Neon White is an amalgamation of genre: speedrunning, platforming, and puzzle-solving inside an FPS. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Ghostrunner, which utilizes several unique mechanics to provide an experience that is engrossing, memorable, and addicting. Developed by Angel Matrix and published by Annapurna Interactive, Neon White puts players under the mask of a demon slayer named White, who has a bad case of amnesia. As players make their way through hordes of demons and a wide variety of courses, the mystery of who White is and what’s truly going on begins to unfold.
The first thing that makes Neon White stand out is its manga-inspired art style. While each of the game’s characters feel a bit cliché – such as White being the edgy Sasuke-esque protagonist – the way they all interact with each other makes those cliché’s feel endearing. On the other hand, it fully commits to dating-sim dialogue without adding dating-sim mechanics, so players who don’t have a taste for that style will find a lot of the dialogue and cutscenes a little excessive.
What truly makes Neon White shine is its gameplay, which uses a card system rather than a traditional weapon-pickup system. Every weapon is represented by a card and only two different cards can be held at any one time. While these weapons are used to kill demons, they are far more crucial to platforming. This is due to each weapon’s secondary ability that is activated when the player discards that weapon: some examples being an extra jump for the pistol, unlocking a grappling hook with the rocket launcher, and dashing with the rifle. As the game progresses, it pushes players to use these abilities more creatively and though it takes a bit to really get used to, the feeling of flow that comes from achieving it is highly satisfying.
The faster a player completes a level, the better. Neon White takes place just outside of Heaven, where tarnished souls (called Neons) battle against demons and each other in order to get the highest rank and spend a year in Heaven. To get higher ranks, players need to beat levels at faster speeds because certain time ranges award medals that go towards increasing rank. To guarantee a rank up at the end of each course, players need to get Ace or Gold medals. Thankfully, Neon White does a great job at getting players used to thinking faster and more creatively, so achieving a fast enough time is not a difficult thing to accomplish.
Neon White does fall into some traps that are particularly hard to avoid in a speed-based game. The biggest issue is that it’s easy to get turned around or miss something when blasting through a level. Players aren’t penalized for starting a level over which is nice, but it can get really frustrating to be near the end of a course and not clearly see where White is supposed to go next or accidentally miss a necessary card because it’s hard to tell how close you are to the icon when moving at faster speeds. Killing demons can also get tricky because of this, as weapons don’t have infinite ammo and the windows of success are tight, so players need to be accurate. While this won’t be too difficult a task on PC, it was a real issue when playing on the Nintendo Switch.
Overall, Neon White is a fantastic game that pushes players to get faster and faster in a way that is addicting and supportive. Getting into the flow of a level feels empowering, and there are even a handful of boss fights that add a refreshing twist on the otherwise platform heavy levels. Those that choose to play on PC will likely have a smooth and bump-free experience, but the Nintendo Switch version does struggle with accurate aiming and hand comfort. Despite that, players can’t go wrong with either version because Neon White is fundamentally a fun and empowering experience.
Neon White is available now for PC and Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a Nintendo Switch download code for the purpose of this review.
