The Power Team (Throwback Thursdays)

By Mark Rodriguez

We already discussed Video Power, so now let's discuss the cartoon that took up most of the show. Join Johnny Arcade as he leads the Power Team to stop Mr. Big's evil plans. Also how they made a game about cops blowing up drug dealers into a kid's show.

Before getting into the cartoon, I'm gonna put on my VGM cap for a bit and give a brief look at the games featured the most on this show... namely NARC. This was a two-player shoot-em-up arcade game made by Midway as you control Max Force or Hit Man to take down Mr. Big's drug organization. Along the way you either arrest or shoot down drug dealers and earn points for confiscating ganja (Johnny and I laughed at the Ganja Bonus). You could also use a missile launcher or drive a sports car equipped with missiles. The game also featured an insane clown that would kidnap and stab prostitutes while hanging around a triple X book store. Good times.

NARC was one of the first 'overly-violent' video games released to a home version. Hell, it even made an appearance in the first Ninja Turtles live-action movie. Considering the game even has you blow up a meth lab, you can imagine having these characters in a cartoon would involve heavily toning them down. We'll check them out as we get down to the character descriptions.

We got kids most likely dealing in drugs playing a game about cops taking down people that are dealing with drugs. Either they're not aware of the irony or Shredder runs a strict anti-drug policy in the Foot.

The main story has the characters, Max Force, Kuros, Tryone, Kwirk and Big Foot exist in the real world. They follow Johnny Arcade's orders (he's in the show too but not voiced by Stivi) as they attempt to stop whatever evil plans Mr. Big and his men are up to. Mr Big also has the original game packs (NES Cartridges) from where the guys came from. Getting the games back is the only way to send the crew back home, but they have to be sure they take all their video game villains back home with them. Unlike Captain N the Game Master that mixed characters from all sorts of different companies, all the characters come from games that were licensed by Acclaim for the NES, even though the original arcade versions of some of them were made by other companies.

Heroes 

Max Force- NARC

In the game Max Force (dude in blue) takes down the drug dealers and killer dogs with extreme prejudice, blasting them away with machine guns and missile launchers. Plus he has his partner, Hit Man to help him out.

 In the cartoon Max Force dressed in SWAT gear and is kinda sorta the leader of the team besides Johnny Arcade. He talks in a serious 'policeman by the book' kind of fashion, and usually plays as the peace keeper of the team and reminds them of their mission. Instead of the guns and missile launchers, he has sort of a utility belt with all sorts of devices including grappling hook guns, shields, freeze sprays, lock picks, etc. He can even shoot the pads off his outfit. Like most gadget characters, he had a device for every occasion.

Kuros- Wizards and Warriors series (3 games for NES, 1 for Game Boy)

The hero of 3 games for the NES and one for the Game Boy, Kuros defends the land of Sindarin from the evil wizard Malkil, as well as rescuing all the fair maidens kidnapped by him. Besides his sword, he can also acquire different weapons, shields and magic spells throughout the games. In the sequel, Kuros has to learn the spells required to defeat each of Malkil's Elemental forms, as well as find the pieces of the IronSword to be able to defeat his true form. One thing to notice is that in the actual game he's a knight covered from head to toe in armor. For whatever reason the game covers always make him look like some kind of barbarian. Possibly one of the NES's most popular covers is the cover for IronSword, since they got Fabio himself to pose as Kuros.

In the cartoon Kuros is obviously based on the Fabio cover.. He has an 'old world' manner of speaking, but not going as far as to use 'thou' and 'thee' like Thor does. He's armed with the IronSword that, like most cartoons, will be used to cut anything except another person, and is able to shoot energy blasts. He's a brave and daring hero and the muscle of the team. One of his quirks is that he would always talk about his adventures from his home world. Almost everything would remind him of something from his world and he wouldn't hesitate to tell the tale, much to the annoyance of Tyrone.

Tyrone- Arch Rivals

Not much to say about Tyrone except that he kinda looked like Micheal Jordan. Arch Rivals was a basketball game that let the players punch each other to steal the ball, and even yank down the other players'  shorts. The stadium was also full of random snacks and junk that would trip you up and also make you lose the ball. Despite the descriptions like 'good offense' or 'rebound king', I really never saw much of a difference between the players, so there's not really much to say about Tyrone himself except, like the rest of them, he's not afraid to sock a guy in the jaw to win a basketball game.

