An Animated Life: A Tribute to Ray Harryhausen

On May 7th, 2013, one of my greatest personal heroes passed away, Mr. Ray Harryhausen. It's very sad to me that many people don't even know who this man was, or just what he meant to the movies they watch today. But to me, I've been an avid fan of his, and he has meant an awful lot to me since childhood. Not only did I gradually get to witness his great works as I grew up, but I also remember getting a book from the library at one point that talked about movie special effects that had a part on Mr. Harryhausen and stop-motion animation. I was enthralled not only with the magic that he weaved on the screen, but the magician's secrets he employed to bring these wonders to life. I can honestly say that Ray Harryhausen and his films were just as important and impactful a part of my childhood, and helping to shape who I am today, as were dinosaurs, Godzilla, and Nintendo. And I can also honestly say, with great sadness, that I actually teared up a bit when I found out that he had passed.

Ray with Mr. Mighty Joe Young, his first big film.

 

To truly understand what Ray Harryhausen has meant not only to me, but to so many, including other major figures who have shaped the film industry, such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tom Hanks, Tim Burton, etc., you also first have to understand who the man was himself. Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was born in Los Angeles on June 29th, 1920. From an early childhood, much like yours truly, he had an avid love of film, as well as all manner of dinosaurs and monsters. The seminal event of his life, that changed him forever and set him on his course of destiny, in 1933 at the age of 13, was when he first saw the now-legendary film King Kong. He was so enthralled with what at the time was still a relatively new medium (film) and an even younger art form (stop-motion animation), that he went back to see the film many times, becoming obsessed. Back at this time, film's magic secrets were simply not as open and available to the public as they are now in interviews and special features on DVDs. Back in the "Golden Age" of cinema, most film secrets were indeed as well kept as those of a stage magician's tricks. And as such, including to young Ray's eyes, the animated monsters in King Kong were truly alive, and the secret of their life was a complete mystery. Many people theorized on how it all worked, as people of course knew the monsters weren't truly real. But it wasn't until years later that Ray stumbled across a magazine that featured the secret finally coming out, that Kong and his pals were in fact small models called "armatures", jointed metal skeletons with foam mold and skin or fur coverings. And it was then that he also learned that the man who would become his hero, Willis O'Brien, had been the one to create and animate this process.

A very young Mr. Harryhausen working on Puppetoons.

Unlike most of us, Ray actually got to not only meet, but work with his hero, as he contacted Mr. O'Brien who invited him to come down to the studio where he was working, to see how it all worked. Ray brought with him some of his own armature models that he'd been making with the help of his parents, and while impressed, O'Brien pointed out the unrealistic look of them, and told young Ray that he needed to study anatomy. That he did, as he got better and better at this new hobby of his over time. His first major work was with producer George Pal's "Puppetoons", a series of theatrical cartoon shorts done with stop-motion, and based on old fairy tales and Mother Goose type stories, amongst others. Ray then got drafted during World War II, in which he worked on films for the military, along with such people as famous director Frank Capra, and even the man who would go on to become "Dr. Seuss", Ted Geisel. Once the war was over, he had collected up a bunch of discarded 16mm surplus film, and used it to create his own fairy tale based shorts, originally 5 in all (the 6th finally being completed with help in 2003).

But it was after all of this, after the war, that he got the opportunity of a lifetime, contacted by O'Brien to help him make his newest project, another "giant ape" film, called Mighty Joe Young. So, now getting to work side by side with his hero and mentor, while O'Brien was mostly busy handling the technical issues of the special effects for the film, Harryhausen as his assistant actually wound up doing most of the animation work himself. The film was a major success, and it was off to the races from there on. For Ray, it was a case of the student succeeding the teacher, for his own career flourished while O'Brien's gradually faltered (for many sad reasons that will be explored another time), and while there were other stop-motion artists who would come along over the decades, for roughly 30 years, Ray Harryhausen more or less single-handedly kept O'Brien's art-form alive on the silver screen. Years later, in homage to his friend and mentor, after his death, Ray took up the shelved project that Willis O'Brien had dreamed of, a fantasy-western film featuring cowboys and dinosaurs, which he would complete as 1969's "The Valley of Gwangi".

A major scene straight out of my childhood.

Now Ray went on to have many major hits, such as "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers", and perhaps his most famous work, "Jason and the Argonauts". But for me, personally, the first Harryhausen film I remember seeing, was "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". Now I'm quite sure that I had perhaps already seen King Kong as a child before this, and it too surely captivated me and was one of my favorite films. But 7th Voyage really had a profound effect on me. Between this and a non-stop-motion, unrelated film called "Captain Sindbad" (which is non-the-less still a great movie), I was actually inspired at the age of 6 years old to name my first dog "Sinbad" after the titular hero. It is, quite simply, just a fantastic piece of cinema, and while I'll certainly give it it's own entry down the line (because it deserves it), it to this day is still my favorite Harryhausen film, and one of my Top 5 favorite films of all time. Mr. Harryhausen certainly made more technically impressive films down the line, such as Jason and the Argonauts, and what I consider his greatest work (and final one), Clash of the Titans. But to me, while I love all of his movies, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is still the one I love best, it's just perfect to me, the story, the cast, the acting, the great score, the amazing monsters. You name it, there's nothing not to like about it, and it really had a profound impact on me growing up.

Ray with some of his final creations, Medusa, Dioskilos, and Calibos.

 

It needs to be said before I go on, that while Mr. Harryhausen was not a director in his lifetime, outside of the fairy tale shorts that he made early on, there is still a reason why his fans (myself included) refer to the films he worked on as "HIS films". Because honestly, they are. Almost every single movie he worked on was a good movie on it's own merit, and would have still been at least decent if not even (a few) great films on their own had he never worked on them. But it WAS his work, his magic, specifically, that brought them to life in a way that literally almost no one else was doing, for decades. It was his stop-motion work that made these films come alive, made them unique, and thus emblazoned them into the minds of many young people who would go on to have major impact in the world of film themselves. Willis O'Brien created the concept of detailed armature models for use in stop-motion filming, but it's fair to say that Ray Harryhausen perfected and in many ways even innovated it during his career. And as such, because he literally "owned" the films he worked on with his signature magic, they really are, for all intents and purposes that matter, HIS films. He was also more than just a special effects man, as especially later into his career, he also got his projects off the ground, was the main idea man behind them, co-produced many of his own features, and even wrote the story for his three Sinbad films.

His most enduring and infamous scene, the Skeleton Warrior fight from Jason and the Argonauts.

