Neon White isn't a typical Annapurna Interactive game, and developer Ben Esposito likes it that way. It's a singleplayer, lightning-quick FPS that looks like it was ripped straight from 2000s anime TV shows like Cowboy Bebop. Neon White is also a far cry from Esposito's last game, 2018's relaxing puzzler Donut County, and that's intentional. This game is all about self-indulgent speedrunning and an unabashed homage to the excesses of Y2K anime – one designed to be taken at face value.
"Our whole ethos for the game was to be nostalgic but not in a superficial way, we really wanted to make a game that felt cool and really felt like the self-indulgent Y2K anime game of our dreams, and part of that is embracing cringe and embracing the tropes," Esposito explains during a preview event. As such, Neon White plays like a visual novel during cutscenes and like a ultra-fast platformer during gameplay. This is definitely one to keep an eye on.
Unabashedly anime
Donut County: "Just like a real donut, it's finished far too quickly"
Neon White is leaning hard into its source material, and it's not ashamed to admit it. "People make fun of tropes. And yes, things are tired, and they're overdone. But we're also kind of sick of subverting things just for the sake of it because we're making an indie game," Esposito explains. "So what we wanted to do was instead of subversion, we just wanted to make version." Crunchy, frantic music from electronic duo Machine Girl bumps so fast it feels like you've had one too many gamer energy drinks before you're thrust into the story of White, an assassin who wakes up in Heaven and is forced to compete as a top demon slayer to earn his spot in the Cloud Lands beyond death.
The story plays out in visual novel-style cutscenes between missions, with characters that feel ripped right out of Danganronpa. The group of assassins, now all known as Neon [insert color here] are forced to wear animal masks, but their actual outfits are all stark white, shiny black leather, and excessive belts and buckles. Some light dating sim elements let you really bask in Neon White's homage to excess as you go on side missions and bequeath your favorite assassins with gifts. "We're using tropes because we want to evoke a really specific period and a really specific kind of game and a development style," Esposito assures us.
That style is a mix of melodramatic cutscenes that punctuate fast speedrunning levels. And Neon White wants you to go faster, always, pushing you to beat each level quicker than you did the last time around. Global leaderboards will let the fastest of the fast show off their best times, and short and simple levels beg for replays. "The whole design of the game is to get you to replay levels," Esposito says. But how do these levels play out?
Fast as hell, but make it heaven
"People make fun of tropes. And yes, things are tired, but we're also kind of sick of subverting things just for the sake of it because we're making an indie game... instead of subversion, we just wanted to make version."
Ben Esposito, developer on Neon White
Neon White is fast as hell, with gameplay that is appropriately frenetic thanks to its unique concept. Each section of the game has ten speedrunning levels within it, and each level requires players traverse spaces quickly with actions and weapons augmented by floating cards found resting on platforms or picked up from enemies felled. During the preview, Esposito blows through levels so fast it makes my head spin, and the heavy-hitting soundtrack makes it feel like I'm watching a 2000s movie club scene at 2x speed.
In Neon White, cards can be used for either weapons or movement, and it's up to you to decide how to delegate. Discarding a card like Godspeed will shoot you forward in a lightning-fast dash that takes out several enemies, or you can use its weapon component to fire several shots from a rifle. You can't level up these weapons or horde them for later levels – Esposito just isn't a fan of accumulation.
"It's just a different way of thinking about an FPS, maybe I'm kind of weird but something I don't love in shooters an games in general is when you accrue to much power and become kind of unstoppable," Esposito admits, as he breezes through a level where all the platforms are covered in spikes. "I like pain and suffering."
Instead in Neon White, the resources are built into the world and are constantly changing at rapid speed. That's why this FPS doesn't have a typical visual of a gun in your hand, but instead has some gun cards stacked in the bottom corner of the screen. And that's part of Neon White's mission statement, according to Espositio: "You can't think of guns like a weapon in your hand, you have to think of them as resources that allow you to move around."
With all of that, Neon White is designed to be enjoyed in small doses, with you blowing through a few levels on the train on your Nintendo Switch, or picking it up on PC during some downtime at work.
Set to land on PC and Nintendo Switch, Neon White is due at some stage in 2022, but is currently without a concrete release date.
Fancy this? Neon White is in great company on our list of the best new indie games to look out for in 2022.