In the cartoon Tyrone has some hair to not make him look so much like MJ. He doesn't do any punching, but he never hesitates to toss his basketball against the bad guys to smack them down or trip them up. He's usually complaining or annoyed about something, so his 'Awwww man!!' is kind of a catch phrase. Being a basketball player rather than some sort of warrior, a talking tomato or a member of the SWAT Team, Tyrone is kind of the straight man at times, having to put up with Kuros' long winded stories and Kwirk's hyper-activeness. 

Kwirk- Kwirk for Game Boy

In the game, Kwirk and his girlfriend Tammy Tomato accidently got lost in an underground maze they found. Tammy was somehow lost on her own, so now Kwirk has to go through several mazes while pushing and rotating blocks to find her. Oddly enough this game was based on a game called Puzzle Boy in Japan, where the hero was a potato named Spud.

In the cartoon Kwirk is possibly the most entertaining character, since he is a talking tomato and all that. His sorta catchphrase is repeating certain words in an annoyed manner like 'c'mon-c'mon-c'mon!!!' and 'alright-alright-alright!!!' He seems to get along the best with Tyrone even though they argue a lot. They both seem to be paired up a lot during their plans. Due to his game dealing with mazes, he usually has a huge advantage in places that are maze-like or have lots of boxes. One of his pet peeves is when people mispronounce 'to-may-to' as 'to-mah-to' which is something Mr. Big does often.

A funny thing to point out is that Kwirk has a big deal of respect for tomatoes, cause well... yeah, he is one. In one episode a Native American woman was showing him how she makes corn tortillas. He was fine with it until she mentioned they sometimes serve it with diced tomatoes. But in another episode he helped the others recover a bunch of stolen tomatoes that Mr. Big was planning to use to put pizza makers out of business unless they pay his overcharged prices for the tomatoes. I guess Kwirk was never told they mash tomatoes up to make the sauce for the pizzas. At the end of the episode they get invited for some free pizzas... so I wonder how he'll react when he asks what the red stuff on the pizza is....

Big Foot- Big Foot

Not much to say on the video game version. Big Foot is probably the most popular monster truck out there, so I guess they had to get the license not just for the game, but the truck itself. It's mostly a racing game, but you also get to do what it does best, run over and mash cars into pancakes.

Now the cartoon version was a whole other story cause Big Foot could talk! Having a bit of a 'country feller' voice, Big Foot could do a power jump, as well as fire lasers from the lights on top of it. It's bumper could also extend outwards to hit the enemies or shield against attacks. On top of all that Big Foot is also Johnny's eyes and ears as the heroes usually use either the car radio or a tv screen to keep in touch with each other. There are times when Johnny can control him as well. Not sure why they made him talk, but it does make him feel like part of the team instead of just their mode of transportation. His catchphrase of sorts is usually saying '10-4 good buddy' after taking an order.

Johnny Arcade- Video Power

 Johnny is the leader of the Power Team and he would command them from his house with his NES, his TV and a NES Advantage Joystick controller. He wasn't voice by Johnny himself, and acted a lot more serious than the wild and crazy tv show host. He sees what's going on through Big Foot, so he can offer his gamer advice no matter where they are. He also seems able to control Big Foot a few times with his controller, and at least on one occasion he was able to control Kwirk. His kinda-sorta catchphrase for whenever people would thank him for helping out was that it was 'no charge'... something I don't remember him using in the live-action parts.

There are few times where he couldn't help the heroes. In one episode, Mr. Big had some kid give Johnny a game that 'noone could beat'. When he tried it, it crashed his system and he was unable to help the team. Another time Malkil trapped everyone in his world (which is also Kuros' world) so they were out of his reach.

THE VILLIANS

Mr. Big- NARC

Oh boy... where do I even start.... well in the games Mr. Big is head of the evil K.R.A.K organization that's filling the cities with drugs. He seems to be a normal looking crime boss in a wheelchair. Typical dude with a fancy white suit, shades and chomping a big cigar....

But then, HOLY CRAP, WHAT IS THIS??? How did the dude turn himself into some kind... giant head thing on a mobile device...? At first he just tries to ram into you. After you blast off his shades he fires fireballs from his insane glowing eyes. Then he starts spitting out tongues at you (w...t.....f....?).

