My Video Game Library: Cartoons

    Before I got my first video game system, I got much of my fill for gaming from cartoons. At one time int he 80s, you had Pac-Man and Dragon's Lair on ABC, a compilation that featured Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, Kangaroo, and Pitfall (with later seasons featuring Donkey Kong Jr. and Space Ace) on CBS, and Captain N on NBC with Simon Belmont (from the 'Castlevania' games), Kid Icarus, and a very inaccurate Mega-Man, with appearances by Link and Zelda, on NBC. There was even a Super Mario series mixed in with live-action segments in syndication by the early 90s. I mostly missed that one, since it was on a time when I couldn't watch. 

    The 90s would also bring a fairly accurate Mega-Man cartoon. The season/series finale even brought in time-traveling characters from Mega-Man X. There was also a cartoon based on 'Street Fighter II' on USA, although it featured many elements from the live-action movie. I didn't like the animation style for the last season, although they brought in elements from Street Fighter Alpha for a surprise. Fox had some cartoons from games I didn't actually play, such as Monster Hunter. I think the show had a fairly deep plot, but I'm not sure it really reflected the actual game. There was also Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego? I really liked that one, as Rita Moreno voiced the titular villain, even though the only episode the visited Kentucky had them at a generic coal mine. (I also liked the PBS game show for kids. It was a nearly perfect blend of education and entertainment. The follow-up Where in Time leaned too much into education.) I even seem to remember a cartoon based on Mortal Kombat, but I never watched that one that much.

    Of course, the biggest video game cartoon was Pokémon. I knew about both the game and the cartoon before it debuted in America, mostly from the now banned episode that caused so many kids to have seizures. I watched it from its start in syndication through Kids WB onto Cartoon Network, where it went all the way through Gen VI. The show then went to streaming for the next to generations, before ending with the original human cast. A new cast was created for the current games. Never saw them.

    The late 90s brought the unusual knock-off Digimon. This cartoon had an overarching plot line that made much more sense. The first block/seasons of episodes feature a bunch of kids transported to a digital world, meeting up their Digimon partners. They managed to get back to earth, and they saved both worlds, only to have their partners return to their world. The second block had a flash forward of a few years, adding many new cast members, as the older ones mostly kept to the background. A similar menace arose, but this time, the two worlds managed to merge, allowing everyone on earth to bond with their own Digimon partner. The third block took place in a different universe with different characters. I couldn't understand much of it. The fourth block moved to a different network, and existed in another universe again. I missed large sections of it, but it was easily the weirdest one of all.

    Since the 2000s, there haven't been many gaming cartoons that I watched. Some, like one based on a Mega-Man spinoff, weren't really interesting. The latest Pac-Man cartoon from Discovery Family was barely watchable. There was also a highly-rated Castlevania cartoon, but it was on a steaming platform I didn't have. Frankly, so much is now streaming and not on cable, that there aren't any cartoons I can watch any more.