As already mentioned, the first Harryhausen film I'm fairly certain that I ever saw was The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. It was certainly one of the first VHS tapes (remember those?) that I ever owned. A little later into my childhood, thanks in large part to the subject of one of my very first articles here, namely TNT's Monstervision in the early '90s (I revisit those Monstervision memories in more detail here), I also had the distinct pleasure of seeing such great works as Jason and the Argonauts, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, First Men in the Moon, his other two Sinbad films "Golden Voyage" and "Tiger's Eye", and of course Clash of the Titans (which originally released the year I was born, 1981). In fact I was literally able to see most of his catalog, even more obscure films like It Came From Beneath the Sea, One Million Years B.C., and The Valley of Gwangi, all because of Monstervision.

So Monstervision absolutely had a massive impact on my early life (also introducing me to many of the Godzilla films I had never seen), and it was through Monstervision that Harryhausen's work had a profound impact on me as well. It was literally through his films, as well as others I had seen, and Godzilla, that in my later childhood years I developed an avid fascination/obsession with monsters and mythology. I had been obsessed with dinosaurs for as long as I can remember, but it was mostly due to Harryhausen's films that I also later became interested in mythology, folklore, and fantasy. So the man not only entertained me, he also helped educate me. As I said......he was a personal hero of mine, and his works have colored my life with a sense of wonder and happy memories that I'll always cherish, no matter how rough (and downright shitty), adult life can be.

Much like lifelong friend Ray Bradbury, he always remained a kid at heart.

 

When I heard of his passing, I became quite sad. He was 92 years old, and had lived a full, in fact rather legendary (at least to other people who admire him) life. And certainly he had been retired from his work, actively, for several decades (since 1981), so it's not as if I'll be missing out on new Harryhausen productions. No, my biggest reason for being sad at his passing, is perhaps a slightly selfish one. That being, that while I am a writer at heart, and that is the career I want to succeed in most of all, I have also long harbored the dream of someday being able to work in film as well, and I had thus also harbored the "longshot" hope for many years, of someday getting to meet the man, and be able to shake his hand, tell him what his work meant to me, and hopefully get to sit and talk with him for hours, pick his brain, get his advice, hear his stories. And now, of course, I'll never get the chance to do that. Something I'll always have a small bit of regret for, I'm sure, as I never even got the chance to meet him just as a fan.

But regardless, he will always mean the world to me, in a way that very few (JRR Tolkien, Stan Lee, etc.), ever have. And I will always, always not only personally love and cherish his works, but I will also spend my life continuing to champion them to others, and to champion the survival of a (still-surviving) art of stop-motion animation that he dedicated his life to. His two best friends, author Ray Bradbury and fan/historian Forrest J. Ackerman, had both passed on before him, and now I'd like to think that he's where they are, all sitting around and chatting it up like old times, sharing that passion I also share, for the wondrous and spectacular. Rest in Peace, Mr. Harryhausen, you were one of the absolute greats, and you will be missed.

                                          

Ray Harryhausen, 1920-2013.

Unnecessary Sequels: Psycho and Planet of the Apes

I come to you today with what will be the first installment of another little "series" of mine, in all of my sub-series of articles that this blog has developed in it's short life thus far. The theme this time around, is yet another that is near and dear to my heart. However, unlike most of the Retro Revelations catalog, which if you hadn't noticed by now remains almost strictly positive in nature, covering things that I have an avid and unabashed love and passion for. That certainly won't ever stop, and will more often than not be the case. But this new bit is going to have a slightly different flavor, bringing you a mix of my usual "I love it so here it is" formula, and an equal helping of "God damn I hate it why did they ever make it". In short, as the title already clearly explains, this is going to be dedicated to movies which I personally feel (quite strongly I might add), were great as stand alone films, but NEVER should have received sequels. To elucidate a little further, Hollywood for many decades (almost as long as it has existed, in fact), among it's many bad habits, has had the bad habit of loving money, so much so that when certain films become a "box office hit", the studio sees that as a cue to possibly make even MORE money by squeezing out a sequel. The logic, of course, is always that if it made money once, it'll make money again, and if a studio can create a cash-cow "franchise" out of a film, then that makes the corporate studio heads all the happier. Unfortunately, however, as I'm sure many of you fellow film buffs are aware, these sequels often wind up being not nearly as good as the original, and in some cases even manage to drag the original film down with them, either by overshadowing it, or simply being so bad that people always associate a certain film with it's shitty sequel.

So without further adieu, here is the first set of "Unnecessary Sequels".

Film: Psycho
Year: 1960
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Unnecessary Sequels: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

Most everyone who is even vaguely cognizant of film lore, whether they've actually seen it or not, is aware of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic "Psycho". Based on the 1959 Robert Bloch novel of the same name, it was a bit of a turn for Hitchcock, stylistically, who had done many murder mysteries and thrillers, but had never quite stepped fully over into the "horror" genre before this, which wound up becoming arguably his most famous film. Starring a career defining turn by Anthony Perkins as the creepy hotel manager Norman Bates, the film actually was promoted as a vehicle for actress Janet Leigh (mother of Jamie Lee Curtis), and indeed the first good chunk of the film starts off focusing solely on her character, Marion Crane. But (SPOILERS) that was done purposefully as a ruse by the genius of Mr. Hitchcock, for not twenty minutes into the film, Marion Crane is murdered by that nice-yet-awkward man Mr. Bates. This was of course the now infamous "shower scene", complete with equally infamous shrieking violins, a scene and image that has endured in film history to this day. What followed for the rest of the film was an expertly crafted piece of psychological thriller by Mr. Hitchcock, complete with an ending that not only leaves you chilled, but actually makes you think. And there you have it, one of the greatest movies of all time, so highly regarded that it was included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1992 for being an important and historical landmark film.

The iconic Bates home, creepy as ever.

But of course, as this article posited in the beginning, with the good must also sadly come the bad. In this particular case, it was a bit of dastardly work on the part of the movie studio indeed, for Universal Films actually waiting two decades until Alfred Hitchcock had died, finally started producing sequels that no doubt Mr. Hitchcock would have disproved of. First off, it goes without saying that some films simply do NOT need sequels, and Psycho was one of those films, a great and chilling stand alone piece. But what really makes the grade, as if often the case with needlessly long-running series, is that each successful unnecessary sequel just gets worse and worse, further and further making the "cannon" of the first film more deluded and dumb with each successive attempt to "flesh it out". In Psycho II, Norman Bates is let out of the mental institution after many years, being proven "cured" of his insanity and multiple personality disorder. He goes back to his old home and hotel, which is being run by some shitbag now, gets a job as a cook at a local diner, tries to prove he can have a normal life, meets a girl, etc. But naturally, shit happens, conspiracies abound, he goes (or gets driven) nuts again, and boom, more sequels. Psycho III gets even better, introducing a disturbed former nun that he falls in love with, and even more ridiculous intrigue involving just who his "mother" was and his family history, etc. etc. etc., which again naturally all ends in madness and murder. And if that weren't enough, they even made ANOTHER "sequel", this time having Norman once AGAIN "cured" and living out in the world, now married, and calling into some radio show to reveal through flashbacks his own accounts of his personal history. After some more BS and intrigue, he finally (SPOILERS) burns the goddamn house down, something they should have done after the events of the FIRST movie (let alone NOT keeping the Bates Motel where all the damn murders took place OPEN after his incarceration), and tidy-as-you-please he's finally better.

