Neon White gets physical

The indie hit Neon White earned itself a cult following after it launched in 2022. The developer, Angel Matrix, recently announc??ed that the game will be receiving a physical release soon. Depending on what version you buy, you can also expect a few extras.

[caption id="attachment_391922" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid.[/caption]

What you get with Neon White's physical edition

The physical editions for the PS5 and Nintendo Switch launch on September 12 this year. If you grab it at retail sto??res, you'll receive a bonus 11 by 17 in?ches poster by Rebecca Ryan. It launches with a $39.99 price tag.

Pre-orders for exclusive iam8bit versions ar??e available for preorder. Both the Switch and PS5 versions include a physical copy of the game along with five anime-style "character peeker" stickers, music by Machine Girl, and a cover sheet by Rebecca Ryan. Both versions of the iam8bit exclusive cost $44.99, and they will be available in this year's fourth quarter.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmofCFI3JuQ

Xbox players shouldn't despair, as it appears a port is on the way. Eagle-eyed fans have spotted an ESRB rating for Neon White that includes the Xbox Series X/S, sug?gesting that developers haven't forgotten about th??e platform.

For gamers looking for a unique FPS, Neon White is a criticall??y acclaimed title worth checking out. This physical release comes at a time when studios are opting to not include physical versions of titles. This is the case with Remedy Entertainment which currently has no plans to release physical editions of Alan Wake 2.

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The DualSense controller will bring a whole new feel

The "lightning fast" first person shooter/puzzle platformer Neon White was one of this year's best indie hits. It had some of the freshest gameplay ideas we've seen in a while, plus, who doesn't love a game that pushes you to challenge yourself to beat a level as fast as you can? I could see Neon White being a gateway to the speedrunning community, for sure. The game was able to snag three different nominations from the Game Awards, including Best Indie, Best Action, and Best Debut? I?ndie.

Now, PlayStation has announced that they're bringing Neon White to PS4 and PS5 consoles on December 13, so a whole new group of players who have yet to check it out are going to have the chance. According to a PlayStation blog by Angel Matrix's Game Director Ben Esposito detailing the port, Neon White will run at 120hz on PlayStation 5 across the board, because "high framerate matters" when a game is so focused on?? speed.

//twitter.com/PlayNeonWhite/statu??s/1598361286680535042

The port will also "make use of PS5's adaptive triggers to make each Soul Card feel unique when you fire them as well as when you discard." Another DualSense fea?ture you can use to your advantage is the controller's Gyroscope, which you can use to help aim with more precision. Esposito says "gyroscope aiming can take some getting used to, but it’s well worth it for an extra degree of fine-grained control when sniping demons from the start of a level."

If my Breath of the Wild playthroughs have taught me anything, it's that motion controls aren't really my thing. Either way, Neon White is a game I've been itching to play since it came out, and now tha??t it's on my favorite console, it looks like it's finally time for me to give this heavenly speedrunner a shot.

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Get some good jams for your next world-record attempt

Neon White went live today, on Nintendo Switch and PC, for anime speedrunning freaks everywhere. But even if you're not into going fast in an anime world, you should also take some time to check out the Neon White OSTs from Machine Girl that hit Bandcamp today.

Artist Machine Girl composed not one, but two OSTs—or original soundtracks—for Neon White. They're the tunes that play in the background as you speed along, zippi??ng from demon to demon and blazing through the outer limits of heaven. They're extremely good.

Check out this track, dubbed The Wicked Heart, from the first OST. It starts out at full throttle, with punchy drums and raw noise bleeding throughout the track. The melody drops in around the 1:13 mark and is one of my favorites in Neon White.

Or maybe you want something a little more chill. We can head on down to the Neon Bar in Neon White and catch?? some relaxed, easygoing beats. It's perfect for kicking back after a long day of setting records.

Tracks like Bloody Sneakers, the theme for Neon Violet, almost remind me of early PlayStation days. I think of the Racing Lagoon soundtrack, and in the best way possible.

Beats to blast your record in half

What I'm saying is, the Neon White OSTs are a jam. It's already a contender f?or best soundtrack of the year, in my book.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0b-qZTF0Mc

As for Neon White itself, it's great. I've spent the last week setting and then besting my times, competing with other early players along the way. It's anime as heck, like the sort of series you'd find on a VHS tape in the '90s at your local mom-and-pop rental place. Suffice to say, if you like going fast, Neon White is worth your time—and it's got some kil??ler beats, too.

The post The Neon White OSTs are on Bandcamp, and they’re fantastic appeared first on Destructoid.

