Captain Forever, or C4E, released in 2009, was a space shooter that laid the foundation for its sequel, Captain Forever Remix, or C4ER for short. Captain Forever was a simplistic space shooter with roguelike, or elements that focus on random events, that kept the game fun, fast paced, and sticks out of the crowd from other games from the genre.

Although immensely fun, C4E remained hidden to most of the crowd, but was one of those rare gems that you’d hear about from a friend or a distant cousin, twice removed on your father’s side. Eventually, Pixelsaurus Games, and one eventful Saturday morning watching cartoons led to the inspiration and development of Captain Forever Remix.

Story-wise, C4ER follows two siblings, a brother and a sister. The girl plays the role of the main character, Captain Forever, and is tasked with defeating her brother, King Kevin. The story is within the imagination of the two children, and they use their toys and even their pet corgi as pretend pilots.

The main objective of the game is to make it from the Sun all the way to Pluto, while staying alive as you tackle increasingly more difficult space ships. As you get closer to Pluto, the crazier the game’s designs get.

Captain Forever Remix has a cutesy story, with a hefty amount of charm. Sure, the story is simplistic, but it’s for its own good, really. A game about a dog fighting a child in Lego spaceships taking itself seriously would be rather hard to fathom.

Before you journey across the cosmos, you’re supplied with several preset parts, which introduces you to the main mechanic of the game, ship building, in a controlled environment, which is safe and beneficial for new players to get accustomed to.

Every vehicle has a core, and its color represents what level the ship is. In order to destroy a ship, you have to wither down at the core until it explodes, causing the parts of the ship to fly out. You, however, also have a core, and if that gets demolished, you can say goodbye to the progress you made on that run.

Inactive parts can be salvaged to upgrade what jury rigged shuttle you’ve made, but parts can break if they’re drifting along, or in the heat of battle. You can also use the bits and pieces to replace missing or worn out parts.

Parts can come in the forms of blocks, which form up the structure of the space ship, a mass arsenal of weapons of all kinds, and even perks that upgrade your current damage, resistances, and aim.

Attaching parts, albeit quick and easy, can be a huge challenge if you’re swarmed by a herd of enemies, or lacking enough materials to work with. If you’re short on equipment, your ship could easily be set off balance, which is frustrating to work with.

Missing weapons is what I find to be the most detrimental to any play through. If you’re unarmed, you can’t fight, and no fighting means no progression. The core does have a small blaster on it, but it’s ineffective and it leaves you exposed.

Overall, the gameplay feels fluent, easy to pick up and can be mastered within a few hours of gameplay. Sometimes the randomness of the games nature can be punishing, but that’s an element that C4ER heavily relies on.

The art style of C4ER captures the feeling along the lines of a Saturday morning cartoon, which adds so much more to the not-so-serious tone presented. C4ER’s main game art style is techno-colored, but sometimes the bombardment of colors can be eye straining, especially if the screen is flooded with enemies. You could swear you’re at a rave party at two in the morning, avoiding all responsibility.

That being said, the art style and color palette are still lovable, and I feel like they were the correct choice for the game. Enemies pop out with distinction, and easy to differ between which ones are dangerous or not. Even your ship pops out from the background, making it easy to see.

Music is an important factor to setting an atmosphere, and C4ER does it mediocrely. From calm and soothing tunes in the early stages, to pumping songs in the latter half that get repetitive after playing for a long period of time. After a while I just popped in my own playlist and just listened to other music.

Honestly, the music could have been improved if the songs were longer than a minute and a half. The short nature is why it feels like a drag after a while, and it hurts the immersion the game has for the first few hours.

Captain Forever Remix can be played over and over again, with little to no fun loss in the process. A wide variety of starting parts can mix it up, and has a multitude of challenges behind what equipment you start with. You can even come up with your own designs and challenges, and challenge your friends or that nerd who sits in the class and reads his book all day.

All elements in the game, from the simplistic story, to the mediocre music, going to the great gameplay, and the amazing art and alarming amounts of colors. C4ER can hit home for some, and be off putting for others. Exploring the deep reaches in space was a definitely wonderful experience for me, and with fast paced action, Captain Forever Remix is a game I will play to kill time in short bursts or hours on end with a free day.