What do you get when you cross synthpop, motorcycles, love songs, and games like Streetfighter and Samurai Shodown? You get a gorgeous-looking, neon-drenched fever dream called Sayonara Wild Hearts.
VIDEO GAMES!
Looking like Lisa Frank meets Bladerunner, meets Bubblegum Crisis, Sayonara Wild Hearts follows the adventures of a young woman who, after a nasty breakup and a run-in with a magic diamond butterfly, enters a dream world of fast bikes, dangerous women, futuristic cities, and electric deserts. Once there, she becomes her alter ego—a masked biker called The Fool—and has to track down the Harmony of the Universe which is held in the hearts of various extremely dangerous individuals with names like The Stereo Lovers, Hermit 64, and Little Death. Sounds bonkers, right?
Sayonara Wild Hearts was put together by Simon Flesser and Magnus Gardebäck, a couple of Swedes who, since 2010, have been designing games together as SIMOGO. The pair has produced primarily mobile games with occasional forays into e-books and lightweight computer games. For Sayonara, SIMGO has partnered with Annapurna Interactive to bring this vision to life.
According to SIMGO's website, Sayonara is, "a euphoric music video dream about being awesome, riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph." Along with the gorgeous soundtrack teased in the video, the game's key features include:
- A pop culture mash of electric pop, dance, fashion, anime, arcade games, and subcultures.
- An inclusive cast of stylish characters based on tarot cards.
- Buttery smooth gameplay: 1080/60 fps docked, 720p/60fps handheld on Nintendo Switch.
What that translates to in real-world video game speak is anyone's guess, but I bet it'll be a rhythm game in the vein of Crypt of the Necrodancer or Guitar Hero. Whatever it is, based on the teaser video alone, I am here for it. The bikes look fantastic, I love what I can hear of the soundtrack in the teaser, and I'm seriously in love with the design sensibilities because A: I'm a child of the 80s and B: I've been on a huge synthwave kick lately. The whole thing looks like it belongs on a Trapper Keeper, and it rules.
Sayonara Wild Hearts drops sometime in 2019 on Nintendo Switch and, according to SIMGO, "other platforms". Those other platforms better include PC is all I'm saying.