The Most Dangerous Game Master
Episode 6
Based on: Castlevania

“Deep within the brain-shaped world of Metroid, a strange experiment will soon have an unexpected effect on Captain N,” the narrator tells us as we pan though space, eventually arriving at Metroid, which is indeed brain-shaped.

Inside Metroid, Mother Brain is overseeing Wily work. She asks him how her monster is coming along. We see Wily partially pull back the sheets revealing an outfit almost identical to Kevin’s. Wily even hooks a Power Pad onto its belt and tells Mother Brain the body is finished. As he hooks some jumper cables up to his creations head (which is still under the sheet) he says that he still has to program its brain. For that, he has created a special device to record Captain N’s memories.

Mother Brain brings some bell to summon her henchmen who are sleeping in hammocks in the back. King Hippo has the top hammock and Eggplant Wizard has the bottom. Hippo’s arm dangles down. In his sleep Eggplant Wizard starts dreaming about “a beautiful peach” and grabs and starts caressing King Hippo’s gloved hand. Eventually he tugs on the arm a bit too much and flips Hippo out of his hammock. King Hippo ends up landing on Eggplant Wizard. No there’s a wake up call for you.

When they show up, we get a great bit of dialog.

Mother Brain: And remember, no foul-ups this time, you incompetent slobs.
Eggplant Wizard: Hey, have we ever fouled up Mother Brain?
Mother Brain: Can I give you one tiny volt for every time you’ve messed up my plans?
Eggplant Wizard: Are you nuts? That would be a million volts.

Then she chases the two off by shooting electricity at them.

At the Palace of Power, the N-Team are watching a movie called Donkey Kong Jones and the Last Banana. It’s not often you get to see a giant ape dressed in an ill fitting Indiana Jones outfit. I give this movie three stars for that alone. Donkey Kong Jones reaches the X on his map and starts digging. Pretty soon he’s fallen into an underground passage and finds a banana that’s ten times HIS size. He accidentally steps on a trigger that sends the banana rolling at him, giant boulder style. It's odd but watching DK run like that is rather hilarious. He reaches a huge cliff and decides to jump rather than letting the banana hit him. He ends up landing in a huge banana split and the banana falls in as well. Donkey Kong just starts laughing.

Kevin comments on how Videoland has some weird movies. Duke barks in agreement. Simon then wants to see what’s on channel 4,212 and sees his favorite "Wombatman." There we see an obvious Batman parody. Wombatman (a short furry guys who’s basically a wombat man wearing a batman-like costume) is talking to Nikki who at this point we can only assume is his girlfriend. We won’t find out her name until next season though.

Nikki: I just need to know one thing, Bruce. Are we going to try to love each other?
Wombatman: Probably not. Now where did I leave the keys to the Wombat mobile anyway?

If you don’t get the joke, you need to go back and watch the Tim Burton Batman movie again. Later. We still have an episode to get though here.

The screen then goes to static. Lana says the antenna must be out. She’s going to go call the repairman. See that’s the problem with being the princess during a war. You just can’t keep TV repairmen on staff. (I’m sure that makes sense somehow.) She takes the dirty dishes as she gets up. Kevin is quick to offer his help. Simon just thinks he’s kissing up. The doorbell rings and Simon pushes Kid Icarus out of the way to get it. Simon makes sure he combs his hair before answering the door.

Simon answers it to find King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard wearing repairman uniforms and carrying tools. When I say “wearing” you really have to stretch you imagination for King Hippo. His uniform is so small and stretched out on him that one deep breath looks like it would send the buttons on his shirt flying fast enough to kill somebody. Naturally Simon doesn’t recognize them. Eggplant Wizard says they’re the repairmen. This baffles Simon a bit. He didn’t expect them here so fast, but he lets them in anyway. Simon then takes a closer looks at them and asks if he knows them from someplace. King Hippo tells him he’s never been to “someplace before” but he’s been “no place special a” few times. Simon lets them go. They BS an answer about what’s wrong with the TV and then go behind it to install Wily’s device.

