It all started off with a quick live action introduction: Northridge, CA teen Kevin Keene [portrayed by Dorian Borag] happily plays "Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!" with his NES Advantage joystick, when things go wrong, and he gets sucked into the TV set in a flash of blue static light. As he falls into a twisting void, his dog Duke jumps into the screen to follow him. He later finds himself in Videoland, a vast network of areas composed of different Nintendo games, including Castlevania, Metroid, Kongoland, Megaland, Mount Icarus and the home base - the Palace of Power.

Kevin, now known as Captain N [Matt Hill], meets the raspy-voiced Megaman [Doug Parker], squeaky Kid Icarus [Alessandro Juliani] who ends every other word with "icus," the self-absorbed Simon Belmont [Andrew Kavadas] and his seemingly bottomless pit of a backpack, the mumbling computerized Gameboy [Frank Welker] who could create objects shown on his green screen, and love interest Princess Lana [Venus Terzo], are all members of the "N-team."

Captain N doesn't get his title for no reason - his equipment is composed of a vintage orange-barreled NES Zapper which fires laser beams, and a specialized NES Controller belt that allows him to pause time, jump high, move fast, and perform any other button function when he sees fit.

The N-Team protects Videoland from the hideous Mother Brain [Levi Stubbs] and her stooges King Hippo [Gary Chalk] and the one-eyed Eggplant Wizard [Michael Donovan]. Along the way, Captain N and team encounter various common baddies from NES games (all of which get dispatched in a poof of pixels after being blasted with Captain N's Zapper), and sometimes come face to face with the dopey but sometimes violent Donkey Kong, who stands a good two stories tall. A multitude of other Nintendo games are also featured or referenced throughout the episodes, including The Adventures of Bayou Billy, Wizards and Warriors, Dragon Warrior, Tetris, Faxanadu, The Legend of Zelda, Paperboy, Dr. Mario, and Final Fantasy.

Episodes "Once Upon A Time Machine", "Having a Ball" and "The Trojan Dragon" featured a crossover with characters Link and Zelda from the Legend of Zelda cartoon series, which was a Friday afternoon segment of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.

Many episodes featured actual 80s radio hits as background music.

Thirteen episodes composed the first season of this show. "Captain N: The Game Master" eventually became merged with the "Super Mario Bros. 3" cartoon, and was retitled "Captain N & the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3," which ran for 14 episodes in the second season. Captain N cartoons were then abridged and added as miniature episodes. In the third season, the show merged with the "Super Mario World" cartoon, and was once again re-titled to "Captain N and the New Super Mario World," featuring seven final episodes.

Shout Factory Studios released the entire series of "Captain N: The Game Master" on DVD.