Super Mario Bros. Z (SMBZ) is a Flash animation series created by Alvin-Earthworm. The series first debuted on April 22, 2006 at the popular flash site Newgrounds. It is a crossover between the Mario and Sonic franchises, and draws heavy influence from the Dragon Ball Z franchise, such as the choreography of the fighting scenes, powering up, and free flight. The series has reached well known popularity over the 2006 year and continued onward during 2012. The series was and still is famous for its “Outstanding Achievement in a Fan-made web-series”. The series is targeted for 9 year olds and up only due to the promoted violence and mild language.
The show contains many references to both the Mario and Sonic series. It also borrows many sprites from the various characters of the Mario and Sonic universe, primarily from the Game Boy Advanced and Nintendo DS era of their gaming history.
The story starts with a robotic creation from another dimension, known as Mecha Sonic coming into Mario’s Universe. hunting for gemstones known as Chaos Emeralds. Further away from this start, during an annual race between Mario and Luigi and the Wario brothers, Bowser intervenes and attempts to capture the princess and destroy Mario once and for all. Which he would have done, had not two more newcomers entered the field, Sonic and Shadow. As time went on, they revealed that their home world, Mobius, was razed from the ground up by Mecha Sonic, and that they had teleported the Chaos emeralds to Mario’s universe, and now must find them before Mecha Sonic does and the same fate befalls the Mushroom Kingdom.
Episodes Produced
Eight episodes were created, with a time span of anywhere from two months to sixteen months with each new episode. The ninth episode was slightly started before March 26, 2012, when Alvin-Earthworm, the creator of the series, grew tired of making the episode and discontinued the series.
Spin offs
With the massive amount of fan support from the series, a number of fan made spin offs have been produced, and a number of continuations as well.
Continuation
On October 5, 2013, Alvin stated that he had somewhat regained interest in working on the series. He had recently reacquired Flash and was practicing with it by reanimating the first scene of Episode 1. He stated that if he does indeed start full work on the series again, he intends to reboot the entire series thus far, rather than continue with Episode 9. He says that the reason for this is he is dissatisfied with how some episodes turned out and wants to use better animation and better story with some plot changes.
Alvin has also stated he will not be passing on the rights of the series to anyone. This is due to the fact that Alvin still has a vision for the how the series would have ended and another person might mess it up. This, alongside a trailer for Episode 9 ending with the words “The End?”, could mean that Alvin still has plans for the future of the series.
The creator of the series stated that he plans on making 45 episodes total, dividing them into 3 Sagas sporting 15 episodes apiece, and at least 1 movie. The show is not endorsed or licensed by Nintendo nor Sega and is non-canon. There is also a fan site devoted to the show and its spin-offs.