Captain N: The Game Master

Captain N: The Game Master was an American animated television series that aired on television from 1989 to 1991 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 games produced by the Japanese company Nintendo.

Origins

The character Captain N first appeared in Nintendo Power magazine, created by a Nintendo staff member and magazine editor named Randy Studdard. The original concept involved Captain N (originally known as "Captain Nintendo") as a Nintendo employee and the Mother Brain as a Nintendo main computer that went rogue, and Captain Nintendo had the power to temporarily give life to characters and items from Nintendo games. The story left a door open for a sequel (Mother Brain is temporarily defeated but her return was said to be inevitable, and Captain Nintendo vows to stop her when the time comes). Nintendo later decided to create a cartoon series, opting neither to credit nor to compensate its creator. DiC was shopped as the animation studio, and very little of the original concept remained.^[1]

Show premise

At the outset of the first episode the hero of the series, Kevin Keene, a teenager from the Northridge, Los Angeles, California, and his dog, Duke, are taken to another universe known as Videoland when they are sucked into a vortex, called the Ultimate Warp Zone, that formed in his television. In order to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Kevin is destined to become the hero "Captain N: The Game Master" and save Videoland from evil forces, led by Mother Brain from the floating world/fortress called Metroid. By the time Kevin arrives on the scene, Mother Brain has almost succeeded in capturing the Palace of Power and conquering all Videoland. Kevin (who in Videoland is armed with a Zapper and a belt buckle shaped like an NES controller) and Duke appear suddenly on the other side of the Ultimate Warp Zone before the N Team, which consists of Princess Lana (the acting ruler of Videoland—a later episode explains the absence of her father the King), Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus (known as Pit in the video games), none of whom show any confidence in Kevin's ability in the beginning. After Lana is kidnapped by the enemy shortly after Kevin's arrival, the reluctant group puts their differences aside to go on a rescue mission where Kevin eventually gains the others' confidence.

In most episodes, the N Team's enemy is a group of video game villains, usually led by the boisterous and loud Mother Brain who is accompanied by her minions, the CORNy Eggplant Wizard, the thuggish King Hippo, and the scheming Dr. Wily. A "villain of the week" is featured in some episodes when a particular video game becomes the setting (such as Malkil of Wizards & Warriors). Donkey Kong also makes an appearance as a territorial, belligerent, Godzilla-sized gorilla in some episodes, but usually serves as a dangerous neutral character posing a hazard to friend and foe alike.

Further recurring characters make an appearance as either friend and foe. The Count (Castlevania) makes multiple appearances, along with Dr. Light (Dr. Wright), Link and Princess Zelda. From season two on Game Boy (a human-sized supercomputer shaped like the console) joins the N Team.

The focus of the show is mostly action-adventure sourced from the video games they parody, with comedic relief forming in the character's interactions with one another and the environment. Sometimes humor also stems from the comparatively loose interpretations of the laws of reality that apply in Videoland.

Main characters

The N Team

• Kevin Keene – The leader, protagonist and main character of the series. Initially he is a reluctant hero and is often found at odds with the rest of the N-Team. When he comes to Videoland he is armed with a belt and holster that has a Power Pad (an NES controller-shaped device which can stop time, allow him to leap over objects or give him super speed over short distances) and an NES Zapper-like gun which dispatches or "dematerializes" enemies. The Zapper can also shoot ice shaped like Tetris blocks. His expert use of these tools combined with his overall friendly, if competitive, demeanor eventually earns the trust of the others. In many episodes he tries to foster a big-brotherly role to characters suffering from a particular plight. He is most often called Captain N by the other cast members, except Princess Lana who regularly addresses him by his first name. His last name is only ever mentioned in two episodes. He wears light denim jeans, a yellow shirt and a red Letterman jacket with white sleeves. The Varsity letter "N" on his jacket is for swimming. Kevin is voiced by Matt Hill while Dorian Barag plays him in the "live action" part of the intro.^[2]

• Princess Lana – The current regent of Videoland after her father, King Charles, was banished to the Mirror by Mother Brain. She rules over all the lands in Videoland from the Palace of Power. Though she reflects a kind character typified by a princess role, she is able to keep up with the rest of the N-team through their adventures and is not afraid of conflict, having been trained to defend herself from a young age. Though she is good friends with the members of the N-Team, Lana shows a longing for her own family. She often acts as a mediator between the members of the N-team when their competitive natures lead them to infighting. Both Kevin and Simon compete for Lana's affections, but she seems to prefer Kevin over Simon and kisses him on several occasions (including the last episode). Her appearance and dress consists of boots, a two-piece dress and top, a tiara, and a necklace with three green gems. Production art showed her holding a large staff. She is voiced by Venus Terzo.

