Draft:Super Mario Bros. Z

Super Mario Bros. Z is a Flash-animated fan crossover action-adventure web series created and produced by Mark Haynes. The original series aired on online entertainment website Newgrounds from April 22, 2006 to March 30, 2012, consisting of eight episodes and concluding with an incomplete ninth episode. Using video game sprites to illustrate, the series' story and style is inspired by Dragon Ball Z and features characters from the Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises. The series follows five protagonists, Mario, Sonic, Luigi, Shadow and Yoshi, as they race to find the seven Chaos Emeralds before Metallix (Turbo Mecha Sonic), a robot bent on becoming the most powerful being in the universe. In September 2015, Haynes announced a reboot of the series to be in development, releasing the pilot in early 2016, as well as launching a Patreon to crowdfund the series which later received a DMCA takedown from Nintendo. After a four-year hiatus, Haynes citing personal issues, the reboot series resumed active development in February 2020, with Haynes premiering a 4K remaster of the original series to YouTube the following month. Both the original and rebooted series have been positively received, with the second episode of the reboot series receiving over 100,000 views an hour after being released.

Story
In both the original and rebooted series, the story is centered in the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi are competing against Wario and Waluigi until Bowser and Kamek interfere and attempt to take over the kingdom. Their plans are inadvertently foiled by the arrival of Sonic and Shadow, survivors of a mass genocide on the planet Mobius caused by the robot Metallix (Turbo Mecha Sonic in the original series). The two seek to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, which Shadow banished from their world for safekeeping, before Metallix can use them to achieve unlimited power. Mario and Luigi agree to aid them in their search. Elsewhere, Yoshi finds a Chaos Emerald, but is nearly killed by Metallix, who has already obtained another Emerald. While Yoshi heals at Mario's House, the heroes receive a third Emerald from Professor E. Gadd, but it is stolen by the Koopa Bros. Rejoined by Yoshi, they travel to Yoshi's Island to acquire the fourth Chaos Emerald. Both the Koopa Bros. and the Axem Rangers X interfere, and the three groups engage each other in battle. Metallix arrives and kills both rival teams, only for the heroes to steal back all four Emeralds and narrowly escape. The group then retrieves the fifth Chaos Emerald from the Minus World, a pocket dimension accessed via a maze filled with Warp Pipes. Upon their return, they discover Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser. The heroes formulate a plan to rescue her, but Shadow is fed up by Sonic's perceived lack of focus on their hunt for the Chaos Emeralds. He leaves the team to collect the other two on his own, later engaging Metallix in battle alone for the sixth Chaos Emerald. Elsewhere, Doctor Eggman, Metallix's creator and Sonic's former archenemy, is revealed to have survived the destruction of Mobius and allied himself with Bowser. Using a combination of his robotics and Kamek's magic, Eggman creates "Mecha Mario", a robotic duplicate of Mario designed to kill him. After facing Bowser's elite henchman Captain Basilisx, the heroes prepare to battle Bowser's children, Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings.

Main

 * Mario (voiced by Charles Martinet) – The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, who offers to help Sonic and Shadow stop Metallix from collecting the Chaos Emeralds.
 * Luigi (voiced by Charles Martinet) – Mario's cowardly younger brother, who assists in preventing Metallix from acquiring the Chaos Emeralds.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith) – The hero of the planet Mobius and self-proclaimed "fastest thing alive". After his world is destroyed, he and Shadow flee to the Mushroom Kingdom in pursuit of the Chaos Emeralds to prevent their misuse by Metallix.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (voiced by David Humphrey and Jason Griffith) – A bioengineered "ultimate life form" and resident of Mobius, who aims to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds and destroy Metallix himself in retribution for the death of Rouge the Bat.
 * Yoshi (voiced by Kazumi Totaka) – A member of the Yoshi clan, who joins Mario's group in their fight against Metallix.
 * Metallix (voiced by Andrew Chandler, Jean-Édouard Miclot, Ryan Drummond and John Mondelli) – A robot created by Dr. Eggman as an evolution of Metal Sonic, created for the sole purpose of destroying Sonic. He later rebels against his creator and destroys Mobius, later travelling to the Mushroom Kingdom in search of the Chaos Emeralds. In the original series, he is referred to as Turbo Mecha Sonic, or informally as Mecha Sonic; the name Metallix originates from the UK comic series Sonic the Comic. The character was redesigned for the reboot series due to Haynes' belief that the original design was underwhelming and inconsistent with the character's original portrayal in Sonic & Knuckles.
 * Wario and Waluigi (voiced by Charles Martinet) – Mario and Luigi's rivals, who seek to steal the Chaos Emeralds and sell them for profit.
 * Princess Peach (voiced by Jen Taylor and Samantha Kelly) – The ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, who is often kidnapped by Bowser. She offers aid to Mario, Luigi, Sonic and Shadow as they search for the Chaos Emeralds.
 * Bowser (voiced by Scott Burns and Kenneth W. James) – The king of the Koopas and archenemy of Mario and Luigi, who seeks to acquire the Chaos Emeralds and conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. He is aided by his children Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings.
 * Doctor Eggman (voiced by Deem Bristow and Mike Pollock) – Metallix's creator and Sonic's former archenemy, who is revealed to have survived the destruction of Mobius and allied himself with Bowser.