This is just, in my view, a PERFECT example of a classic film absolutely in no way needing a sequel of any kind, and what's more being dragged down by the outright silliness and stupidity introduced in the plots to said sequels. So anyone who comes along, sees them all, and takes it all as serious "cannon" (meaning taking for granted that all the silly shit in the sequels actually counts), would have what was a great and chilling mystery in the first film, at least in MY view absolutely watered down and ruined by not just BAD attempts at explaining everything with the sequels, but re-attempts at OVER-EXPLAINING and even "retconning" ("retroactive continuity, IE making shit up), what they'd already tried to pass off. Which equals horrible writing and just plain money grabbing nonsense. Sure, it gave the late Mr. Perkins more acting jobs and that's nice....but unfortunately it also helped to try and ruin a role that he had already made immortal and iconic. Thankfully, if you're able to outright IGNORE the existence of the shitty sequels, the original is such a sterling piece of film that it survives untarnished.

Film: Planet of the Apes
Year: 1968
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Unnecessary Sequels: Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Based on a 1963 French novel entitled "La Planète des singes", this 1968 film is, again, a complete classic in it's own right. The film was a major event of it's time, the screenplay being co-written by "The Twilight Zone" creator/writer Rod Serling, and of course starring one of film's most famous leading men, Charlton Heston, in what would go on to be one of his best known roles (and was in fact one of many science fiction films he did in a several year period, a genre he had not previously been known for). The movie of course, for the uninitiated, deals with a team of astronauts traveling in hyperspace, in cryo-sleep, and upon awakening crash land on what they think is a far-distant alien planet, which turns out to be ruled by apes, with humans being the equivalent of wild animals. Of course (SPOILERS) this turns out late in the film to be inaccurate, as it is revealed that the "alien planet" is actually Earth, and instead of traveling light years through space, they actually somehow space warped two thousand or so years into Earth's own apocalyptic future. This original film was a true classic, complete with great acting, a great cast (including one of my favorite character actors, Roddy McDowall as the ape "Dr. Cornelius"), a great score, great and very evocative cinematography, you name it, the film had/has no real blemishes to speak of. In fact it too was placed in the National Film Registry in 2001.

Apes and humans, living in....harmony?

But, again, studios like money. And the original Planet of the Apes indeed made a decent sum for it's day. So without undue haste, 20th Century Fox started producing 1970s direct follow-up, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which while not in the STARRING role, did see a return of Charlton Heston's character George Taylor. The new lead character was astronaut "Brent" (probably last name, as Heston's character was just known as "Taylor"), who had come on a second mission to find out what happened to the first. Brent, played by James Franciscus in a decent turn albeit more than a little "Heston-esque",  finds Taylor's mute female companion Nova, and goes off with her in search of his lost friend, and so the story goes. The thing about the Apes sequels, I must say, is that it's a different beast than the Psycho sequels, or many other unneeded sequels, in that they're none of them outright BAD films. In fact, for the most part, in spite of the fact that it's budget was halved by Fox, leading to shittier special effects and other assorted nonsense, "Beneath" is actually a pretty solid film. It isn't so much an issue that these sequels were horrible, but mainly just that they were utterly unneeded. The original film ended with such an iconic, thought provoking scene, that it literally never should have had a sequel of any kind, just standing on that scene alone for all time. Instead, they made a somewhat progressively sillier-by-the-sequel franchise out of it (and also later a short lived TV show). "Beneath" ended, quite literally, with a bang, as (SPOILERS) the astronauts discover an underground society of mutant nuclear war survivors, who worship an "Omega Bomb", that is powerful enough to wipe out an entire planet. And as madness ensues with mutants and apes in all-out war, Heston does the only logical thing (obviously), and blows the Omega Bomb up.

So naturally, you'd think after they blow future-Earth up, they can't possibly go anywhere else with the story, so no more sequels right? Wrong. Magically enough, friendly ape scientists Dr. Cornelius and Dr. Zira, husband and wife as it were, along with new inserted ape scientist Dr. Milo, somehow managed to recover Taylor's sunken spaceship from the "Forbidden Zone", and have repaired it enough to attempt space flight, which they do, right at the point in which they witness Taylor blow up their world. They somehow space-warp back in time to 1973, where we now get the role-reversal of civilized apes stuck in a world ruled by violent Man. "Escape" and "Conquest", were much different beasts than the first two films, with Escape seeing the apes in modern day 70s Earth, fairly low budget, etc., and Conquest set in a semi-futuristic point where their son Milo (or renamed "Caesar" to hide his identity as an intelligent ape from the humans), grows up to become an ape slave, as all apes have been made slaves of humanity to prevent them from taking over the earth. The series finally ends with "Battle For", and while again not a TERRIBLE film, it is the worst of the bunch, with probably the lowest budget, seeing Caesar lead a new post-nuclear society in which apes rule, humans live somewhat as prisoners, and some (what do you know) mutant survivors from the destroyed cities plan to make war on the apes. Shit goes down, lessons are learned, and apes and humans (SPOILERS) try to learn to live in harmony at the end.

All in all, not AS bad as the Psycho sequels by any stretch of the imagination. On their own, each one of the Apes sequels is at least a decent, and watchable film. They just shouldn't have been made, and they were, at the end of the day, just (literally) cheap cash-ins. All in all, the film world would have been a better place, had Psycho and Planet of the Apes never received unnecessary sequels (let alone eventually get remade, but that's a story for another time).



So that's all for now, folks! I'll return again at a later date with far more "Unnecessary Sequels". For now, cheers, and happy reading!

Forgotten Gems: Mighty Final Fight

A version of this review was originally posted as part of the "Review a Great Game Day" event, hosted by the good folks at 1morecastle.com, which took place on April 8th, 2013. Be sure to check it out, as there were lots of great reviews by my contemporaries, as well as a few simply avid gamers!

