Néon Lights
The Lights Out puzzle in retro neon: press a cell to flip it and its 4 neighbours, and darken the whole grid in as few moves as you can.
Read the rules below, then start your run.
About this game
Néon Lights is the great "Lights Out" puzzle, dressed in a polished retro-neon skin and built to play with a mouse or a finger. The idea is crisp to state and fiercely addictive: in front of you sits a grid of five cells by five, each one a light, on or off. When you press a cell you do not only flip that one: you also invert its four direct neighbours — above, below, left and right. A light that was on goes out, one that was off comes on, in a bright little cross-shaped cascade. Your mission fits in one line: turn EVERY light off. Easy to say, much subtler to pull off, because each press touches five cells at once and often undoes what you just fixed elsewhere. You have to think ahead, reason by deduction, and grasp that the order of your presses does not matter and that pressing the same cell twice achieves nothing — the real key is finding the exact set of cells to press. Every starting grid is generated deterministically and is always solvable: it is built from a completely dark board with a series of presses applied to it, so a solution necessarily exists — never an impossible grid. The score rewards elegance and thought: it counts the MOVES you played to darken everything, and the fewer you use, the better your record (the smallest move count wins). The controls are universal and touch-first: on mobile, tap the cell you want and its cross of lights flips at once; on a computer you can click a cell directly, or move a cursor with the arrow keys and confirm with Enter or the spacebar. Every flip comes with bright neon feedback and a discreet synthesised cue, and darkening the last light triggers a satisfying completion, all smooth at 60 frames per second. Néon Lights is free and instant in your browser, nothing to install, on desktop and mobile alike. Create an account to sync your best records, enter the leaderboards and unlock efficiency trophies as you solve. Can you darken the whole grid in eight moves or fewer?
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How to play
Switch off every light on a 5×5 grid, knowing that each press also flips its neighbours in a cross.
Game rules
- The 5×5 grid starts on a pattern of lights, some on, some off.
- Pressing a cell flips its state AND that of its four direct neighbours: up, down, left and right.
- Your goal is to turn everything off: not one light may stay on.
- The order of your presses makes no difference at all — only how many times each cell is pressed.
- Pressing the same cell twice cancels itself out: it is exactly as if you had never touched it.
- The grid is always solvable, because it is built from an all-off board with a series of presses applied to it.
Controls (keyboard and touch)
- Click / tap a cellFlip that cell and its neighbours in a cross
- Arrow keysMove the cursor around the grid
- Enter / SpacebarPress the cell under the cursor
How a run ends
The game is won the moment the whole grid is dark. There is no way to lose: your score is the number of moves you used, and the fewer the better.
Tips & strategy
Chase the lights downward
Clear the top row first, then work down: to switch off a light in the row above, press the cell directly beneath it. That pushes the clean-up towards the bottom of the grid.
Two presses cancel out
Since touching a cell twice is the same as never touching it, never go back over a cell for nothing. Keep track of where you have pressed so you do not undo your own work.
Play for the shortest solve
Your score is the number of presses. Before diving in, study the pattern and look for the shortest sequence rather than feeling your way cell by cell.
Did you know?
Lights Out was a handheld electronic game released by Tiger Electronics in 1995, with its 5×5 grid of lit buttons. Its cross-flipping rule made it a cult puzzle, cloned in countless versions since.
Behind that apparent simplicity sits real mathematics: solving it is a problem of linear algebra modulo 2, and the order of presses never changes the outcome. That is what guarantees a properly generated grid always has a solution.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Néon Lights free to play?
- Yes. Néon Lights is completely free and runs straight in your browser — no download, no install, no paywall.
- How do you play Néon Lights?
- Hit “Play” to start Néon Lights. 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 Lights 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.
- Is every Lights Out grid solvable?
- Here, yes. Each grid is built by starting from a completely dark board and applying a series of presses to it. A combination of presses that returns everything to dark therefore has to exist: no board is ever a trap.
- Does the order I press the cells in change anything?
- No. Only the number of times each cell is pressed matters, never the sequence. Press your cells in any order you like and the final board will be identical.