neon white is a game that did the seemingly impossible - it made me feel like i'm actually good at video games. it's such a cool fuckin' game man, i don't think any other game out there blends so many different genres and ideas together as well as this one does. buttery smooth, aesthetic as hell, makes you feel like a god, and it's one of the only high score/time trial-based games that's actually compelling.

the way neon white is able to embody the thrill of speedrunning and optimizing routes without turning into some bullshit pixel-perfect platformer (or even that difficult of one) is so nice. overall movement and the amount of tools/gimmicks at your disposal in each level is immaculate, and almost every mission has something cool up its sleeve. zipping through the later levels with the rocket launcher, launching yourself through barriers with the shotgun while being careful not to hit mimics, it's just so fucking cool. never once did it feel frustrating to the point where i wanted to slow down - even you're several attempts into a level, it's still a blast finding ways to optimize your existing progress or trying out new routes. not every level is a winner (some of the later ones were so lengthy that they did start to wear on me a little), but a vast majority of them were perfect beyond words.

like i said at the start, games like this that are based around getting the fastest times/the highest score usually don't resonate with me because i have no reason to give a shit. not only is this game's movement perfect for that kind of thing, but plastering your steam friends' times at the end of each level is honestly genius. i'm sure a lot of games do this, but seeing that your time was total ass in comparison (or one motherfucker beating a level in 8 seconds) is a great motivator to replay levels in search of perfection. after all, i can't have my friends thinking i'm dogshit :(

the weirdo ass breakcore y2k aesthetic this game has is incredible too, and definitely helps ease the pain of having to replay a mission dozens of times. sliding down glassy aqueducts, grappling between modern skyscrapers, all while machine girl is hitting you with the most beautiful songs you're ever gonna hear... it's really something else. while this game's aesthetic inspirations and the feelings it's trying to invoke through its presentation are pretty clear, it stands out from the crowd extremely well.

gameplay and presentation-wise, neon white is almost unrivaled. however, pretty much all the negativity for this games comes from its story. which, yeah, it's pretty bad and drags the game down quite a bit. it's basically this weirdo jumble of excuses for you to get dragged from one level to the next while every single character is either absurd levels of comic relief or your generic milf mommy uwu. there wasn't a single moment i actually liked, but it wasn't enough to put me off from the game. i also didn't feel compelled to find any of the hidden gifts in each level for this reason - while i think that's a cool idea, it's not worth it when the "reward" is having to spend more time with violet. i'm not gonna say that this game would have been better if it had no story at all, but it'd probably have a lot fewer negative reviews. even if they leaned into some weirdo shit where the only stuff you learned about white or heaven came from getting enough medals/secrets and just kept it as a time trial platformer would be pretty cool.

if you haven't played this game yet you're dumb as shit!! just kidding, that's a mean thing to say. don't let the negative reviews taint your impression of this one. just mash skip through every cutscene and you'll get one of the best platforming experiences you've ever had. not bad for a dead guy at all.

game so thoughtfully made even the dialogue is speed-runable!

despite the character writing being subpar, everything else about this game is superb. sublime soundtrack. fantastic game design.

also shoutout ben esposito for being the first person ever to put good representation of the jewish religion in a video game.

Neon white is a game that is really damn good and fun through gameplay, with story being pretty good, I like how the game uses the guns, as cards that can be used for clearing enemies, bounce mechanic and the discard ability, this along with Hi-fi rush are the few games that made me more immersed into this world, with the jumping and the enemies shooting at you, it made me feel excited to try a new map.

The story is pretty solid, its nothing much than a light and dark story, though that is not a knock against the story as there are twist and surprises that kept me engaged throughout the story.

The characters were pretty good, I liked them, they were either funny, tragic or interesting with some making root for them whether what they wanted, I especially liked White as a protagonist(Thank you, Steve Blum.)

While I would call this game a masterpiece, there are a few issues I had this that slightly annoyed me, First I felt like some of the characters did not really have screen time, though it is minor it still rubbed me the wrong way. The second problem is that the last levels can feel cheap in terms of finding every and it was painful to do, at some points it felt like pulling teeth, though the last issue is that there are some bits that annoyed me a bit in the story like they do the Beach episode or the anti-climatic way the villain is handled, these bits kind of made me disappointed or just sad.

Overall, the game is really good, even if it has those issues, I can highly recommend it as an excellent game.