Running up that hill

Neon White is the latest game from Donut County creator Ben Esposito. He and the Angel Matrix team bill this level-based first-person shooter as "for freaks, by freaks." They're not wrong, either. Despite some rough narrative moments and occasional hiccups, Neon White is a b?lazing-fast shooter with style, precision, and a lot of dead demons.

Sinners, saints, and salvation. All of these potentially await in the heaven of Neon White. To reach the end, though, you'll have to learn to go really, really fast. And, as it so happens, Neon White is a pretty good tutor.

Neon White (PC [reviewed], Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Angel Matrix
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Released: June 16, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

Surfacing in the ocean? of heaven as Neon White himself, the player is a dead, amnesiac assassin stuck in a rut. White's lost soul can be ferried into heaven, but only if he can seize the number-one spot against all the other damned, color-coded Neons.

Over time you acquaint yourself, or re-acquaint yourself, with the other denizens of heaven's competition. There are some nameless Neons, the Believers who maintain the game and punish rulebreakers, and the pencil-pushing angels who task White with his daily missions. Mikey, the ciga??r-chomping Garfield-alike, is a particular favorite of mine, and SungWon Cho's delivery as the inconceivable presence that White's mind can only rationalize as an angelic cartoon is very endearing.

//youtu.be/fDD17TfIn7Y

Friends in low places

A few key Neons make up the core of the story though, as former life acquaintances of White's. They start out divided into tropes; Yellow?? the best bro, Violet the homicidal but childish tagalong, and Red the enigmatic femme fatale. Add in Green, the imposing top-ranker, and it's a pretty colorful crew competing for the top spot.

Though so?me of the gags do wear on af??ter a while, the crew is overall pretty likable as long as you enjoy a little bit of online humor. References to memes and jokes about other video games are pretty frequent, and it definitely has a self-aware sense of humor.

When the story gets a bit more serious, it's pretty good. Neon White quickly goes from demon-slaying and gags to questions of how one's deeds carry over into the? afterlife, and whether those actions merit eternal condemnation. As the portrait of White in the bottom-left constantly asks, "who deserves a place in heaven?"

It's got some Cowboy Bebop vibes, which makes casting Steve Blum in the role of Neon White all the more appropriate. Really, the whole voice cast does a pretty great job across the board. But I did feel like the narrative was ultimately where Neon White falters a bit. It certainly works and provides some lighthearted asides, but aside from a few twists and cool moments in levels, it rea??lly felt like it took a backseat to the running-and-gunning that physically drives White towards redemption.

Make a deal with God

Of course, to reach any of that self-re??alization and affirmation, White has to slay a lot of demons. Each day of the Days of Judgment tasks you with tackling a host of levels, spread out across the kingdom of heaven. There's a bit of a demon outbreak around this time of year, so the Believers host this competition to clear them?? all out and see who slays best for God's salvation in the process.

Each one is a race to the finish, navigating the environment, obstacles, enemies, and their glowing bullets. Of course, White has some tools of his own to use too. Scattered everywhere are Soul Cards, which can be either primary-fired for a bullet type or discarded for a secondary-fi??re effect.

Elevate, for example, is a handgun that can be discarded for an extra jump. Purify, meanwhile, is a machine-gun that also fires a time-delayed bomb that can clear an area or give you? a rocket boost. There's a pretty good variety of cards, as well as a very important economy: W??hite can only ever hold two types of cards, at three apiece. Hitting Ace, the highest medal in the game, on levels usually entails clever use of resources to clear what you need to clear while moving as fast as possible.

Really, Neon White feels like a tutorial for speedrunning. And I don't just mean that it makes running fast through these levels fun and enjoyable. It's not even that it necessarily encourages speedrunning itself. It's that Neon White?? is remarkably good? at teaching the player to speedrun.

Medals are given at different time markers cleared, to give a sense of gradual progression. At Gold, the player is given a hint specifically for bumping their time up to Ace; a ghost helper can show a place where a well-timed jump or boost can completely circumvent otherwise tedious navigation. The dual-use cards allow for a surprising number of interactions, but keeping it to two-and-two (two fire types, two in your hand at any time) keeps the effectual verbs at your di??sposal easy to ??remember.

Neon White's levels are gorgeous to speed through as well. It's full of vaporwave, sharp-angled polygons, neon colors, and anime. But the architecture is also enormous and even imposing at times. In a few cases, I slo?wed down just to take in the breadth of an area. And the levels themselves play home to some interesting storytelling too. While the boss fights are fine, at least a couple of levels had some really compelling story tie-in moments that propelled them along.

