Debuted in 2011, SMG4 is a machinima web series on YouTube featuring Mario and his friends going on crazy and memey ass adventures. It is run by Aussie brothers Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul, who are respectively the
CCO and CEO of Glitch Productions.
Glitch Productions is the Aussie company behind SMG4 and the 3D animation series such as
Meta Runner, Murder Drones and
Sunset Paradise (which is an SMG4 spinoff series).
Example:
The style of SMG4 videos has changed over the years:
The ancient era (2011-2013): All the videos were made by Luke, using
SM64 footage and pngs.
Black humor and some now-copyrighted music was used very prominantly. Also there were a lot of Mario recolors, most of whom are based on SM64 machinimists irl.
The classic era (2013-2016): Luke still made the episodes by himself. The editing and the selection of memes was better. In addition, a lot of ideas were utilised very well in videos, such as parodies of well-known video games, an interactive episode or Mario IRL. Also, most of
the Mario recolors were replaced by funnier side characters. Because of that, a lot of fans consider this the golden age of SMG4.
The early modern era (2016-2019): Kevin started to help Luke with the writing. The use of
GMOD and
Project64 started to become prominent. Luke and Kevin had to use less music and
black humor due to
YouTube's new policies. The series started to have modern
OCs and anime tropes, as well as story
arcs. Considerable flaws and fan
toxicity started to emerge in this era.
The modern era (2019-now): SMG4 episodes are now being made The GMOD animation quality is becoming better and better. More and more characters are being introduced with either major or minor roles. Occasional experimental episodes as well as more anime tropes and a deep lore are included in this era. This is also a very flawed era compared to the previous one. Also the fans has become extremely toxic.