Episode 27
When Mother Brain Rules
Based on the Videogame: N/A

There’s not many times that I can say this, but I hate this episode. Growing up, whenever this episode came on, I’d always feel cheated and then either change the channel or go outside to play instead.

What we have here is the recap episode. This takes scenes from past Captain N episodes, edits them together, cuts out all the voices and a ways in, gives commentary by Simon Belmont.

It starts with the scene from the first episode where Mother Brain’s army is marching on the castle. The narration is different this time, though. This time it tells us that Mother Brain’s armies had marched on the castle and taken Princess Lana and her forces completely by surprise. The scene continues. Frankly, Mother Brain threatening and yelling at her forces is far less interesting when you can’t hear them talk. Not just different either, the voices are obviously missing and for no apparent reason.

We cut to a scene where Mother Brain and her forces invade the throne room directly. They take the N-Team hostage and we hear from the narration that their only hope lay within a prophecy of a great hero skilled in all forms of videogames. We see the N-Team in shackles and suddenly Captain N appears to rescue them.

We then cut to Kevin going through Castlevania. Then back to the first episode where Prince Hippo and Eggplant Wizard catch Simon and throw him through a warp zone. Then they go on to catch Lana. Kevin shows up just in time. We get the Eggplant Wizard/Kevin duel and Kevin loses. Switch scene to Mother Brain throwing Princess Lana through a warp zone where she’s imprisoned by Kraid in a tower.

Megaman and Kevin are then seen. Megaman throws Kevin up to the tower where he crashes though the ceiling, takes out Kraid, and rescues Lana. Duke, Megaman, and Kid Icarus run in. A hologram of Mother brain appears and drops Kevin, Duke, and Lana though a trap door into Metroid. There they have to deal with the typical hazards of the planet, including lava, weird creatures (some of which are actually from the game), and moving platforms before they reach Mother Brain’s inner chamber. Kevin goes to blast her but his Zapper is out of power.

Scene shift. Simon is being Simon and spraying breath spray into his mouth. Kevin faces off against The Count. Despite the fact that we can’t hear any dialog, we get a long shot of The Count talking. He then turns into a bat and charges Kevin, Duke, and Lana, grabbing Kevin’s Zapper and dropping it down a warp zone. Then The Count starts flying towards Lana.

Now we get some voices again! Simon breaks into narration as we see him swing onto the scene. He beats The Count and saves Lana while his narration goes on about how great a hero HE is. Actually this particular scene is for an episode where Simon was playing the part of a villain. Ironic, ain’t it? We get several more scenes of Simon being great while he makes a point to tell us how great he is.

Switch back to the scene where Kevin first arrives in Videoland and meets the N-Team. Simon goes on about how, now not only does he have to beat Mother Brain, but he has to put up with that “upstart,” that “young brat.” We’re then shown the scene where Simon went to hang his portrait up and the scene where Kevin fights Big Eye.

We’re shown more scenes but from here on out. The order is rather random as to what we see next. Simon’s narration never fails to make him look like the better hero. There are some scenes that show Simon messing up, but he objects in the narration to them, saying they shouldn’t be shown and calling for his stuntman. Eventually, Simon does admit that with Captain N now on the team, they’re unbeatable. That would have been a good closing for the episode, but they keep going on with it, until we reach the scene where Simon gives Gameboy the cap. Lana says “Why Simon, how unselfish of you,” and Simon ends the episode with the line “Hey, it’s all in the family,”

This episode seems to be filler. There’s no plot structure, no new material, and the voices are very obviously missing. It’s a huge distraction. The only good thing I can honestly say about this episode is that it does show you what all the main characters look like. There's also another version of this episode that features a slightly different commentary from Simon and the voices of the actual characters. I’ve never seen it.

Apparently, according to DiC's library and catalog there were only 26 episodes instead of the 27 that aired. Perhaps they don't consider this one an actual "real" episode. It could be that it was simply created on the fly to have an extra episode to show. 

Featuring:
Kevin Keene/Captain N
Princess Lana
Simon Belmont
Megaman
Kid Icarus
Duke
Gameboy
Link
Zelda
Paperboy
Mother Brain
Dr. Wily
The Count
Donkey Kong
Medusa
King Hippo
Eggplant Wizard
Kraid
Big Eye
The original six robot bosses
The Frogman
Moblins
Werewolf