Grabbed it on Tuesday at Best Buy for $30 bucks and I'm loving it. Yes, it's missing the clipshow "When Mother Brain Rules", but that had 0 new content and was only slapped together by NBC at the last minute as filler (DiC has no record of it, hence why Shout Factory didn't put it on the DVD). It's also missing the 8 episodes of season 3, but that was done by a cruddy studio in Taiwan and resulted in some very poor animation and ugly off character models. That season will likely get released with the equally short Super Mario World when that comes out on DVD. Anyway... I have to say, the animation is MUCH better than I thought it would be. Leaps and bounds ahead of Super Mario Bros Super Show and Legend of Zelda, at any rate. Some of the action sequences are even kind of impressive (a lot of "anime" influences from the Japanese animation studio, but not *too* many). The characterizations for just about every video game character is outrageously off-base, but that's half the fun. I've actually come not to loathe Simon Belmont anymore. He's an egotistical buffoon and a bumbler, but he's not completely useless. He has about a 50/50 ratio of bumbling to success. I just finished watching the episode where they fight all the Robot Masters from Megaman 1. Hilarious. They all look so incredibly freakish. I suppose one thing that kinda disappoints me is that Captain N has almost exactly the same cast as the 1995 Megaman cartoon and the English dub of the Megaman OVAs ("Upon a Star") yet none of the actors are the same for any of the characters. I was hoping for a few reprisals. Interestingly, though, in Captain N, Dr. Wily is voiced by Ian Corlett who voiced Megaman in the 1995 cartoon. Wacky. Also, I really get a kick out of Gary Chalk voicing Donkey Kong, as his monkey grunts sound exactly like his monkey grunts as Optimus Primal in Beast Wars. Even more entertaining is that his voice for King Hippo is identical to his voice for Gutsman in the 95 Megaman series. Also, Levi Stubbs (yes, the famous mo-town singer from the Four Tops who also voiced Audrey II in the Little Shop of Horrors) is absolutely AWESOME as Mother Brain. I skipped ahead and watched the two crossovers with the Zelda cartoon. A lot of discontinuity in art design and they couldn't get Link's actor to return (they got a sound-a-like who wasn't very good), but I still dug it. The animation in "Quest for the Potion of Power" was quite good, especially once they resurrect Gannon. "Have a Ball" had some plainer animation but at least this time around they remembered that the Triforce of Courage existed. Man, this show is fantastic...in a ridiculously cheesy and nostalgic sort of way.
The animators definately seemed to have favored Simon. He seems to get the most detail, possibly because of all his energetic buffoonery.
Plan to get it. I enjoyed this series, and still wonder why the actual 2nd season never reaired. (when this crown takes over Lana and she boots Donkey Kong out of the head role in his world is one ep I recall) Hopefully these are on here, same with the one showing the MM boses from #1 and 2 I loved how they looked in that episode.
Seen the one with the Megaman 1 Robot Masters so far, and it's great ("Mega Trouble in Megaland" I think it was called). It's actually the second half of a two-parter, the first half being an episode called "Videolympics" which combines elements of Kid Icarus (the game) with Konami Track & Field. Just watched the episode "Three Men and a Dragon" where they journey to the world of Dragon's Den which is, of course, derived from the Dragon Warrior series. Incredibly wacky. This show is like a nostalgic overload, even if the games they showcase only vaguely resemble the actual product.
Loved the series as a kid. In fact I still have my nickname from that show. Kevinicus, Kid Icarus' way of saying Kevin. It's in my email address in fact.
I remember one of the final episodes, where they went to the world of Final Fantasy and they fought Astros(?) the Imp that impersonates the king, or whatever. I want them to release Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World on DVD already, got the ones from 1 and 2.
Well, Shout Factory announced that Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3 is on the way as well as Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Vol. 1. No official word on Super Mario World/New Captain N, but they'll likely release that after SMB3 since they're doing this chronologically.
