Best. Flash. Ever.
Well, I wouldn't go that far, but this flash/this series of flashes is certainly a force to be reckoned with. I've been interested/entertained by SMBZ for over a week already. This installment (No. 6) is by far the best, because of its incredible fight scenes, hence earning the series its own section as a result.
What can I say about this flash? Words cannot describe how incredibly awesome this flash has been for me (keep in mind, I partly speak of the series as a whole as well). I thought a lot about this flash and I discussed it a lot on the NG forums, and I tried to put my finger on what made this flash so good. Countless people insisted that this flash "sucked" because it was "unoriginal." Yet, I was able to sit through this whole flash and enjoy it without ever thinking it was ever unoriginal in any way, even though I consciously knew that all of its characters, its backgrounds, sounds, graphics, hell, even its story, were completely borrowed from other things.
And yet, this is partly what made it so beautiful. Its story is actually _genius_ because it actually _ties in_ with Mario's and Sonic's stories. For example, the Koopa Bros. tie in to Paper Mario, while the Axem Rangers and Smithy tie into Super Mario RPG for the SNES. (To the guy before me who said that the Axem Rangers are from Square/Square-enix games, you are completely wrong). The items and power-ups that Mario finds in the wild actually mimic the effects of the items in his video games. The events in this flash could _actually happen_ in a Mario video game if the developers at Mario Team decided so. Except there is no way they could ever make fight scenes and background music as cool as this - they are restricted by video-game format.
Basically, Super Mario Bros. Z is so good because it draws upon the strengths of the Mario saga to create something which is, in my opinion, completely original, because it is rare for me to actually like a video game character more after I watch a fucking flash movie featuring him. This goes for every character in this movie; my heart is now filled with giddy, juvenile pleasure as a imagine Yoshi, Luigi, Shadow, Mario, etc. in all their uber-cool fighting poses and executing their super-spectacular battle techniques. It's the same feeling I get when I'm watching The Matrix, or even Dragonball Z.
So thanks for all the people out there who managed to support a movie such as this becoming existent. By this I refer to all of the spriter's sites out there. And thanks to the author for actually making this movie. I rarely say this, but this is one of those few movies that I wish I could actually give an 11. Continue the series no matter what, and somehow make it as good and as action-packed as this one. Also, please play the Back to Mad song as often as possible, because that song owns as battle music!
Overall score: 11