Captain N The Game Master Episodes 32-34 Review

It's action. It's drama. It's comedy. It's Decian,

the superhero webcomic. Decian's got superhero

antics and sexy girls. Read it now at Decian

.com. D -A -S -I -E -N .com. My main brain tells

me you should be listening to pixels in the animation.

Because if you aren't, I'll punch your lights

out. Welcome to Videoland. Make a life! Wake

up, Kid Icarus! Welcome to Castle D! It's Clongoware!

By the brain, we'll get you, little princess!

Princess, the palace is under siege! Behold,

the ultimate warp zone! Hello and welcome to

the latest episode of pixels in the animation.

I am one of your host teacher and Mike and joining

me in this Pixelated journey is TV's mr. Deal.

Um, I don't know sword chucks there It's a double

reference 8 -bit theater Yeah, all right I'm

gonna call a foul ball on that right there And

we are here to uh review quote -unquote review

the final three episodes of Captain and the Game

Master ladies and gentlemen it's bad like it's

really bad the last two episodes that we've done

for season three i think it was two episodes

for season three um There were moments that I

could find good things in but the animation in

these final three episodes is Just like I'm telling

you guys. I'm not trying to be overly negative

about this I love and I loved Captain N as a

kid and I still love it today for the most part

But outside of totally tetris eyes season 3 sucks

It really, really does. I have to read this from

the Wikipedia, the cancellation of the series.

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,

Kid Icarus's sandals, etc, etc. So many episodes

featured the first party Nintendo characters,

Kevin, Icarus, 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, and Robin

Hood woods. and sports, Battle of the Baseball

No Dolls. Now didn't Bo Jackson do several different

baseball video games? I could have sworn he did.

He did, but they kind of got around it so they

didn't actually have to endorse the actual video

game. Instead, they just had Bo Jackson in a

baseball -themed episode. See, that's one of

their cheats is that they kind of sort of reference

the video game, but not really. Yeah. God Ladies

and gentlemen, I am just so speechless at least

final three episodes because oh My oh you you

I can't say anything take it Yeah, I'll just

I'll just say what I remember about the the early

90s the the the doom that was the late era Saturday

morning, which was a, you know, live action shows

slowly encroaching in on cartoon time. I mean,

yeah, of course you remember saved by the bell,

but there was also shit like the guys next door

and other shows like and plus sports was that's

that's what really irritated me is that sports

programming started to muscle in on the Saturday

morning time. I'm like, get this crap out. You

have ESPN. Get this out of here. You know, God

damn it. And yeah, it was really sad. I mean

it went down really fast I mean, I think the

Smurfs was already gone by this point. Oh Yeah,

most definitely I think Alvin and the chipmunks

was on his last legs and Yeah, it was really

sad Holy crap. I didn't realize ESPN was that

damn old. Yeah ESPN is pretty damn old and I

know somebody's gonna Somebody's gonna write

in and say actually ESPN would have been ABC.

Yeah, I know Don't don't email me about it Yes,

it was the ABC wide world of sports ESPN and

itself September 7th 1979 is when it was launched.

I don't I cannot believe it was that old. Oh

my god. Yeah, but you know NBC had its own sports

and that was really annoying. Oh, yeah I mean

hell NBC every network has sports now CBS ABC

I think the only network that doesn't it doesn't

have sports is the cw that might actually improve

that network anyway alright uh... we're gonna

get to the final three episodes uh... these episodes

ladies and gentlemen are so bad it's not me just

being lazy but i'm just gonna play the plot clips

and we're just gonna discuss them when i'm not

breaking it up into power pads and and zapped

moments because I literally have one note for

all three of these episodes. Yeah I just have

like a list of stuff for the for the Deke complaint

department. All right so first up is the baseball

episode after this. The end team is facing their

most awesome challenge. Bo Jackson, the team

captain of the video land all -stars. Bo knows

an amateur when he sees one, and I eat him for

breakfast. Okay, eat this, slugger. You need

to repeat that. I know, I know. It's ironic that

I would say that. You need to repeat that. Go

on, say it. They should have just... cut their

losses and just canceled Captain N altogether,

just used all their, all, with little money they

had left to do Mario cartoons, as much as I hate

the Mario cartoons. At least it would have, it

could have improved the Mario world cartoon a

little bit. All right, so we are here to talk

about Captain N and the baseball know -it -alls.

