From developer Simogo,

A POP ALBUM VIDEO GAME

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph.

As the heart of a young woman breaks, the balance of the universe is disturbed. A diamond butterfly appears in her dreams and leads her through a highway in the sky, where she finds her other self: the masked biker called The Fool.

Journey through a custom-written pop soundtrack, chase scores, and set out to find the harmony of the universe, hidden away in the hearts of Little Death and her star-crossed allies: Dancing Devils, Howling Moons, Stereo Lovers and Hermit 64.

LET’S POP!

Available for: Nintendo Switch | Apple Arcade | PS4 | Steam

Launch Trailer

I distinctly remember seeing the reveal trailer for this while watching The Game Awards in 2018 and thinking, “this seems like my EXACT brand of video game bullshit.” Needless to say, I just finished it recently and it was such a great experience! I loved the aesthetics, and the entire conceit of the game being a playable music album was so cool. And when you add the Tarot inspirations, the magical lesbians, and the anime-esque fights, it’s just a wonderful combination of things that makes the couple hours of playtime really fun and memorable.

I’m super interested to hear if anyone else has played, and what they’re thoughts are on the underlying story!!!

I really enjoyed Sayonara Wild Hearts. The aesthetic and overall presentation of the game is so well done – it has such a style and vision to it, which I really appreciate in an industry where games can get real same-y. Nabbing Queen Latifah to narrate the game is the cherry on top for Sayonara Wild Hearts too.

I have been meaning to download the soundtrack and listen to it independent of the game. Playing it is such an engrossing experience, and I was so focused on hitting the cues and collecting points that I found I sometimes lost track of the music. So I want to give it its due and see if it has legs beyond just supporting the overall aesthetic of the game. I am optimistic that it will – but then, I like bubblegum pop, so I’m probably biased there.

I am also interested in exploring the lore of the game and its characters more in depth. You get basic impressions from playing, but again, I was so wrapped up in the rhythm of the game that I think I missed a lot of the nuances. I think I might look up some videos of other folks playing through to help with that.

My one critique of the game is that I didn’t feel it was always a true rhythm game where you were picking up the beat of the music and playing along with it. Sometimes you did, but other times it felt they were a bit disconnected. But I also have no musical ability or sense of rhythm, so maybe I just missed it.

It is definitely more of a music game than a rhythm game. Wild Hearts is like a playable album in that sense. I really dig the game’s sense of style, especially with some of the stand out levels like Parallel Universes (I have a thing for video games that implement mechanics where things are jumping around between states).

My minor complaint is that I feel the Album Arcade mode should have been the default way to go through the game. I was constantly jumping immediately into the next song as quick as I could because of how much I was enjoying the music that playing through the game one song after another, as you would with listening an album, would have been a smoother experience than constantly jumping to the level select menu to get to the next song. If anything it should have been available from the get-go and not locked away until after you’ve played through everything.

That’s interesting! I would have hated that. I like being able to take my time with the game (I think I did it in three sittings) and redo levels before proceeding. Maybe this is related to one’s behaviors when listening to music. I rarely listen to an album in sequence front to back; I’m always shuffling and making playlists and putting songs on repeat for a while.

Its really only on the first go around where I listen to an album front to back, otherwise I’m mostly just choosing specific songs to listen on repeat as well. I can see the argument for taking your time with it however, especially since it’d be a time commitment (It’s about an hour to go through the while thing). Though I didn’t really go back and redo levels until I finished the whole thing. I was kind of excited to just see/hear what the game had in store for me lol.

I wanted the sweet satisfaction of Queen Latifah telling me I had achieved silver rank.

Today at the BAFTA Game Awards, Sayonara Wild Hearts won the award for Artistic Achievement! It’s gotten plenty of nominations this award season, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first win it’s picked up!