• Duke – Kevin's dog who jumped into the Ultimate Warp Zone immediately after Kevin was sucked in and ended up in Videoland as well. Although he acts intelligently, he shows occasional uncontrollable typical dog behavior, like the chase reflex. Duke is usually with Kevin through all the action in a given episode and sometimes sees his own action, Duke wears a bandanna around his neck. In the live action scenes shown in the first two episodes as well as the intro, Duke is shown to be a Golden Retriever, while he appears to be a beagle in the actual cartoon.

• Simon Belmont (from Castlevania) – Until Captain N's arrival Simon, a vampire hunter, regarded himself as Princess Lana's highest ranking servant. He displays extreme arrogance and vanity, often prefacing declarations of his character or capabilities by referring to himself in the 3rd person. He enjoys courting and complimenting Princess Lana, openly declaring his romantic interest in her (which she rebuffs but sometimes is flattered), but he enjoys tending to his appearance and physique even more. On one occasion when he was forced to face his worst fears in a dream world, it turned out his worst fear was a humorous form of body horror as his muscles sagged away, his teeth fell out and he lost all his hair, leaving him hideously bald. In his own distorted way, however, he does show regard for other members of the N-team, even if it outwardly seems back-handed. He is very competitive and he regards Captain N as a major rival for Princess Lana's attention. He wears a blue fabric outfit, pilot goggles, boots and large gloves, and carries around a backpack with a seemingly endless capacity of miscellaneous things he takes out and uses. He brandishes a whip, which occasionally has a mind of its own, but like Captain N's zapper, it can also dematerialize foes. Simon Belmont's look was at least partially based upon his voice actor, Andrew Kavadas, looking less like his appearance in the Castlevania game series.^[3]

• Pit (from Kid Icarus) – The diminutive Kid Icarus is very loyal to, and protective of, Princess Lana and while he shows childish behavior, he is not short on courage. He is not very physically effective in action situations and often bemoans his small stature, but is the only N Team member who can fly, and usually is a very accurate archer. His quiver holds regular arrows which can dematerialize foes, but also has various specialized gadget arrows. He often ends many words in his speech with the suffix "-icus". He has light feathery wings, long bangs of hair that always cover one eye, and wears a one-shoulder toga with sandals. He comes from the world of Mount Icarus. His appearance in Season 3 resembles his sprite and box art from the Kid Icarus sequel for Game Boy.^[4] He is voiced by Alessandro Juliani.

• Mega Man (from Mega Man) – As diminutive as Kid Icarus, Mega Man is a robot constructed by Dr. Light. He too is protective of Princess Lana. Despite his size, he is incredibly strong, physically durable, and extremely agile. His body is clad in multi-tone green armor and he wears a visor. He has two forearm-mounted energy blasters which function like Captain N's zapper. He occasionally begins his words with the prefix "mega-". His home world, along with Dr. Light, is Megaland. In the episode "Happy Birthday Megaman" he is upset with the fact he is a nonliving robot and is transformed from a robot into a living man, although later in the series he is still shown to possess his robotic abilities.^[5] He is voiced by Doug Parker. Megaman's green appearance has been attributed to the creators playing the Megaman game on a ma-adjusted TV set, although this remains unverified.

