In Neon White, no weapon is just a weapon. Get your hands on the pistol, and you unlock a double jump. Pick up the shotgun, and you'll be spraying shells and slingshotting through enemies like a hot knife through butter. Find the uzi card and, in addition to being able to fire off a full clip in a matter of seconds, you'll also be able to stomp through platforms like the Hulk in a porcelain mask.
As good as these weapons are, none of them compare to the bazooka, a late-game addition that breaks the game into pieces and reassembles it in its image. Lobbed into the roster in Mission 8, the teal "Dominion" card gains you a powerful armament, sure. But, it also introduces a suite of new traversal options that radically alter the way you approach the levels that follow. In most games, getting hit by a bazooka shell — even your own — is certain death. Whenever I pick up one of tꦛhe Worms games, I invariably lose a 🦹few valiant invertebrates in the first few rounds by misjudging a shot and blowing up the ground beneath their slimy posterior segments.
Thankfully, in Neon White, your weapons can't hurt you. That means the bazooka's blast is a tool, not a hazard. If you shoot the platform beneath you, you'll go flying into the air. This makes it the only weapon (at least that I've unlocked so far) that opens up new mobility options without requiring you to discard it. Like I noted above, the shotgun lets you rocket yourself into the air. The problem is, you can't use it anymore after you discard it. Using the fun thing means that you no longer get to use the fun thing.
But with the bazooka, you can strategically stockpile ammo, then use it to blast your way to the top of a tall building, shooting into the wall to violently rappel up a few dozen meters at a time. It's no coincidence that the Dominion card is introduced right as you reach Heaven's Edge, an area that is largely uninhabited despite being composed exclusively of construction equipment and skyscrapers. Aesthetically, this is the closest Neon White comes to aping the style of the cityscape its parkour forebear, Mirror's Edge. The game introduces a vertical map, then hands you a weapon that allows you to scale ridiculous heights. Throughout the levels in this area, you'll spend most of the time not touching the ground at all.
That's possible because of the bazooka's discard ability. In addition to allowing you to ‘rocket jump’ by shooting shells into nearby surfaces, the Dominion card's discard allows you to grapple across large portions of the level. After hours spent mastering Neon White's more grounded abilities, Mission 8 basically says, "Here, have fun." Instead of navigating jumps between platforms, you're soaring through the air on the end of a grappling hook, carefully strategizing where you'll go when the rope runs out. You're shooting your hook into the balloon enemies that send you soaring when you make contact, then popping a few shells into nearby scaffolding to wall jump like Mario, if the plumber was packing a military-grade arsenal in his overalls.
Traversal is the most basic thing you can do in a video game. When Sonic walks from left to right or jumps over a pit, that's traversal. Most games don't make the most of the simple act of moving around which is why, over the years, I've come to increasingly appreciate the games that do, that go back to basics and work to make movement as fun as possible. Titanfall 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 — all of these are games that find the fun in the bits between the big moments that would otherwise be mundane.
Neon White is one of those games. It zeroes in on making movement feel as good as possible and makes the process of getting from A to B a thrilling blend of speed and strategy. It was already excellent before it dealt out the Dominion card. In fact, the bazooka mission is as good as it is because it isn't an example of a stellar level saving a so-so game. Instead, it's a reminder from the developers at Angel Matrix that they have more tricks up their sleeves; an exhilarating cherry on top of a GOTY sundae.