Neon Drive Review: An Aesthetic, Yet Challenging Driving Rhythm Game

From a quick glance, Neon Drive doesn't sound particularly appealing: it was first launched as a paid-for mobile game for iOS devices, but eventually received a port to both the PC via Steam and the Mac App Store.

It's hard to look at Neon Drive's PC port and know that it previously debuted as a mobile game. The game looks and performs beautifully with its '80s aesthetics, as if it was always destined to be released for far more powerful hardware.

At its heart, Neon Drive is an arcade-like rhythm game. The player drives through levels, dodging obstacles in order to remain in sync with the music that plays. Levels are creatively themed and inspired by other medias. For example, my favourite level is an homage to Blade Runner's 2019 Los Angeles, in which the player must fly between neon advertisements that have infested the buildings, and avoid the plethora of oncoming traffic to a Vangelis-inspired song. In addition. Grand Theft Auto, Transformers, and Super Hexagon are the most memorable levels.

As expected with a rhythm game, there is a strong difficulty curve if you want to have a bit more of a challenge; even the medium difficulty can feel a bit tough on the much later levels in the game. Timing is forever key to successfully finishing a level, although there are checkpoints within the levels in case you do get a little stuck.

Neon Drive is the perfect game for those with just a small amount of time to kill. Levels can take around three total minutes to finish each, but if you're a more avid gamer, you could very easily find yourself getting bored rather quickly due to the repetitive nature of switching between lanes each level. In short, that is essentially what it is: you press the two arrow keys in rapid succession and hope for the best (if you're on a higher difficulty, that is). It's a very different approach to rhythm games, but its unique style is also its biggest weakness.

Sadly another negative thing about Neon Drive is its price. It is a game that should be priced at around $3.99 at the most given its short amount of content; there are many, many other games with a lot more substance to them that are of a similar and cheaper price, so it wouldn't really feel like you're getting what you are paying for in terms of value. If you can snag it during a sale, I would recommend it.