• Game Boy – Debuting in the first episode of the second season ("Gameboy", aired September 8, 1990), Game boy is a human-sized supercomputer shaped like the Nintendo product of the same name, a 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. When the portal to Mirror World opened, King Charles sent him in his place to help Captain N. He announces himself as being "programmed to play games" but, when action arises, he is usually capable of meeting the challenge. His body exhibits elasticity when he stretches out his arms and hands from his casing. Game Boy also uses his display to materialize many things, including objects and monsters, mainly for the team's target practice. He also has an onboard computer which can analyze substances and track enemies. Game Boy is voiced by Frank Welker.^[6]

Main villains

• Mother Brain (from Metroid) – The primary villain of the show Mother Brain is a trash talking, abusive, power-hungry brain in a giant bottle. In the pilot episode her troops are marching at the door of the Palace of Power, and she had already captured and banished the King of Videoland to the Mirror World on Exaclibur. Though proud of her form and presence, she is not above any subterfuge if it gets her goal accomplished. She also displays great vanity—almost as much as Simon Belmont. She spends most of her time stationary in a control room on her floating world, Metroid, where she uses a special "mirror" to spy on the members of the N Team as she looks for weaknesses to exploit. She also has retractable prehensile tentacles she uses to lash or electrically shock her usually incompetent minions to encourage them to do better. Mother Brain is voiced by Levi Stubbs.^[7]

• King Hippo (from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!) – The monstrous, pear shaped King Hippo is the "heavyweight" who is short on brains and big on muscle. He is cruel, indulgent, and sharp tongued, but most of his ire is usually directed to his counterpart the Eggplant Wizard. His home world is called Punch-Out!!, a name inspired by the game of the same name. King Hippo is voiced by Gary Chalk.^[8]

• Eggplant Wizard (from Kid Icarus) – A cyclops human-sized vegetable, Eggplant Wizard is a main foe for Kid Icarus, but mostly serves as a target of abuse for Mother Brain due to his incompetence. He is also the chief foil for King Hippo as the two usually appear at the same time. He also has the ability to conjure various vegetable-themed gadgets to aid in mischief. Unlike King Hippo, Eggplant Wizard has shown some signs of taking the initiative to come up with his own schemes and is not above turning against Mother Brain on rare occasions. Eggplant Wizard is voiced by Michael Donovan.^[9]

• Doctor Wily (from Mega Man) – The least shown of the main villains Dr. Wily is a short, beady-eyed, and slightly grizzled old man loyal to Mother Brain and arguably the most competent of her main henchmen. He is a stereotypical mad scientist who uses his genius to build wild gadgets or develop complicated schemes to defeat the N-Team. One notable episode had him using a mind reading device to find out the greatest fears of the team members, then constructing a robot in the likeness of a school bully, Kevin's greatest fear. He speaks with a German accent and is constantly wheezing in his speech. Dr. Wily is voiced by Ian James Corlett, who coincidentally went on to voice Mega Man himself in the Ruby-Spears animated series.

Minor villains

• Donkey Kong (from Donkey Kong) – A gigantic gorilla, Donkey Kong resides on Kongoland. Mostly a solitary character, he is quick to anger and not happy to see visitors in what he considers his jungle. He has no loyalties and is equally dangerous to all the characters, with the exception of the Videolympics episode where he joins Mother Brain's team. Voiced by Gary Chalk.

• The Count (from Castlevania) – A pasty, lanky vampire in a gauche yellow suit, he is the representation of Dracula from Castlevania, but is never referred to directly as Dracula. He demonstrates the ability to control the undead and transform into a bat in order to threaten the countryside of Castlevania, but rarely teams up with any other character for his goals. In his Season 3 appearance, the only one of this season, he wears a more appropriate black and dark blue suit. Voiced by Gary Chalk.

• Dragonlord (from Dragon Warrior) – A huge red dragon of near-Donkey Kong size, the Dragonlord makes multiple attempts to rule Dragon's Den, the world of Dragon Warrior. Intelligent, if somewhat gullible, he uses both his size and his magical powers to further his goal of conquering his world and ruling over all its citizens.

• Ganon (from The Legend of Zelda) – A warthog-like wizard, who serves as Link and Zelda's greatest enemy. He is a powerful warlock who wields strong magic, but Link has always previously overcome him. After Link had defeated him recently, he lost most of his power, before drinking the potion of power provided to him by King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard, regaining all his strength and power. Len Carlson reprises his role of Ganon here.

• Malkil (from Ironsword) - Another evil wizard. He also appears as one of the primary villains from the sister show The Power Team. Voiced by Gary Chalk.

