Melatonin

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Melatonin, released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2022, is a family-friendly Music-Rhythm game that has players guiding a young man (who looks like One Punch Man’s Saitama wearing a pink hoodie) through bizarre abstract sequences in a dream world, with each level focusing on a theme reimagined with weird dream world logic.

The presentation in this game is fantastic, using hand-drawn 2D animation with some really excellent animation, great character designs, and a wonderfully dreamy pastel aesthetic. This is joined by catchy synthesized music that’s hard to describe or pin to a genre, though I can say its structure is somewhat similar to the sort of music we’ve seen in Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven franchise.

This is fitting, because the gameplay in Melatonin is very clearly taking its cues from Rhythm Heaven, and as Nintendo has yet to bring the Rhythm Heaven series to Nintendo Switch, that means that Melatonin is the closest thing to Rhythm Heaven currently on the platform. So I suppose now we go to my usual rule regarding clones and copycats: being a copycat isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as the copycat is done well… so is this game done well?

Yes, absolutely yes. In fact, it almost feels like it’s doing this game a disservice to call it a copycat, because in some ways it manages to exceed the Rhythm Heaven franchise with its creativity and its imaginative levels.

From the very first level with its food theme that has you timing button presses to fast food being blasted into your character’s mouth from flying pizza boxes and burger containers, it’s clear that this game has found a great combination of weird and endearing. One level has you swiping left and right on a dating app in time with the beat. One level has players hitting flying clocks with a baseball bat in a world clearly inspired by Dali’s Persistence of Memory. And as with Rhythm Heaven, later levels will mix-and-match earlier challenges to keep you on your toes.

However, while the absurd levels may be in keeping with the Rhythm Heaven tradition, Melatonin keeps finding fun ways to add unexpected elements to the gameplay. In one level based on work, the screen pans over an army of offices staffed by copy-pasted versions of your character, all doing the same thing and getting the same cues… but you cannot just look at any one of those workers because they’ll scroll off the screen, so you need to keep watching them for cues and then move your eyes to another to keep up. In another level representing time, you’re tapping the beat in time with a swinging clock, but midway into the level, your view will become obstructed as your viewpoint’s eyelids start to shut, forcing you to be more reliant on sound cues. These sorts of fun added challenges really set this game apart from Rhythm Heaven and make it something unique… well, more so than the game’s distinct art style and strong theming already does.

When it comes to complaints, while I think the music here is catchy, I don’t find it to be quite as catchy as some of the better songs in the Rhythm Heaven series. Also, the game’s insistence on players averaging two out of three stars in every level to progress can really slow the game down as players are forced to replay levels to improve their score.

However, despite these issues, Melatonin is overall an exceptional Music-Rhythm game that manages to improve on Rhythm Heaven in some ways, with an art style and theme that set it apart. What’s more, the game’s $15 price tag seems really reasonable for what’s on offer here, and I would say that if you’re a fan of Music-Rhythm games, this is one game you definitely won’t want to miss on Nintendo Switch, especially if you’re one of those people who is disappointed that Rhythm Heaven has yet to make an appearance on this platform.

tl;dr – Melatonin is a family-friendly Music-Rhythm game that takes the basic gameplay idea of Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven series and adapts it to this game’s dream-inspired levels with a wonderful pastel presentation and bizarre dream logic. Not only does this game feature great gameplay comparable to its inspiration, it actually builds on it with clever ways to shake up that gameplay. I do have a few minor complaints, but overall I think this is a must-have game for Music-Rhythm fans.

Grade: A-

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