A Musical High Speed Neon Adventure – Sayonara Wild Hearts Review

Reviewed by: Fwooshe

I grip the handlebars tightly as I race through the forest on my motorcycle. Adrenaline coursing, music blasting, I weave through trees, dodge a rock, zip across a concerningly narrow bridge. I leap across a chasm and land perfectly on beat. I am unstoppable!

Then, a thundering BOOM erupts through my music. It’s the only thing that could possibly break my rhythmic stride:  A gargantuan triple-headed mecha wolf!! And it’s shooting lasers!

Sayonara Wild Hearts has:

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a simple but beautiful fast-paced action arcade game set to a catchy soundtrack. You play as a broken-hearted young woman who is transported in her dreams to a world filled with neon colours, electronic pop music, tarot cards, and, of course, hearts.

There are twenty or so short levels, each one set to its own song. The goal is the same for every level: simply make it to the end of the course and collect points along the way to earn a gold, silver, or bronze rank. Earn points by collecting hearts, narrowly avoiding obstacles for a “risky” bonus, and by hitting a button on beat when prompted.

Each level spans the length of one song and so you zoom along at a fixed speed. Your control over the character is restricted to:

• Moving left & right, and occasionally up & down
• Hitting a button on beat when prompted
• Button mashing when prompted to power up an attack

This game is short; you can complete a full runthrough in about an hour. Once you have completed a level you can go back and play previous levels, in any order, whenever you like.

Making it through the levels is easy. Achieving gold rank for every song is much more challenging! There is no tangible benefit to getting higher scores other than the satisfaction. Admittedly, I’ve earned most of my gold ranks only after I’ve played a level enough times to memorize the path.

“Parallel Universes” was one that I struggled with quite a bit, but it’s also one of my favourites, and one I find incredibly unique. I’ve played it a whole bunch and eventually got my trophy:

Once you’ve completed the game you may choose to explore the twenty-four Zodiac Riddles. Each of the riddles is a cryptic instruction that will have you tackling mini challenges throughout the game. Some are tricky to solve, and many are VERY difficult to achieve.

Fwooshe’s Thoughts on Sayonara Wild Hearts

Though the mechanics of the game may be simple and limited, Sayonara Wild Hearts manages to stay exciting and engaging from start to finish. After a short exposition about the protagonist, narrated by Queen Latifah, you drop directly onto the first heart-laden musical track in space and there’s no slowing down. The scenery changes drastically from level to level, as does your method of transportation and the obstacles being thrown at you. One second you’re skateboarding in outer space and the next you’re participating in a dance battle atop speeding motorcycles. And all this happens so FAST you won’t even have time to fully process what just happened before you are hurled into the next thing!

Sayonara Wild Hearts moves so quickly that it’s nigh impossible to catch everything the first time around. But that’s okay because the game demands very little of you as the player. Once you finish a level, the next one will unlock regardless of your score. If you crash into an obstacle, you only restart a few seconds back. If you die enough times in any given section, you will be given the option to skip over that part.

The game’s leniency, combined with the upbeat music, aggressive obstacles, and (sometimes) frantic pacing make for a winning combination in my books. Sayonara Wild Hearts is simultaneously exciting, chaotic, relaxing, and chill. There’s no need to strategize or “get good” because there’s really no punishment for “failure”. As a casual gamer I really appreciate that.

Now that I’ve played through the game a few times, I come back to it maybe once a week for twenty or so minutes at a time. I like to chip away at the Zodiac Riddles’ challenges and just enjoy the experience of the game. Every time I boot it up, the music and art captivates me all over again. Overall, Sayonara Wild Hearts is wildly fun!

Potential Caveats

• Main game is very short, about 60-90mins
• Flashing neon colours