Need for speed

It is amazing how good it feels to finally feel like you've mastered a level in Neon White. And once you've ??cleared the premade markers, the global leaderboard opens up, adding a new level of competition. It was always exciting to hit a new Ace time and see if I'd gone up or down in the standings, and (on Steam at least) there's also a Friends filter. Beyond that, there are even more opt?ions to run that shuffle level orders and add a few extra ticks of difficulty, like no health recovery.

If you're not eager to compete, Neon White is still fairly finishable without Acing every run. There are a few medal hurdles to clear, but they're set fairly low compared to where a completionist would be. It's ??certainly a challenging game, even though it's fairly short in length �I'd guess anywhere from eight-to-ten hours to see credits roll �and I'm still plucking away at getting the optional off-the-??beaten-path Gifts in each level that unlock visual novel chats with the cast and challenges in the hub.

Everything in Neon White revolves around running though, especially if you want to see the optional ending. Whether you dig Neon White or not will depend heavily on whether a shooter built on speedrunning through levels appeals to you. Some of the best writing and in-game moments lay behind the op?tional social content, and that'll add a little challenge to the fold.

If shoving Toonami and the Titanfall 2 Pilot's Gauntlet into a blender and turning it to the highest speed sounds like a good time, then Neon White might be what you're looking for. It's a blood-pumping, speed-infused anime shooter with style and a decent bit of heart. While it's short and sweet, Neon White gives just enough to get the player keen on shaving off seconds and fractions of s??econds until they are, indeed, a speedrunning freak. For anyone who likes to go fast, that's at least worth the price of admission.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Neon White appeared first on Destructoid.

A heaven for those who gotta go fast

Neon White was already pretty high on my own list of most-anticipated games this year. The indie project from Angel Matrix and Donut County creator Ben Esposito looked like a fast, gorgeous shooter.

The good news is that it's just that. But I can also confirm, after playing the Neon White demo currently available as part of Steam Next Fest, it's a little bit more. The game isn't just about taking out demons, but doing it fas??t. And it's built to make you keep wanting to reset the l??evel for a new time.

The story pin of Neon White is that you're a badass who's died and gone to not-quite-heaven. Recruited to be one of many demon hunters called? "Neons" by heaven's angels, you—Neon White—compete with other Neons to earn a ticket into the more pleasant side of the afterlife.

These competitions take place in stylish but easily readable levels, where you run from start to finish line, exterminating every demon and finishing as fa??st as possible. At the conclusion of the run, you get a grade. Bronze simply counts as a clear, and is usually pretty forgiving. Silver gets a little tou??gher, but adds a special gift to the level, usually off the beaten path. Gold unlocks some helpful speedrunning hints, and Acing a level opens up the global leaderboard.

The ranking system is one of several reasons why Neon White feels like the perfect entry point to time-trial competition and speedrunning. The staggered approach makes it easy for those who want to just clear levels to keep moving on, while those who want to really jockey for a top spot get more tools as they shave seconds off their times. The hints system is particularly effective, and restarting a level has a snappiness that reminds me of Hotline Miami.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lUw7fMdNKE

Neon White is also pretty easy to pick up. On a keyboard and mouse, it's mostly just WASD and Space to move around, with an extra key dedicated to swapping your soul cards (weapons). Each card has a main fire and alt-fire; a reusable damage source and a one-off utility effect that "burns" the card. The ??pistol is a standard, s??emi-auto pistol, but sacrificing it gives you a double-jump. The machine gun launches a delayed-detonation grenade, which can also damage boost you across gaps.

What's great is how simple and clean this movement feels in the moment. There is no crouch-jumping or weird reaches across the keyboard. Neon White does an impressive amount with its inputs.

This extends out to the levels, where different routes are made apparent through repeat?? runs. I might take the long way around the first time, before realizing that I could use a damage boost to skip a major portion of the level. Demons tend to mark the critical path, but geometry i??s at your discretion. The hint markers really help get you in this mindset too, pointing out some clever skips to help reach an Ace.

While the vaporwave heaven of Neon White was visually appealing all on its own, this Steam demo has really brought another strength to the fore: its speedrunning potential. Speedrunner Bryonato showed off some of its potential in a short segment on the Next Fest stream, and it a??lready looks great.

Already, I'm starting to trade times with friends and compete for hundredths of a second's advantage?. The leaderboard that pops up aft?er every clear amps up that drive, egging me on with every inch I gain on friends' times.

Neon White looks pretty interesting visually and conceptually, and it's good to know now that the gameplay matches up too. If the final version keeps the same energy and drive of its opening lev??els, this could be one t??o watch.

Neon White is coming to Nintendo Switch and Steam sometime this year. You can find the Steam page and demo here.

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