Neon Blitz Review

Everyone has probably been fascinated by neon at some point in his or her life. There’s just something about the seemingly impossibly vibrant colors twisting and turning through a series of tubes to form all manner of images that’s quite pleasing to the eye. While I imagine creating real neon signage isn’t all that glamorous, creating fake neon signage in a virtual environment through Neon Blitz is quite glamorous indeed.

Neon Blitz is fundamentally a line-tracing game. Each component of a given neon puzzle has a distinct beginning, indicated by a star. It’s up to the player to drag that star across its assigned track and complete a specific piece of neon, then do the same to the others as quickly and accurately as possible. Consecutive successes without any screw-ups build combos and make the neon glow brighter, while dragging too far off track or failing to complete a given piece restarts the combo counter. I’d say it’s best to take it slow and steady but each puzzle jumps right into the next as soon as it’s finished, and there’s a session timer that’s always counting down to Game Over. Temporary boosts can be activated before starting a game using stars earned through play, but they’re no substitute for actual skill.

While Neon Blitz is obviously a fairly straightforward and simple game, that simplicity is what makes it hard to put down. Each session is randomized so it’s rare to encounter the same puzzle all that often, and there’s always the allure of trying to best the previous run. And of course it all looks wonderful in a Technicolor Dream sort of way. Especially when a big combo is in progress.

The only real downside to all the glamour of Neon Blitz is that it never really leads anywhere. All the daily challenges and special bonus game rules are great and everything, but completing them merely earns more stars that are simply used to purchase temporary power-ups. Nothing is really unlocked and there’s no real progression aside from high scores, and a multitude of unlockables is something many iOS gamers have started to grow accustomed to.

It’s a great simple game to kill time, but it’s not the kind of thing I could picture most iOS users draining their batteries over. Although it is fun, and sometimes people just want to have fun without a bunch of thinking or rules to hinder their enjoyment. In which case they should look to Neon Blitz.