The stylish rhythm game Sayonara Wild Hearts was announced at the 2018 Game Awards, but alas, only for the Nintendo Switch. It also appeared on the PlayStation 4 and iOS devices when it launched in September of this year, and earned positive reviews all around, but of a PC release, there was no sign. That unfortunate oversight was corrected earlier today, when Sayonara Wild Hearts very suddenly and without warning appeared on Steam.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is a "pop album videogame," which the Steam listing clarifies as being 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," it says.
"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."
That's maybe not the most practical game description of all time (I was just kidding with the "clarifies" thing) but it does hint at the very fantastical, dreamlike nature of the game. On the other hand, there's really not much to know: It's a beautiful, high-speed neon rhythm game with a surprisingly good electropop soundtrack that was named Game of the Year on the Apple Arcade.
My very early take is that it looks set to live up to that billing. I've only got about 20 minutes into it (just a bit of a crash course to see what it's all about) but so far I'm really impressed. The mechanics are fairly straightforward—collect hearts, press the button when you're supposed to, don't smash into things—but the presentation is absolutely top-notch: GamesRadar called it "a masterpiece of sight and sound," and at this point I'm not at all inclined to argue.
It's on sale, too: For the first week of release (so, until December 19) Sayonara Wild Hearts is $10/£8/€9, 20 percent off the regular, or a little more for the soundtrack edition. (Which, for the record, is what I'd recommend going with—the music is really good.)
