"Captain N - S2E3 Quest For The Potion Of Power / S2E9 Having A Ball"

[kane_magus]

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"Probably the two most popular Captain N: The Game Master episodes which feature Link and Zelda. Both episodes in one shot."

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So, want to know what eleven year old me thought was the absolute coolest shit ever, at the time? *points up* (Until that gets copyright claimed, anyway.)

It was basically Link and Zelda from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (voiced by the same actors), except in Captain N: The Game Master. Ah... 1990.

Does it still hold up in 2023? Ehhhhhhhhh... kinda? Not really? Okay, maybe not as well as the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon did, but it was all right, I guess. Granted, these are the only two episodes of Captain N that I've seen in a very long time, in contrast to recently watching the entirety of the D&D cartoon. But then, these are what I consider to be the best two episodes of Captain N, so... *shrug*

Nitpicks:

• Someone's trying to revive Ganon? Gee, I wonder who could be behind this plot it's Mother Brain, Kevin, it's always Mother Brain. Speaking of Mother Brain... she seems excessively weird to me now in a way she did not when I was a kid. Partly because I've played a hell of a lot more Metroid games at this point, compared to the basically zero of them that I'd played back then. In Captain N, it's literally just Levi Stubbs doing his Audrey II voice and thatsthejoke.jpg I guess, but still... fucking strange. Eggplant Wizard and King Hippo were odd choices for main villains as well, in retrospect, but... eh... it was the 90s, I guess.
• I really didn't care much for Link being a jealous asshole in the first episode who had to learn the Power of Friendship™ from Captain N. That disappointed me even as a kid watching that episode for the first time. And, watching it now, Kevin seemed rather clueless as to why Link was acting like that. Part of it being Kevin (seemingly unintentionally) hotdogging and showing up Link on his own turf (which Link explicitly says later), and part of it being Zelda getting all touchy-feely-kissy with Kevin a time or two when Link was standing right there.
• There was no music at all from the Legend of Zelda games used in either of the episodes, or at least none that I recognized anyway. I just kept hearing different renditions of the (second, as opposed to the first) show main theme.
• That 80s (early 90s?) music though.
• It is with great sorrow that I must report that these episodes were, tragically, created after Gameboy was introduced as a character on the show and that he featured prominently in that first episode. Fortunately, Kevin brought Duke along in the second one instead and left Gameboy at home. As much as people hated Uni in the D&D cartoon, I didn't mind her that much, but, man oh man, Gameboy is weapons-grade shit. It's kind of funny, because both characters were voiced by otherwise beloved voice actor Frank Welker.

It was pretty cool to see Bayou Billy and Dr. Light/Wright in the second episode, even if it was just a cameo. That other guy though...??? And I saw Mega Man dancing with a pink Mega Man for a split second and was like, "Huh? Is that Roll? I don't recall Roll being in Captain N?" No, it was not Roll. But then, I don't remember a "Mega Girl" either.

Speaking of Mega Man, it was probably for the best that neither he nor Kid Icarus had speaking roles in either of these two episodes. Cid HighwindSimon Belmont was in both of them, though, if only briefly. With that said, despite how annoying Simon is in this show, I kind of want to go back and watch at least the Castlevania-themed episodes of Captain N, now, too, if not the entire series. And I think Link and Zelda appeared in a few more Captain N episodes, as well, for that matter. Looking back on it, I find it weird that neither Mario nor Samus Aran (despite Mother Brain being the main villain) were in Captain N at all. Then again, Mario had his own show(s) so that's sort of understandable, I guess. (But then, so did Link and Zelda...) And Samus did eventually show up in the Captain N Valiant comics that came later, at least, replacing non-Nintendo-owned characters Simon and Mega Man, who weren't in the comics.

On a tangential note, I also really appreciate that the video creator left in the Nintendo-themed commercials. Or, in the case of the last one, an Atari commercial for the Mario Bros. game for the Atari 5200. An odd choice, that. (And it was an early precursor to Luigi going around calling out for Mario, too.) As weird as that one was, though, it didn't hold a candle to that truly bizarre Legend of Zelda commercial, though. (That dude was the voice of the Cryptkeeper, by the way.)