Captain N: The Game Master was an animated cartoon television show that aired on NBC from September 9, 1989 to October 26, 1991. The show was part of NBC’s Saturday morning cartoon lineup and incorporated elements from many of the most popular video games that were released on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The show was produced by DIC Animation City and aired for three seasons. The first season of the show aired as a stand-alone series while season 2 was included as part of an hour-long block with “The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3” and with “Super Mario World” in season 3.

The character Captain N first appeared in Nintendo Power magazine, created by Randy Studdard, a magazine editor at Nintendo. Studdard presented a formal proposal to Nintendo management that included the character as a company spokes-character and the Saturday morning carton was part of the entire marketing campaign. Nintendo of America later decided to pursue the idea and create a cartoon series. DIC Animation City was selected as the animation studio and changed various aspects of the original idea while keeping the main premise of Captain N opposing Mother Brain as he interacted with a multitude of video game characters.

During the first episode the hero of the series, Kevin Keene, a teenager from Northridge, Los Angeles, California, and his dog Duke are taken to another universe known as Videoland when they are sucked into a vortex called the Ultimate Warp Zone that formed in his television.

In order to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Kevin is destined to become the hero “Captain N: The Game Master” and save Videoland from evil forces led by Mother Brain from the floating world/fortress called Metroid. By the time Kevin arrives on the scene, Mother Brain has almost succeeded in capturing the Palace of Power and conquering all Videoland. Kevin and Duke appear suddenly on the other side of the Ultimate Warp Zone before the N Team, consisting of Princess Lana of Videoland, Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus.

In most episodes, the N Team’s enemy is a group of video game villains, usually led by Mother Brain who is accompanied by her minions, the Eggplant Wizard, King Hippo, and Dr. Wily. A “villain of the week” is featured in some episodes when a particular video game becomes the setting of the episode. Several other characters make recurring appearances, including Donkey Kong, The Count from Castlevania and Dr. Wright from Mega Man. The cast of the Legend of Zelda cartoon reprise their respective roles for several guest appearances during the series. The focus of the show is mostly action-adventure sourced from the video games they feature, with comic relief in the form of the character’s interactions with one another and the environment and their quirks and catchphrases.

As a result of NBC’s reduced budget for they’re 1991 Saturday Morning lineup, season 3 ended up being the shortest season with only 7 new episodes. Among other cuts, episodes were scaled down to 11 minutes, as they shared a half-hour timeslot with the Super Mario World cartoons. Seven of the episodes were new, while six were reruns. In order to fill up the other 6 timeslots, episodes from the first two seasons were edited down to 11 minutes.