With so many games on the horizon, it’s hard to keep notice of those smaller indie titles that drop out of nowhere and prove to take the Gaming Community by storm, but it seems that the recently released Neon White is one of them.

Neon White was just released on Switch and Steam over the weekend and the game has been highly praised by players from around the net.

Referred to by developer Angel Matrix as “The heavenly anime FPS for freaks, by freaks”, Neon White is a fast-paced single-player first-person shooter with visual novel elements.

Players take control of Neon White, an assassin damned to hell who, along with three other assassins has been hand-picked to exterminate a demon infestation in heaven. The soul that kills the most devils gets to stay in heaven while the other three will return to hell.

White thinks this will be pretty easy for an accomplished killer like himself, but he can’t help but feel he knows these other damned souls from a past life…

The game has seen Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam with 98 percent of its 1,037 reviews (as of this article) giving the game a thumbs up.

The primary appeal of the game is speed. Many users seem to be addicted to the fast kinetic energy of the game that encourages you to storm through levels as fast as you can with parkour and bullets. It creates a paradise for speed runners.

“This game was an absolute blast from start to finish,” says KyoichiD3sire. “The perfect blend of fast-paced FPS platforming/parkour action with just enough visual novel-style story elements to not make the game boring. The story was excellent even though the voice acting was a bit cringe-inducing at times. 10/10 would parkour again!”

Neon White seems to scratch that itch for more ‘gamey’ games where a player can just jump in easily and get into the meat and bullets of the gameplay as quickly as possible without being bogged down with overly long tutorials, cutscenes, or sidequests.

“This scratches my ADHD-riddled brain more than anything I have ever played” says Funny Bones. “Making a decision every 3-4 seconds in maybe the fastest puzzle game ever made, accompanied by breakcore 10 hours (cure for ADHD) soundtrack by machine girl, this stuff is just juice for the flesh dome.”

The story while not praised quite as much is still seen as enjoyable if a bit predictable. The central highlight is the fact that Neon White has the cool-as-ice voice of Steve Blum, the man behind Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Speigel (and Guilmon). This is a fact that hasn’t gone unaware of users.

“I love the kind of woman that will actually just kill me. You know, when I left the house today I was thinking “Damn, I really hope some hot chick paints my brains all over some hallway” And here we are. I mean really, just absolutely destroy me. I’m talkin’ full-on, watermelon-in-the-thighs level carnage.” says MNSTRFCKR, in reference to a popular meme about the Space Cowboy.

I suppose what all these reviews are getting at (even the third one to an extent) is that Neon White is simply a game that feels good to play. Get in, shoot some guys and move on, with some cute anime girls in between, and the people playing it are having way too much fun with it. This final review from Zoe pretty much sums it up:

“Fast forward, the year is 2022, you have long covid, your memory is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and you don’t know left from right. Someone puts Neon White in front of you, Machine Girl is blasting on the title screen, and you swear to god you just heard a familiar voice you can’t place, was that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Spike? You enter the first map and it’s like riding a bike, fast forward two hours you have the #1 global time for three maps, your synapses are restored, your covid is cured, your pores are clear, and your wife’s boyfriends coming over tonight with pizza, and your landlord calls and says your rent is going down $400. The world feels good again. The game feels like if god personally made Quake for autistic bimbos like me.”

It’s always great to see an indie game like Neon White, not based on a familiar IP or backed by a larger publisher getting so much praise from the gaming community. I certainly like its sleek anime design, it reminds me a lot of Mirror’s Edge with all the first-person parkour, but with more guns of course.

If those user reviews are anything to go by, the game has been well worth the time for a number of people, and perhaps it could be for you as well. Could you be ready to speedrun through heaven?

Neon White is available now for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.