I’m sure this has been done before but I wanted to compare the Captain N characters once again with their video-game counterparts to see just how much did hey differ from their original versions. I may do other comparisons later. Those of you who liked my The Legend of Zelda Monster Round-up might enjoy this.
In addition to the previous post, I forgot the one appearance by a Dodongo from Moblins are Revolting, but because the early Dodongo just looked like a Triceratops anyway, I don’t think you missed anything there.
MEGA MAN
Probably the video-game (dis)similarity that angry fanboys are always quick to jump on is Mega Man. His outfit is a little off but essentially what people always react badly to is his colour. Now, admittedly the first two Mega Man games had already come out in the US when the show started airing, but my guess would be that this design of Mega Man was approved while the show was still in pre-production and this is why it was never corrected.
Now not nit-picking on the colour you could pose the argument that Mega Man in Captain N is far more similar to his original appearance than how he was depicted on the American cover-art for Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 2. He’s the right size, his helmet is sort of similar with the exception of the vizor and at least he actually has arm-cannons and not a gun like he tended to have in the early box-artwork.
Doug Parker’s voice performance as the character splits opinions but I personally love it. I especially love his addition of Mega in front of sentences and his rolled R’s in certain episodes. By comparison his nemesis, Dr. Wily went entirely unaltered for his cartoon appearance (and incidentally his voice-actor, Ian Corlett, would voice Mega Man in his self-titled cartoon series in 1995).
EGGPLANT WIZARD
Probably one of the closest matches with the original game appearance, Eggplant Wizard took the role of Kid Icarus’ (Pit’s) nemesis in the show. He’s a memorable character, always bungling and dropping vegetables everywhere. One of my favorite little tidbits about the character is that he actually disguised the eggplant on his magic staff in Nightmare on Mother Brain Street.
KING HIPPO
Another character who wasn’t too heavily altered for his game appearance was King Hippo. Beyond the fact that he lost the bandage over his bellybutton and his skin was coloured a strange light blue, he was more or less the same character. Gary Chalk who did his voice would later voice Guts Man in the Mega Man cartoon series in 1995 (incidentally Guts Man has a quick appearance in the episode Mega Trouble for Megaland).
KID ICARUS (PIT)
Kid Icarus is one of the most sympathetic figures in the show and his appearance remained consistent with his game-appearance as well with a slight alteration to his hairstyle to make it fall over his right eye. I particularly enjoy his attachment of “-icus” to the ends of words and even names (“Simonius”). In fact the only thing the creator’s of Captain N got wrong was his name, which is Pit. But to be honest, how many people actually knew his name was Pit and how many care? Plus, what the hell kind of name is Pit for a hero anyway?
MOTHER BRAIN
For Mother Brain the creators of Captain N had to get a little creative. Essentially just a brain in a jar – and much later a brain in a jar with an eye and a drool dripping jaw full of sharp teeth – Mother Brain needed to be given a face to make her more presentable as a villainess. Levi Stubbs provided her bizarre voice which is one of the trade marks of the series, not entirely feminine and definitely really creepy.
Some might say that DiC abused the Metroid license quite a bit as there were no actual Metroids in the series (instead the name is attached to the world where the villains live) and Samus Aran is completely absent (though she did appear in the Captain N comic books). Still, Mother Brain should be looked on as a product of the writers’ imagination and she is definitely one of the most original lady villains out there.
SIMON BELMONT
It’s fair to say that out of all the characters depicted in Captain N, Simon Belmont has probably the least consistent appearance not just in the cartoons but from game-to-game as well. His hair-colours been everything from brown, to black, blonde, blue (in Haunted Mansion) and in his most recent game appearances, red. He has switched between wearing a headband and not wearing one, from having a full suit of armour to just leather suit, to a weird furry collar thing in his most recent appearances.
Back in 1990 only Castlevania, Vampire Killer and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (and the extremely obscure Haunted Mansion) had come out and even compared to these early appearances Simon didn’t really look anything like his game counterpart, apart from having a whip. His hair colour is the right one, but he’s exaggeratedly manly and muscle-bound, wears a blue flight jacket, a backpack and goggles.
I’ve heard Simon’s appearance was based upon the actor who voiced him, Andrew Kavadas, so the DiC crew weren’t even trying to make him consistent with his game counterpart. While it’s the biggest inconsistency in the series I actually don’t mind at all, Simon is just a hoot. He’s a complete narcissistic a-hole and the funniest character in the whole show.
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