Hmm the plot if there is one now. Why wouldn't

they make of it? Okay after I read this plot

I'm gonna ask this question first, but after

I read this plot It would make more sense if

this was the final episode of the series Mother

brain has returned in a last -ditch effort to

conquer the palace of power While the end team

deals with other demons under the stadium in

the world of baseball Bo Jackson appears via

character and name And it's elements from Bo

Jackson's baseball. So he did have his own actual

baseball game, even though they didn't actually

reference the actual game. OK, now it says she

has returned for a last ditch effort to conquer

the Palace of Power. Why wouldn't you make this

your series finale? I don't know. I mean, granted

the. Yeah, this. There aren't too many other

Captain Anne episodes that I would say would

be a series finale out of the ones that were

produced But this should have been the last episode

Of the series because she actually gets into

the palace King Hippo and an eggplant wizard

are scrubbing the floors with toothbrushes and

everything else and whatever The plot was I won't

say it's interesting, but it's kind of hilarious

in the fact that she kind of finally gets away

with it for a little while while Captain Anne

and everybody else is stuck down in the baseball

card dungeon. Yeah, it's thing. What I thought

about it was that it's a really bare bones episode.

I mean, it's it's kind of like the shell of what

a lot of other episodes would have been. It's

like. mother brain you know gets a little bit

of uh you know gets a little bit of traction

gets you know she's she wins a little while while

kevin and the other characters are trapped somewhere

and then they come back and be here and save

the day i mean it's almost like it's almost like

the uh the episode where they were trapped in

the nightmare world it's like almost like the

same exact plot except that it's like condensed

down to 11 minutes and the animation is really

terrible and the character designs are Awful

actually actually I want to talk about that because

mother brains character design is so bad It looks

like it looks like a three -year -old river.

I mean really although ironically both eggplant

wizard and and King hippo Look regular. Yeah,

they look like they're regular character models.

Oh, did you notice King hippos crown? It's like

the new animation studio didn't know how to interpret

it. So it's like it's like two -dimensional When

he turns around, it's like his three prongs are

all in a line. It's very strange. I wish I knew

what Animation Studio was doing Season 3. I really

do. I don't know. This is network animation.

I expect better of this from PBS. I mean, I've

seen PBS shows that look better than this. Yeah,

and I don't... I know it was, um... I know it

was NBC doing budget cuts, but the animation

almost looked like they kiddified it. They did.

Because Kevin and Lana look like they're maybe

12 or 13 respectively. I mean... God. Oh my God,

no way. What? You gotta be kidding me. Production

companies, Nintendo of America, Inc., Dink Entertainment,

WangFilm. WangFilm. I know I've heard of that

studio before. I can't remember off the top of

my head what they've done. One of the oldest

and most prolific Taiwanese animation studios,

the company based in Taipei, has done animation

ink and paint for various TV shows and films

for studios in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Let's see here. Oh my god. They did the Bolt

- They did the Balto sequels. Oh god. They did

the Bionicle movies. They did... Three of the

Care Bear movies. They did Fern Gully, so at

least they did something good after this. If

this was them, I'm not seeing Captain N on their

list unless I get down here to TV shows. uh...

