I grew up on a steady diet of great Saturday morning cartoons- G.I Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Dragonball Z, and of course Thundercats. They were all great fun to watch, they all told awesome stories, and they all were the heady stuff of fantasy that young boys thrive upon.

But there was one cartoon that just blew them all out of the water. Even He-Man. That cartoon was SWAT Kats.

The premise was absurd- two grease monkeys secretly owning and flying their own highly advanced fighter jet and fighting the forces of evil. The animation hasn’t aged well relative to modern cartoons. The lines were cheesy and silly.

And yet this remains one of the most badass cartoons EVER made. Not least because the opening theme tracks for both seasons were EPIC. In fact, the opening themes are unquestionably a big part of the reason why I am a metalhead.

There are some pretty cool cover versions of these out as well:

The 90s… man, what a great time to be a kid!