Super Mario Bros. Z/Characters

Mario

 * Badass
 * Badass Mustache:Even more so, given his fighting skill in the series.
 * Drop the Hammer: His usual weapon of choice.
 * Dual-Wielding: Hammers, with the Hammer Bros. suit.
 * Expy: Of Goku (according to Word of God).
 * Hour of Power: The Super Star power that picks up with Sonic.
 * Jack of All Stats
 * Kamehame Hadoken: His charged fireballs tend to use the stance.
 * Playing with Fire
 * Fireballs
 * Power Glows: Usually when he's picked up a Cape Feather or Fire Flower. Notably during episodes 2 and 6 is when both are grabbed.
 * The Voiceless/The Unintelligible: Carried this trait over from the Mario & Luigi series.

Luigi

 * Bash Brothers: With Mario.
 * Badass Mustache: Well, not quite as badass as Mario, but still quite a bit.
 * Big Damn Heroes: He and Yoshi get one in episode 8..
 * Butt Monkey: He's carried this trait over from the series proper.
 * Iron Butt Monkey: Of course, he manages to survive most things that end up happening to him.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Don't let that cowardly nature fool you, when he gets serious he can be as formidable as his brother.
 * Drop the Hammer: Like Mario, this is also a Weapon of Choice for him.
 * Dynamic Entry:.
 * Expy: Of Gohan (according to Word of God)
 * Fastball Special
 * Foreshadowing: After being told that in the pipe maze that they could be lost forever, the professor tells him that he was just kidding, but was being serious about the pipe maze being confusing. Then, he, Yoshi, and Shadow come across a pipe that leads into a world where its really possible to end up being lost forever.
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: He often gets power-ups that incorporate his body, like the Blue Shell and the Tanuki Suit. He also uses his Luigi Missile.
 * Oh Crap: Gets an absolutely magnificent one in Episode 6.
 * The Voiceless/The Unintelligible: Just like his brother,he has this trait from the Mario & Luigi games.

Sonic the Hedgehog
"Sonic (8-Bit): What the heck? Why am I so blocky? And I've put on some weight, too! Man, this really sucks!"
 * Accidental Public Confession: While arguing with Shadow the Hedgehog shortly after Yoshi nearly being killed by Mecha Sonic, Shadow briefly mentioned Mecha Sonic. Mario overheard this and asked who Mecha Sonic was, causing Sonic to say he wished he would wait for having to explain who he is, but decides Mario needs to know.
 * Badass: A requirement for this series.
 * Catapult Nightmare: On Episode 5.
 * Expy: Of Future Trunks (according to Word of God).
 * Fragile Speedster: Sort of, he can take a hell of a lot of punishment, but his fighting style is faster paced with less "critical hits".
 * Lightning Bruiser: Then again, a flashback to Mobius had him destroying one of Eggman's robotic Sonic duplicates with only a single punch, implying that he is perfectly capable of powerful upper arm strength when it comes to it.
 * High-Speed Missile Dodge: He did one in Episode 7, though it's subverted immediately after the dodge itself; The missile, fired by Mecha Sonic no less, did not impact him directly, but the force of the explosion did affect him, which proved to be problematic for our heroic hedgehog.
 * Hour of Power: ''Well.....That little experience was pretty short lived....."
 * Hurricane Kick: One of his many moves.
 * Laughing Mad: For a short while in Episode 7. Doubles as a Shout-Out to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, as the sprites used were seemingly based on the laughing sprites of Knuckles the Echidna as he appeared in the aforementioned game.
 * Super Mode: The usual Super Sonic fair, now if he gets a hold of a Fire Flower however...
 * Take That: When he was 8-Bit Sonic (read: almost Classic Sonic), he made this remark.