"Feel the hi-top of Justice!"

 The Nintendo Entertainment System certainly had a rather wide variety of game types during it's 10 year existence. From platformers, to action games, to shooters, to puzzle games, sports games, role playing games, you name it. But the one genre we're here to talk about today is a fine little slice of gaming known as the "Beat 'em Up". What defines a "Beat 'em Up", as opposed to a "Fighting Game", is that in fighters, your objective is to beat the snot out of the guy across the screen from you, and the person who takes the most rounds wins. But in a "Beat 'em Up", the objective is to beat the snot out of every single thing that moves on the screen, and to do so until you beat all the bad guys in every single level, and finally save the day. So in other words it's the difference between a Mohammed Ali fight, and a Jackie Chan film. The NES had it's share of this fine genre, which enjoyed it's "boom" period in the late 80's and early 90s. Double Dragon, Renegade, River City Ransom, Toxic Crusaders, and of course Battletoads all graced the classic console. But I'm here today to tell you about one such game, released late in the NES' life, years after the Super NES had launched, that may have gotten passed over by many. I'm here to correct that, because it just might be the best of the bunch....

Back when almost everything Capcom made was gold.....

Most gamers worth their salt know that the first game to truly establish the conventions of the genre known as the "Beat 'Em Up", was 1987's Double Dragon. Developed by Technos, DD became an arcade smash hit that spawned a franchise, and the rest is history. Most gamers worth their salt are ALSO aware of the fact that while Double Dragon started it, another game that came along in 1989, pretty much perfected it. And that would be Capcom's Final Fight. Originally meant to be a semi-follow up to their first (and terribly obscure) Street Fighter game, this classic was originally going to be called "Street Fighter '89". But once they realized it had really nothing to do with their first foray into one-on-one fighting, they renamed it "Final Fight", and it was off to the races.

Now, Final Fight was an amazing arcade game, which received a very good port for Super Nintendo, and believe it or not even a solid one for Sega CD. The game was also popular enough to spawn two SNES only sequels, which saw it change characters, but kept the overall look and feel. WELL, around the same time that FF2 came out in 1993, another little known gem also released, for the by then fading-but-still-awesome original NES. And that game, was called "Mighty Final Fight". Mighty Final Fight is a strange but wonderful beast. It is a fairly comical retake on the arcade original, complete with "chibi" (small, cartoony) versions of the main characters and enemies, and a goofier feel over all. But with the goofieness also came something that most wouldn't expect, especially out of an NES "port", and that is the fact that while the SNES version was a great game although lacking 2-player, this NES "remake" was actually superior in a lot of ways, even to the arcade original.

The arcade lineup, as seen in the Sega CD version.

The lineup as seen in the NES. Notice the differing art styles.

For one thing, unlike the better known SNES port, where you could only play characters Cody and Mike Haggar for some strange reason, in MFF you get to choose between all three from the arcade, which includes the ninja characer Guy. Like the SNES version, MFF is only single player, but honestly, that's small potatoes compared to what they added to the game. Not only does the overall action feel even "meatier" with a superior sense of hit detection, but Capcom also took a page out of the NES port of Double Dragon's book, and added an rpg like element wherein your character gains experience for every baddie he thrashes, and eventually you "level up", with each level unlocking new and cooler attacks, as well as extending your life bar. 

The game's first boss, "Damnd", also known as Thrasher.

Thrasher as seen in the NES version. Aren't they adorable?

The game also includes most of the content from the original, though it only has 5 stages instead of the arcade's six, in this case missing the "Subway" area. That aside, it's got everything the arcade did with a bit more besides, and beyond that, even has one hell of a bad ass 8-bit soundtrack. And again, the soundtrack is arguably superior to the arcade or even SNES versions. All around, Mighty Final Fight is one hell of a game, loads of fun, and a perfect example of why the NES lasted an amazing 10 years in North America, because up through 1994 it kept getting sprinklings of high quality games such as this. In fact, 1993 was a huge year for the ol' NES all around, as it not only got Mighty Final Fight, it also saw the releases of games like Kid Klown, Zen the Intergalactic Ninja, Duck Tales 2, Battletoads & Double Dragon, and of course Kirby's Adventure.

An example of the upgraded moves you get with each level, in this case Cody's uppercut.

Haggar performing his spinning double lariat! He's a mayor who means business!

 

So there you have it folks! If you haven't ever gotten a chance to get your hands on this true "Beat 'Em Up" classic, or haven't even ever heard of it until now, please do yourself a huge favor and do so.You really can't do much better in it's genre, and as far as I'm personally concerned, it's one of the greatest games ever crafted. So fire this bad boy up, and have a great skull-knocking time, on me! Cheers!

Forgotten Gems: Kid Klown

Welcome back to another look into gaming's obscure, but awesome, past. Today's exhibit? A little known NES gem entitled "Kid Klown in Night Mayor World". Developed and published by Japanese studio Kemco, the company that brought such NES classics as Spy vs. Spy, Deja Vu, Shadowgate, and the Bugs Bunny games, this title, like certain others (Super Mario Bros. 2, Yo Noid!), started out as somewhat of a different beast. Originally titled "Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fuusen" (Mickey Mouse III: Balloon Dreams),  it was essentially the same game, only part of a Mickey Mouse series of games. In fact, this game was called "Mickey Mouse III" in Japan because they had done this before, with what Americans know as Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle. Crazy Castle originally featured Roger Rabbit in Japan, but they later made a version with Mickey Mouse after losing the rights, along with the Bugs Bunny version for the states. The Game Boy versions of Crazy Castle 1 and 2 are known as Mickey Mouse I and Mickey Mouse II in Japan, hence this game was somehow the third in that series. Confused yet? Well that's okay, because Kemco would continue the series as Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle in the states, until Crazy Castle 5 for the Game Boy Advance, which wound up starring Woody Woodpecker. For those counting along at home, that makes 4 different characters from 3 different animation studios (Disney, Warner Bros., and Universal) that Kemco had to license from. But hey, the series DID see a total of 10 releases (at least in Japan, one of which was made into a Real Ghostbusters game in NA and a Garfield game in Europe, if you can grasp that), so I suppose ultimately it paid off right?

Mouse? Clown? Fun game either way.

