Neon White, an extremely stylish shooter about exterminating demons as fast as possible, finally has a release date. It will be released on June 16 for PC and Switch.
First announced during a Nintendo Direct last year, Neon White will be released by Annapurna Interactive, the medium-sized provider of unconventional but intriguing games such as Maquette, Outer Wilds and Sayonara Wild Hearts. It is the second title of the developer of the county of Donut Ben Esposito.
Neon White is as far away as possible in the opposite direction of Donut County. You play as Neon, someone who, in Neon White’s fiction, had a violent life on earth and woke up in the afterlife, and you find yourself part of a demon hunting competition. This develops mainly in terms of running and making your way through short stages of platforms in the afterlife. But there are also sim dating elements. And a mechanic carrying cards. Equip weapons by taking equipable cards. If you want to use your weapon as a weapon, you know, you can. Throw away the card, though, and you’ll temporarily unlock a platform mechanic (a script, a jump, that sort of thing) that can help you complete levels even faster.
These levels, according to Esposito, can be completed in an instant; they are designed to last between 10 seconds and two minutes, depending on your ability.
The most amazing thing about Neon White is not the gameplay, though: it’s so great that it all looks great. There are talking demons and cats tailored to the jazz era. It is done with a vivid and amazing art direction, in the style of Paradise Killer, accentuated by laissez-faire writing. (“I can’t believe God Himself has decided to bless me with what I love most,” says supporting character Neon Red at one point. “A completely clueless boy.”) You get the feel for this game, somehow few are. , is totally carefree.
“The energy that drives this game is the energy of teens,” developer Ben Esposito told Kotaku last year. “That’s what I would have thought was the coolest thing ever to be when I was an inspired teenager, like the Y2K-era anime and The Matrix and all that stuff.”