A free speed platformer you can play in your browser
Neon Rush is a fast side-scrolling platformer in the style of the 16-bit era. You play Flux, a fox with goggles and a pink scarf, racing through a synthwave world at night: a neon city, a data highway, a crystal cave and a fortress in the sky. The game is about momentum. Run down a hill and you gain speed, run up a slope and you lose it, and with enough speed you go through loops and along curved walls. There are four zones with two acts each, and every zone ends with a boss fight. It runs in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone, in a window or in full screen. Nothing to download and no account.
Everything in the game was made for this site: the sprites are drawn in code when the page loads, the acts are put together from hand-made pieces of track, and the music and sound effects are played live by the browser's audio engine. The whole game is one web page.
How to play
Run to the right, collect sparks and reach the goal gate at the end of the act. While Flux jumps or rolls, he is a spinning ball: robots and crates break when you hit them like that. Touching a robot while you just run means a hit. A hit makes your sparks fly out in all directions; grab what you can before they fade. If you get hit with no sparks at all, you lose a life. Two beacons per act save your spot: after a lost life you start again from the last beacon you touched.
Speed, slopes and loops
Flux needs a run-up. He speeds up gradually, and slopes push him faster downhill and slower uphill. A loop only works at speed: run into it slowly and you fall off halfway. Rolling keeps your speed better downhill but you cannot steer much. The charge dash is the trick for a standing start: hold Down, tap jump a few times to charge, then let go of Down and Flux shoots off rolling. Boost pads (flashing arrows on the ground) and side springs launch you at full speed; up springs throw you onto high ledges.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Gamepad | Touch |
| Run | Arrow keys or A / D | D-pad or left stick | Arrow buttons |
| Jump (hold = higher) | Z, X, C or Space | A, B, X or Y | A |
| Roll | Down while running | D-pad down | B or the down arrow |
| Charge dash | Hold Down, tap jump, let go of Down | Hold down, tap A | Hold B, tap A |
| Look up | Up or W | D-pad up | — |
| Pause | P or Esc | Start | Pause button |
| Full screen / sound | F / M | — | Buttons top right |
The four zones
- Neon City — rolling hills, loops and ramps under a city skyline. Springs launch you onto high walls and crawlers patrol the streets. The Hover Tank drives from side to side and lobs orbs in an arc; jump on it five times.
- Data Highway — long straight lanes with boost pads, more loops, moving platforms across pits and hoppers that jump at you. The Patrol Copter flies high and drops orbs, then dives low every now and then. That is when you hit it.
- Crystal Cave — glowing crystals, bumpers that bounce you away, ledges that crumble when you stand on them, spike rows and turrets. The Shard Drill burrows under the floor and bursts up beneath you; hit it while it is above ground.
- Sky Fortress — floating platforms, lifts, gaps and spikes above the clouds, with every kind of robot. The Core Sentinel floats high and fires rings of orbs, then sinks low and opens up for a moment.
Stars, sparks and par times
Each act gives up to three stars: one for reaching the goal, one for crossing the goal with at least 50 sparks, and one for finishing within the par time shown in the act menu. Beating a boss gives one star, so a perfect game has 28 stars. At the goal you get a time bonus if you beat par and 100 points for every spark you still carry. The act menu keeps your stars and best times.
Tips
- Not sure what is ahead? Slow down. Hold Up to look up and Down to look down while standing still.
- Spikes hurt from every side, but you can run past them during the short blinking time after a hit.
- Bouncing from robot to robot without landing scores 100, 200, 500, 1000 and then 10,000 points.
- Moving platforms touch both ledges: wait at the edge until the platform is right in front of you.
- In a boss fight, grab the sparks and the crate first. With sparks in your pocket a hit does not cost a life.
- If an act is too hard, replay an earlier one for extra lives. Your progress is never lost after a game over.
Full screen, phones and gamepads
Press F or the button at the top right of the game for full screen; the pixels are scaled up sharply to fit your screen. On a phone, turn it sideways in full screen and use the buttons on the screen: arrows on the left, A to jump and B to roll on the right. A gamepad works as soon as you press one of its buttons; a standard controller layout is expected.
Privacy
The game runs completely in your browser. Your progress (unlocked acts, stars, best times, top score and settings) is stored in your browser's local storage under the key jb-neonrush-v1; nothing is sent to a server. Page statistics come from SimpleAnalytics, which uses no cookies.
An original game
Neon Rush is an original game made for jasperbernaers.com, inspired by the fast platformers of the 16-bit era. The hero, robots, zones, acts, sprites and music were made from scratch. It uses no characters, names, graphics, sounds or music from any commercial game.
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