Shadow The Hedgehog

 * Accidental Public Confession: See Sonic's.
 * Anti-Hero: Type V, in this series.
 * Badass: Of course.
 * He even did a pretty good job when fighting Mecha Sonic in a one on one battle.
 * Berserk Button: Never mention Maria in front of him. Ally or not he won't hesitate to kill you.
 * Bullet Time: Well when you're that fast.
 * Expy: Of Vegeta.
 * Flash Step: His Chaos Control is used for this.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: He gets rather angry easily... even more so that in the actual Sonic series.
 * Heroic BSOD: It is heavily implied that Shadow's current characterization stems from the trauma of having to bear witness to Rouge and Omega, his only real friends, being outright slaughtered, as can be inferred from the flashback in Episode 8.
 * Informed Ability / Chekhov's Gun: Shadow mentions in Episode 5 that he can sense Chaos Emerald energy from long distances when explaining his suspicions about the "emerald" lying in front of him. This might act as an explaination as to how he'll find at least one chaos emerald while Mario and the others try to rescue Peach without him.
 * Jerkass: His personality is pretty much a shout out alone to Dragon Ball because of Vegeta. They're even both Type V Anti-Heroes.
 * Freudian Excuse: However, it wasn't his natural personality as much as him adopting it due to the trauma of his friends, Rouge and Omega, being slaughtered by Mecha Sonic.
 * Kamehame Hadoken
 * Lightning Bruiser: Able to keep up with Mecha Sonic and put up a decent fight with him.
 * Memento MacGuffin:.
 * Written-In Absence: Shadow is going to be absent for most of the Omega Doomship arc because he wanted to find the Chaos Emeralds himself, realizing he can't convince them to continue finding the Chaos Emeralds and leave Peach behind at Bowser's hands.
 * Written-In Absence: Shadow is going to be absent for most of the Omega Doomship arc because he wanted to find the Chaos Emeralds himself, realizing he can't convince them to continue finding the Chaos Emeralds and leave Peach behind at Bowser's hands.

Yoshi

 * Art Evolution: He uses Yoshi's Island sprites until episode 5. From episode 6 on he has Yoshi's Island DS sprites, while all other Yoshis keep the same.
 * Big Damn Heroes: He pulls one of these in Episode 8 alongside Luigi, and earlier in episode 5, knocking away Thunderfoot before he can strike Mario.
 * Catch and Return: True to form, he can spit projectiles and whatever he can stuff into his mouth back to the sender.
 * Hope Spot: When he manages to catch Mecha Sonic in an Egg. It doesn't last long.
 * Made of Iron: He's introduced just so Mecha Sonic has someone to pummel. Then you remember Yoshi can take a lot in Yoshi's Island.
 * The Nose Knows: Peach suggests asking him find the Chaos Emeralds using his sensitive nose, and indeed he is able to easily find one.
 * The Unintelligible: He's a dinosaur. Of course he can't speak.

Professor E Gadd

 * Absent-Minded Professor
 * Mr. Exposition: Boy, does he have a lot to speak about...
 * The Professor

Mecha Sonic
"Mecha Sonic: "Monster? I'm not a monster. I'M A GOD.""
 * A God Am I: He basically flaunts this towards Axem Red in episode 6.


 * Which, in context, doubles as a shout out to one of Broly's lines from the first movie he appeared in.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: When Metal Sonic merged with 3 other Sonic robots (Silver Sonic, Silver Sonic II, and Archie's Mecha Sonic), Dr. Eggman discovered him in his new form. When the doctor threatened to deactivate him, the newly formed Turbo Mecha Sonic decided to Colony Drop the Death Egg onto Mobius' surface, and eventually take the entire population of Mobius out with it.
 * Apocalypse How: Managed to cause a Class-5 Apocalyptic scenario on Mobius by the time he managed to chaos control to Mario's dimension.
 * Arm Cannon: Mecha Sonic's arm contains one of these. He usually uses it as a machine gun (with a shotgun-racking sound effect.), but he can also fire missiles out of it (two at once, even!). He doesn't use it very often though, considering that most of his opponents are fast enough/skilled enough to avoid gunfire.
 * Badass: Outshines them all.
 * Badass Automaton: Happens to be a robot.
 * Big Bad: Of the first season.
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: See the Shout-Out entry below.
 * Evil Knockoff
 * Expy: According to Word of God, he is supposed to be this series equivalent of Cell.
 * Fusion Dance: (Turbo) Mecha Sonic is the result of Metal Sonic merging with Silver Sonic, Silver Sonic II, and Archie Comics' Mecha Sonic.
 * Implacable Man: He's hunted those Chaos Emeralds the entire time, and has taken quite a beating, but he can still kick your ass no worse than before. In fact, he escalates it every time he's fought.
 * Killer Robot
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He's basically the king of this, to both the Axem Rangers and the heroes.
 * No Sell: Did nothing to block Axem Red's BFG blast while in Semi-Super Mode.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: AND HOW!!!!
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: As the infamous Metal Sonic. As Mecha Sonic, it seems only whatever passes as his "whites" are red, while his "irises" are sort of orange.
 * Shout-Out: He once used Akuma's "Shun Goku Satsu" in Semi-Super Mode. Against an Axem Ranger. That poor villain...
 * What's worse: That wasn't even his entire attack: Shortly afterwards, he then punched Red to the Ground, punched/grabbed Red's back from below, and then kicked him into the air before vaporizing him with a beam in a manner similer to how Goku broke Nappa's back and how Vegeta killed Nappa respectively.
 * Some Kind of Force Field: Activated what appeared to be a Lightning Shield to block the Chaos Emerald-powered Breaker Beam the Axems used on him. He wasn't even the target at the time.
 * Super Mode: While his standard form can technically qualify, due to it actually being a Fusion Dance-style transformation from Metal Sonic into this form, known officially as "Turbo Mecha Sonic", he has a Semi-Super Mode with 4 Chaos Emeralds, which resembles the original Mecha Sonic's Super Mode, and if Alvin had not cancelled the series, he would have gotten an even stronger form with all 7 Chaos Emeralds that would have either gone by the names "Metallix" or "Master Mecha Sonic".
 * Teleport Spam: While fighting the Axem Rangers in Semi-Super Mode, he teleported at a rapid pace as he was attacking one of them.

