Neon White Review – Holy Hell

In 2021, whereas interviewing creator Ben Esposito about then-upcoming Neon White, he advised me he wasn’t making an attempt to make a sport interesting to everybody. He needed Neon White to enchantment to “really specific people.”

Put one other manner, as Esposito mentioned in one of many sport’s trailers, it is a sport made for “freaks.”

I suppose that makes me a freak, then. Because Neon White is my favourite sport I’ve performed all 12 months – by a big margin.

You assume the function of Neon White; a lifeless murderer pulled from Hell for a divine competitors. Demons overrun Heaven, so the powers that be job White and a bunch of damned with cleansing up the mess. The banished soul with the most effective – and quickest – rating wins the chance to spend eternity in Heaven. They do that by working as quick as potential by numerous districts of the Pearly Gates, blowing away demons with a various arsenal of heavenly weapons. 

With uncommon exceptions, enjoying by any particular person stage of Neon White takes lower than a minute. From the leap, it stresses you play as quick as potential always. It additionally emphasizes replaying ranges for more and more higher instances. Running and leaping really feel glorious; they’re fluid, fast, and provides an impression of floating all through a stage. 

But it is the weapons the place Neon White shines. You choose up firearms through playing cards strewn inside a stage, every having two features. The first is solely capturing. The second, nonetheless, is the discard possibility, which grants White a short platforming benefit. Discarding pistols provides a double leap, shotguns blast you within the route you are dealing with, rifles straight ahead, SMGs ship you hurtling towards the bottom, and rocket launchers give a grapple shot. 

Levels demand mastery of all these choices; you should run, shoot, leap, and use discards at exactly the fitting second to succeed in your vacation spot, whereas additionally killing each demon in a stage. I cherished making an attempt and retrying ranges time and again till I lastly received the mixture of strikes appropriate, after which I cherished, much more, making an attempt to whittle my instances right down to the “Ace” rating. My coronary heart was usually firmly lodged in my throat as I crossed the end line, and few issues really feel higher than besting my instances by literal tenths of a second.

From its mechanical basis, Neon White is designed across the thought of speedrunning. More than that, it seems designed round YouTube movies of speedrunners breaking video games, flying by ranges with pinpoint accuracy like a well-armed ballerina. Especially in its again half, you’ll really feel as cool as these movies look. 

Flying over enemies, capturing as you rocket above their heads, sending your self plummeting to earth to slip throughout slender ledges, grappling your manner again into the stratosphere, then utilizing explosions to bounce round to the end line. Doing all of it in actually seconds with no errors, feeling easy as when you’ve practiced for years, not simply 15 to twenty minutes; that is the bottom of Neon White, not solely the high-level play. It’s exceptional for such exact and complex gameplay to really feel so easy, however Neon White pulls it off in any respect turns. It’s one of the crucial enjoyable video games I’ve performed in years. 

In truth, I can not cease enjoying it. Nearly 30 hours in, I’ve no plans to cease till I get an Ace rank in each stage. Luckily, the extent design is top-notch and, save for 2 or three exceptions, not often irritating. I’m nonetheless flying by the sport, beating all my earlier instances and loving almost each second. I even care concerning the international leaderboards, a private first, as I do not assume I’ve ever paid a lot consideration to rankings in every other sport. 

I even love Neon White’s stupid-but-charming story – that of White making an attempt to determine why he and his crew of fellow assassins are lifeless. It labored on me greater than I anticipated. Since the story’s advised through visible novel, I felt compelled to discover each character’s storyline, giving them presents to unlock new dialogue and sidequests. In moments of weak spot, I even laughed at obnoxious dialogue like when Neon Violet mentioned Neon White was man, “The kind that will catch a girl’s spit with his mouth!”

It additionally helps that aesthetically Neon White scratches particular and uncared for itches. It’s paying homage to Japanese motion video games that do not actually exist anymore, like Killer7 and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. It recollects anime like Trigun and Cowboy Bebop and music from now-defunct bands like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and The Blood Brothers. Its heavenly-yet-violent aesthetic is slick, placing, and stuffed with perspective. Like the tee-shirt part of a Hot Topic and the anime aisle of a Suncoast Video collided into one another. You can think about 480p AMVs of Neon White playthroughs set to “The Show Must Go On” or “Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck.” You can think about seeing children in brightly-colored Neon White shirts at a Taste of Chaos tour date. Hell, Steven Blum even voices White! 

If any of which means something to you, you’re the “really specific” individual for whom Esposito made this sport. If the above reads like a special language, you will possible nonetheless take pleasure in Neon White, however you are hardly the important thing demographic. 

Neon White achieves every little thing it units out to with exceptional success. Not solely is it one of the crucial entertaining experiences I’ve performed in years, however it additionally speaks to a extremely particular viewers many simply do not anymore. It’s for weirdos, misfits, and dorks. Neon White is likely one of the finest video games of the 12 months, and it might be a colossal mistake to not test it out.