Let's pop! You've got Queen Latifah narrating a swooning ballad of broken hearts, divine arcana and electronic pop. You've got an imaginative phantasmagorical sequence of rhythm-based arcade gameplay that constantly keeps you on your toes as the control scheme changes with just seconds to react. You've got an album that is genuinely filled with bop after bop after bop! You've got polished presentation that oozes retro wave aesthetics, from the chapter select to the in-game cutscenes.

It takes roughly an hour of your time to enjoy the rhythmic euphoria of Sayonara Wild Hearts (I wish it was so much longer!). The cryptic Zodiac Riddles grant some replay value, as do the high scores. But even without those additions, the sheer musical charm on display is enough to warrant repeat playthroughs. Slap those tunes on and ride the feel good waves!

I’m one of those who doesn’t get it unfortunately. Yes, it looks stylish and sounds nice but that’s about it. Even though it looks nice it’s not good for the gameplay. The game is often so busy with flashes and lights and weird colour combinations, that it feels like it was made by a team on drugs. It was sometimes hard to see certain collectibles or obstacles on time. The gameplay itself feels like a mess. A lot of it is very random with no rhyme or order. There’s a lot of trial and error, especially if you want to go for the high scores and collect everything. The controls themselves are also not great on a DualShock 4 at least. It’s not precise at all, it’s easy to go too far to the left or the other way. It’s hard to see where you are on the roads sometimes. I also don’t like the riddles at all. They’re the game’s achievements. They’re very obscure if you’re trying to figure them out on your own. I looked up some of them out of curiosity and the things you need to do are bullshit. They’re way too precise and silly. There are over 20 songs which are luckily very easy to clear. But you can extend the replay value by going for high scores, collectibles and arcade mode. I don’t recommend it though. Both the highscores and collectibles look like the irritating type. I just tried to finish the game asap and wanted to be quickly done with it. The game has many fans, so don’t take my opinion as a universal truth. I’d just be cautious if you’re not certain about the game and are not big on artsy ones, to the point of them being enough even if the gameplay is not so good. I’d do some proper research or try a demo if possible. I just played it because it’s part of Apple Arcade and I got curious.

Me lo pasé al 100% en PC y lo rejugué en la Switch, es actualmente mi juego favorito, las canciones son preciosas y combinan perfecto con la mecánica de cada nivel, si estas en un estado emocional bajo y sin ganas de jugar nada, este juego es la solución, no sabia que hacer con mi estado anímico, llegó este juego a mi vida y sin exagerar me hizo llorar más de una vez, tiene muchas ideas pero poco tiempo para usarlas ya que el juego dura solo una hora y te lo puedes pasar en una noche (depresiva).