ANYWAYS, disregarding the somewhat messy (but intriguing) history of the series that the original Japanese version originated from, what WE here in the U.S.of A got, was a peculiar, but fun, game called Kid Klown. The original Mickey game was released in Japan in 1992. Our version with the righteous Klown dude (first name Kid), arrived in April 1993, what happened to be a very good year for the NES (Kirby's Adventure anyone?). So, focusing on OUR version here today, the setting sees a family of clowns traveling with their circus, when they run across a mysterious magician named Night Mayor. I want to take a moment, first off, to comment on the fact that the pun-name NIGHT MAYOR is, in my humble opinion, fucking fantastic. It's just the right amount of cheese to tickle my "Man That's Awesome" bone. So, as you might surmise given his name (and his nefarious mustache), Night Mayor is up to no good, and he asks Kid to help him open a magical treasure vault. Kid, having been warned NEVER to talk to strange and creepy magicians out on the highway at night by his wise and loving parents, basically tells Mr. Mayor to "piss off". So, in a fit of indignation, said bad fellow uses his wicked magic to kidnap the Klown family, and challenges Kid to follow and find them, if he ever wants to see them again. And thus it's off to the races we go!

NEVER trust people with top hats on rainy nights!

If you hadn't noticed by now, I'll reveal the silly pun. Night Mayor = Nightmare! Get it? Awesome right? Indeed. Moving on!

Different name, same great balloon taste!

So as far as the game proper is concerned, here's the scoop. You've got yourself six major areas (plus the opening level), each one having a different theme. I can definitely see how in the Mickey version, you were traveling through some kind of magical dream world. But it fits with a kooky game where you play a balloon-wielding clown fighting a guy named Night Mayor as well! The thing that stands out about this game the most, of course, is in fact said balloons. The graphics are solid (in fact there's some very inventive sprite effects at points), and the soundtrack is cheery if not unremarkable. But where the game enters the "kicks ass" arena, is in the gameplay. Why it kicks is, is because Kemco really did a number on inventing balloon mechanics the player can employ. In no particular order, you can use these inflated bags of fun as: weapons, a means of floating for longer jumps, a platform to bounce off of performing high jumps, a shield from certain enemy attacks, etc. Talk about versatile. And it doesn't end there. You can aim balloon fire directly overhead, as well as choosing to toss short-range balloons, or hold the B button down to throw them further. And of course you can even drop the balloons straight down, as a weapon or a platform to jump to higher places, or you can even just hold it out in front of you like a shield. If you ask me, that's pretty damn ingenious, especially for the 8-bit era, not to mention the fact that I don't think I've ever really seen a similar set up in any other game I've ever played. So Kemco deserves major kudos for really taking the Mario "run and jump" platforming standard, but making it their own.

Some of the cheeriest, most harmless looking, most devious levels you'll ever face in gaming.

The other area that this game really stands out, for anyone who has ever played it, is that while on the surface it seems very much like an "easy kids' game", it also packs some serious punch in the difficulty department in a few areas once you get deeper in. The different areas include a charming forest, a crazy toy factory, a giant beanstalk land complete with an evil Cyclops giant at the end, a land of snow and ice, a stage made up of living (and dangerous) candies and pastries, and finally Night Mayor's gigantic castle. The game really does ramp it up the further you get, as well. I just recently played through it again myself, and god damn, there are some parts that'll make you cuss out the game like nobodies business. For instance, in Stage 3, the beanstalk stage, you have to climb vertically, but are bombarded while doing so by swarms of enemies that include among other annoyances, evil clouds that shit lightning all over you. Then you've got Stage 4, with it's slippery ice, but worse yet, snow drifts that you actually get stuck in, which makes getting across super fun, while being attacked by enemies. and then of course, there's Castle Night Mayor, which takes the SMB1 concept of having a maze-like castle with plenty of wrong ways to go, and cranks it up to 11, by having doors that make you fight previous bosses, doors that take you right back to the beginning of an area you just got through, or even all the way back to the beginning of the castle. And unlike Bowser's final castle in that hallowed NES standard, Night Mayor is more of a dick, so his castle is bigger, with plenty of genuinely fucked up moments, most especially the final area, which is a room of doors which, you guessed it, all but one lead you to other areas, including the very damn beginning of the level. So have fun choosing the wrong door several times (unless of course you CHEAT and use the internet).

Cute, innocent looking, but oh so evil.

All in all, this game is well worth playing in my expert opinion. It controls well, is fun to play thanks to the inventive balloon mechanics, has a lot of replay value in spite of a few throw-your-controller moments, and the game just honestly exudes fun. From the gameplay, to the level design, right down to the carnival-like minigame between stages that allows you to throw balloons at targets to gain back health, 1up, etc. Plus, as I've already mentioned, the bad guy's name is NIGHT MAYOR, and that right there should be worth the price of admission. The game actually turned into a series, but the SNES and PS1 entries, for instance, were weird "always moving" games that saw Kid on a rolling ball, rolling and dodging through levels. None of them showed the same cool gameplay mechanics or sense of fun-ness the original had, so in my personal view they're really not all that worth checking out.

But do yourself a favor, and get your hands on a cart of the NES original if you can, or find "other" means to play it if you have to, but play it. Or else the Night Mayor will give you.......unpleasant dreams!

Silver Screen Stories: The 27th Day

You just don't see awesome hand drawn movie art like this anymore....

Much like the countless classic video games that most people have likely never heard of, so too exist countless classic movies, many of which are truly great, that people aren't but should be made aware of. So naturally I'll be taking it upon myself to turn you all onto those over time as well. One such movie is a fairly obscure number called "The 27th Day". One of many classic films that I unfortunately never saw growing up and knew nothing about until well into my adulthood, I had the distinct pleasure of learning about this little gem through the wonders of Turner Classic Movies (THE best channel on television). While I tend to get enjoyment out of most classic horror, fantasy or science fiction movies, there are some that rise above the cliches and tropes of their genres, and genuinely surprise you with depth and substance.

Ominous title. Misleading (but awesome) movie poster. What's going on here?

Released in 1957 (a VERY popular year for sci fi films), "The 27th Day" was the creation of one John Mantley, most famous for his work with the classic television show "Gunsmoke", who wrote both the original story it was based on, as well as the screenplay adaptation. It was produced, in a rare instance back in those days, by a woman, Helen Ainsworth, an actress who also acted as an agent and produced several films, and it was directed by William Asher. The movie stars Gene Barry (from the 1953 War of the Worlds), Valerie French and Arnold Moss. 

