My Adventure with the Nintendo Comics System
In a pre-Super Smash Bros. world, Captain N: The Game Master was Nintendo’s big crossover move. Captain N was a typical suburban white kid with a dog and letterman jacket. His name was Kevin Keene, he was “the hottest Nintendo Power player on the face of the Earth.”[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Bk9-cX9IU[/youtube]
He wore a NES controller belt buckle and carried a fully functional Nintendo Zapper. I never watched the show religiously because I just wasn’t that into it, but I would’ve traded one of my younger brothers to have Kevin Keene’s life. In the cartoon, he was teamed up with Princess Lana, the princess of Videoland. Their relationship is a rehash of the one between cartoon Link and Zelda.
The show mostly took place in the alternate universe of Videoland, and in Videoland, Captain N deals with good and band characters from games like Metroid, Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!!, and Donkey Kong, as well as third-party titles like Castlevania and Mega Man.
It does not appear that we will get any third-party characters in this book, but a quick scan reveals Samus, King Hippo, Donkey Kong, and Pit.
We also get some teen drama, as some kind of weird triangle develops between Captain N, Princess Lana, and Samus.
The Captain N stories don’t really get any more interesting. The general formula for all of these Captain N and Zelda stories – and the cartoons that inspired them – is to take these incredible, vast, inspired fictional universes and characters and combine them with vanilla teen problems. At this point, it would be refreshing to read that Captain N knocked up Princess Lana out of wedlock, causing her father to banish her from Videoland forever.
Captain N fights through several stories, battling some of the aforementioned baddies like King Hippo and Mother Brain. A transition from Captain N to Metroid stories takes place pretty seamlessly, as the first proper Metroid story kicks off with Zero Suit Samus and no N or Lana in sight, which is a relief.
Characters like Captain N and Lana are an effort to appeal to the kids, to show them that their heroes are a lot like them. And that’s the problem. A Zelda game is a fantasy. It’s fun because it’s nothing like real life. Same with Mario and Metroid. You know what appeals to the kids more than Link whining about not getting kisses? Link slicing up tektites with his sword. Samus blasting aliens. Mario shooting fireballs. Every teenager knows what it’s like to be lacking in the smooch department. They don’t play video games to be reminded that dealing with the opposite sex is terrifying at that age. It’s so easy to give kids what they want, and it’s so brain-meltingly frustrating to routinely see the people behind these licensures miss the mark so badly.
For my money (thank goodness not much money), the Metroid stories at least gives us the most attractive artwork, like this full-pager:
Anyway, let’s finish this sucker off. Last up, Little Mac and Punch-Out!!
This was the comic I was most curious about, as plots and backstories are generally afterthoughts in fighting games. The first story starts off with Little Mac losing a fight, then being trained for a comeback by a former heavyweight contender named Doc Lewis. It ends with Little Mac knocking out Glass Joe, and me regaining a little bit of faith.
Little Mac and Doc Lewis head to Tokyo to fight Piston Honda, and we get a nice treat for sticking it out this long – an appearance by Mario the boxing referee.
That’s all I’ve wanted all along. I would’ve been wildly satisfied with some decent action, some winks and nods to memorable NES moments, and some faithful adaptations of storylines.
The Best of the Nintendo Comic System offered very little in terms of nostalgia or, quite frankly, fun. The joy of the games is almost completely absent, and if not for the redemption by Little Mac, who finishes off this adventure by beating up Super Macho Man on the street, I would’ve been completely disappointed.
The Best of the Nintendo Comic System is not good by any critical evaluation, and is by no means a must-read, even for Nintendo die-hards. The cartoons could satiate any thirst relating to this branch of the Nintendo merchandising tree, and I would only recommend this book as a curiosity.
One cliched parental norm regarding kids and video games is that kids should read books more often and play video games less often. This book, however, is evidence to the contrary.