Other characters

The following characters appear in at least 2 episodes:

• King Charles – The original monarch of Videoland, and father of both Lana and Lyle, was captured by Mother Brain and banished to the Mirror World before the start of the show and has remained trapped there since. He is a kind and compassionate ruler who places his judgement of others above his own well being. He has an impressive white beard and moustache, and wears ornate multicolor clothing. King Charles is voiced by Long John Baldry

• Princess Zelda (from The Legend of Zelda) – A beautiful young woman, she rules Hyrule and protects the Triforce from evil as well as providing help to the N Team. She is a close friend to Princess Lana since before Mother Brain waged war on Videoland, and the two regard each other highly. She wields a bow occasionally to deal with foes. Cynthia Preston reprises her role of Zelda here.

• Link (from The Legend of Zelda) – A young warrior who serves Zelda, Link is a heroic figure who is brave, friendly (if somewhat competitive), and resourceful. He also fights to defend the Triforce and Hyrule from enemies and wields a double-edged sword. He is Kevin's idol and favorite video game character. There was minor friction between them when Zelda complimented Kevin on his skills and intelligence, causing some jealously and mild resentment on Link's part. However this was later defused when he and Kevin worked together to defeat Ganon and they became close friends. Jonathan Potts reprises his role of Link here. Unlike his appearance in the Zelda segments in the Super Mario Bros Super Show, Link is older and portrayed as being more mature and no longer obsessed with trying to steal a kiss from Zelda.

• Prince Lyle – Brother to Princess Lana, Lyle left home at an undisclosed time after feeling out of place. Despite his lineage, he displays few leadership skills or heroism, and generally regards himself as clumsy in spite of his good intentions. Thinking it for the best, he left home and took up residence on the world of Tetris where he guards the Sacred Square. Lana and the other team members convince him that nobody will have any confidence in him as a leader until after he believes in himself.

• Wombatman – A television hero parody of Batman, Wombatman is a squat and cynical actor who portrays his character of the same name. Kid Icarus idolizes him and identifies with the various gadgets he uses, as he comes up with similar gadget arrows in his quiver.

• Mayor Squaresly – The mayor of Tetris. He is mostly fond of holidays and declares a new one when he gets the chance. He also escapes a villain, who is turning Tetris' citizens into Tetris blocks, to contact the N-Team for help. Mayor Squaresly is voiced by Gary Chalk.

• Bayou Billy (from The Adventures of Bayou Billy) – Bayou Billy is the main character from the video game that Kevin could not beat. He has an alligator for a pet and rides around in a buggy-like vehicle. He helps Captain N find his lost dog by training him in the ways of bayou tracking. Bayou Billy is voiced by Gary Chalk.

• Prince Plenty – The monarch that reigns over Kongoland, except when Donkey Kong is involved, Prince Plenty is blue-skinned like all the humanoid inhabitants of Kongoland. He is a very soft spoken and friendly ruler who manages to keep tranquility in Kongoland, even with Donkey Kong on the loose, as he has invented a machine that feeds Donkey Kong fruit and keeps him away from the city.

• Doctor Wright (based on Doctor Light from Mega Man) – The genius scientist who built Mega Man and Mega Girl, he teams up with the N Team to fight off Dr. Wily and Mother Brain. He also serves as a father figure to Mega Man. He is Captain N's version of Doctor Light.

• Mega Girl (from Mega Man) – A girl robot with very similar construction to Mega Man, except her armor is pink and white. She wants to be friends with him very much, but is turned away initially as she reminds him that he is not human. She is Captain N's version of Roll.

Episodes

Cast

• Gary Chalk – King Hippo, Donkey Kong, Count Dracula, Bayou Billy, Malkil, Mayor Squaresly, Additional Voices
• Ian James Corlett – Doctor Wily, Alucard
• Mike Donovan – Eggplant Wizard
• Matt Hill – Kevin Keene/Captain N
• Alessandro Juliani – Kid Icarus
• Andrew Kavadas – Simon Belmont
• Doug Parker – Mega Man, Kraid (Season 1)
• Levi Stubbs – Mother Brain
• Venus Terzo – Narrator (opening credits season 2), Princess Lana, Medusa, Kevin's Mom (voice over only)
• Tomm Wright – Duke
• Frank Welker – Gameboy

