Super Mario Bros. Calamity is a sprite animation series that debuted on Youtube in May 2021. Created by user "Munkyboi", it is inspired by Super Mario Bros. Z.
After yet another failed battle against Sonic, Eggman and Metal Sonic retreat to an incomplete Death Egg to regroup. Driven by the desire to surpass Sonic at last, Metal Sonic steals the Phantom Ruby and is transformed by its power into a new form, calling itself "Metallix". The upgraded Metal Sonic destroys the Death Egg and then opens a portal to New Donk City, where he discovers a Chaos Emerald.
Unaware of the killer robot's arrival, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toadsworth are enjoying a quiet picnic before it is attacked — first by Wario and Waluigi, then by Bowser himself, now using a Chaos Emerald of his own to soup up his Clown Car. The fight against the Koopa King is interrupted by the arrival of Sonic and Tails, who assist Mario in defeating Bowser. Once the fight is over, Sonic and Tails explain that they and the Chaos Emeralds were all pulled into the Mushroom Kingdom by accident, and they must recover the gems.
And thus the adventure begins... or not. The series currently consists of a single episode, and can be found on YouTube on Munkyboi's channel
, but nearly months after it's premiere, Munkyboi announced that it was going to be cancelled due to wanting to move on with his life to become a firefighter. In his announcement however, he did say he passed the torch to SynchroProdigy, which the latter confirmed elements of this series will be combined with his own. The creator wasn't very impressed with the episode he made due to the lack of preparations of concepts or script made in advance and for the excessive similarities to SMBZ.
This series includes examples of:
- Acrofatic: Whilst Mario is at most a little pudgy, he's still incredibly acrobatic and agile for somebody with his build.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: This happens to Wario and Waluigi after their defeat in the first episode.
- Also to Bowser and Kamek in episode 1 as well.
- Big Brother Instinct: Half-way through the battle against Bowser, Luigi gets knocked out cold, leading to a point where the pacing halts briefly. In a panic, Mario immediately runs up to check up on him, putting his right ear on his brother's chest to hear his heartbeat. Fortunately, Luigi is still alive, just unconscious, and Peach carries him to safety as the battle goes on.
- Beam-O-War: Fire Mario and Bowser engage in a battle for fire blast supremacy at one point in episode 1.
- Counterpart Combat Coordination: Zigzagged; when the Mario and Wario brothers first start fighting in episode 1, Waluigi goes after Mario whilst Wario attacks Luigi instead. They end up switching over to the "proper" brothers midway through the fight.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: Metal Sonic actually doesn't seem to be in control immediately after upgrading into Metallix. His destructive power-up, seeming attack on Eggman and subsequent teleportation to Mario's world have no rhyme or reason to them, and upon rebooting after landing in New Donk City, Metallix even implies he was "unconscious" during the upgrade.
- Dynamic Entry: Sonic and Tails debut in the first episode with Sonic exploding out of cover and delivering a massive flying kick to Bowser's head, just in time to stop him from killing Mario with the Clown Car's charged-up punch.
- Fartillery: Wario, of course, uses his prodigious farting abilities as an offensive weapon. In the first episode, he stuns Mario with a well-timed fart, allowing Wario the chance to get behind Mario and hit him with a shoulder charge.
- Fastball Special: Wario starts his fight with Mario and Luigi by throwing Waluigi at the Mario Bros. like a human spear.
- Kame Hame Hadoken: Mario is shown launching a Kamehame Ha-style beam of flames after powering up into Fire Mario in episode 1.
- Lighter and Softer: Downplayed, but compared to Super Mario Bros. Z, this series is a little less bleak in terms of backstory. Namely, Sonic isn't the last survivor of his homeworld, which in fact is doing just fine, as Metallix traveled to the Mushroom Kingdom immediately upon his transformation.
- Monster Clown: Bowser's Clown Car already looks like a sinister evil clown, but after boosting it with the Chaos Emerald, it develops a more sinister red-eyed black-and-purple color scheme.
- Mythology Gag:
- During the first fight with Mario and Luigi, Wario is shown primarily attacking with shoulder charges, his primary attack method in his original playable games.
- During the first fight with Wario and Waluigi, Luigi pulls off a Goomba Stomp on Wario, complete with the iconic sound effect from the original Super Mario Bros..
- When Bowser summons his Clown Car in episode 1, it appears in the same corkscrewing pattern and with the same sound effects as during his boss fight in Super Mario World.
- Sonic and Tails use attacks taken from Sonic Battle — Tails even has his wrist blaster from that game.
- Metal Sonic, upon taking the Phantom Ruby, is immediately upgrade into Metallix by its power, much like the robots that became the Hard Boiled Heavies in Sonic Mania. His subsequent teleportation, which seems to have been accidental, also echoes how the player character(s) are occasionally teleported to the next stage by the Ruby against their will.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It turns out the Chaos Emeralds are only showing up in the Mushroom Kingdom because Sonic and Tails were carrying them when they got swallowed by Metallix's initial portal. If they hadn't gotten caught up in it, Metallix would have been stuck in the Mushroom Kingdom with no way to upgrade himself which, okay, would have sucked for the Mushroom Kingdom, but not been an insurmountable threat.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Metallix teleported himself to the Mushroom Kingdom, he accidentally pulled Sonic and Tails along with himself, giving Mario and Luigi much-needed allies.
- Pint-Size Powerhouse: Despite being roughly the same size as a Toad, Mario has the strength to throw down with Bowser, who is several times larger than Mario in both height and width.
- Power Trio: Both Mobius and the Mushroom Kingdom are represented by teams of three fighters; Mario, Luigi and Yoshi for the Mushroom Kingdom, and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles for Mobius.
- Punch Parry: Mario and Bowser do this repeatedly in their first fight in episode 1.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Naturally, given the Dragon Ball Z influences on the action sequences, characters do this fairly frequently.
- Even the Clown Car gets to do this in the first episode, thanks to a new pair of mechanical boxing gloves powered by a Chaos Emerald.
- Shout-Out:
- Metal Sonic's upgraded form is a blend of Metal Sonic and Mega Man sprites, similar to Neo Metal Sonic from the rebooted Super Mario Bros. Z.
- The name "Metallix" is taken from the name given to the line of Metal Sonic badniks from Sonic the Comic.
- Mario and Luigi defeat Wario and Waluigi in the first episode with a special combination attack where Mario stands atop Luigi and the two then spin rapidly before charging into their foes at high speeds. This evokes both the general concept of "Bros. Attacks" seen in the Mario & Luigi sub-series of games, and the special attack of the Koopa Bros from Paper Mario in particular.
- Super-Speed: Sonic, of course. In his debut in the first episode, it's made very clear by the reactions of the Mushroom Kingdom's natives that they've never seen anybody move as quickly as Sonic.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The super-charged Clown Car's second weapon option? A massive laser cannon.
- Willfully Weak: Despite having upgraded his Clown Car with a Chaos Emerald, Bowser decides to attack Mario and Luigi on his own first, justifying doing so to Kamek as "fun" when the Magikoopa asks why he's not using it.
