Sometimes I play genres of games outside roguelikes and platformers. This week is a rhythm game that is not like a lot of rhythm games that I’ve played before. This game mixes the soft tones of lo-fi with the mechanics of a rhythm game. This week is Melatonin.

Melatonin is a rhythm game from Half Asleep. The game will release on September 16th on both Steam and the Nintendo Switch.

What story? No story here, just a series of chapters of things every person dreams about: Food, being Twitter famous, and spending loads of money.

Melatonin checks all the marks for your classic rhythm game. One way it departs from most rhythm games is that the game introduces a melody and towards the middle of the song, masks the original melody, and it is up to the player to remember the original melody. The memory game is a little daunting at first, but once you play the chapter a second time and get the whole melody on the playback, it feels pretty good.

The demo has quite a few chapters to play both on normal and hard difficulty. All of the songs are really good. I have been listening to a lot of video game lo-fi on YouTube, so I am quite aware of the genre. The music has a nice flow, it’s quite relaxing to listen to and it fits the game really well.

Melatonin also has quite a color palette that I actually enjoy. The colors are light and go with the theme of the game being a “dream.” Everything feels so light, and the hand-drawn art style mixes it all together.

Melatonin is a cool game, I really like it. Rhythm games aren’t something that I delve into, but this time I took a chance and I came out optimistic about the game. The memory game mechanic that the game plays around with works and it feels rewarding, when, in the middle of the song, to nail the section without any assistance. It feels good and that is what rhythm games are all about, and a great selection fo songs, which this game too.