In a nutshell, the story starts with 5 citizens of the world, an American reporter (Barry), an English woman (French), a Chinese peasant, a German physicist, and a Russian solider, being suddenly taken from their daily lives and placed aboard an alien spacecraft. There they are met by a mysterious stranger (Moss), who refers to himself only as "The Alien", who proceeds to present them with a fantastic story, and an even more fantastic and unbelievable opportunity. "The Alien" represents a race whose planet's sun is soon to go nova, and thus they must find a new world to inhabit very soon. They have chosen Earth, but their strict moral code does not allow them to simply move in and kill the humans, so instead they have devised a plan. They will give each of the 5 citizens a box, that only their brainwaves can open, and in each box is contained 3 small capsules, which individually have enough power to wipe out every human life within a 3000 mile radius. The catch is, that while they fully expect, given what they've seen of human history, that the humans will use the capsules to destroy each other, thus leaving the Earth open for new tenants, the humans also have the choice to NOT use such power, in which case after 27 days the capsules will become inert and useless, forcing the Aliens to find someplace else to move to.

"All the power in the world. What would you do with it?"

Sufficed to say, not exactly the setup that the movie poster implies, is it? Alien Invasion movies were big hits in the 1950s, so the studio (in this case Columbia Pictures) obviously thought they'd make more money promoting it as such. Kind of like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", I assume. While this film had a very small budget (the flying saucer clip is taken right out of "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers"), it makes up for it in good plot, good acting, and a nice sense of human drama. The 5 humans are of course set back in their home countries, with 27 days to play out whether or not humanity will use these weapons of destruction. Not to spoil too much, but the women in this story turn out to make the right decision before anyone, as Evelyn (the Englishwoman) throws her box in the English Channel immediately upon arrival back to Earth, and Su Tan (the Chinese peasant girl) chooses to kill herself instead of allowing anyone to get their hands on her capsules. That of course leaves the three men still in possession of theirs, and thus the movie goes. The film is surprising, again for it's time (considering McCarthyist bullshit of the day, the Cold War, etc.), in that it depicts the Russian and Chinese characters as having just as much moral fiber and humanity as thier "Western" counterparts, with Su Tan dramatically taking her own life to avert destruction, and Communist Russian soldier Ivan Godofsky bravely refusing to tell his superiors about the weapon.

To make matters worse, "The Alien" soon announces to the entire world not only that the capsules exist and what they can do, but even points out exactly who has them. Godofsky's superiors torture him and eventually get him to open his box, while the American Johnathan Clark and the German scientist Klaus Bechner are persuaded to work with the American government to try and prevent the Russians' inevitable attack. So the story goes, and while I don't want to spoil the ending, I will just say that all in all it's a very compelling and brilliantly executed film.

I would highly suggest anyone to watch it, whether they're a fan of classic science fiction or not. It's a great movie, and one of the rare ones that is not only entertaining but makes you think. So if you can, find a way to watch it, and enjoy!

Forgotten Gems: TumblePop

 

 

Back again for another round of forgotten gaming classics. This time, we take a look at another fairly obscure arcade game that was mentioned last time around, that being 1991's TumblePop. TumblePop was made by Japanese developer/publisher Data East, who were one of the kings of the arcade's heyday. Data East was responsible for such early arcade hits as Burger Time, Astro Fighter, Karate Champ, and Ring King. They also made later hits such as Karnov, Two Crude Dudes, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Heavy Barrel, Captain America and the Avengers, Kid Niki, Breakthru, Bloody Wolf, and the Magical Drop series. They were also a big name in the late 80s/early 90s home console market, producing such hits as Joe & Mac, Congo's Caper, and High Seas Havoc. And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention their infamous (but decent) Street Fighter II ripoff, Fighter's History, which became a short-lived series of it's own.

"It SUCKS, while it CUTS!"

Unlike the last entry, Avenging Spirit, TumblePop was more of your traditional arcade fare: light on story, big on high scores and just outright fun. The basic premise of the game is that you play a pair of "Ghost Buster" type characters, who use (get this) vacuum cleaner type gizmos to suck up ghosts, demons, aliens and other monsters. A concept that would, in some form, pop up again years later in Nintendo's own Luigi's Mansion. Once you suck up enemies, you can blast them back OUT of the vacuum thingy to use as projectiles against other enemies. And therein lies the core gameplay mechanic, and basic fun of Tumble Pop.

"I'll have the Calamari, Bob."

 

Similar to the Taito classic Bubble Bobble, when enemies are destroyed, they often leave behind goodies for you to collect, such as coins, etc. In fact, the game seems largely inspired by earlier hits like Bubble Bobble as well as Capcom's Buster Bros, and the game takes the same classic arcade approach of the action being limited to little "Screens", instead of the kinds of sprawling levels seen in the later side-scroller genre. Like those earlier games, it also features two player simultaneous co-op gameplay, which just adds to the pandemonium. Along with goodies from enemies, you also collect occasional letters that, as you can see in the picture above, eventually spell out "Tumbepop", and when you get the full word, you are whisked off to a timed bonus stage where you can get even MORE high-score ensuring goodies, as well as extra lives.

"Alright Mister, FREEZE!"

 

The game plays out over 10 different areas, representing (mostly) real places on earth, such as New York, Moscow, Japan, Egypt, Australia, etc. In the final two areas (SPOILERS) the game sees you travel to Outer Space and finally The Moon. Each area features it's own themed monsters, as well as typically one big boss fight at the end. And as you have seen in these pictures, there are some crazy bosses, like a giant octopus, a killer snowman, a giant clown robot, a flaming dragon, an enormous genie, etc. And if that weren't enough, if you failed to defeat all the monsters in a given time, a Dracula-type dude will wander on screen and if he catches you, you lose a life. Major bummer. Totally bogus! But I digress.

"What the hell happened? Now we're colorless AND adorable!?"

 

As mentioned in the previous article, as coincidental Fate would have it, unfortunately the only platform that TumblePop was ever ported to, like Avenging Spirit before it, was the original Game Boy, in 1992. Again, awesome for Game Boy owners, too bad for anybody else. As again, this would have made an amazing NES game, or even SNES or Genesis game. I certainly would have loved to have rented or maybe even owned it on NES as a kid. The one big difference between the two however, in my personal experience, was that I actually got to PLAY the arcade version of TumblePop as it was long a mainstay of the local area skating rink. As a matter of fact, as a call back to an even earlier article, remember that buddy of mine Harold, whose favorite game EVER is M.C. Kids? Yup, well TumblePop was pretty much his favorite arcade game too. And wouldn't you know it (unlike his modern taste in games), BOTH of these classics were actually fun! Damn you Harold!!

I guess it's true what they say...being on game box art really DOES make you gain weight!

 

It should be mentioned that the Game Boy version of TumbePop differed slightly, in that it featured a "World Map" of sorts, where you could even exit areas if they were too hard and come back later, as well as an on-map Shop where you could use coins collected to buy upgrades. Pretty nifty all around. And, again like Avenging Spirit, the Game Boy version of TumblePop, as luck would have it, is available for download on the 3DS eShop. I would highly suggest giving both games a whirl, as they're well worth it.