Additional voices

• Suzanne E. Balcom -
• Long John Baldry - King Charles, Little John, Clock Man
• Don Brown -
• Len Carlson - Ganon
• Babz Chula -
• Violet Crumble -
• Christopher Gaze -
• Tony Dakota -
• Marcy Goldberg -
• Doc Harris -
• Anthony Holland -
• Lee Jeffrey -
• Alex Jordan -
• Annabelle Kershaw -
• Campbell Lane -
• Blu Mankuma -
• Lelani Marrell -
• Scott McNeil -
• Colin Meachum -
• Shane Meier -
• Andrew Narados -
• Pauline Newstone -
• Jonathan Potts - Link
• Cynthia Preston - Princess Zelda
• Alvin Sanders -
• Marlow Vella -
• Mark Weatherly -
• Kurt Weldon -

The comic book

The Captain N comic book was published by Valiant Comics as part of the Nintendo Comics System in 1990. Despite being based on the television cartoon of the same name, it was actually quite different from the show. The comics had a more serious tone than the cartoon. Additionally, all third-party characters (Simon Belmont, Mega Man, Dr. Wright, the Count, and Dr. Wily) were not in the comic. Samus Aran, who never appeared in the cartoon, was a frequenter of the stories who falls in love with Kevin, and becomes Lana's rival for his affections. When asked by a fan why Samus did not appear in the television series, Jeffrey Scott said, "Never heard of her. That could be why."^[10] An article at 1UP.COM describes Samus as "rambunctious, reckless, and gets into pissing contests with Lana over Kevin's affections, which makes for some of the most entertaining situations in the series". The reviewer added "Not to say that the deadly quiet, contemplative Samus who fights for truth and justice in the more recent Metroid games isn't awesome, but there's something compelling about a Samus who's greedy and conniving – and is proud to admit it."^[11]

Mother Brain's second-in-command became Uranos, the demigod of the sky based on a regular enemy from Kid Icarus. Pit's toga was changed from white to yellow and, in most of the stories, Lana's dress was purple. However, in the comics Lana has a weapon – a sceptre she had in concept art, but only had a very brief appearance on one episode of the show.

In the last printed issue of the comic book, a letter column promised that Mega Man would make an appearance but the comic was aborted abruptly and this never came into existence. The first issue was to be included as a digital reprint on the DVD set, but could not since the rights to the comic are in limbo.^[12]

Featured video games

Because Captain N took place in a universe where video games existed as reality, a multitude of video games were used in the thirty-four episodes of the series. In some cases only areas and elements from the game were used, but the protagonist was absent; some examples include Wizards & Warriors, Dragon Warrior, and Metroid. The following video games were portrayed at least once during the series' run:

Although nearly every major Nintendo franchise at the time was represented at some point or another in the show (as well as a few obscure ones, such as Puss 'n Boots), the Super Mario games were noticeably absent, although a line mentioning the game is included in the pilot episode comparing the Ultimate Warp Zone that brings Captain N to Videoland to the warp zones in Super Mario Bros. This is because The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was airing around the same time, which featured the characters and world of the Mario games.

Cancellation

Before the show's third and last season, NBC made significant budget cuts to their Saturday Morning cartoon programming as they began to gradually move away from cartoons. As a result the third season has lower quality animation with certain elements missing (Simon's goggles, Pit's sandals, etc.). Also, many episodes only featured the first party Nintendo characters (Kevin, Pit, Game Boy) to avoid paying royalties to Konami and Capcom for the uses of Simon Belmont and Mega Man respectively. The episodes were also shorter (11 minutes), and some did not have any tie-ins to Nintendo games, but other things such as fairy tales (Misadventures in Robin Hood Woods) and sports (Battle of the Baseball Know-It-Alls).

Broadcast history

• NBC (1989–1992)
• Syndication (1992–1993) (As "Captain N and the Video Game Masters")
• Family Channel (1991–1992)
• USA Network (1993–1994)

International Broadcast

• RTP1
• SIC (4 January 1995 - 17 December 2000) {Nintendo Memória}
• TVI (13 October 1995 - 27 July 1997) {Nintendo Cartoons}
• TV-am (17 March 1990 - 3 November 1990)
• CITV (1 April 1991 - 30 January 1993)
• The Children's Channel (1990s)

Syndication and changes

Captain N and the Video Game Masters (VGM)

Captain N was syndicated on local affiliates on weekdays in the Fall of 1992 to 1993 as Captain N & The Video Game Masters, a package which included Captain N, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. This compilation package is commonly referred to as "VGM" for short in the Captain N fandom.

