Néon Front
Top-down neon run-and-gun: fight through five jungle missions, move with one thumb, aim and fire with the other (twin-stick), pick up weapons to upgrade and take down a boss at the end of every mission.
Read the rules below, then start your run.
About this game
Néon Front is a top-down arcade run-and-gun set in a jungle at night where neon is the only light. You play a soldier of light on a five-mission campaign — the Clearing, the River, the Village, the Temple, the Base — each with its own scenery, objective and boss. A mission has three sectors: two of combat or objective, then the boss sector. You move on to the next sector by clearing the last one, then reaching the exit to the north. The objective changes every mission: reach the extraction point, destroy the turrets, free the hostages, hold the position, take out the officers. The control is a true twin-stick: movement and aim are completely independent. On mobile, your left thumb drives a stick that moves the soldier through 360 degrees, your right thumb aims and fires, and a GRENADE button throws a grenade. On a computer, W A S D or the arrow keys move the soldier, the mouse aims (fire goes off by itself towards the cursor), and Space, G or E throws a grenade. Enemies read by shape as much as by colour: the infantryman charges, the gunner keeps his distance, the kamikaze rushes you, the armoured unit soaks damage, the turret locks down the ground and the officer hunts you. Crates bring four weapons — machine gun, spread, piercer, rockets — each on three levels, along with grenades and healing. The same weapon goes up a level, switching costs one, a hit costs one too, and your weapon carries over from mission to mission; as long as it can still level up, its crates drop more often. Stand still too long and the artillery spots you: keep moving. You have three lives. Killing the Colonel, the boss of the Base, wins the campaign; a tougher campaign then opens up to beat your score. Néon Front is free and instant in your browser, nothing to install, on desktop and mobile alike. Create an account to sync your high scores, enter the leaderboards and unlock trophies, including the one for winning the campaign. Will you make it to the Colonel?
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How to play
Fight through the five missions of the campaign — each with its own objective and boss — moving your soldier and aiming separately, until you take down the Colonel.
Game rules
- A mission has three sectors: two of combat or objective, then the boss sector. Clear a sector then reach the exit to the north to move on.
- The objective changes every mission: reach the extraction point (Clearing), destroy the turrets (River), free the hostages (Village), hold the position (Temple), take out the officers (Base).
- You control your soldier with two independent sticks: one to move, one to aim and fire, both usable at once. On a phone, your shots snap to the nearest enemy inside a narrow cone around your aim direction (nothing snaps outside the cone).
- Read enemies by shape and colour: the infantryman closes in, the gunner shoots from range, the kamikaze charges, the armoured unit soaks damage, the turret holds its ground and the officer hunts you.
- Pick up the crates: machine gun, spread, piercer or rockets, each on three levels, plus grenades (2 to start, 6 at most) and healing. Picking up the same weapon raises it one level. Switching costs one level: the weapon you put away is stored one level lower (never below level 1) and remembers its level, and the new one takes your level minus one, or its remembered level if that is higher. Your weapon carries over from mission to mission, and as long as it can still level up, its crates drop three times as often in the draw.
- You have three lives (five at most). A hit first costs you one level of the weapon you carry; at level 1 you drop back to the basic rifle, and only at the basic rifle does a hit cost a life. Stored weapons keep their level in memory. Stand still too long and the artillery spots you: keep moving.
Controls (keyboard and touch)
- Left touch stick / W A S D or arrow keysMove the soldier: 360-degree analogue stick on touch, eight directions on the keyboard
- Right touch stick / mouseAim and fire independently of your movement (fire goes off by itself towards the cursor)
- GRENADE touch button / Space, G or EThrow a grenade that explodes over an area
- P or Esc / pause buttonPause and resume the game
How a run ends
Killing the Colonel, the boss of the Base, wins the campaign; a tougher campaign then opens up to beat your score. Losing your lives ends the run. Your score is the total banked from downing enemies, completing objectives (hostages freed, position held), finishing sectors and missions, and beating bosses; winning the campaign pays a bonus of 80,000 points.
Tips & strategy
Split movement from aim
The strength of twin-stick is retreating while still firing forward. Practise running one way and hosing the other: it is the only way to handle whatever surrounds you.
Prioritise the real threats
Do not shoot at whatever is nearest out of reflex. Drop the gunners and kamikazes first, they kill fast, and leave the infantry for last.
Never stand still
After a few seconds without moving, the artillery spots you and shells your position. Keep moving, even a little, and use cleared sectors to advance.
Build a weapon, do not swap it for nothing
Each weapon has its own style: machine gun, wide spread, piercer that goes through targets, rockets that explode over an area. Switching costs a level, and so does a hit: pick the one that works for you and collect its crates, which drop more often, up to level 3.
Did you know?
The top-down scrolling run-and-gun was born in the arcades of the mid-1980s. Some cabinets of the genre came with a rotary stick: you twisted the grip to point your fire while walking in another direction — the mechanical ancestor of two-stick control.
Fully separating movement from aiming eventually named a whole family of action games, the twin-stick shooter. The idea is still a pillar of the twitch genre, and it suits touchscreens especially well, where each thumb naturally takes charge of one virtual stick.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Néon Front free to play?
- Yes. Néon Front is completely free and runs straight in your browser — no download, no install, no paywall.
- How do you play Néon Front?
- Hit “Play” to start Néon Front. It runs on keyboard on desktop and on touch controls on phones and tablets — no controller needed.
- Do I need an account to play?
- No — you can play right away as a guest, and your best score is kept on this device. A free account (by email link, no password) syncs your high scores, puts you on the leaderboards and unlocks trophies.
- Does Néon Front work on mobile?
- Yes. The game is responsive and fully playable with your fingers on phones and tablets, just like on desktop, with no app to install.
- Can I really move and shoot in two different directions at once?
- Yes, that is the whole point of two-stick control: movement and aim are completely independent. You can fall back to the left while firing to the right, which is essential once enemies arrive from every side.
- Do I lose my weapon when I get hit?
- Not all at once: a hit makes the weapon you carry lose one level, and only at level 1 do you drop back to the basic rifle. As long as you carry a weapon, a hit does not cost you a life. The weapons you have put away keep their level in memory, and your weapon carries over from one mission to the next.
- How do I win the campaign?
- By getting through the five missions to the Base and killing the Colonel, its boss. Winning the campaign unlocks a trophy and opens a tougher campaign to push your score.