yep captain and the game master is listed on

their uh... on their thing uh... the hannah barbera

version of captain planet and the planet ears

that's where i remember this animation stuff

because the hannah barbera version of captain

n is awful yeah uh... uh... there's really no

plot here the basic plot is you know like you

said it's pretty much recycled from other episodes

because there was an episode that we talked about

where kevin and simon broke off into teams and

they had a rivalry with each other to beat each

other at their own game wasn't it it was a feud

event uh... whatever the hell the feud episode

this is the laziest episode ever it really really

is oh my god the only cool thing about this episode

the only cool thing was the baseball card king

I love that because as a kid I collected baseball

cards like it wasn't nobody's business what could

be worse I could have collected hockey cards

oh wow um yeah go ahead what were you gonna say

oh god what was I gonna well I'll say this I

I wanted to punch myself every time I heard the

phrase, Bo knows. Because that was the thing

back then, that was like his catchphrase, like,

Bo knows baseball. Yeah. Oh my god. All right,

so we are going to move on to the second to last

episode of the series. Was this the only episode

in season three where Game Boy was in it? Because

I don't remember my other episodes. You mean

in Bo Jackson? In the bow episode or the or in

all of season three because I don't remember

him in other episodes game boy He was I think

he was in totally tetris eyes. Oh, okay Which

if he wasn't that would be like a crying shame

for the for the advertisers considering Tetris

was the game that came with him. Yeah. Yeah So

we're gonna move on to the next episode In a

startling twist of events, the diabolical Dr.

Wily has joined forces with Dr. Wright to bring

peace to Videoland at last. Building a super

robot to keep peace in Videoland was a brilliant

idea, Dr. Wright. Its first act of peace was

bringing the two of us together in friendship.

I'll be back with my new control device before

I can say, peace. all right up next is god why

did I understand the reference they're going

for here but it just doesn't work it really doesn't

work a tale of two dogs t -a -l -e this is not

a tale of two cities ladies and gentlemen see

the the Garfield movie had a better had a better

pun going with that because it had a tale of

two kitties two kitties yeah Alright, so, Dr.

Wily and Dr. Light, because I refuse to call

him Dr. Right. Yeah, that's Dr. Wrong. True Mega

Man fans know his real name, damn it. Dr. Wily

and Dr. Light, and the in -team, build a peace

robot. And yes, I did use the term robot, because

that's what Dr. Light will call them when we

eventually get to the Mega Man series. But while

he double -crosses them, he tries to use the

robot to take over video land after kidnapping

Duke and Rush to keep Kevin and Mega Man occupied.

Elements from Mega Man 3. Now, let me ask you

this. The entire season, the entire series to

this point... Dr. Wily has pretty much been a

minion of Mother Brain. Right. Why is it only

now in the worst animation ever that we get an

episode of him on his own trying to take over

video land? He doesn't even say he's trying to

take over video land for Mother Brain. He is

trying to take over video land for himself. I

don't know. Because they're taking the plot from

Mega Man 3, which was... that was in the game

where he... he faked turning good and then, surprise,

he was the bad guy. And that became a recurring

theme in all of the games where it's like, surprise,

the bad guy's actually Dr. Wiley. Yeah, no, I

remember playing Mega Man 3. I'm probably one

of the few people that actually really loved

3, 4, and 5. Oh my god, you played 4 and liked

it? Yeah. Oh my god, I hate Mega Man 4. Why do

you hate Mega Man 4? Because there are so many

bitchy stages. It's totally unbalanced. There's

so many horrible stages, and then there's one

or two that are really simple. The Skullman stage,

I could sleep through it. But other stages, oh

my god, I hate the one stage that has all the

rainbow beams that if you step on them, they

disappear or something. Oh, yeah. I just can't

stand that game. Too many things hitting me from

off screen. That's one of the things I hated

about it. But anyway, this isn't Mega Man 4.

Oh my god. Yes. So they build the peace robot

which is Gamma from the game. Except it doesn't

look like Gamma at all. Gamma actually looks

pretty cool compared to this. This is just like...

It looked like the yellow demon with like a smiley

face drawn on it or something. I don't know.

Oh my god. So wait, this episode has a yellow

demon with a smiley face and it has a red devil

dog. I swear to god, what possessed them to animate

Rush like this? I don't know. I mean, okay, sure.

In the Mega Man cartoon series that we'll get

to eventually, he does kind of look cartoonish.

But in this series, he just doesn't look right.

This doesn't even it doesn't even look like a

design. It looks like somebody drew him on a

napkin and said, we got we got to hurry. Let's

just send that over. You know, like they didn't

even take the time to finalize it. I don't know.

And yet again, we have characters that look like

their season one and season two counterparts.

