Fast, frenetic, and bubbling furiously with soda-based action
Captain Soda is a retro 2D platformer from Ray Flower Games. The lightning-pace, bright colours, and its old-school, yet casual gameplay attracted us to this title.
In Captain Soda, the player is a glass of soda and weapons shoot out soda to kill alien enemies. Levels are basic yet have an appealing flow, with enemies beginning at the top of the screen and dropping down to disappear at the bottom, where they reappear back at the top.
Captain Soda wears its influences on its sleeve
Donkey Kong provides the basic premise for the gameplay. But other classic console titles like Sonic The Hedgehog for Megadrive and more modern titles such as Super Meat Boy for PC are also clear inspirations.
Ray Flower Games have tried to capture a good deal of the gameplay flow of Donkey Kong, with the bright colours of Sonic. Super Meatboy is a much more challenging title than Captain Soda, requiring pixel-perfect precision. But even without the level of challenge, Captain Soda can surely capitalise on the popularity of throwback games like Meatboy, which have brought high difficulty platformers into the mainstream.
Weapons are varied and all themed on the fizzy drink of the title
There are several weapons in the game, each more deadly than the last. There is a shotgun, SMG-type gun, rifle for long-range shots and a rocket launcher.
Though these may lack some of the imagination shown in the arsenals of other titles like Enter The Gungeon. You may not find anything exotic as a beehive or a bundle of wands here, but all of Captain Soda’s weapons function perfectly for the job at hand.
And when those aliens start coming, you’ll be thankful for Captain Soda’s set of killing tools; you can bet your life on that!
All the weapons feel powerful, with impact and heft, especially the shotgun. The way the game forces you to get in close with the standard SMG and the shotgun make for some particularly tense and often rewarding moments.
The game is short, but sweet and more levels may be added before release
Captain Soda will take most people 3-4 hours to complete. However, according to the developer, there are time-trial bonuses and game modes to be added.
A few small bugs remain, such as a bit of lag when too many actions are occurring at once, or for some reason when the player gets too near an enemy. But, these will hopefully be ironed out prior to release.
A potential hidden gem, Captain Soda is one to watch if you are looking for old-school 2D platformer shooters. It looks perfect as a quickie to open a long gaming session and from what he have seen so far, it is full of character and personality.
The developer, Cole Beernaerts, also has a dev video to show progress:
Captain Soda is currently in Alpha, release To Be Confirmed.
