Popular Youtube video producer Polaris has teamed up with Hollywood screenwriter Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman, and the upcoming Ninja Turtles and GI Joe films) and a team of professional filmmakers to create a series of short films offering a different perspective on Nintendo's usually very family friendly Super Mario Bros (thanks Variety).

Titled The Four Players, the set of four shorts serve up some rather gritty interpretations of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach in grounded live-action settings that are much more faithful to the source material than that infamous feature film from the 1990s.

THE FIXER decides he can't let things stay broken any longer, THE ADDICT receives a reminder from his past that forces him to rethink his present, THE SOLDIER takes desperate action for the sake of his Kingdom and THE STAR contemplates happier times while suffering at the hands of her captors.

Does anyone else really, really wish this was a HBO original series? Would you rush out and buy a Wii U if Nintendo actually made a Mario game like this? Check them all about below.