Sleep is a condition of the body and mind that typically recurs for several hours every night. The eyes are closed, the postural muscles relaxed, the brain’s activity altered, and consciousness of the surroundings practically suspended. Unfortunately, when becoming a parent, you sign an invisible waiver that you forfeit regular sleep for at least four years. Luckily there are games like Melatonin that still show me what the concept of sleep means. Oh, and it has rhythm gameplay! Time to take a power nap.
I love rhythm games, even though I usually am not very good at them. Melatonin proved this once again but offered a few neat functions that made the game playable even for me. If I would describe myself, I would probably be some metronome that’s always off. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, so back up and settle for some sleep and dreams.
Melatonin
Melatonin is a rhythm game about dreams and reality merging. Harmonize through various dreamy levels containing surprising challenges, hand-drawn art, and vibrant music without intimidating overlays or interfaces. What makes Melatonin interesting is that it explores the relationship between the dreams we have when we’re asleep and the experiences we go through when we’re awake through unique rhythm game levels. Hand-drawn in a colorful and detailed visual style, with music produced to flow hand-in-hand with the gameplay and visuals, you will piece together elements about the main character’s life as you dive deeper and deeper into their dreams at night.
Gameplay
Throughout the game, you discover over 20 dreamy levels spread across five chapters, with every level introducing a new song. Each level features different rhythm inputs and offers a unique challenge you can practice before going into scoring mode. However, the main features don’t differ very much from the rhythm games we all know and love and will feel pretty familiar for those (like me) that play many rhythm games.
To keep things interesting, Melatonin offers a Hard Mode that feels like playing Through The Fire and the Flames in Guitar Hero 3 while standing upside down with one arm tied on your back. I only opened this mode for the sake of the review and some laughs from my more… rhythmic enthusiastic wife. What helps is that Melatonin offers a wide range of assist features to help you with your play style. Again, I turned everything on to help me beat the levels I had to tackle. In chapter three, however, I met my match and couldn’t pass the practice mode. I was stuck, and even the assistant features started laughing at me (or that was just me hallucinating from sleep deprivation).
The end of each chapter is where Melatonin shines, though, in which all the previous levels are mushed together in one big remix and thrown at you for greater rhythmic pleasure. This is where the game shines and shows that it understands what makes rhythm games tick. Usually, rhythm games move from one ‘beat’ to another, but the whole vibe in the remix levels feels excellent. You can also make them yourself since it features an easy-to-use Level Editor.
Conclusion
So, to concl-zzzzz, sorry I dozed off a bit. So, to conclude! Melatonin is a great rhythm game and offers refreshing gameplay and elements most players my age (or younger) will recognize in the struggle to find out what you want to do with your life. The whole outlook is pleasant, the musical tracks are great to listen to, and the replayability is high due to the wide range of assistance functions. So, if you want to kick off your year with fresh beats, Melatonin might be up your (dream)alley.
