Sayonara Wild Hearts by Simogo and Annapurna Interactive (Publisher)

First and foremost, a warning: if you are photo-sensitive, approach this game with extreme caution; the game is packed with flashing lights.

Now, the publisher’s pitch: “Sayonara Wild Hearts is a dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph.“

Here’s my one-sentence summary of the game: if AudioSurf and Rez had a sparkly, neon baby with voice work by Queen Latifah, you’d have sometime approximating Sayonara Wild Hearts.

What Worked For Me:

The game was delightful visually, even bordering on total overload. If you like the screenshots of the game on Steam, you’ll love it in action.
Queen Latifah was great in her role. She added gravitas to the proceedings, and she didn’t sound like she was just there for the paycheck.
The soundtrack was so good I almost bought the OST. I’ll probably listen to it a few times on YouTube first, though, just to see if it sticks in a context outside the game.
The final level deftly combined the various mechanics and sounds of the previous levels. I found it to be a great “capstone” / send-off.
While the game didn’t offer key accessibility features (e.g. button remapping), it did make other nods to accessibility. How? The game only required an analog stick and a single button to play, so complex inputs were not an issue. Also, I never found a “fail state” for any of the songs. The game even offered to skip sections of songs I really struggled with. Thus, even if you’re terrible at rhythm games you can still experience every level (even if that means you won’t have access to all of the game’s unlockable content).
The game’s message of self-love is definitely a positive one, even if it’s buried under a lot of flashing neon lights.
Though the game has a strong rhythmic component, it isn’t just a rhythm game. It clearly draws from other genres like on-rails shooters, bullet hells, and more.
Like I’ve said in previous posts, I think discussions of value may well be outside the scope of a single review. With that being said, even if the game was short it had incredible style and memorability. I can’t imagine myself playing another game like this any time soon.

What Didn’t:

I’m still shocked the game didn’t include a seizure warning. I’m not photo-sensitive, but I left the game with eye-strain and a mild headache. Even the trailers omitted this info, which I found irresponsible (especially since the game was released in 2019).
I had mixed feelings about being able to beat the game in about an hour and a half. On one hand, I have long appreciated games that don’t waste my time with needless padding. On the other hand, I would’ve been pissed if I the game commanded a AAA or even AA price tag. With that said, the game was worth its retail price of $13 USD, and becomes a great pick-up at $10 USD or less. (I bought the game for $8 on Steam.)
(nit-pick) This is a minor spoiler for the game, but there was a part where the “track” / play-space was an enemy’s vomit. It was stylized and likely not intended as a “gross out moment,” but I could’ve done without it.
(nit-pick) Restarting levels also required me to enter the pause menu and skip the cut-scene at the beginning of every level. It was a small annoyance, but it added up over the course of the game.

Conclusion:

As I said above, I recommend folks with photo-sensitivity approach this game with extreme caution. For everyone else, you’re in for a visual and auditory treat. It may not have the greatest replay value and I did leave the game with a headache, but the vibe of this game is immaculate.

Check it out here.