I’m a huge fan of people going into digital worlds, so of course I’m a huge fan of Captain N, which I’ve talked about before. Hell I’m even a fan of the New Adventures of Captain S. So let’s have a small tribute to some of the characters that Captain N: The game master has to offer.
Heroes
Kevin Keene: A real life kid that gets zapped into Videoland through the Ultimate WarpZone! Now this was the late 80s and for the time his character isn’t terribly annoying, he isn’t a dumb rookie or too much of a boy scout which is good. He isn’t a terribly interesting character either though but you won’t mind him. His get up is awesome though with his Nintendo jacket, an NES controller as his belt buckle and a Zapper as a weapon.
Princess Lana: The Princess of Videoland who seems to be an amalgam of Princess Toadstool (Peach) and Zelda. She was probably used instead of the other two in order to be Kevins love interest without causing any trouble about either of them cheating on Mario and Link. She is fairly generic though she isn’t the damsel in distress too often and shows that she can fight at least a few times. Her role isn’t anything too special from the generic girl of other shows but she doesn’t annoy too much at least.
Simon Belmont: The Legendary Vampire Hunter of the Castlevania series is reduced to being a narcissist and sometimes coward/jerk. Castlevania fans hate the fact that he is nothing like his game counterpart but in his defense he is awesome! His personality adds a lot to the show and while not like his game counterpart did we really need a group of boy scout heroes? Of course not this is why the writers gave them different personalities. Simon is awesome for being this pompous jerk, if you don’t like it watch the Netflix Castlevania show.
Mega Man / Kid Icarus (Pit) – The Blue (Err Green) Bomber, a small robot who has a lot of strength and talks like he’s a chain smoker and occasionally though not as often as some make it out to believe uses “Mega” to describe stuff. He doesn’t add much most of the time but he isn’t a character you don’t like, in fact I have soft spot for him. Pit from Kid Icarus appears but his name here is Kid Icarus and he is very similar to Megaman in that he doesn’t add much to the story but unlike Mega Man he isn’t very likable. He definitely has a more annoying personality and often finishes his sentences with “acus” which is slightly annoying (err its not too bad).
Gameboy / Duke: Game boy first shows up in the second season, he gets a whole episode to himself though later he is reduced to doing mostly nothing for the rest of the season with only a few exceptions..sadly. Game boy is well… a giant Game Boy and that’s awesome. Yeah the original Gameboy now looks pretty big but this Gameboy is much bigger and I kinda liked having a giant Game Boy as part of the team even if he didn’t do much. Duke is Kevin’s dog and he is well just a dog that doesn’t do much, ever!
Link / Zelda : They are only recurring characters in season 2 appearing in only about 3 episodes but I really liked them so they get their own profiles. Looking back only one of the three episodes was actually strong but it was still great seeing Link and Zelda show up, it definitely legitimized Captain N as most of the time he is in forgotten third party videogames that the average person wouldn’t even know were actual games. They both have the same voice actors as the short lived Zelda cartoon which was based on the first Zelda game. This time they are based on Zelda II, their personalities definitely changed a bit, Link is a bit more mature and Zelda more hands on but they are totally the same characters and its clear to me the Zelda cartoon is meant to be in continuity, heck it even gives a conclusion to the show since Ganon is now defeated. Excuuuuse me if I want them to be in continuity.
Samus: Sadly Samus didn’t appear in the cartoon even though the main villain was Metroid’s Mother Brain. However in the Captain N comics by Valiant since they didn’t use third party characters they had Samus instead and she was such an awesome character there that I decided to include her here. Samus is a badass mercenary who clearly is attracted to Kevin which creates some great moments with him and Princess Lana, a great love triangle. Too bad the comic was short lived and she never appeared in the show.
Villains:
Mother Brain: From the world of Metroid, being you know a Brain she gets the awesome idea of joining forces with other villains of other videoworlds to conquer Videoland. Of course as awesome as that sounds it’s no alliance and all she has are two minor villains working for her. Counting her name is Mother Brain she is a big Brain with an ugly face with lipstick and serves the role not of a villainous mastermind but a generic I WANT TO CONQUER VIDEOLAND WITH MY SILLY PLOTS. Not a great villain by any means luckily not every episode deals with her.
Eggplant Wizard/King Hippo: Apparently a boss from Kid Icarus, he’s a purple vegetable with one eye that has a wand that turns things or throws vegetables. He is the stupid henchmen of Mother Brain, though he does have his moments where he redeems his character somewhat unlike.. King Hippo from Punch Out! only he’s no longer a human and is blue. He is also the stupid henchmen of Motherbrain, however unlike Eggplant Wizard he really is stupid with nothing redeeming about him. How is this a threat to videoland exactly?
Dr. Wily/ The Count (Dracula) – Third party villains of their respective heroes. Dr. Willy is shown sometimes helping Mother Brain even though he is definitely more competent than her. He is a good villain at least unlike the others, especially when he gets his own episode as the main villain, not a bad interpretation of the evil Doctor. The Count rarely appears which isn’t much of a loss since he is beyond pathetic, he does get an episode by himself where he is the main villain.
Donkey Kong: Not really a villain but just a force of nature that can’t be controlled like Godzilla, so he can be the antagonist or even help the heroes. This is pre-Donkey Kong Country so he is portrayed more in a King Kong fashion (he’s even gigantic!) since all they had to go with is the old Arcade Games. I actually saw a few things that made references to his future look though, he wears a tie in one episode and loves to hoard bananas, now I realize Gorillas like bananas but hoarding is something Donkey kong Country era Donkey Kong is known for. He appears fairly frequently which is good since he was entertaining and it was nice seeing what is basically a Mario character on the show.