If that wasn't weird enough.... you eventually blow him up and you still have to fight his skull (with a long spinal cord) that continues to lunge out at you and also shoot off more tongues. Man... what a freakshow. The creators had fun when designing this game's final boss. I mean, you can even see portraits of a normal looking Mr. Big in the background, so at one time this monstrosity was human...

Well, in the cartoon he's a normal human gangster that doesn't transform into.... whatever the hell that was. He does have the name-pun of being called Mr. Big despite being the shortest of the villains. He has Joe and Spike working with him. Most of his schemes are basic crimes and robberies, nothing as grandiose as trying to take over the world, but some of his plans involve going directly after the Power Team. He's armed with all sorts of cigar themed weapons, including a cigar that shoots missiles, a grenade cigar he can throw, a blinding light cigar, an ink-shooting cigar, a cigar that fires off a metal fist and probably more. He also throws a brick that becomes a brick wall by the time it hits the ground, mostly used a shield.

His most dangerous weapons are the game packs, the original NES game cartridges from which the Power Team comes from. If he zaps them with the game packs, it will suck them back into their original games, and there would be no one left to stop Mr. Big in the real world. As seen in one of the episodes, whenever he does manages to zap Kwirk and Tyrone into Kwirk's game, he was planning to destroy the game cartridge so that they could never return. Another thing about him is he always mispronounces tomato as 'to-mah-to' which always pisses Kwirk off.

Dr. Spike Rush- NARC (Only called Spike in the cartoon show)

In the games Spike runs a meth lab. Unlike the cartoon, there's lots of 'Spikes' running around, so he's one of the game's recurring enemies. They toss giant syringes at you and if they hit you, you're frozen in place (that's gotta be some strong stuff) which of course, leave you vulnerable to get shot.

In the cartoon he's also working for Mr. Big. He seems kinda like the voice of reason of the group, keeping Joe from being too stupid and calming Mr. Big down whenever he's pissed and reminding him of their mission at hand. He's also ready with the get-away car when it's time to escape. With Mr. Big's temper and Joe's shenanigans, he sure puts up with a lot. He also uses disguises sometimes as part of Mr. Big's plans.

Joe Rockhead- NARC (Only called Joe in the cartoon show)

A large dangerous man, Joe is high on P.C.P and super strong, usually lifting up heavy objects like barrels and garbage dumpsters and throwing them at you. Like Spike, there's also a lot of Joes running around in the game.

In the cartoon, he's basically the dumb muscle of the trio, and like most dumb 80's cartoon characters, he even says 'duuuuh' as he speaks. Due to Joe being the dumb one, he's usually messing stuff up, bumbling, or otherwise pissing Mr. Big off with things like not being able to tell what's left or right. He's also incredibly strong, usually lifting up huge heavy things to throw at the heroes like his videogame counterpart. He also has a huge appetite, usually eating whatever food that happens to be involved with the crimes at hand.

I have never ever met anyone use 'duh' in real life unless it was sarcastically.

Burnt Rubber -original character-

Despite what one might think, Burnt Rubber isn't from the Big Foot game. Normally Mr. Big and his boys drive around in his limo, also equipped with lasers and such. In one of the episodes, an accident involving Mr. Big trying to zap Big Foot back to his game world causes this orange Monster Truck to 'come to life' and talk as well. He now serves as Mr. Big's new set of wheels, also equipped with lasers and missiles. For whatever reason, he already has a natural hated for Big Foot. Some episodes seem to forget he's 'alive' and just treat him like a normal vehicle.

Malkil- Wizards and Warriors (3 games for the NES and one for Game Boy)

In the games, he used to be a good wizard but eventually went mad with power in his old age. He kidnaps a princess, which starts Kuros' quest against him and his creatures. In IronSword W&W 2, he can turn into the four Elementals, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. He can only be defeated by specific spells when he's in this form. The Blightwater spell hurts his Water Form, the Earthscorch spell hurts his Earth Form, the Windbane spell hurts his Wind Form and the Firesmite spell affects his Fire Form. In this game, only IronSword can hurt him after his Elemental forms have been defeated.

