The first thing you’ll notice about Neon City Riders from Mecha Studios and Bromio is that it’s visually stunning, resembling a plethora of other games and movies. Whole styles of artwork clash into a busy, vibrant landscape and it’s hard to know where to look because everything is interesting. It’s a lively, vibrant presentation that immediately captures you’re attention.
Once you start a new game, your protagonist, Rick, who looks suspiciously similar to another Rick who wears another hockey mask from a major game franchise, starts out learning about his super abilities in a VR simulation. The whole city is filled with people with super-powers due to weird mutations and is somewhat ravaged by an android revolution as well. It’s semi-apocalyptic and gangs are taking over the city, not for the first time, but for the second. The story sounds decent too, take back the mean streets of Neon City from the four gangs that are ruining things for the everyday sketchy citizens and robots. I mean, it’s not like we’ve never heard that plot before, right?
Once you’re in the sim, you’ll find that Rick gets a variety of abilities, including a dash attack, a reality shift that shows hidden pathways, and even a parry move that allows you to fire enemies’ shots back at them. Each ability unlocks certain areas that you can’t otherwise reach. Unfortunately, once you manage to complete the VR mission, someone hacks your program and steals away all your abilities!
This is where Neon City Riders truly begins, with you stranded in the city, trying to make your way to one of four gang territories with no powers and no real sense of direction. Neon City and its surrounding areas are pretty large too, so it’s a long search! Rick can heal to full life with any food he buys and there’s a slash attack, but that’s about it. No dashing, no special abilities and no idea where to begin!
There’s plenty of flavor everywhere you go though, from Blade Runner visuals to direct NES Legend of Zelda references, everything is related in some way to 80s and 90s pop culture, which is exactly the nostalgia trip that Neon City Riders is supposed to be. But while you’re trying to figure out what every little reference is, not much is actually happening in the game. Sure, it’s a great looking title, but the sense of pacing and accomplishment is virtually nonexistent.
For example, if you wander left, you’ll find the territory of the Undead Laser Ravens (yes, really) and wander through their woods, once you’ve fetch quested open the area. While there are a variety of enemies and people to talk to, there’s not much to do overall and once you get to the end of the area, doors are simply locked and you get more fetch quests. Every time you leave a screen, enemies respawn and that can be pretty deadly. Go too far into an area and you’re screwed too, as the game autosaves in every new room and you can’t go back without running a gauntlet of enemies and environmental hazards too, a daunting task if you’re health is low and there are no vending machines about.
This pacing persists throughout the entirety of Neon City Riders. It’s not that it’s a bad game, it’s just that there’s not enough focus and not nearly enough action. It feels slow and plodding, and that isn’t helped by the glacial pace that Rick moves at, nor by the long load times between areas, something that makes little sense for a pixel-based game such as this one. On top of that, the parry ability is finicky, basic enemies can be hard to kill even in regular combat, and within zones, there’s very little variety from one section to the next. The style is fantastic, but all style and no substance makes for an overall poor game experience.
By the time you actually get anywhere in the game, and it’ll be a while, you no longer care about saving Neon City or what’s going on with its denizens. The plot isn’t particularly cohesive and the people have more filler than backstory to contribute. In fact, early on, there’s actually a character who offers to put little diamonds above all the people that are important to talk to in the game to streamline your experience, a nod to the complete lack of cues as to how to proceed in Neon City Riders. The simple fact that this option exists shows how engrossed the developer got in creating a world to the detriment of actual gameplay.
As stated before, Neon City Riders looks great. It’s a pixel art masterpiece and thoroughly enjoyable to look at, even in junkyards and forests, locations that are particularly boring in many games. On top of the gorgeous graphics, the game’s soundtrack is solid too, with excellent music that varies from area to area, though it would be nice to see a bit more focus on musical integration, especially in combat. Most of the music is quite enjoyable, but from a team that put this much effort into artwork, it’s not surprising the music is excellent. Honestly, pretty much everything takes a backseat to atmosphere and design in Neon City Riders, and that includes the actual combat.
Basic combat consists of a single slash attack and no blocking maneuvers initially. Once you re-acquire your powers, things get a little better, but they still aren’t fantastic. Enemy attacks are fast and brutal, and your basic life bar is only 5 hits. Laser attacks, petrification, and swarms of insects thrash you at every turn, and the currency to buy food is hard to come by. Mining coins in the grass was the best way to go early on, and even this is particularly tedious, with a solid half-hour netting around 50 coins, or 5 food items. Enemies choreograph their moves and have no variation or significant AI, so all you do is dodge their hit boxes, which are actually shown on screen. When they swarm in groups, it’s a bit of a pain, but one or two on one, they’re no match for you unless you’re not paying attention. This makes combat in general fairly tedious, especially with the instant respawns when you leave a room or area.
The whole game creates a disparate experience, one that jumps ahead in fits and starts followed by extended periods of wandering about. The characters are neat, but they’re not nearly enough of a focal point, nor do they really contribute to the gameplay significantly. The enemies in each gang’s territory are thematic and different, but it doesn’t help shake up combat much. Boss fights are creative but can be incredibly frustrating as well. Just wait until you see the gauntlet you’ll have to run at the end of the Audiobats level. Insane.
For a small indie title, Neon City Riders shows an incredibly polished world that is ultimately simply not backed up by its gameplay. It looks and sounds awesome, evokes memories of the pixel gaming days of yore, but is fundamentally flawed when it comes to basic mechanics and simply isn’t nearly as fun as it could or should be. It’s a great effort from Mecha Studios, but it’s hard to recommend, especially with the vast amount of content available these days and the $20 price tag. But if you want a decently-sized semi-open world beat em up, this might be just the right game for you.
This review was based on a digital copy of Neon City Riders provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. All screenshots are of actual gameplay. Neon City Riders is also available for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.