• VGM had its own theme song, followed by a commercial break, followed by the theme song of whichever series was being shown on that day. The lyrics consisted of "The world of Captain N is here" sung four times.

• Like The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, original airings of the first season's episodes typically featured current popular music of the day, such as Bob Seger's "Shakedown" in "Kevin in Videoland" and "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins in "Mega Trouble for Megaland". But when Captain N episodes were aired in the VGM package, these songs were removed and replaced by an instrumental version of the "Mega Move" song from Season 2's "The Feud of Faxanadu" which was also used for the syndicated runs of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. In "The Most Dangerous Game Master", this music, which replaced a cover of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", is very noticeably repeatedly looped to fill the required amount of time.

• When "The Feud of Faxanadu" was aired in the VGM package, it used the opening theme song of the third season.

• The Zelda episodes were cut for time when aired in the VGM package and two episodes were shown in each half-hour block. Supposedly, at least once, the episode "Doppelganger" aired with the title "Underworld Connections", which is a completely different episode.

• In the Family Channel and VGM airings, the second season's opening theme song had the Mario 3 segments removed.

-Many episodes also received minor changes when they were released in syndication as part of the Captain N & The Video Game Masters package. The only major change was removing the "popular" music and replacing it with the instrumental music from the "Mega Move" song in "The Feud of Faxanadu". All episodes were time compressed and split into 2 acts instead of 3 to fit in the time slot for more commercials (often editing the shots before and after a commercial break into separate shots or one continuous shot. In other cases, it would remain intact as a scene transition). All episodes except "The Feud of Faxanadu" used the second season intro and credits. Season 3 episodes also cut out the title card at the beginning making episodes start suddenly.

Other airings

Family Channel

Family Channel played only the first 26 episodes from the Fall of 1991 to the Summer of 1992. Episodes were time compressed to fit in more commercials, making episodes around 2 minutes shorter. Family Channel airings also included the featured songs that played on the NBC and YTV airings, unlike later airings on WGN, Fox, and USA Network. Episodes were split into 4 acts instead of 2 or 3, and used the 1 minute (season 1) and 30 second (season 2) intros for their respective seasons.

USA Network

Starting in the Fall of 1993, USA Network began showing reruns of the series on their Sunday lineup of their USA Cartoon Express animation block. Unlike other reruns, USA opted to edit scenes out of various episodes to cut the length down to their required limit in order to fit in more commercials. Sometime in 1994, it was taken off the lineup and replaced with another series. This was the last time the series has been shown on US TV.

Alternate Versions of Episodes

It is generally regarded that there are thirty-four unique episodes of the series. However, alternative versions of many episodes exist (mostly as a result of episodes being shown before completion). Provided is a list of episodes with alternate versions:

• "How's Bayou": The original version of this episode that aired on September 16, 1989 differed from the version that aired on all later airings. This version featured some dialogue changes/rearrangements/etc., an alternate piece of instrumental music in the Kevin/Lana dancing scene, and several other small changes here and there. Additionally, in the original airing, several shots were missing their backgrounds. The Shout Factory DVD release contains this episode in its unfinished form (albeit with the cover of Born on the Bayou replaced with the generic "Mega Move" instrumental and the teaser shown before the intro). When it was first reran in December 1989 (and on all subsequent reruns), the episode was shown in its finished form, but this finished version has yet to be officially released.
• "When Mother Brain Rules": This "clip show" episode has at least two different versions. There are many scenes with dialog but no music, and vice versa. In alternative versions of the episodes, many of these sequences are changed around.
• Some of the season 1 and season 2 episodes ("Nightmare on Mother Brain Street", "Quest for the Potion of Power", "Invasion of the Paper Pedalers", "Three Men and a Dragon", & "Mr. and Mrs. Mother Brain") were recut to 10 minutes long for airing in season 3 as filler. In addition to being heavily edited, the soundtrack was also rescored (possibly to accommodate for the edits). Unlike the other 4 episodes, "Quest for the Potion of Power" was merely split into two parts and had new narration added in, as well as having the music redone.
• Some printings of the "Quest for the Potion of Power" used the soundtrack from the season 3 version, as well as using the shorter version of the season 3 intro and a slightly different outro.

