Sayonara Wild Hearts

This slick, stylistic action adventure game manages to hit all the right notes with its engaging score, its fast-paced action, and its varied gameplay. Initially, Sayonara Wild Hearts sounds like a simple tale of a broken heart, but it's a crazier story of tarot card-inspired characters, a threat to the universe, and chaos. Even though the story is delivered beautifully by Queen Latifah as the narrator, the plot takes a backseat to the onscreen action, which comes at a breakneck speed. You're trying to pick up pieces of hearts (presumably to put the main character's heart back together), but you're also avoiding environmental hazards and rival motorcycle gang members (who seem to have the same skills as your character). Oh, and one more thing: each stage frequently moves from normal to outlandish environments, so you might start out on a motorcycle and then suddenly find yourself flying through a cavern, or running through a forest only to fight a gigantic robot that launches wolves at you.

It would seem that the arcade/rhythm/platforming elements should fail, but the beauty of Sayonara is that it's so engaging that it keeps you coming back for more. You're eased into the basics, so by the time the intense and crazy sections start, you're not only ready for them, but you're eagerly anticipating what your character can do and where the stage will go. You might miss some details or items when you're playing, but you feel challenged to go back and improve you score on each stage immediately, which speaks volumes about its replayability. The game's also generous with checkpoints to help you make progress through each level, so it's almost impossible to feel discouraged during each stage. On top of this, the soundtrack is incredibly catchy, so not only does it feel like you're playing a music video, you'll find yourself humming each song long after you've stopped playing. Sayonara Wild Hearts is simply one of those fast-paced gems that any action fan will enjoy.