Of all of my favourite video games, Sayonara Wild Hearts is perhaps the toughest to explain. It’s a rhythm sport, but additionally you experience on a bike and a dragon, wield large swords whereas dodging fireballs, and teleport to a retrofuturistic VR world. It’s structured like a pop album, telling a narrative of affection and loss, and is narrated by Queen Latifah. It’s Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater meets R-Sort crossed with Rhythm Heaven as directed by Carly Rae Jepsen. It is smart when you play it, belief me.
This was all true when the game first launched in 2019 on the Switch and PS4 (it was additionally on Apple Arcade, however has since been eliminated). However now is an efficient time to test it out when you haven’t. The sport simply launched on the PS5 — it’s a free improve you probably have it on PS4 — which provides some efficiency enhancements and a brand new infinite mode known as remix arcade which you can learn extra about here. Actually, although, the brand new platform is simply a superb excuse to dive again into this world.
Sayonara Wild Hearts follows the story of a younger heartbroken girl who’s transported to an alternate realm the place she should restore concord by gathering a number of hearts. To do that, you play by means of a collection of 23 quick ranges, doing all the things from racing by means of metropolis streets to combating biker gangs to flying amid the ruins of a destroyed metropolis. It’s an arcade-style sport, the place you’re racing by means of ranges looking for a excessive rating (which you get by gathering hearts and different gadgets), and most of what you’re doing is in time to the beat of the dreamy pop music that performs all through.
The sport solely lasts round two hours, however it packs a lot into that area. What you’re doing is always altering. Autos shift from skateboards to bikes to vehicles to human flight to dragons, and there are a couple of half dozen totally different types of video games, from old-school arcade shooters to early 3D platformers to racing video games. Virtually all of these genres are then filtered by means of the lens of rhythm motion, for a twitchy expertise that feels very cohesive. It’s additionally fairly approachable. When you preserve failing a piece — like me throughout any of the first-person driving sequences — you have got the choice to easily skip it and transfer on.
Simply as necessary, Sayonara Wild Hearts is extremely trendy. The dream world is slick and exquisite, rendered in pinks, blues, and purples, with characters that dance as they battle and, uh, mechs made out of robotic wolves. It’s as bizarre as it’s cool, and it’s carried by an unimaginable pop soundtrack from composers Daniel Olsén and Jonathan Eng, alongside vocalist Linnea Olsson. It’s all bangers, and I’m listening to it proper now as I write this story.
Identical to an incredible album, Sayonara is one thing I discover myself coming again to time and again. I’ve replayed it a number of occasions during the last six years, and every time, I’ve been struck by simply how daring it’s. These emotions haven’t been diminished over time. It helps that it’s simply the best size so you may simply soak all of it in.