Duke comes around the back of the TV and sniffs at them. Eggplant Wizard takes out a remote and clicks it a few times at Duke, each time turning him into a different animal. Finally he turns him back and Duke takes off running. King Hippo grabs the remote and clicks it at Eggplant Wizard, turning him into a hot blonde woman. He says that he’ll have to remember that channel, turns Eggplant Wizard back, and then throws the device away. Then they hook Wily’s device into the TV to record Kevin‘s worst nightmares.

Kevin and Lana come back from the kitchen. Simon tells them that the repair crew will have the set fixed in a jiffy. Lana tells him that the repair crew isn't even coming until tomorrow. The TV screen then goes into a hypnotic pattern. A blast is fired from it and it hits Simon. We see a scene of Simon surrounded by a red mist. The Count shows up and bites him. While on the couch, Simon seems scared out of his mind. Eggplant Wizard yells at Hippo and they redirect the beam. This time it hits Duke. We see his worst fear is being chased down by an army of cats. Finally they redirect the beam and it hits Kevin. Kevin is being approached by a shadowy figure that is dressed much like he is. The figure picks Kevin up by his collar and Kevin snaps out of it and nearly collapses. Having gotten what they came for, King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard are ready to leave, but King Hippo trips over a wire and comes crashing through the TV screen. The N-Team spots the two baddies and charge into action. Eggplant Wizard quickly throws a mushroom down and it instantly grows huge and blocks their path. A door opens in the mushroom and Eggy and Hippo run into it. The mushroom turns into a helicopter, and they escape.

Lana helps Kevin to the couch. Kevin says he had the weirdest feeling, it was as if someone was peeking into his darkest memories, and there was someone from his past, but he can't remember who that person was.

Back on Metroid, King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard return with the device. Mother Brain tells them they’ll be well-rewarded and then tosses large bone at them. They take a look at each other for a minute and then start fighting over it. Now I see why she’s got these two working for her. They work cheap.

Dr. Wily says that the memories are all he’ll need to bring his creation to life. He throws some switches and the table that his “monster” was on raises into the lightning filled sky. This whole scene comes across with a very Frankenstein flair. Dr. Wily starts laughing maniacally. Then Mother Brain, King Hippo and Eggplant Wizard join in the laughing. For a while Mother Brain is looking back and forth between them both, annoyed and perplexed. Finally she bops Hippo and Eggplant and tells Dr. Wily to get on with it. Wily calls her party pooper and the table lowers. The creation steps off the table. It appears to be a large bulky teen dressed like Kevin with his own Zapper and Power Pad. Mother Brain calls him the ultimate Game Master.

The next morning, at the Palace of Power, Kevin and Duke are both eating breakfast. Lana pours herself a cup of tea and asks if he‘s feeling better. Kevin says he is. A hologram of Mother Brain appears and tells Kevin that he’s not the Game Master anymore. There’s a new Game Master in town. The hologram then changes to the shadow figure that Kevin saw in his nightmare. It fires a Zapper at Kevin then laughs. Kevin says that he won’t be scared by her shadows. She tells him to prepare to meet his match.

Megaman comes running into the room and tells Lana there’s a mega-emergency call. Kevin and Lana follow him to a communications room where Kid Icarus and Simon are trying to clear up the transmission. Finally the screen becomes watchable and Wily’s creation comes into view. Kevin instantly recognizes him as Mike Vincent, who used to go to the same school as he did. Mike tells him that Mother Brain sucked him through his TV and set him to Castlevania. Then she sent some guy called a “game master” after him. The screen goes blank. Lana says that they need to go rescue Kevin’s friend. Kevin points out that Mike isn’t his friend. He’s his worst enemy (Well, probably his worst enemy prior to his Videoland days. I’m pretty sure that Mother Brain would rank above the guy now.). Ever since he was a kid, Mike’s been beating him up. Kevin is rather pleased by the idea of being the one to rescue “Mean Mike Vincent.”

The N-Team warps to Castlevania and goes straight for the castle. Simon says leave everything to him. He’s not only a vampire hunter, he claims to be good at finding people too. He opens a doorway and is freaked out by a skeleton. Kevin tells Simon to relax. Duke will be able to find Mike. Duke picks up the scent and soon stops and runs in circles. Simon gets onto him or not finding the guy they’re looking for AND getting them lost too. The rest of the N-Team screams. Simon asks what’s wrong? He then asks if it’s his hair or something in his nose before he turns to see Mike standing there and screams even louder than the others.

