| How's Bayou | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 2 | |
| |
| Air date | September 16, 1989 |
| Written by | Jeffrey Scott |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Kevin in Videoland |
Next The Most Dangerous Game Master |
"How's Bayou" is a Season 1 episode of Captain N: The Game Master. It is the second episode of both the season and the series.
The episode was written by Jeffrey Scott.
Plot summary[]
Mother Brain learns that Kevin isn't good at the Bayou Billy video game. So she lures him to the world, where Dr. Wily unleashes a deadly new swamp creature to battle him. It's up to Kevin to overcome his weaknesses and save his friends, with the help of Bayou Billy himself.
Character appearances[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| N Team | Forces of Chaos | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Note: Characters with the same number first appeared in the same shot.
Trivia[]
- The footage of (real-world) Kevin playing his NES in version one of the episode was later incorporated into the Season 2 introduction sequence.
- The Adventures of Bayou Billy is notorious among NES fans for its difficulty. Despite the show being known for the writers' less-than-stellar research, it may not be coincidence that it was selected as the one game even Captain N could never beat.
- In the original NBC version of this episode, the music that Kevin and Lana were dancing to was generic 80s DiC stock music. In the second NBC version (and later reruns in syndication) it was changed to a cover version of the underground theme from Super Mario Bros. 2. Version 1 is on the Shout Factory DVD releases.
- Crocodiles appeared in this episode, although there was a crocodile that is Bayou Billy's pet.
- The snake that was seen on the cover of the Bayou Billy game appears in this episode.
- A frog monster that appears is based on Fred the Frog from Blaster Master.
- Bayou Billy's vehicle appears also in this episode.
- Bayouland is the main world in this episode.
- Mega Man narrated the original opening teaser promo for this episode.
Errors[]
Animation[]
- The "unfinished" version one of the episode features a variety of animation errors. Two frames don't even have a background and some animation seems rushed.
- When Mother Brain says "Only a Mother Brain could love [the Swamp Monster]" her eyes are white instead of the proper yellow.
Continuity[]
- The flashback to "just before" Kevin was sucked through the Ultimate Warp Zone into Videoland has Kevin playing The Adventures of Bayou Billy (which looks nothing like the actual game), but, in "Kevin in Videoland" (and the opening themes), he was playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!.
- When Kevin loses the game in the flashback he calls himself "Captain Klutz". This sounds like it's meant to be a play off his hero name in Videoland, but the flashback was before he knew anything about "Captain N".
- Lana and Kevin's dialogue while dancing implies Kevin (and presumably Lana) can go back to Earth anytime. This clashes with Lana's "you forget everything when you go back" speech in "The Big Game". Lana's "Some other time" response in this episode was removed in version 2, but version 1 ended up on the DVD set.
- Most of the enemies shown in the episode are animals or swamp monsters, but most of the enemies in the actual game are gangsters.
- Mother Brain and her lackeys are de-digitalized by the power star which theoretically should have been the end of them. My theory is when enemies are defeated by Kevin's Zapper or anything else, they aren't destroyed, but can come back later. Similar to Ganon's evil jar in Legend of Zelda, since he himself wound up there on a few occasions. So Mother Brain, being stronger, can't permanently be finished off as Kevin suggested in the previous episode. Yet big bads like Viroid and possibly even Ganon can somehow. Sleep indeed. :P
- However, even so, the episode doesn't further explain the logic of the Power Star Item on how minor enemies like the crocodiles and the Swamp Creature get destroyed for good by the Power Star or how Mother Brain and Her Lackeys somehow regenerate/Survived in Later Episodes after getting de-digitalized by the power star. It's possible that Mother Brain somehow has an unlimited Power Source on the world of Metroid as stated in later episodes like "Home Sweet Metroid" which gives her the power to Regenerate herself and her Lackeys after every defeat.
Logic[]
- Dr. Wily says that his swamp creature was programmed for one reason: to destroy Captain N. Yet it chases Lana and Simon. Dr. Wily should have said it was programmed "to destroy the N Team."
Variants and alterations[]
- Hoo boy, where to begin? Well, it had two versions; version one aired only once on NBC while the second version aired as a rerun. Version one was incomplete, with several scenes missing. In version two, some lines were added in, some lines were taken out, the music was different in some scenes, even entire scenes were added in. And here's the kicker: when the DVD came out, version one was put on there while version two faded into obscurity. Funny how life works.
- The infamous missing backgrounds animation error from version one was even pointed out by popular YouTube reviewer Doug Walker (a.k.a. "The Nostalgia Critic"). In fact, he pointed out that DiC made this animation error seven times throughout the entire episode. Did they really get so lazy here that they forgot to watch the episode again before they sent it out to broadcast?
- And on top of that, the episode's song, a cover of "Born on the Bayou" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, was different in each version. Plus version two had a reprisal at the end. Both versions were replaced by "Mega Move" though.