Throwback Wednesday: Captain N: The Game Master

Saturday mornings were that much more special for me when Captain N was on the air. Watching him get warped into Videoland and team up with Megaman, Simon Belmont and Kid Icarus to defeat Motherbrain and her henchmen Eggplant Wizard and a blue King Hippo all while eating Super Mario cereal.

If you didn't grow up watching this cartoon then welcome to this week's Throwback Wednesday! If you did make this show and comic a part of your childhood (or adulthood even) then take a stroll down memory lane.

Captain N was a cartoon created originally as a comic in the Nintendo Power Magazine. Nintendo then decided to change the original format and produce the cartoon as a teenage boy, Kevin, who gets warped into Videoland through his TV along with his dog, Duke, by way of the "ultimate warp zone" created by a Powerglove.

Once in Videoland he teams up with the "N Team" which consisted of Simon Belmont (Castlevania), Mega Man, Kid Icarus, and Princess Lana who is acting ruler of Videoland. Together they fight against the evil powers of the land which are represented by Mother Brain (Metroid), The Evil Eggplant Wizard (Kid Icarus), Dr. Wily (Mega Man), and King Hippo (Punch-Out). Each week the N Team battled with these characters and also "guest villains" such as Donkey Kong and Dracula (Castlevania series). And every once in a while there would be "guest heroes" such as Bayou Billy, Link, and Doctor Light. At the beginning of the second season the group was joined by Game Boy, a human-sized supercomputer shaped like an actual Gameboy.

In Videoland Kevin found himself equipped with a Light Zapper and a NES control pad belt buckle that he could use to execute video game type abilities such as pausing the action or jumping onto high platforms as long as the power of the controller didn't run down. He also found he could use portals called "warp zones" similar to those in Mario games. These allowed him to travel instantly between different video game worlds within Videoland. Using warp zones meant that N Team could quickly and easily travel from Princess Lana's residence, the Palace of Power, to wherever they were needed. The only problem with warp zones was that each led to only one location, and if the traveler was unfamiliar with a warp zone he could not know where he would end up.

The music on the shows consisted of variations of the music you would hear in the video games that inspired them. Sound effects were also taken from games and used for different actions in the show such as jumping and pausing. A lot of the characters looked slightly different than their game counterparts due to licensing concerns as Nintendo could not garner the licenses for games from Konami and Capcom but these characters still kept their names - for the most part.

I miss these crazy episodes. So in memory of such a great cartoon I bring you the first 8 minutes of the first episode. Enjoy!