Well, that about wraps it up folks! Another fun game, faded from memory, but now resurrected through the power of....well, my bodacious writing! Go find yourself a copy of TumblePop, and suck away! 

Forgotten Gems: Avenging Spirit

When it comes to classic/retro gaming, most people would probably be amazed at just how many truly great, obscure classics there are out there that they've not only never played, but likely never even heard of. And so, as part of my ongoing Retro Ministry, I intend to reacquaint folks with some of these forgotten gems over time. As comes with the territory, these entries will not be about the bigger, more popular games that a lot more people know about. No, instead, these will strictly be focused on games that are rare, but awesome.

Right off the bat you can see that this game screams "Awesome".

First up, we're going to look at a little number called "Avenging Spirit", or as it was known in Japan, "Phantasm". Avenging Spirit was originally an arcade game by Jaleco, who also brought you such classics as Astyanax, the Bases Loaded series, and the Rushing Beat series. With Avenging Spirit, however, you had a game that was a bit ahead of it's time and rather unique in it's approach. It was, at it's core, another action/platformer type of game, similar to Mario, Mega Man or Contra. But where AS really stood out, was also the "gimmick" that made it incredibly fun. The plot can be summarized as follows: You're a dude who was walking his girlfriend home one night, when you are ambushed by villainous agents, who kidnap your girlfriend, and shoot you down, leaving you for dead. You come back as a ghost, and your girlfriend's father, a research scientist specializing in spectral phenomenon, wants you to try and get his daughter back, as she's being held for random to ensure her father's aid in nefarious plans.

Words can't do justice to how cool this game really is.

So that's the basic setup. You play as a ghost, and while you have the awesome ability to possess enemies to use their powers, the catch is that if the body you're inhabiting dies, you have a limited amount of time to possess another body, otherwise your energy will dissipate, you'll pass on to the "Other Side", and your mission to save your girlfriend will have failed. So while you get this bad ass ability to basically play as a wide assortment of various characters with all sorts of weapons and powers, you're also challenged by your spectral limitations. And when I say you can possess enemies, literally, you can take over and play as pretty much every enemy type in the game, except for the bosses. Naturally.  As you can see above, you get an energy bar for your ghost, which goes down every time you leave a possessed body, as well as a life-bar for the enemies you possess at the bottom of the screen. Different enemy types also give you varying speed, strength, jumping power, etc., in addition to their unique weapon. Of those enemy types, as mentioned, for a game from 1991, you get a pretty healthy selection to choose from. They include, as seen above, nefarious 1930s mobsters complete with pistols, and feisty Amazon women who look suspiciously like classic Wonder Woman, who use their raw power to punch waves of force at you.  You can also play Rambo-esque commandos with machine guns, ninjas who are very agile and throw stars, goofy wizards with magic wands, a baseball player complete with a bat, a robot, an invisible man, and even a fire breathing DRAGON (probably the coolest thing you can play in the whole game).

 See, you can play a DRAGON, and he even has good fashion sense!

You have to use these awesome abilities to make your way through six stages, all while smashing the shit out of enemies, and possessing some at your leisure to accomplish this. Each stage has a boss, of course, and naturally, especially considering it's an arcade game and wants our quarters, they aren't easy. You are also tasked with collecting 3 keys in stages 2, 5 and 6 (random I know), which are used at the end of the game to rescue your girlfriend, as if beating the game wasn't enough. And just to really stick it to you, if you DON'T get all the keys in those stages, you'll actually be unable to rescue her at all, and even though you can still beat the boss and defeat the bad guys, you'll actually get a bad ending (SPOILERS). So trust me, you wanna get those damn keys!

Lookin' pretty neat in 8-bit.

The game was also ported a year later in 1992 to the Nintendo Game Boy. Having played both versions, with obvious "downgrades" to graphics and such, the game holds up remarkably well, and I honestly can't see too much different in the port. The Game Boy version seems to retain most of the enemies, all the stages and bosses, and plays basically the same (if not actually a little bit tighter than the arcade original). Sadly, Avenging Spirit was ONLY ported to the Game Boy and nothing else, which is too bad, because looking at that screenshot above, I could really see it having been great on NES in full color, not to mention being a no-brainier for the 16-bit Super NES. It's actually a similarly odd case to another obscure arcade gem, Tumble Pop by Data East (which I'll cover later), that was also ONLY ported to the Game Boy. Damn Game Boy got all the luck. And while I did have a Game Boy as a kid, I didn't get one until, I do believe the Christmas of 1993, and I never actually heard of this game until I was an adult. I just think it would have made a great NES game, and I would have had a higher likelihood of perhaps seeing at my local rental store and actually getting to play it as a kid. I only lament this, mind you, because while I love this game as a kid, you know how much more open and enthusiastic about everything you were as a child....I absolutely would have been nuts about this game back then.

Talk about misleading covers.....I bet this pic alone cost many kids being able to play this gem.

 Then again, there's a very long list of games I never got to play or even heard of as a kid that I wouldn't discover until my teens at least, when internet was more prevalent. Real damn shame, that. BUT, all things considered, the Game Boy version that we did get is a great port of the game, and is actually available for download on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. You can also apparently get a version of the arcade original for iPhone, though personally, I just simply couldn't see playing old school side-scrollers with those fake touch-screen "buttons" they try to get away with. Me, I need a real controller in my hands! Of course there are "other" means to find and play the arcade version if you wish, and considering that's how I got to play it, I'll just say that if you know what I'm talking about and can, by all means enjoy! You'll be glad you did.

Childhood Memories: Captain N

So, sticking to the theme of DiC Nintendo-based cartoon series, I might as well hit on the non-Mario member of the group. That would be a little series called "Captain N: The Game Master". The show's origins actually date back to the magazine Nintendo Power, as a comic created by editor Randy Studdard, and the original Nintendo Power incarnation was quite a bit different. In that incarnation, the character was called "Captain Nintendo", and he fought against a rogue Nintendo computer called Mother Brain, and he had the ability to bring life to Nintendo game characters temporarily, to help him do battle. Nintendo liked this idea, and used the core concept to shop around another cartoon series. And as such, Captain N the cartoon was produced by DiC, who had already handled their Mario cartoons. In it's more well known cartoon incarnation, Captain N took a different, and arguably cooler form (though to be fair, the original concept was pretty neat).