Both Dr. Light and Dr. Wiley look like their

regular warms all everyone else's redesigned

mm -hmm yeah that's yeah that's just crazy but

this episode is not it's just so bad yeah it

is so very bad it really really is oh boy all

right so i think we need to uh... to move on

to the final episode of the series and this is

where i won't just be saying oh my god this is

so bad oh my god this is so bad because neil

is probably gonna stick uh... center stage on

this one seeing is how he is a uh... fan of certain

final fantasies on the medieval world of final

fantasy An evil plot to overthrow the reigning

prince reveals the side of Captain Anne you have

ever seen. Whoa, this game looks awesome! I bet

we could find something more exciting to do than

having lunch with some drippy prince. Now Kevin,

the prince is a good friend of mine, so be nice.

Stop thieves, help! Alright ladies and gentlemen,

the final episode of Captain Anne the Game Master.

The fractured fantasy of Captain N now before

I give the plot and before Neil goes on his rant

soapbox, I will say right now I am not a role

playing game player at all. The closest thing

to role -playing games that I come to is when

Final Fantasy crossed over with Disney. Wow.

For Kingdom Hearts. Like seriously. Like that's

the only role -playing game I can really, really

play well. It's not that I have a dislike for

the franchise. It's just not my thing. I don't

know. So alright, Fractured Fantasy Captain in.

Kevin is hypnotized into doing evil by a dark

prince named Astos, who hopes to conquer the

world of Final Fantasy. Elements from Final Fantasy.

Take it away! Okay, first of all, Astos is such

a minor villain in the game. He had no aspirations

whatsoever, I don't think. I mean, all he was,

was he was... He was the villain who put the

prince to sleep but the whole purpose of going

after him was to was to get the I Don't know

what he had. I I thought crystal. Yeah, he had

the crystal what you needed for the witch to

do something or other and I See I'm Lou I've

I've kind of half forgotten what what that part

of the game was but it's very early in the game

And like I said, he's such a minor villain. There's

no chaos in this episode. There's no garland.

The four fiends aren't here. This episode doesn't

even capture what Final Fantasy is. The first

game barely has any characters whatsoever. I

guess that was part of the problem. But still,

they picked the weirdest thing to latch onto.

they could have done like the first quest in

the game which was saving the princess from Garland

which he's actually like a relevant villain in

the overall story and then they got the witch

but they didn't really do the witch right the

witch is supposed to be blind and was that the

broom from She -Ra what the fuck was that? Oh

my god you stole my note I was like that's Madame

Raz in disguise and there's broom yeah I mean

it's totally broom he looks exactly like him

It is, yeah. It's like, wait a second, when did

Filmation and Deke team up? Oh my god, that would

be frightening. Well, if it was Ghostbusters,

it would be frightening, yeah. Oh my god. I mean,

I'm just speechless. On your note about like

playing role -playing games, this is like a pretty

hardcore role -playing game. It's one of the

very first ones. It's not even that it's a hardcore

role -playing game, but the overall franchise.

All my friends in the 90s were like, oh my god,

oh my god, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 3, Final

Fantasy whatever number they were up to, I don't

know, whatever. It's like, Final Fantasy this,

Final Fantasy that, and I'm like, okay, so you

just sit here and watch an animatic for five

hours. I know that's not what the game is. I'm

not making fun of Final Fantasy or its fans.

Half the time I sat down with a buddy of mine

that played the game, We were watching animatics

for at least 20 minutes. Oh, you must be talking

one of the later ones. See, yeah, but this one

is like late nineties. What this one is, is you

select an attack from a menu and then you watch

your character on screen, do a couple of hits

with a sword, and then you wait for your turn

again. And that's it's really kind of a boring

game to watch. And it's kind of it's kind of

hard to play. I mean, the Game Boy Advance version

is probably the best version. The NES version,

which I've beaten once, is kind of it's kind

of a slog. I mean, it's really difficult to play,

even if you're into RPGs. You can hear what I'm

saying. I don't even want to talk about this

episode. It's just so stupid. Astos, why is he

even in this episode? All he does is he puts

a spell on Captain N to put the prince into a

deep sleep. I think he poisons him or something.

yeah and then he uses uses kevin to train his

troops which are just like stupid hollow knights

or something and then oh god you know they why

couldn't why couldn't simon be in this episode

because they had they had kitty curse and mega

man together dress up as one of the bad guy nights.

