It’s time for Rising Sun, and today’s review is something new. It’s a web animation called Super Mario Bros. Z.

Super Mario Bros. Z is a fanmade series created by British artist Mark Haynes. It’s essentially a Mario and Sonic crossover with narrative elements from Dragon Ball Z’s third and fourth seasons.. That means it’s set in the Mario universe, includes some Sonic characters and has over-the-top battle scenes.

The plot is fairly simple: Metal Sonic (a robot Sonic, for the uneducated) merges himself with his predecessors to form a new robot called Mecha Sonic, who then destroys Mobius while searching for the Chaos Emeralds, but Sonic and Shadow manage to separate him from the Emeralds, which have been sent to Mario’s universe. Mecha Sonic goes to Mario’s universe to find them again, and Sonic and Shadow give chase, planning to ask for Mario and Luigi’s help in finding the Emeralds.

This basic narrative shows a darker take on what a Mario and Sonic crossover could be, but it doesn’t contrast with the feel of the Mario universe because there are still some light-hearted moments: a balance that the Mario role-playing games tend to strike so effectively. The heroes track the Koopa Bros. (Koopa ninjas who are after the Emeralds) to Yoshi’s Island with a Game Boy, Luigi gets himself electrocuted fiddling with Professor E. Gadd’s equipment and for some odd reason, a banana screams “I like cereal” before exploding, sending several characters sky high.

As for the animation, prepare to be surprised. Almost all of the artwork for this series is graphical assets created for various Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS games, edited for use in this series. Even so, the non-edited assets are used in unique, convincing and exciting ways. The battle choreography, while a little dry in the first three episodes, really gets more intriguing as the series advances. The fights incorporate Mario power-ups in fresh and exciting ways that remind fans of DBZ techniques. These scenes also add unique twists on common DBZ gimmicks, such as Mario trying to dodge Sonic and Mecha Sonic when both use the Light Speed Attack against each other.

The only downside is that the original Super Mario Bros. Z ended on a cliffhanger after episode 8. But Mark Haynes always had plans to come back, and since he had several issues with the original series, a reboot is currently in production.

In conclusion, fans searching for a high-quality, non-cliche Mario/Sonic fanfiction should give Super Mario Bros. Z a watch on Youtube or Newgrounds.