Kevin tells Mike that they’re here to help him. Mike says he doesn’t want his help. He wants his hide. Then he introduces Kevin to his M-Team. The M stands for Monsters. Frankenstein’s Monster, the werewolf, the Mummy, and The Count all rise from the ground. Mike then says he’s the new Game Master of Videoland.

Mike taunts the N-Team and sends his monsters out. Simon takes a flash photo of The Count. The flash blinds him. Simon then wraps him up with his whip. Megaman tosses a large statue on the Frankenstein’s Monster pinning him to the ground. Kid Icarus shoots the Mummy with a Bon Voyage arrow that gives him a part hat, streamers and balloons that cause him to float away. Duke grabs the Mummy‘s bandages and spins him until he disappears.

The N-Team then slowly walks towards Mike who’s understandably taken aback. He reaches for his Zapper, but Kevin blasts his hand. Mike then hits pause. He walks up, taunts Kevin, and wraps his arm around Lana. He tells Kevin, “I’ve even got your girl, just like the good old days.” Kevin replies that he’ll get Mike for this.

Next we see, Mike has got the N-Team all tied up. Mother Brain, King Hippo, Dr. Wily and Eggplant Wizard have all arrived. Mother Brain explains what Mike really is. Kevin puts two and two together and figures out that Mike came from his memories and that weird feeling he had earlier.

Mike issues a challenge to Kevin. Whoever gets though Castlevania first wins and is the real Game Master. Kevin isn’t too sure about it. Mother Brain objects, says that she’s already won and Mike has nothing to prove. Mike basically tells Mother Brain to shut up. Then he calls Kevin a chicken. Kevin accepts the challenge.

Kevin and Mike take different routes though Castlevania while a bad cover of “Thriller” plays. Kevin encounters a strange-looking ghost. Mike zaps a werewolf and gets one of the floating hearts from the games. Kevin then faces a very frog-looking fish man. Mike uses his Power Pad to leap over a giant spear-chucking knight. When Kevin encounters the knight, he uses his power pad to leap from one spear to another.

Eventually Kevin gets to The Count’s chamber. He pauses at the coffin allowing The Count to sneak up behind him in bat form and push him out the window. Mike comes in and gives The Count a heavy blast from his Zapper. The Count turns gray and collapses in his coffin. Mike then walks over to Kevin to brag about winning. Kevin is hanging on by his finger, but just barely. Kevin says that if he’s really based on Mike Vincent, he can’t be all bad. Kevin tells the Mike android about the time when they used to be friends.

Back in the room where everybody else is at, Mike walks in. Mother Brain is pleased at first, until Mike insults her and Kevin walks in. Mother Brain yells for Wily to activate the secret weapon. Dr. Wily throws a switch and Mother Brain spins around a few times. When she stops, she’s got two huge guns. Mike pushes Kevin out of the way and ends up getting blasted. He falls to the ground seemingly in pain and with quite a bit of his circuitry exposed. Mother Brain laughs at Kevin’s horrified reaction. Kevin then tells Mother Brain to enjoy her trip home. He blasts a chandelier which falls onto a table and flips Mother Brain, Dr. Wily. King Hippo, and Eggplant Wizard out the skylight.

Kevin tries to comfort Mike. Mike says Kevin was right, deep down he really was a nice guy. Then he says not to worry about him because he’s just an android. Then Mike shuts down. Simon says that he knew he could beat Mike. Kevin tells Simon that he did better than beat him, he became his friend again. The android then fades out and disappears.

This is actually one of my favorite episodes. It’s not often we get a chance to see what Kevin’s life was like outside of Videoland. The idea of a rival game master was also quite well handled and the whole thing takes place in one of my favorite game worlds. There are a few small questions it leaves to be asked, like how Wily was s able to design the robot without Kevin’s memories, but otherwise it was one of the better shows.

Featuring:
Kevin Keene/Captain N
Princess Lana
Simon Belmont
Kid Icarus
Megaman
Duke
Mike
Wily
Mother Brain
King Hippo
Eggplant Wizard
Wombat Man (cameo)
Nikki (cameo)
The Count
Werewolf
Mummy
Frankenstein’s Monster
Donkey Kong (cameo)