Bowser

 * Arch Enemy: Mario's, naturally.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done very literally with his defeat in the second episode: After two unknown entities (Sonic and Shadow) knock away Kamek while he was holding Peach hostage, Mario capitalizes on the distraction and throws him off the racetrack by the tail. Bowser is then seen being hurled away and (in a scene taken directly from the ending of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga) crashes into the "screen" hard enough to crack it before slipping down as if hitting glass.
 * Breath Weapon (combined with Kamehame Hadouken)
 * Chrome Champion: Metal Bowser, in episode 2. Mario has a difficult time defeating him. It takes the timely arrival of Sonic and Shadow's capsule for Mario to even stand much of a chance in the fight.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: He did not take Yoshi's Island's destruction very well, especially when it was not under his orders.
 * Harmless Villain: Gets the tar beaten out of him by Mario. Again. (Subverted somewhat, because this particular scheme had him VERY close to winning and it took what is arguably a Deus Ex Machina to stop him.)
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the later episodes.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: When Kammy intrudes on him during his tantrum, she's promptly blasted.
 * Kamehame Hadouken: He does it with fire breath!
 * Made of Indestructium: Metal Bowser, during episode 2.
 * Villainous Breakdown: He suffers something like this after his defeat at Mario's hands and has a LONG tantrum extending into episode 7.

Eggman

 * Expy: Of Dr. Gero.
 * Killed Off for Real: Assumed when the Death Egg crashed into Mobius.
 * Mad Scientist: It wouldn't be Eggman if he wasn't this, now would it?
 * The Man Behind the Man:
 * Villain Team-Up
 * Mad Scientist: It wouldn't be Eggman if he wasn't this, now would it?
 * The Man Behind the Man:
 * Villain Team-Up

Basilisx

 * Avenging The Mook
 * Badass: He's managed to best Mario, and have him at death's point for God's sake!
 * Canon Foreigner
 * Combat Pragmatist: Yes, he used the deadliest mushroom on Mario. TWICE.
 * Also a subversion. He states he could simply turn Mario into stone and then grind him into dust if he wanted to, and going by how he disposed of a Koopa engineer and also disabled Yoshi, Fire Sonic, and Tanooki Luigi beforehand, he certainly wasn't bluffing when he stated this. However, he makes it very clear that cutting Mario up alive is a lot more satisfying for him in regards to getting revenge on Mario.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: He uses not one, but two poison mushrooms on Mario to win.
 * Duel Boss: He forces Mario into a one on one.
 * Elite Mook: He's basically a Koopatrol on steroids.
 * Kiai: utilized this during his fight with Mario at one point.
 * Super Soldier: Again, he's basically a Koopatrol on steroids. You can't get any more blunt than that.
 * Taken for Granite: His specialty is turning enemies to stone.
 * Wolverine Claws: Bears these, and is very apt with them.