Supporting

 * Professor E. Gadd (voiced by Kazumi Totaka) – A Mushroom Kingdom scientist who provides support for the heroes, creating devices to aid them such as the Emerald Radar.
 * Koopa Bros. – A group of four ninja Koopa Troopas from Paper Mario who seek to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds for Bowser.
 * Axem Rangers X – A team of five axe-wielding robots who were rebuilt by Smithy after being destroyed by Mario in Super Mario RPG. They seek the Chaos Emeralds for themselves to further Smithy's plans.
 * Captain Basilisx (voiced by Dameon Clarke) – The captain of Bowser's Koopa Guard stationed on the Omega Doomship, capable of turning people to stone with his gaze. He seeks revenge on Mario for having killed his best friend during the events of Super Mario World. An original character created for the series, Basilisx is named in reference to the mythological beast of the same name, while his hands' retractable claws are inspired by the Marvel Comics character Wolverine.

Production and broadcast
Super Mario Bros. Z is animated using Adobe Flash, and features dynamic, fast-paced movement in the style of Dragon Ball Z. Characters are rendered using a combination of pre-existing sprites and original pixel graphics created for the series. The series primarily conveys dialogue using text boxes, but features limited voice acting through the reuse of voice clips from Dragon Ball Z and various Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog games. The lone exception is the seventh episode of the original series, which features cameo appearances by Andrew Raskin and Patrick TeNyenhuis reprising their roles respectively as Hal the Koopa Troopa and Jeff the Goomba from the Mario fan web series Bowser's Kingdom. The series was conceptualized as a remake of Dragon Ball Z featuring characters from the Mario and Sonic series, inspired by various similar parody concepts Haynes had watched on Newgrounds in the early to mid 2000's. The first episode was animated over the course of one month, and premiered on Newgrounds on April 22, 2006. New episodes released every few months for the following three years, with its eighth and last full-length episode releasing on October 9, 2009. On March 30, 2012, following a three year hiatus, Haynes announced the cancellation of the series, releasing an unfinished work-in-progress version of the ninth episode. In subsequent years there were several unofficial attempts at reviving the series, including a Kickstarter campaign for a feature-length film finale launched in September 2013, intended to lead into a sequel series titled Super Mario Galaxy X, which received a takedown notice from Nintendo. A reboot of the series was announced in September 2015, with a pilot being released to Newgrounds on January 8, 2016. Initially, Haynes intended to fund episodes of the series via Patreon, but was sent a DMCA takedown notice by Nintendo preventing him from doing so. Haynes subsequently placed the rebooted series on hiatus, citing personal reasons, before resuming work over 4 years later and uploading the pilot episode to YouTube on March 1, 2020. In early 2020, Alen Alic and Jason Kaufman began development of a remaster of the original series (excluding the incomplete ninth episode) in 4K resolution, with the blessing of Haynes. Directed and edited by Alic, and produced by Kaufman, the remaster was uploaded to Haynes' YouTube channel as a feature film on March 7, 2020. Super Mario Bros. Z has also produced spin-off media focused on supporting characters, as well as bonus material including "Making of" and "Behind the Scenes" videos, as well as "Extra Credit" (outtakes), available on Haynes' Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Reception
Super Mario Bros. Z attracted interest immediately, with the series premiere receiving 50,000 views within a day of its release. The first episode has been viewed over nine million times across Newgrounds and YouTube, and most episodes have received views in the millions. , the series' new YouTube channel has over 30,000 subscribers and over 30 million views. Both series have won Newgrounds Tank Awards. The series was praised for its memorability by Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp, who raised the file limit of the website to allow Haynes to upload the eighth episode. Bit 128 of Podcast One described the series as "ag[ing] like a mostly fine wine." Rosa Fernández of Zona Red praised the Haynes' reboot for "[its] new material and [for] tak[ing] advantage of new technologies to make the chapters as [Haynes] had them in mind ten years ago", describing it as "a cult series that has been reborn", while Emmanuel Perrin of Gent Side praised the series for its "explosive promise", crossover elements, and use of Dragon Ball Z imagery. Radio Shinka praised the original series "one of the best animations ever made on Newgrounds that changed everything after [its release]", comparively comparing the character of Metallix as "characteristic of Onslaugh[t] from Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of [Super] Heroes." While criticizing the decision to reboot the original series's continuity, they praised the "maintaining [of] main elements that allow [for] its development."