The rhythm genre may have peaked during the Rock Band era, but many games like Beat Saber and Metal: Hellsinger help keep it alive with innovative ideas and foot-tapping gameplay. Melatonin is much smaller in scale, but its lo-fi beats and dream-like level design make it a perfect alternative if you would prefer to relax than sit on the edge of your seat.
Every level in Melatonin is inspired by the things we dream about and requires you to play rhythm-based mini-games to unlock new ones. These bite-sized stages will test your reflexes and can be played repeatedly on multiple difficulties, but some are much more fun than others and are worth revisiting even after the credits roll.
10 Dating
Many levels in Melatonin only require one button input, but some of the more difficult stages can use up to three at once. Dating appears in the second chapter and is one of the first minigames that use different sound cues to indicate whether you should hit one of two buttons in time with the song.
The main objective of Dating is to determine if the dating profile that shows up on your screen is good or bad, by swiping left or right on it. This becomes even more challenging when the screen goes away, and you have to figure out which one to push without visual clues.
9 The Past
It's not always fun to think about your past before falling asleep or in your dreams, and even the protagonist in Melatonin would prefer to burn away the memories than think about them. The Past is one of the final levels you will unlock, and instead of challenging you with multiple button prompts, it requires you to hold one down for a certain amount of time.
This is determined by the size of the photograph that flashes in the dream. There are three different sizes, and you only get a moment's notice before finding out which ones to burn. The Past may seem intimidating initially, but it becomes incredibly fun once you play it a couple of times and begin to get a feel for its timing and structure.
8 Shopping
Shopping is one of the first levels you'll play in the first chapter of Melatonin, but it might also be one you go back to more often than others. It has one of the more straightforward concepts — items drop onto boxes to the beat of the music, and then you have to repeat the pattern — but it still has enough difficulty to keep you engaged.
The most challenging part of Shopping is mastering the timing. It doesn't give you much room for error, and the pattern alters so often that you have to be ready for a change at any moment. Once you know what to expect from Shopping, you'll want to play it until you get a perfect score.
7 Time
Melatonin begins with stages themed around laid-back activities like phone scrolling and buying stuff, but as you progress toward the end, it begins to explore deeper topics like the human mind and the nature of things. Time is one of these final stages and will test your ability to know when to hold a button down and for how long.
Like The Past stage, Time may seem incredibly overwhelming at first. Portals open up in front of you in different locations and either throw clocks between each other or directly at you. The hard part is gauging the distance of a portal and knowing how much time it takes to swing your bat. You might mess up the first few times, but once Time clicks it becomes one of the best stages to zone out to.
6 Exercise
Melatonin has been frequently compared to Rhythm Heaven, and the Exercise level is incredibly reminiscent of Nintendo's underrated series. You can find this stage in the game's second chapter, and like Dating, you'll need to use two buttons minimum to succeed.
Similar to Shopping, Exercise requires you to watch a pattern and then repeat it to the time of the music. The muscular dream version of the protagonist will lift the left, right, or both dumbbells, and you must memorize the order and do it yourself when the camera shifts over.
5 Work
Dreaming about work usually isn't that fun, especially if you wake up and have to go to your real job moments after. Even the protagonist in Melatonin succumbs to these dreams, though having a rhythmic element to them makes it much more enjoyable than it should be.
Work is another stage that requires you to hit one of two buttons — or both simultaneously — after hearing a specific sound cue. It starts relatively easy, but Work quickly becomes more challenging once the camera starts panning over an infinite labyrinth of pink-hooded employees that make it hard to concentrate. Luckily, some visual clues make Work a lot easier and more entertaining.
4 Food
Food is likely the first level of Melatonin that you'll hop into, and it does a great job of introducing you to the core gameplay while also establishing the tone for the rest of the game. It has a straightforward concept; tap a button when a piece of pizza, a hamburger, or a donut flies toward you.
All you need to do is hit a button before the food hits your lips, but the speed and arc of the items are determined by the animation from the box they are stored in. To make things even more interesting, a group of clouds will occasionally block your view, making you rely on sound cues and subtle visual clues to know when to open your mouth for a delicious bite.
3 Tech
The newest and most expensive technology is sometimes more accessible in our dreams than in reality, and Melatonin's protagonist fantasizes about owning a fancy-looking VR headset. Tech appears in the first chapter and requires you to tap a button after a monster appears on the screen.
Unlike the other levels in Melatonin's opening section, Tech will test your reflexes instead of having you memorize patterns. You only have a moment after a robot, zombie, or alien jump toward you to tap a button to shoot them away, and they start showing up faster the farther into the level you get.
2 Stress
Many stages in Melatonin feel like they could only exist within the context of the game, but Stress is one of the few that feels like a stressful action sequence from a triple-A title. Instead of scrolling on Tinder or buying new clothes, the protagonist must escape an erupting volcano by hopping between ladders within a moment's notice.
Stress is one of the final levels in Melatonin and will test most of what you've learned so far. As the hero climbs away from the rising lava, you will have to hit one of three buttons to determine whether the protagonist will jump left, right, or forward to the beat of the epic background track.
1 The Future
Melatonin is mostly a vibes game, and is there anything more relaxing than driving across an alien planet while listening to a chill tune? Certain stages like Stress and Food may keep you on your toes, but The Future provides a sense of euphoria that allows you to enter a zen state of mind while playing through it.
Despite being one of the final levels in the game, The Future almost feels like a break after enduring some of Melatonin's most difficult mini-games. The task is simple; eliminate incoming creatures by tapping one or two buttons at a time based on their location on the screen. They will try and trick you toward the end of the stage, but once you start bopping your head to the beat of The Future, it quickly becomes one of the most enjoyable levels in Melatonin.