Captain N: The Game Master
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Captain N: The Game Master is an animated cartoon series that aired on U.S. and United Kingdom television from 1989 to 1992. In the U.S., the show aired as part of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on NBC. The show incorporated elements from many of the most popular Nintendo games of the time. There was also a comic book version by Valiant Comics albeit only featuring characters from Nintendo produced games.
The show was cancelled along with several other cartoons when NBC was making more time for news. The show went through several changes the most visible of which came with the show's third season. The Second season introduced the bizarre character of Game Boy (based on the famous handheld console) which turned out to be one of the show's least liked characters. At season three the show took on more radical changes which were frowned upon by fans. The animation was simplified drastically, the episode length was decreased to 15 minutes and the over-all quality of the show's writing came down.
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Show premise
The hero of the series, Kevin Keene, is a teenager from Northridge, California. He and his dog, "Duke", are summoned to another universe known as "Video Land" in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Kevin is to become the hero "Captain N: The Game Master" and save Videoland from the wicked Mother Brain (the chief enemy in Metroid) and her minions of evil. Mother Brain is trying to conquer Videoland. He and Duke join the N-Team, which consists of Princess Lana (the Ruler of Videoland), Simon Belmont (the hero from Castlevania), Mega Man, Kid Icarus (from Kid Icarus, known in the actual games as "Pit"), and Game Boy (a giant supercomputer). At times he receives help from Link and Princess Zelda (from The Legend of Zelda) and Donkey Kong. The N Team goes up against the evil Mother Brain and her minions, the Eggplant Wizard (Kid Icarus), King Hippo (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!), and Dr. Wily (Mega Man). In each episode, the two opposing sides clash, resulting in comical situations.
Voice cast
- Gary Chalk: King Hippo
- Ian James Corlett: Dr. Wiley
- Mike Donovan: Eggplant Wizard
- Matt Hill: Narrator/Kevin Keene/Captain N
- Alessandro Juliani: Kid Icarus
- Andrew Kavadas: Simon Belmont
- Doug Parker: Mega Man
- Levi Stubbs: Mother Brain
- Venus Terzo: Princess Lana
- Tomm Wright: Duke
Episodes
Season 1 (1989-1990; Captain N: The Game Master)
- Kevin In Videoland (September 9, 1989)
- How's Bayou (September 16, 1989)
- Mr. & Mrs. Mother Brain (September 23, 1989)
- Videolympics (September 30, 1989)
- Mega Trouble For Megaland (October 7, 1989)
- The Most Dangerous Game Master (October 14, 1989)
- Three Men And A Dragon (October 21, 1989)
- Nightmare On Mother Brain's Street (October 28, 1989)
- Simon The Ape-Man (November 4, 1989)
- Metroid Sweet Metroid (November 11, 1989)
- Wishful Thinking (November 18, 1989)
- In Search Of The King (November 25, 1989)
- Happy Birthday, Mega Man (December 2, 1989)
Season 2 (1990-1991; Captain N & The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3)
- Gameboy (September 8, 1990)
- The Invasion Of The Paper Pedalers (September 15, 1990)
- Queen Of The Apes (September 22, 1990)
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- Quest For The Potion Of Power (September 29, 1990)
- I Wish I Was A Wombatman (Unconfirmed air date/approx. guess)
- The Trouble With Tetris (October 13, 1990)
- The Big Game (October 20, 1990)
- Having A Ball (Unconfirmed air date/approx. guess)
- The Trojan Dragon (Unconfirmed air date/approx. guess)
- The Lost City Of Kongoland (November 10, 1990)
- Once Upon A Time Machine (November 17, 1990)
- The Feud Of Faxanadu (November 24, 1990)
- Germ Wars (Unconfirmed air date/approx. guess)
- When Mother Brain Rules (January 5, 1991)
Season 3 (1991-1992; Captain N And The New Super Mario World)
- Misadventures In Robin Hood Woods (September 14, 1991)
- Pursuit Of The Magic Hoop (September 21, 1991)
- Return To Castlevania (September 28, 1991)
- Totally Tetrisized (October 5, 1991)
- A Tale Of Two Dogs (October 12, 1991)
- Battle Of The Baseball Know-It-Alls (October 19, 1991)
- The Fractured Fantasy Of Captain N (October 26, 1991)
Inaccuracies
Like with many of DIC's video-game cartoons, there were inaccuracies with the depictions of some of the characters.
- Simon Belmont looks and acts nothing like the original who was a more straight-forward hero/goodguy.
- Mega Man's depiction was somewhat incorrect regarding his costume (and arm-cannons) but other than that many agree that the character was very much like the character from the games.
- Mother Brain was given a face whereas she was just a Brain in the original Metroid. However, the face might have been added to provide more personality to the character and is not considered a flaw by fans of the series.
- For no particular reason, King Hippo's skin was greenish-blue.
- Dr. Light's outlook was altered so he appeared more elvish or gnome-like with a green lab-coat (instead of the classic white), and just as in the manual of the first Mega Man game, was referred to as Dr. Wright.
- Though often unnoticed, Dr. Wily is referred to as Dr. Wiley.
- Mt. Icarus, Megaland and Metroid are not actual locations. Castlevania is in truth merely the castle in which Dracula lives while in the show it is the name of Simon's homeworld. Mega Man's homeworld is slightly disputed as it varies between the American and Japanese games and even between the cartoons. The game Kid Icarus in truth takes place in Angel Land. In the cartoon Metroid appears to be a semi-organic space-station while in the games Metroids are jelly-fish like aliens.
- Kid Icarus' name is actually Pit.
External links
- Unofficial Captain N homepage (http://ucnhp.tripod.com/)
- Ultimate Warp Zone (Fansite) (http://www.ultimatewarpzone.com/index.html)
- Captain SNES: The Game Masta (Fan-made sequel) (http://www.captainsnes.com)fi:Kapteeni N