Sayonara Wild Hearts

This game is absurdly confident and doesn’t give a crap what you think—and that’s one of the things that makes it so great. I came late to this game. I remember it being demoed at the Apple event, I remember seeing it all over the arcade page, it was hyped constantly at launch, and I wasn’t interested at all in what looked like subway surfers on acid. It turned it to be one of my favorite games of all time. Yep, a shiny, pink and teal, pulsing neon beacon sitting right next to borderlands, elder scrolls, the Witcher, and all those other AAA console titles sitting on my shelf. It’s so creative, the soundtrack is so great, it’s so simple, but it’s a game that you can get good at. Reminds me of something like those Dance Dance games in arcades or Guitar Hero: sure, it’s a game... but you can be a freaking BA at it if you play long enough. I also love the all-female cast, it gives the game something truly special that I really love and find incredibly refreshing as a guy. A seminal title from the developer and I DEMAND more from them in the future. Great work, y’all, no complaints or critique. And that’s incredibly rare for me.

While the format of the ‘visual album’ is well-known, I feel there have been far fewer ‘playable albums’. My favorite playable album used to be Rez, but this feels like an album in the best sense of the word: every level has a different idea, yet the work overall is cohesive and a pleasure to enjoy again and again. It’s remarkable how effortlessly Simogo takes disparate game mechanics (included a small homage to Rez!) and includes them all together in the levels with exquisite editing. Just as songs quickly transition between verses, choruses, bridges and instrumentals, so too do the game mechanics of Sayonara change up. But this kind of game would fall by the wayside were it not for the stellar soundtrack. The soundtrack is easily one of my favorite gaming soundtracks of all time. Listening to it on its own is very enjoyable, but playing the album in Sayonara is an altogether different experience, and utterly essential.

Just the art of this game was enough to draw me in. This game is gorgeously designed! But it’s so much more than that. The music is fantastic, and is essential to the experience to the game. The mechanics are a meld of endless runner and rhythm game, with a bit of arcade shooter mixed in. There’s a sweet little story tying it all together too. At times it can be quite challenging as it throws many different things at you in quick succession, so fast you have to try some sections over again and again til you know them. But that’s also part of the joy - you can try a section as many times as you need (no forcing you to start from the very beginning again) or if a section is too hard you can just skip it. The experience is open to everyone, though completionists like myself will go back to try and achieve gold rank on levels, all while reveling in the experience.