Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit review – GameSpew (2025)

Is it just me that gets excited about any new arcade racing game hitting the market these days? There’s just not that many of them, you see. The problem is, they rarely compare to the stand-out arcade racing games of old, such as Ridge Racer or Burnout. And the same goes when it comes to Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit, a new futuristic arcade racing experience from Repixel8 and Numskull Games.

It’s not that Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit doesn’t try. You can tell that a lot of effort has been put into this anime-styled arcade racer. Select a character to embody and complete the game’s tutorial, and you’ll be taken to a main menu that presents you with a wide selection of modes to entertain yourself with. There’s an Arcade mode that challenges you to complete a number of races one after another to prove your prowess, as well as a Story mode that offers an admittedly passable narrative spread over multiple chapters. There are Championship, Time Attack and Versus modes, too, the latter allowing for some heated local multiplayer action.

Perhaps the main draw here, however, is Career mode. This allows you to choose from a selection of race types as you try to build a name for yourself, gaining money and experience as you go. Do well and you’ll increase your career level, allowing you to enter more challenging races and get behind the wheel of more powerful vehicles. There are over 20 vehicles to collect overall, split between mean and futuristic-looking cars and bikes. Head on over to the garage, and you can even upgrade these a little if you wish, or give them a new paint job.

There’s plenty to go at in Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit, then. The only thing it’s missing in terms of modes is online multiplayer. But its wealth of content just makes it even more of a shame that you likely won’t enjoy it as much as you should: its racing action is unfortunately rather disappointing. Sure, the vehicles are fast, but they feel weightless and unsatisfying to take control of. The controls are also extremely twitchy, and should you make contact with another racer, which is easily done, you’ll quickly find yourself bouncing between them and the side of the track like a pinball.

And that’s not the end of the issues. Neon Apex’s anime-inspired visuals are neat, but sometimes you’re likely to find yourself overwhelmed by its barrage of neon lights and effects emitted from your vehicle and others around you, making it hard to concentrate on the action and actually see what’s ahead of you. For some reason, someone also thought it would be a good idea to put a fighting game within this racing game. It wasn’t; playing through career mode, you’ll probably start to avoid the offer of a fight whenever it crops up. Street Fighter this is not.

Still, there is some fun to be had here for arcade racing game fans, providing they can look past the issues when actually racing. It’s not a total write-off; it’s just a shame that more time wasn’t put into making sure that the racing experience was as entertaining and rewarding as it should be before worrying about things like the inclusion of a story mode and fighting game mechanics. Maybe things will improve after a patch or two, but until then you should approach Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit with caution.