Neon Souls Review – Written by Guggs

Following in the footsteps of 2021’s Color Souls, developer Pickles Entertainment are back with sequel Neon Souls. With its vivid art style and simple, but not too simple, precision platforming, the game provides a solid experience with one or two challenges along the way.

The premise is simple, make it to the end goal on the other side of the screen. The catch? You can’t see anything. This is where the double jump mechanic comes in. With each jump, an array of neon colour splashes the stage, helping to reveal more of the platforms, enemies and just how far that leap of faith into the dark is.

Set across 50 levels, the traditional platforming formula of increasing the difficulty as you progress never feels like it’s too much. Whilst it doesn’t feature the same difficulty spikes as similar platformers, it provides a welcome challenge.

As traps increase their intensity and timing becomes more pivotal to your success, learning enemy movement patterns becomes key. Learning those patterns is a valuable tool as scattered in amongst the levels are 4 boss fights each with their distinct designs and methods to stop you dead in your tracks. The first, the Supreme Egg Lord, is a welcome change to the platforming formula as you use timing to dodge and weave your way through patterned attacks in order to land killer blows.

The music is another positive with its combination of atmospheric sci-fi-esque laden tones and sprawling sound, it creates an almost mesmeric soundscape which compliments everything that’s happening on screen. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the sound effects, with the seeping, saturated spongy sounds of neon colour being walked or slid through serve as more of an irritant than a welcome accompaniment, fortunately these can be turned off.

Of course, No Ratalaika published game would be complete without its rather generous dishing out of achievements and its good news for achievement hunters that Neon Souls is no different. The 1000G on offer is yours for completing levels up to level 15, dying a set number of times, completing a level without using your double jump, and defeating the Supreme Egg Lord.

Clocking in at just over an hour-long, Neon Souls never outstays its welcome and when combined with the psychedelic, parkour platformer’s gameplay, design and variety, make it an enjoyable and worthy sequel to Color Souls.

Review played and written by Guggs