Sayonara Wild Hearts’ New Mode Makes It An Even Better Game, If You Can Believe It
Wild hearts never die.
Back when the PlayStation 5 first arrived, it came with updates for many PS4 games giving them enhanced graphics modes with better resolution and a higher frame rate. Despite the PS5 getting close to five-years-old now, one of the best music games ever is getting an exclusive update for the console that also adds an entirely new way to play.
Developer Simogo describes its Sayonara Wild Hearts as a “pop album video game.” The entire game is set to a roughly hour-long album, with each track dedicated to its own level. It’s not exactly a typical rhythm game, in that you don’t always have to move on the beat. Instead, it feels more like an endless runner, challenging you to collect as many glowing neon hearts as possible across its rapidly moving levels, only occasionally requiring timed button presses, usually to avoid attacks from the game’s masked antagonists.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is even better now than it was on release.
It’s also an incredible amount of fun. The soundtrack is absolutely stellar, complemented by glorious visuals mostly in a vivid purple and blue color palette. From zipping through streets on a motorcycle to flying through space, your movement is fast and fluid, making it a perfect game to relax with and enjoy the vibes.
Sayonara Wild Hearts’ PS5 update makes it look even better, bumping the game up to 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. I don’t know if one of the best looking games ever really needed the visual boost, but it’s certainly looking its shiniest now.
The bigger deal comes from a new game mode, dubbed Remix Arcade. This new mode creates a playlist of short segments from throughout the game for you to play through back to back. You may spend ten seconds leisurely skateboarding downhill, then a few more dodging laser blasts from a giant floating eye, then hop onto a motorcycle to fight a giant robotic wolf running through the forest. And if that sentence doesn’t convince you that Sayonara Wild Hearts is an incredible game, I don’t know what will.
Even the antagonists of Sayonara Wild Hearts are impossibly cool.
Remix Arcade mode has the feel of a minigame collection, somewhere between Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare. Sayonara Wild Hearts requires fast reflexes to begin with, but the new mode ramps that up, making it a challenge to even get your bearings before you tackle each new segment’s obstacles. Every few sections you complete, the game gets even faster, and if you mess up even once, you need to start from the beginning.
I make a habit of replaying Sayonara Wild Hearts’ Album Arcade mode, which plays through the game in its entirety with no breaks between levels, at least once or twice per year. That’s probably still my favorite way to play, since it lets you really sink into the vibe of the game with no interruptions. But I can easily see myself adding a few rounds of Remix Arcade into my routine, too. Unless you’re incredibly good at it, a round of this mode should only take a few minutes, and it offers a nice change of pace for people who’ve already played through the standard game more times than they can count. I also imagine Remix Arcade would make a great party game if you pass the controller every time someone fails a challenge, since rounds tend to be so short. Plus, the vibrant graphics and fantastic soundtrack should make it fun for spectators as much as for the person controlling the action.
Sayonara Wild Hearts didn’t really need a glow-up, but it got one anyway.
The only small downside to the Sayonara Wild Hearts PS5 update is that you’ll need to play through the game’s standard level-based mode to unlock Album Arcade, then finish that mode to unlock Remix Arcade. A single playthrough only takes about an hour, so it’s not a huge time commitment, and I can confirm that playing through the entire game twice in less than 24 hours does nothing to dull its charms.
Sayonara Wild Hearts’ new update feels aimed at devoted fans who need a new way to play, but it’s also a great reason to pick up the game if you somehow haven’t already. Even as someone with almost the entire game permanently burned into my brain, Remix Arcade has given me a whole new way to appreciate it — and an excuse to go back for yet another round.