Saturday Morning Awesomeness

Debuting on September 9th, 1989 on NBC, "Captain N: The Game Master" starred the character Kevin Keene, a California teenager who was obsessed with Nintendo games. As shown in the opening credits, while playing a game (Punch Out in this case), Kevin's television turns into a portal, which sucks him and his dog Duke into "Videoland", a world where games from the Nintendo Entertainment System make up a network of independent but connected worlds. The central hub of Videoland, known as the "Palace of Power", is under attack by the villain from Metroid, Mother Brain, and her minions (made up of enemies from many other games, as well as Metroid itself), and the ruler, Princess Lana, is the one who sent for a hero to help tip the scales in an endless war. Kevin is ported into this strange land, and finds himself surrounded by heroes from many of his favorite video games, such as Mega Man, Kid Icarus, and Simon Belmont from Castlevania. He also finds that peripherals from his NES have become empowered weapons, such as a Light Gun that fires real laser shots, and an NES controller whose buttons allow him incredible feats, like the "Start" button allowing him to temporarily "pause" everything around him, or pressing directions on the "D-Pad" to make him jump very high or "slide" out of the way of harm.

Da Bad Guys

The show operated from that basic premise, with Princess Lana and the heroes, led by Kevin, known as "Captain N", against the evil Mother Brain, and her armies, including her main henchmen King Hippo from Punch Out and the Eggplant Wizard from Kid Icarus. Another semi-regular henchmen of sorts, was Dr. Wily from the Mega Man series, who provided various robot villains for Mother Brain to throw at the heroes in typically inane schemes. In a given episode, Mother Brain would usually either attack one of the video game worlds, or use one of the worlds to lure the heroes into some kind of trap.

The Original Mega Man........Robot Masters?

The list of NES games whose worlds were visited or represented was rather extensive. Such games included Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventures of Bayou Billy, Dragon Quest, Tetris, Faxanadu, etc.  And as such, many of those game's enemies or even heroes would show up in the episodes. For example, major villains made appearances such as Count Dracula, Donkey Kong, the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest (at the time known as Dragon Warrior in the U.S.), the villain Malkil from Wizards & Warriors, Medusa from Kid Icarus, and even Ganon from The Legend of Zelda. As far as heroes, many big names show up to help the heroes, such as Bayou Billy, Doctor Light (here called Wright, which it was officially mistranslated as in one or more of the earliest Mega Man games in North America), Pero from Puss n Boots, Robin Hood, and even Link and Princess Zelda. The only major Nintendo franchise of the time that had come out by 1989/90 not represented at all, was obviously Super Mario Bros., because it had it's own show(s). On a cool side note, the two episodes that feature Link and Zelda have the same voice actors as from the Zelda episodes from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show (and the same for Ganon as well).

A Meeting of the Heroes

Much like the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Captain N also features a lot of actual sound effects and even versions of music from the games themselves. The one major exception, and a stupid one at that, was Mega Man, as Capcom (the company that makes it), while allowing the characters, for some dumbass reason didn't allow them to use official sounds or music from the Mega Man games (which is a goddamn shame). But otherwise, the games were well represented. While there were some weird things, such as (if you look at the picture a ways up) how goofy the artists made Elecman (Robot Master from Mega Man) look, as a video game fan growing up, Captain N was a wonderful show, and a great compliment to the Mario shows. In the second season a couple of new heroes were introduced, one being Princess Lana's brother Lyle, who didn't feel like much of a hero and had left the palace to go live in Tetrisland, and the main one was Game Boy, literally a sentient Game Boy console sent to help the heroes by Lana's father King Charles, who had been abducted and exiled to the "Mirror Zone" by Mother Brain before the show's storyline began.

To the Rescue!

The show lasted for 3 seasons, the second of which was paired with "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3", and the third season paired with the "Super Mario World" cartoon. The first two seasons were very strong, in my humble opinion, with great stories and game appearances, but much like the Mario World cartoon, the third season of Captain N also just felt sup-par. Not BAD, by any means, still entertaining. But it definitely felt like a decline, which was really too bad. Part of this was due to NBC cutting the budget for the Saturday morning lineup, as their corporate stiffs were trying to move away from cartoons (because they suck). Because of that, the animation was lesser quality, and they even had several episodes that left out Simon Belmont and Mega Man, simply because they didn't want to pay Konami and Capcom (the game publishers) royalties. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of corporate bullshit that can and does ruin great stuff like this.

She sure is...

 Outside of the cartoon itself, Valiant Comics also put out several Captain N comic books as part of their "Nintendo Comic System" series. The comics were very close to the cartoon, with a few major exceptions. One being that Princess Lana had a bit more of an active role, using a magical Power Staff that she didn't actually use (but was featured with in promotional art) in the show, so she more actively fought in battles instead of just directing the heroes (or sometimes having to be rescued) in the cartoon. The other, bigger change, was (again to avoid royalties) the fact that the comics didn't feature any "third party" (meaning not made by Nintendo) characters, so Simon Belmont and Mega Man were absent. Instead, the comic did feature a couple of stories based on Metroid, in which the hero Samus Aran showed up to help fight her nemesis Mother Brain. These were cool appearances, as Samus for whatever reason had not been featured in the cartoon (even though the heroes had to go to "Metroid" a couple of times). I do believe this might have also been the first example of Samus actually talking and showing more of a character, which in these comics was more of a semi-ruthless (but still "heart of gold") bounty hunter, who happened to have the hots for Kevin. In general, the Captain N comics, similar to the Zelda comics, had a slightly darker, certainly less comical tone than the cartoons did, and honestly featured some great writing and stories. I'll have to write an entry dedicated completely to those "Nintendo Comic System" comics, because they were awesome.

From a personal perspective Captain N, along with the Mario cartoons, was a huge part of my childhood. As much as I loved video games, and my NES in particular, it was just mind blowing to have a cartoon about a guy who got to go and be a hero IN these video game worlds. There are certain things I've heard some people nitpick about, such as Mega Man being green, or Simon Belmont being a self-absorbed goof (though to be fair, he still has his bad ass moments). But really, I didn't care about that shit as a kid, and still really don't, because to me, it was just quality entertainment. My biggest cartoon "crush" in my later (almost adolescence) childhood in the early 90s, was of course the X-Men, but Captain N was absolutely right up there with it. It's a very good show, with tons of nostalgia, genuinely funny moments, and a few surprisingly cool stories "for a kid's cartoon" to boot. For anyone who is a fan of Nintendo, video games, or cartoons, I'd highly suggest checking it out. The first two seasons are on DVD, while the third can be found bundled with the Super Mario World cartoon. Hunt 'em down, and enjoy!