Of all of my favorite games, Sayonara Wild Hearts might be the hardest to describe. Its a rhythm game, but also you ride on a motorcycle and a dragon, wield giant swords while dodging fireballs, and teleport to a retrofuturistic VR world. Its structured like a pop album, telling a story of love and loss, and is narrated by Queen Latifah. Its Tony Hawks Pro Skater meets R-Type crossed with Rhythm Heaven as directed by Carly Rae Jepsen. It makes sense once you play it, trust me.This was all true when the game first launched in 2019 on the Switch and PS4 (it was also on Apple Arcade, but has since been removed). But now is a good time to check it out if you havent. The game just launched on the PS5 its a free upgrade if you have it on PS4 which adds some performance improvements and a new endless mode called remix arcade that you can read more about here. Really, though, the new platform is just an excellent excuse to dive back into this world.Sayonara Wild Hearts follows the story of a young heartbroken woman who is transported to an alternate realm where she must restore harmony by collecting lots of hearts. To do this, you play through a series of 23 short levels, doing everything from racing through city streets to fighting biker gangs to flying amid the ruins of a destroyed city. Its an arcade-style game, where youre racing through levels in search of a high score (which you get by collecting hearts and other items), and most of what youre doing is in time to the beat of the dreamy pop music that plays throughout.RelatedThe game only lasts around two hours, but it packs so much into that space. What youre doing is constantly changing. Vehicles shift from skateboards to motorcycles to cars to human flight to dragons, and there are about a half dozen different styles of games, from old-school arcade shooters to early 3D platformers to racing games. Almost all of those genres are then filtered through the lens of rhythm action, for a twitchy experience that feels very cohesive. Its also pretty approachable. If you keep failing a section like me during any of the first-person driving sequences you have the option to simply skip it and move on.Just as important, Sayonara Wild Hearts is incredibly stylish. The dream world is slick and beautiful, rendered in pinks, blues, and purples, with characters that dance as they fight and, uh, mechs made out of robotic wolves. Its as weird as it is cool, and its carried by an incredible pop soundtrack from composers Daniel Olsn and Jonathan Eng, alongside vocalist Linnea Olsson. Its all bangers, and Im listening to it right now as I write this story.Just like a great album, Sayonara is something I find myself coming back to again and again. Ive replayed it several times over the last six years, and each time, Ive been struck by just how bold it is. Those feelings havent been diminished over time. It helps that its just the right length so you can easily soak it all in.If you havent heard of Sayonara Wild Hearts before, you might be surprised to learn that it comes from Simogo, the same Swedish studio behind last years cryptic noir puzzler Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. If you have heard of Simogo, well, then nothing will really surprise you. The studios games have covered everything from folklore horror to audio dramas to interactive spy novels. Its an eclectic lineup, but also one thats impressively consistent and inventive, and Sayonara might just be the team at the height of its creativity.See More: