Summary Melatonin is a rhythm game about dreams and reality merging together. It uses animations and sound cues to keep you on beat without any intimidating overlays or interfaces. Harmonize through a variety of dreamy levels containing surprising challenges, hand-drawn art, and vibrant music.
Developer:Half Asleep
Melatonin
Released On:
Dec 15, 2022
Metascore
Generally Favorable
77
User score
Generally Favorable
8.5
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
77
64% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
36% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Dec 12, 2022
90
Melatonin is impressive for its quality on all levels, especially considering this is the first videogame by David Huynh: a brilliant and inspired art direction matches a precise and funny gameplay, animated by fitting lo-fi tunes that will immediately enter your personal playlist.
Jan 26, 2023
85
The narrative isn’t heavy-handed and lends itself to interpretation, but — not spoiling anything — the conclusion is satisfying, even if it’s not explicit. It’s a busy time for players trying to figure out their “best of” lists, so I hope no one misses out on Melatonin.
Dec 12, 2022
85
Melatonin is a short but kind experience, a hint of melancholy and a splash of retro vibes. It’s less about the challenge (though it's there for those who seek it) and more about chilling out to some cool tracks across some fun levels, with accessibility that should be applauded.
Dec 12, 2022
80
Melatonin delivers challenging gameplay and creative, hand-crafted visuals. Combined with a chill soundtrack, this game will relax your soul even as it tests your skills.
Dec 29, 2022
70
The game's first half in particular demonstrates real clarity of vision. [Issue#380, p.123]
Dec 12, 2022
70
Cleverly-orchestrated, if sadly a little on the abrupt side due to its short run-time, Melatonin‘s way with visuals is matched only by its delightful and genuine sense of challenge across its myriad of rhythm encounters. A shame then that despite a more than solid foundation, the game doesn’t go out of its way to fully explore its concept — the absence of other time signatures the most notable exclusion here. Even so, what it may lack in some true wealth of ideas, developer Half Asleep make up for, to sufficient lengths, in this ongoing series of mind games with its player. Drawing them in, aiding them, suggesting said scenarios have been solved, to then shake things up and catch them off-guard time after time. A trick, though repeated, that rarely gets old thanks to some cunning creativity and way with visuals, Melatonin is a satisfying if short distraction you’ll adamantly want to prove won’t get the best of you.
Dec 21, 2022
60
Melatonin works smoothly without any bugs and the controls feel crisp. The visuals are dreamlike, and the color palette is conducive to making people sleepy. With all the music to discover, it's kind of like an interactive album. Towards the end, it felt like just automatically pressing the space bar to the beat from level to level wanting to hear the next song.
User score
Generally Favorable
8.5
79% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
21% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jun 17, 2025
9
I personally love rhythm games and this one is great too.
The artstyle is also very pleasing to look at. Great game.
May 23, 2023
7
Man, that's why indie games are so rich in soul. Playing this game late at night when I couldn't sleep made me think it was made for me. The art direction is flawless. Such creativity in the scenarios made you curious about the next rhythm dream and the themes speak directly with it. Plus, props to the dev team for an amazing OST they made. Speaking of gameplay, the controls are very simple. The rhythm also, in most scenarios at least. Basically, you have a tutorial, the actual scored level, and then hard mode [the best one, since is not that hard, but way more satisfying]. You can customize a level, but I didn't try it. The game is short, but the content is top-tier in terms of quality. Although, I feel like the game could be more challenging (rhythm-wise] and demand more acc to the players. Not all levels are that addictive, with made me think how great it would be if this game had sort of community official levels, with different songs and all, so in the end, you can choose to play the levels you most like.
