This Japanese visual novel is CSGO's weirdest spinoff

William Davis Published 01/02/2022

The Counter-Strike series is full of weird footnotes, but nothing tops the game’s lost visual novel from 2005.

Counter-Strike NEO -WHITE MEMORIES- is a visual novel exclusive to Japan that is based on the Counter-Strike franchise. The game was developed entirely by Bandai Namco and released in 2005. While primarily a visual novel, the game also has portions that play out more similarly to Doom than Counter-Strike. While Counter-Strike is no stranger to crossovers and spinoffs, this is probably the strangest such entry.

The Counter-Strike visual novel follows the plight of three special operatives named Sho, Oumar, and Reonof. The trio appears to be in hot pursuit of an amnesiac female civilian named Maki. Her character biography introduces her as the survivor of a previous incident related to the main characters. Quick introductions for each character are included in the attract mode, which also features a banging anime theme song.

Counter-Strike NEO -WHITE MEMORIES- is not available on any modern platforms. The only way to experience the CS visual novel is to watch a gameplay video on YouTube. The Counter-Strike NEO series originated with a Japan-only arcade cabinet game that has also been discontinued. This era is definitely the weirdest period for Valve’s tactical shooter franchise.

How many spinoffs does CSGO have?

While spinoff games for CSGO are a rarity nowadays, they used to be quite common. Back when Counter-Strike was still closely associated with the Half-Life series, expansions were a fairly frequent occurrence. 2004’s Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added a single-player campaign with full bot support. In 2008, Korean games host Nexon published a revamped version of Counter-Strike 1.6 called Counter-Strike Online.

A Source-based sequel followed in 2013. The old method of expansion packs and spinoff games has generally been left behind, but there are still a few crossovers in modern CSGO. The most recent is a surprise sticker collaboration with Battlefield 2042.

Read Also

News

The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027 Ben Boland The 2026 Esports Nations Cup has been suspended until 2027. The Esports Foundation announced the delay on August 18, citing ongoing regional uncertainty. The inaugural competition was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comprising over 100 national teams and featuring 16 different games, including League of Legends. According to the Esports Foundation, this decision follows ongoing developments in the region and consultation with key stakeholders. Moving the event ...

Esports Betting

MLBB is the most-watched game from the EWC, and it’s hard to see another game beating it Michael Hassall The Esports World Cup 2026 has officially passed its midway point and viewership figures for the tournament have surpassed many expectations so far, as per Esports Charts. The viewership tracking site revealed new statistics for the event on Aug. 6, showcasing just how many games had set new records in viewership, including one name leading the way in views: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. MLBB leads the viewership charts with the ...

Counter-Strike

CS2 at the EWC 2026 Preview: Odds, Details, Predictions and More Owen Harsono Top-tier Counter-Strike action returns at the Esports World Cup, as 32 of the best teams will take the trip to Paris to compete for millions of dollars. If you’re looking to watch the event, here’s everything you need to know and which teams to keep an eye on. The Esports World Cup is one of the largest CS2 events if we’re looking at prize pools, as $2,000,000 will be distributed ...

News

Opinion: Is Esports Tracing the Same Evolutionary Path As Traditional Sports? Cecilia Ciocchetti What happens when an industry compresses centuries of sporting evolution into less than a decade or two? Communities become global audiences overnight, rivalries spread through social media within minutes, and tournaments turn into entertainment products faster than ever before. And so what took traditional sports centuries to build has taken esports a fraction of that. From local communities to sold out arenas, and from informal matches to Olympic-style events, the ...

Counter-Strike

BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-final predictions: who’s making it to the grand final? Owen Harsono The top four teams we’re seeing at the BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-finals are far from what anyone would expect before the tournament began, but here we are. We’re only three matches from crowning a winner, so let’s take a look at the best BLAST Bounty semi-final predictions for both upcoming matchups. Starting the semi-finals off is a banger of a series between FaZe Clan and Team Spirit, which is one ...

Counter-Strike

We Ranked The Top 5 Most Hated CS2 Maps Owen Harsono If you’re a Counter-Strike player, you probably have that one map you always ban first in every Premier game — and you're not alone as almost everyone has one too. Below, we’ll take a look at the most hated maps in Counter-Strike history and explain why they are disliked by the community at large. Anubis is one of the newer releases in the Counter-Strike 2 map pool, but it has ...

Counter-Strike

The Top 10 Best Clutches in Counter-Strike History Ranked Owen Harsono Pulling off an impossible clutch is one of the greatest hits of dopamine any Counter-Strike 2 player can ever feel. However, pulling them off at the highest level can be a little tricky since everyone is so coordinated. That’s exactly why mind-blowing clutches are remembered forever. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the 10 best clutches in Counter-Strike history. We’re opening the list with former mousesports ...