VHS releases

In the early 1990s, various season two Captain N episodes were released on VHS tapes distributed by Buena Vista Home Video:

• "Gameboy"
• "Quest for the Potion of Power"
• "Trouble with Tetris"
• "Trojan Dragon"
• "Having a Ball"
• "Once Upon a Time Machine"

DVD releases and changes

The official Captain N DVD set was released in North America on February 27, 2007, by Shout! Factory. But although the set is called The Complete Series, There are some omissions:

• Season 3 is not included and this is because Season 3 is considered to be part of a different series, due to sharing a half-hour block with the Super Mario World cartoon on NBC in the fall of 1991, and the copyright holders required that the Captain N and Super Mario World episodes be released together. Captain N & The New Super Mario World has since been released on DVD in a separate two-disc set.
• Episode 27, "When Mother Brain Rules", which was a clip show episode, was not included on the master tapes that DiC sent to Shout! Factory, so this episode is not included on the DVD set.
• Contrary to what many sites said prior to the release of the set, the primitive, first version of "How's Bayou" is included in this set. However, it is the only version on the set but the better known, second version is not featured in this package.
• The tapes that DiC lent to Shout! Factory to make the DVD set are clones of NBC broadcast masters, which apparently do not lose quality from copy to copy. It is unknown why DiC did not provide its own master tapes.
• The tapes used for the first season episodes are the NBC masters, with the instrumental version of "Mega Move" dubbed in where the original featured songs were played, as on the VGM airings. For unknown reason, DiC lent Shout! Factory the Family Channel tapes of season 2, meaning the run time each episode is around 2 minutes shorter, and some dialogue is harder to understand, and episodes are split into 4 acts instead of 3.
• The opening "teasers" are not included on the DVD set, as these were not a part of Shout! Factory's deal with DiC. The only teaser on the disc is the one for "Kevin in Videoland", featured as a bonus feature on disc one.
• A scene about two minutes long from the episode "Queen of the Apes" is absent from the DVD, making the episode 19–20 minutes as opposed to its original running time of 21:39. Missing from the DVD is the entire "underwater piranha battle" scene involving Kevin and Simon, and some of the "hoisting Mother Brain's body up a cliff" scene with Kid Icarus and Mega Man. Brian Ward of Shout! Factory has stated that this was an authoring error and a replacement disc program is being initiated.^[13]
• The popular remade songs from season one are not included, and have been replaced by an instrumental version of the "Mega Move" song from "The Feud of Faxanadu", even though Shout! Factory promised "similar sounding music." This is obviously due to rights issues involving the songs. The songs in Season 2's episodes were not actual popular songs, but songs done exclusively for the series, so they are kept intact.

The DVD set is packaged in two double-disc thin packs. The booklet planned for the set was omitted due to time constraints, as no further delays were wanted.

DVDs were also released by other companies in various other countries, such as Germany.

Music

• Haim Saban & Shuki Levy composed all the background music for the first season, while Michael Tavera took over for Season 2 and 3's background score.
• The original NBC airing of "When Mother Brain Rules" in terms of music differed slightly from the syndication version that aired on the video game masters package; the NBC version kept all of Shuki Levy's score in all of the season 1 footage clips, but the syndication version replaced those with Michael Tavera's Season 2 score in the season 1 clips.
• When "Quest for the Potion of Power" was released on home video, two different versions were put out. One uses the normal soundtrack, and the other uses the soundtrack from the split up version that aired as filler in "Captain N and Super Mario World." The version with the alternate soundtrack also aired at least once in syndication.

Regional DVD releases

Every episode of Season 3 is available on Australian DVD alongside the entire series of the "Super Mario World" cartoon, just like in the US.

Three of the episodes of Season 3 are available on a Japanese DVD.

See also

• The Power Team (TV series)
• The Legend of Zelda (TV series)
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

References

External links

• Captain N at Cookie Jar Entertainment
• Captain N page from Shout! Factory
• Captain N: The Game Master at the Internet Movie Database
• Captain N: The Game Master at TV.com

Informational sites

• The Unofficial Captain N Home Page
• Captain N Wiki
• Chapel of Resonance Captain N Article
• CaptainN.Net