The Premise: Teenager Kevin Keene and his loyal dog Duke are transported through a mysterious portal into another dimension known as Videoland. (But… let’s be clear! The dude’s INSIDE the Nintendo!) There, Kevin dons the moniker of Captain N: The Game Master and joins forces with Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Kid Icarus to save Videoland from the evil Mother Brain!
This is one that I absolutely loved as a kid but, in my social circles at least, is pretty obscure these days. I went as the titular character a few years ago for Halloween and spent the whole day explaining who I was supposed to be. I finally ended up just saying that I was a high school student… from Nathan High School?... who carries a laser gun? Whatever. Can I just have some candy, please?
The show got its start when Nintendo Power Magazine (another cherished relic from my childhood) published a “Captain Nintendo” comic strip. The comic’s creator Randy Studdard pitched the character as the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon, as well as the company spokes-character… I guess if things somehow fell through with… you know… SUPER MARIO??? Nintendo ultimately decided to adapt the property into a cartoon series but supposedly did so without crediting or compensating Studdard. Ah, the sexy but cruel world of video game cartoon shows, amiright?!
My first memory of Captain N is having to get up extra early to watch it. I loved it THAT much! I also remember there not being any merchandise for the show. There were no action figures, no playsets, certainly not any Halloween costumes! I find this odd for a Saturday morning cartoon that ran for three seasons. I guess the product the show was pushing was the Nintendo itself, along with its many games. This is funny considering that many of the show’s characters aren’t exactly on brand. Castlevania vampire-hunter Simon Belmont is a blonde narcissist, Kid Icarus has some weird speech thing where he adds a ‘-us’ suffix to random words, King Hippo is green, Donkey Kong wears a shower cap, and Mega Man is a robot child-man with a tinted visor! I mean… What is that about?!
I guess if the showrunners used more direct adaptations, they would have had to give some credit where it was due, and that’s not a practice they were apparently fond of.
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Snap.
Kablama Slam! Fun Fact: Kevin Keene earned his Varsity letter jacket for swimming. Probably not at Nathan High School though.
