i have some sprites and when they get hit i change the color in the spitebatch.draw call to black and then back to white next update call so that they quickly flash black when hit. but now i want them instead to flash white, but i can't seem to get it since when i put in Color.White it takes that to mean no tint. any idea as to how i could make it flash white?

 thanks in advance

A simple trick is to draw the sprite once normally, then draw it again with SpriteBlendMode.Additive.

Alternatively, you could use a pixel shader (check out the Education tab for samples and tutorials on those).

Here's a link  to a discussion I had with The ZMan where he helped me achieve a similar effect,  maybe the methodology / code  therein  would be of benefit to you.

Regards.