it again

[CurryGoatorMutton]

I can’t wait to see Mecha Sonic say “I’LL CRUSH YOU” and destroy the Axem Rangers in 4K

[gtothem]

Having finally watched the full series years later, and back to back, I have to say the Sonic side of the story is immensely underrated and underappreciated, because I feel when you focus on it you get to figure out the story Mark ORIGINALLY was trying to tell about crossovers and how unbalanced they are, specifically focusing on an scenario in which a Sonic character fought a Mario character. From a writers point of view this story is more than just an awesome fight fest full of fan-service, it tells a story of what happens when a threat that's way beyond an universe nature crosses it and single-handedly changes the status-quo by bringing it to its kneels.

I don't think anyone has taken proper time to analyze the scenario these characters are in, and the pressure Sonic and Shadow are on throughout the entire series. Sonic and Shadow once in the Mushroom Kingdom are already carrying the weight of their whole universe as they failed it all thanks to Sonic's inexperience and Shadow's lack of preparation; Because of these factors Sonic's whole world was easily destroyed in matters of HOURS, not days, Sonic specifically states everything that lead to the destruction of their universe happened within hours. And within those hours Sonic's friends were haunted down one-after-another and mercilessly slaughtered before Sonic and even Shadow could face Mecha face-to-face. Mecha bodied everyone in Mobius just because he felt like it, taking pride in slaughtering Sonic friends as an evolution to his former purpose: being programmed to out-perform the strongest and naturally skilled creature ever born from Mobius, Sonic.

This is the one sin Shadow can't forgive Sonic for. Had Sonic done his job and made sure not to mess around with Metal Sonic when he had the chance, properly destroying him, none of these events would've happened. Now that it was too-little-to-late Shadow had to think on the whim how to fix the mess Sonic had help create by sending the Emeralds to (assuming) the nearest dimension to that of their own. And as Sonic says, this would have worked as it would've sealed Mecha to be stuck in their dimension, ignoring he could store radiations of the emeralds in case he needed it, and making the issue WAY WORSE than it already was.

This all worth nothing just because it sets the stage to how beefed up Mecha was already on his base form at Mobius, when he attacked in a whim for the sake of blood-thirst and nothing more. And it conveys Shadow's stance on the matter and how apathetic he is towards helping the Mushroom Kingdom beyond seeking the emeralds. It takes listening to his stance and ignoring his personal bias he has with Mecha to know he, arguably, is right throughout the entire series.

It doesn't takes long to realize this after these events we're presented with the Mushroom Kingdom and already the series is thematically playing with the idea of what would happen when something so destructible crossed to somewhere so innocent as the Mario universe, as we see Mecha blast to ashes an innocent Goomba;

Again, a Mario ENEMY against a Sonic ENEMY.

Although you might think this analogy isn't meant to be taken too seriously, think exactly what happens in Episode 3 of the OG series. We have Mecha introducing himself to Yoshi to ask and then later on fight for the emerald Yoshi was holding onto, showcasing his power and how ridiculous it was, as opposed to Yoshi's cheer power nature and skill; A Mario CHARACTER put into a fight against a Sonic CHARACTER, with a result that ended as canonically-accurately as it could get, with Mecha almost killing Yoshi due to his raw nature, and how ABSURDLY rigged the entire fight is.

This fight is what set Mecha as an actual threat for Mario, as through action he demands Sonic an answer as to what happened to him, and it is ONLY until then that Sonic FINALLY decides to give Mario full on context of what's going on. Once again, Sonic almost had gotten someone killed out of lack of proper preparations from the Mario Bros. part to the walking death machine that Mecha Sonic actually was. Something acknowledge by the series.

Then you have the Chaos Emeralds. Not only in the Reboot do we see that under the possession of one of them Yoshi is able to put-on a fight although he lacks the same intellect as Mecha; In the OG series we see how saturday-morning villains such as The Koopa Bros. manage to one-shot Mario, Luigi AND Sonic and Shadow when they're able to tap into Chaos Energy through their special attack, which would seem dumb and a cop-out to end the episode on a cliffhanger, that until viewers get to see what Chaos Energy is able to do in Episode 6 as Red is able to blast HALF A MOUNTAIN with a laser powered in Chaos Energy; All of these instances being Mario CHARACTERS using Sonic POWER-UPS.

In all of these instances we've only seen glimpses of what happens when a Mario character crosses a Sonic character, putting a huge contrast with their innocent or at least harmless enough nature as opposed to the, well, chaotic and unstoppable nature of a Sonic entity or item; But I think the moment that truly cements the idea in is when Mecha Sonic steps in during the Yoshi's Island fight as it is a night and day for how the fight had been going, and how it ended. If by this point you weren't taking him that seriously I assure you the way he ended that fight with a literal bang to Yoshi's Island, will.

It is only by this point that the idea is cemented of how much of an apocalyptic threat Mecha Sonic is not just for the heroes but for the entire Mario universe, and that is kind of the point.

What I love about this narrative is that Mark didn't bullshit his way into having the Mario characters actually being able to counter Mecha Sonic just because they too have an odd nature and unique skills of their own, and their own set of Power-Ups. Furthermore, it is an unbiased representation as to what would probably happen if Mario or Luigi or Yoshi fought a Sonic villain: They all end losing, at least on their own, because those dudes are on a whole other legue. ESPECIALLY MECHA SONIC.

The reason why Sonic is in such a hurry of gathering the Chaos Emeralds meanwhile trying to help the Mario Bros. fix the issues brought by these is because he's constantly reminded his mistake led to his world's destruction, and HE KNOWS Mario's World is just as doomed. whereas Shadow already knows Mario's World was dead since the beginning because of the nature of the same; That's why he wanted Sonic to help him retrieve the Emeralds on their own, and keep a low profile, thought that's only being reinforced the more the series progresses as up until Episode 7 Shadow has already had it at progressing at a slow pace when Mecha Sonic is causing chaos and destruction at a fast rate;

The Mario World had never faced anything like Mecha Sonic, they weren't even prepared for something this destructive. Mecha took down Mobius within hours, and Mario's World has only kept itself alive thus far because of how random the nature of this one is, with "Secret of the Pipe Maze" confirming this. The only reason Mecha hasn't been as fast as gathering the Emeralds as he was in Mobius is because Mario's World is literally built differently. And that nature of insanity has worked in favor of the Mario character thus far, at least indirectly.

That said, even though The Mario Characters have done more than enough in helping retrieve the emeralds, Shadow is arguably right in that Mario, Luigi and Yoshi have been slowing down and getting in the way of fights, considering at most they slow down Mecha Sonic, as opposed to Sonic or Shadow that actually land hits on him. Shame that the OG series ended exactly in the point I feel The Mario Cast was starting to keep up with Sonic in terms of fighting.

That said, based on what I've seen on the reboot I'm more than excited to see how far this idea is taken to considering how ingenious this story came to be. Mark didn't had to change ANYTHING about these characters and their origins to make them fit in a canon only to create a story where both could co-exist, it is their natural differences what solely served as a base to create an story about how unbalanced crossovers truly are and what it means when something so terrifying as Mecha Sonic faces against something as pure as Mario. It is that stake what, to me, makes the story stand-out all the more against other flash-based crossovers I saw growing up;

Because at its core it tells the tale of how one mistake led to the destruction of one world, and it caught another on its fire. Now both sides are trying to rectify that mistake.