And of course they have to do the guy in the

trench coat thing where one is on the shoulders

of the other guy and they put the costume on.

Somehow, even though they look terrible, it tricks

Astos into hiring them. What the heck is that?

I don't know, I look like a giant turtle in a

trench coat. You're going to LaGuardia, right?

Yeah. Oh my god. Alright, we're gonna take a

quick break. You're gonna hear some ads and some

other stuff and we will come back with final

ratings and final thoughts and Yeah Oh my god.

Grab your helmets because it's time to assemble

M .A .S .K .E. The GeekCast Radio Network has

launched M .A .S .K .E. Mayhem with your hosts

Optimus, Solo, NTFU, and Mike. This podcast covering

all 75 episodes of M .A .S .K .E. will feature

in -depth analysis of every episode, talk on

the toys, and more. M .A .S .K .E. Mayhem will

run 30 podcast episodes. You can find us in iTunes

and on www .geekcastradio .com. Get your spectrums

ready as podcasting is the ultimate weapon. all

right folks it's time for final thoughts and

ratings Bo knows I'll give it a one because of

the baseball card king I thought he was a pretty

cool -looking villain and cool sounding villain

the other two episodes double zeros for both

of them The animation these last three episodes

the animation is what really kills it it really

does I'm so glad they didn't do a final Zelda

crossover because I would have been scared shitless

to see what the hell kind of chubby link they

would have put in there What about you for these

ones? I'm just gonna go zero for all three of

them I mean, I cannot recommend these at all.

I can't it's in some of the earlier seasons I'm

like, yeah, this is a terrible episode But you

know, it's kind of funny that they did this and

that so I could kind of recommend it This is

like like I said, it's like I've seen PBS shows

better than this. I What was it the book the

book of virtues Book of virtues over the hell

that was called that was animated better than

this God There's nothing there's no redeeming

quality whatsoever. Oh My god now, aren't you

glad that that on the quote -unquote complete

DVD of Captain M these last seven episodes were

not on it. I Did kind of miss the totally tetris

eyes, but I understand why they weren't On it

and even so shout factory went back and did a

release Come because that because these were

part of season 3 was part of captain in the new

Super Mario world Yeah, these were paired up

with Super Mario world, which we are going to

get to individually of this um... after the next

series we will cover uh... i think this uh...

these seven episodes and the uh... the clip show

episodes uh... i think those these are all apocryphal

i i don't think they count the only one i will

not allow you to say it does not count as totally

centricized because i really dug that one so

one out of seven ain't bad i don't know about

that Well, one episode out of seven, but anyway.

Alright, what have you got coming up? Well, I'm

starting a whole new chapter in Decian. A brand

new story, brand new characters being introduced,

tons of wackiness, and I've got a couple crossovers

coming up, which I'm not sure if I'm gonna be

even started by the time this episode is released,

so don't hold your breath and don't be looking

for them. because they're probably not going

to be done. And there is some rumblings of another

mega crossover between a bunch of other superheroes

on the internet, which I'm pretty sure I'm a

part of. So that's going to happen sometime next

year. But there is some rumblings, and I'll probably

be throwing some goodies on the Facebook page.

Awesome. Yes. Awesome. Alright, thank you for

joining us here on Pixels and the Animation.

There are some ways to get in contact with us

or leave feedback for the show. Visit the website

geekcastradio .com where you can comment on each

and every one of our episode posts. Email us

feedback at geekcastradio .com. Leave the show's

feedback in iTunes. Please do this. Follow us

on Twitter. The network there is at Geekcast

Radio. Mine is TF2Unlike. What is your Twitter?

Neil Sama. Become a fan on Facebook go to Facebook

.com slash key cast radio network You can also

check out Neil's classic gaming and to see in

comic over there Call the waste my line tell

us a show you living in this for and your name

five oh two five two six five eight two one There

is a five to six minute time limit. I believe

we hope you quote -unquote enjoyed this latest

episode of Pixels in the Animation. Wish you'll

join us next time when we will be going over

the Captain N series recap. Yay! For now, I am

TfU Mike with TV's Mr. Neil. Turn in next time

and help us find the Pixels in the Animation.