In the cartoon, Malkil is given a much more evil and awesome looking design. He wants to destroy Kuros and take IronSword and eventually uses his magic to go to the real world to find him. He usually brings the creatures from the Wizards and Warriors with him like snakes, killer fish and skull creatures. He can also transform into the Elementals, and the only thing to hurt him then is to be hit by Kuro's sword after it has absorbed the right magic spell. It's kinda funny that whenever he transforms, the treasure chests with the right spell just happen to be lying around in the general area. What was the Blightwater spell doing in the trunk of Mr. Big's limo?

Malkil is a lot more dangerous and serious than the somewhat-bumbling Mr. Big and his henchmen's antics. While he worked with them in his first episode, he usually works alone. He's the show's secondary main villain aside from Mr. Big, and it's interesting how he can warp himself in and out of Sindarin without needing to use the Game Packs.

Other minor characters that make a few appearances are Kwirk's girlfriend Tammy Tomato, and several veggie-related bad guys, supposedly from his game. This is rather confusing since his game doesn't really have any enemies per say... it's just a puzzle game about him trying to find his girlfriend and also find his way out of the maze without any real bad guy 'behind it all'. There are some veggie characters in the game like Sass the Squash and Pete the Pepper, but they're his friends, also trying to help Kwirk find Tammy... so they wouldn't count as enemies.

The show would have its own music, not really grabbing themes from the games they're based on. Most of the music could be found playing during the Video Power show itself. The characters would also have video game sounds straight from the NES versions of the games. It's funny that the jump sound made in this show comes from NARC when the sports car is slamming on the brakes. I did notice in the episode where Mr. Big manages to zap Kwirk and Tyrone to the tomato's game world they used the classic 'warp pipe' sound effect from Super Mario Bros. And of course, to keep with the videogame theme all the characters would use expressions like 'bonus lives', 'game over', being unable to press 'the pause button' etc. With the exception of episodes that dealt with Kwirk and Kuros' game worlds, most of the series would take place in the real world as the Power Team's adventures seem to take them cross country.

It was an interesting show and I have to admit I did rather enjoy it. The characters were a bit cheesy (but I don't find them as cheesy as the Mario and Captain N cartoons) and the show probably would have lasted longer if they added more famous characters. Any additional guest star was still from the same games the heroes were related to, so we never got past that and saw other games being referenced. I wouldn't say the show aged too horribly, some episodes are definitely better than others, but I guess what makes it feel dated is that it's based on games that never got more sequels. They basically lived and died during the Nintendo era. The only one to have somewhat of a game series is Kuros from Wizards and Warriors, but the series ended with the NES and didn't continue to the SNES and onwards. NARC got a bit of a remake/sequel but it was a whole new story without Max Force and Mr. Big and it really didn't kick off. All of this while Captain N featured characters like Megaman and Simon Belmont that  come from games that still continue to this day.

I know most of you would compare this to Captain N The Game Master since it's another show about a real world kid meeting a mixed group of video game characters, and would most likely rank this lower than that one. However, due to how horribly they characterized Mega Man and especially Simon Belmont.... yeah... I kinda put these two shows at a tie. I don't know... I just like the characters... especially Mr. Big's gimmicky cigars, and the whole idea of him trying to blast them with their own game cartridges.

Another thing I liked is since Johnny only gave them advice and didn't literally fight their battles for them, the Power Team felt a lot more competent than the crew from Captain N. It's bad enough Captain N basically outstages the actual game heroes, the heroes are basically such ineffective idiots that it's a wonder they kept VideoLand safe somehow before Captain N came into the picture.

The series lasted one season since season 2 of Video Power became a game show with no room for a cartoon. Unlike Captain N, this series never got a DVD release. I would assume due to not being able to grab the licenses of all the different games Johnny reviewed on the live-action segments... or maybe they felt there just isn't enough demand for it. The only way to still see these episodes are on Youtube from those lucky few still had their VHS tapes in good enough condition whenever they taped them all those years ago. I know I taped a few but those tapes are long gone. It's still an interesting show I'd recommend giving a look at, if you can, especially if you liked any of the games referenced.

One last thing I'd like to throw in was that Kwirk was a Game Boy game.. and yet in the intro, he jumps out of the TV as Johnny is playing his NES. It's funny how they never reference that in the show, that technically he's from a different game system. Whenever Mr. Big pulls out the game carts, they all look the same size, there isn't a smaller one meant for Kwirk. In the episode where he zapped Kwirk and Tyrone back to his game world, the game pack used didn't look any smaller than the rest of them.