The Koopa Bros

 * Badass: Subverted due to the chaos emeralds power, but even without it, were way more of a threat then they were in the games.
 * Combination Attack: Just like in Paper Mario, they can stack up and spin. This attack is amplified with the Chaos Emerald in hand.
 * Continuity Nod: Their defeat by Mario was referenced in Paper Mario, and this time, they actually have a chance to exact revenge on their earlier defeat at Mario's hands (although they attempted to have revenge on Mario late in their original game, they weren't able to get the chance because Jr. Troopa brushed them away before they could fight Mario.)
 * Curb Stomp Battle: They were on the receiving end of this in Episode 6. What the three-way battle between them, the heroes, and the Axems would most likely have achieved eventually was achieved in one blow by Mecha Sonic.
 * Expy: Of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
 * Killed Off for Real: Still unconscious on the island, they were vaporized along with Yoshi's Island when Mecha Sonic charged that freaking miniature sun. They are not coming back.
 * Flanderization: As noted in the Too Dumb to Live section below, Yellow was even more prone to doing stupid stuff than before. In the game he was originally in, while he wasn't necessarily the smartest of the brothers, he certainly had his moments of at least cleverness, as he was the only one of his brothers who actually succeeded in (albeit temporarily) capturing Mario (by creating a makeshift "?" block to use to activate a trap door below him that leads to a jail cell.
 * The Starscream: After beating Mario, Sonic, Shadow, and Luigi due to their unintentionally activating the Chaos Emerald's powers, they considered backstabbing their boss (who is heavily implied to be Bowser) and calling the shots.
 * Too Dumb to Live: They have their moments. Like when one of them tells the Axems about the emerald radar, or when it turns out they've been holding it upside down.
 * These are all just from Yellow. The other 3 are much smarter. Of course, one should question why they let the dumb one hold the radar in the first place...
 * Totally Radical: Like in the games, they speak like they're stuck in the 90's.

The Axem Rangers X
"Mecha Sonic: "Monster? I'm not a monster. I'M A GOD.""
 * An Axe to Grind: Combined with Blade on a Stick.
 * Braggart Boss: Axem Red boasts about the power of his secret weapon to a 4-emeralds buffed Metal Sonic. It doesn't end well.
 * Combination Attack: Axem Green and Black's special skill, which can obliterate stone.
 * Drop the Hammer: Axem Yellow can form his hands together to make a hammer. It can split mountains, too!
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Axem Red was quite angered at Mecha Sonic due to his murdering his fellow members in such brutal methods.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Axem Green and Black's special again. Also, all rangers appear to be able to pull off a tornado spin attack.
 * Five-Bad Band
 * The Big Bad: Red
 * The Dragon: Black and Green
 * The Evil Genius: Red
 * The Brute: Yellow
 * The Dark Chick: Pink
 * Good Old Fisticuffs: Axem Yellow can fight like that too.
 * Half the Man He Used To Be: The fates of Pink and Black, and a vertical variation for Yellow.
 * Heart Symbol: Axem Pink has one appear in the air at the end of her special combo.
 * Killed Off for Real: Like the Koopa Bros., they ain't coming back, and given their brutal deaths, yeah...
 * Alvin Earthworm confirmed that they will play a major role in season 2. Though given the fact of the current status of the series...
 * Meaningful Name: AX 'EM. Duh.
 * Off with His Head: The fate of Green. If that wasn't enough, Mecha Sonic even ups it by actually crushing Green's decapitated head with his bare hands.
 * Shout-Out: "Hey Red, what does the scouter say about his power level?"
 * Also, the Axem Rangers' "upgraded bodies" are that of Zero's regular form (Zero Series), Zero's Defense Form (Zero Series), A customized of the Zero model depicting Black Zero, GutsMan.EXE, and Roll.EXE for Axems Red, Green, Black, Yellow, and Pink.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Axem Red's secret weapon, not to mention the Blade's Breaker Beam.
 * The Worf Barrage: Axem Red's secret weapon, again and the Breaker Beam, again. Both times toward Mecha Sonic.
 * You Monster!: Red says this to Mecha Sonic after he killed every Axem Ranger, to which Mecha responds: