It is extremely good and stylish.
A demo is available in the Steam Next Fest, and I suggest you have a go.
You’ll have noticed that Neon White has cards, but it isn’t a deck-building game.
Found at preset points and dropped by colour-coded enemies, these cards are weapon pick-ups.
They’re standard FPS archetypes like an auto rifle, SMG, and rocket launcher.
Left-click and murder comes out the end pointing away from you.
But right-click and it’ll ‘discard’ the card, consuming it for a weapon-specific special effect.
In some levels, you barely touch the ground if you do it right.
But it’s fun to improve, to return and hone a run.
Speedrunning in 30-second bursts.
The medal tiers are nicely timed too.
And then you unlock global leaderboards to obsess over further shaving milliseconds.
I do wish I could, like inDevil Daggers, view replays of other players through the leaderboards.
it’s possible for you to also return to levels to explore and find gifts for various NPCs.
These unlock more dialogue and, eventually, sidequests.
The one I unlocked was a jaunt into Hell for a challenge focused on the double-jumping pistol.
Neon White is also an anime visual novel with a load of goofballs.
The story plays out in visual novel-style cutscenes, between levels and across the peaceful places of the hub.
It’s funny, too.
While Neon White has amnesia, Neons of other hues apparently know him.
They’re a good collection of anime archetypes.
Neon White tries to act like a cool lone wolf but is insecure and embarrassingly horny.
Neon Yellow is our eternally cheery bro, and I’m pretty sure he drops a Naruto reference.
Neon Violet is cutesy but violent.
Neon Red is wary, distant and vague about our history.
They seem a great crew of idiots of get embroiled in Heaven’s mysteries.
I’ve got this far and not talk about how stylish Neon White is.
It is: extremely stylish.
It sounds great too, great music fromMachine Girl.
The visual novel art is lovely and all.
If you likeParadise Killer’s vibes, you might dig this.
And as far as I’ve seen, no one in this game says “Nani the fuck?
“, which I consider a plus.
But why is an anime visual novel in a speedrunning FPS?
Because it’s good.
I feel those Dreamcast dreams in Neon White.
Head on overto Steamto grab the demo.
The full game is due to launch “early” this year, also hitting Nintendo Switch.
It’s made by Angel Matrix and published by Annapurna Interactive.
Disclosure: Arcane Kids once DJeda great setat an event I helped organise.
