Recent reviews by Feder28_ITA

Neat little racing game for anyone, rétro game enthusiasts or not. It's easy to pick up and learn, and hard to master, with a very high skill ceiling and tons of room for improvement even after beating the hardest set times on every track. The driving physics feel very snappy and responsive, even though they tend to get unstable at very high speeds. Visually speaking, it's designed to resemble racing games from the good ol' Sega Saturn: the feeling is impeccable, with presets to choose from to recreate the feeling of playing on an old console, or to adapt it to your HD monitor while still looking gloriously crunchy. The music is also catchy and lively to match the frantic racing.

Beware that this game is short and sweet (3H in and I completed everything in the game, it might take you longer according to your skill), you might even beat all of it in a single sitting, which makes sense for the price. Don't come in expecting enormous playtime, and enjoy the short ride through the nostalgia coaster.

I would be writing a more in-depth review, but this game has got me in a chokehold, I just can't GET ENUF.

Melatonin is a dreamy rhythm game aiming to analyze the inner workings of people's minds when they are asleep, especially teens with their dreams, desires, fears, and deepest thoughts. The main character is one of them. And we get to see their personality not through explicit narrative, but through short visual stories, a.k.a. dreams.

In case you didn't already know, this game was inspired by Nintendo's rhythm game franchise, Rhythm Heaven, a collection of sound-based minigames focusing on a variety of everyday activities with fun and wacky twists to them, to help shape your sense of rhythm. Melatonin sets out with the same goal, yet with a precise theme in mind: the youths and their dreams. This leads to a series of original and unique "minigames" reflecting the protagonist's life, wishes, hopes, inner thoughts and feelings, contributing to their personality, but without going into excessive detail, so that whoever plays the game is still able to relate to them. Examples of such minigames are: swinging a baseball bat at flying alarm clocks at the perfect time, eating food being launched at you by flying food boxes, following the sequence of dumbbell lifts by a muscular alter-ego of yourself and them repeating them in the same order, shooting enemies appearing inside of a VR game, sorting through several profiles on a dating app, or jumping through giant mobile phones with the correct rhythm; again, these are a teenager's dreams after all.

The game features 16 unique dreams each with their own meaning, sound identity, and way to be controlled. In this aspect the game's simplicity triumphs, with minimal UI to let the GORGEOUS dreamy pastel-pink hand-drawn artstyle shine through, a variety of clean beats to keep the time to, ranging from chill, to lo-fi, to even quite catchy tunes, which all fit really well into their respective situation in-game, and controls consisting of solely one main input button, and three directional keys (even though most of the games can be played with that one button only). It is very important for a rhythm game's controls to feel snappy and responsive, which this game does a phenomenal job at.

The game's structure consists of several nights, with each offering four different dreams to "complete" in any order, into a final mashup of all four of that night's dreams seamlessly combined into a unique dream to test what you learned, another system reminiscent of the Rhythm Heaven games, which feature several stages consisting of four games, leading up to a remix of them all. After completing each dream, you will be given a score depending on how well you did, how precise you were, and how few interactions you missed or hit slightly early or late, and receive up to three stars (rings on hard difficulty). This matters because you require a certain amount of said stars to gain access to the night's mashup and proceed with the next nights. At the end of the game, the player will be presented with a big final stage including all 16 dreams in the game featured in one large ultimate rhythm challenge, to test you on all of your progress throughout the game.

The rhythm aspect of the game lies in distinguishing several sound cues presented during the various dreams, which will help you get the perfect timing to perform certain actions. These will mix up and get harder to follow as the dream progresses further, and even more so in the "hard mode" every dream and mashup includes. This may look daunting, but another huge plus of this game is its welcoming aspect. Every dream is introduced by a practice period where you are free to train yourself with how to react to all the cues that may appear during the gameplay. This mode also offers a visual and audio metronome to further aid the player in "hitting the sweet spot" every time.

These aren't the only options present in the game to help rhythm game newcomers, though. You are allowed, via the pause menu, to activate or deactivate further help all throughout the game without receiving any penalty at all for doing so. Such help consists of activating the metronome even during the actual scored parts of dreams, making the timing window more forgiving, or being penalized less for being imprecise. Again, using any of these will not block you from progressing and finish the game at any point, so do not feel discouraged to use them! They can also be pretty useful to master the basics of a dream, and try to "go for a perfect": in this game, at any time, completing a dream perfectly, completing every interaction with perfect timing, will award you a P for "perfect", which is pretty much the ultimate goal to pursue to become a true master, even though it is completely unnecessary to progress to the very end and finish the game. Unlike in Rhythm Heaven, every game is always available for you to get a perfect run on, with unlimited attempts and no pressure.

Another feature this game contains, is the level editor, where you can pick any dream you previously played, and set up the action sequence however you please, with options to assign actions on beats, offbeats, and even trigger a couple of special events and modify the speed. Please note that, as of now, the level editor is VERY SIMPLISTIC and only allows you to use the song featured in the original dream, and lay things down in a very specific way, with few opportunities to go truly original. Don't worry though, as support for custom imported songs and even mashups with several games is in the works right now, which may also mean the editor sistem will get an overhaul with many more new features! Just be aware of its current conditions, in case you wanted to make it a selling point.

Finally, I'd like to add that this game is NOT a 12-hour long trip. Sure, songs might make you fall in love to the point of coming back over and over, and the future updated editor might introduce a lot of replayability, but remember that the unique content of this game does not drag further than 2 or 3 hours, maybe 4 if you really take it easy. Dreams are this game's main and only substance, and if you do not consider the world map-styled level selection interface there's no side minigame nor rhythm toy to check aside from the main gameplay, unlike Rhythm Heaven. And... This in my opinion is completely fine for such a nice little game costing barely 15 bucks, unlike Rhythm Heaven's full prices.

So, to sum it up:

-If you are a Rhythm Heaven fan, buy this without hesitating, this is what we'd been waiting for during the latest 7 years. Also, stay on your toes for more Rhythm Heaven-styled games coming up in the next years, such as Bits 'n Bops, or Rift of the Necrodancer's minigames.

-If you are interested in rhythm games but have no idea what Rhythm Heaven is, still buy this, you won't regret it.

-If you are just unsure, you might want to wait for a little discount, but do not worry about the game not being for you, again there are many accessibility options to choose from for newcomers, and none of them will lead you to any shame from the game.

-If anyone gifts this to you and you aren't much into rhythm games, do not turn it down and give it a go, trust me. The reasons are the same as above.

-House's on fire
-Wth do I do
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Drink some water
-Submerge the house in piss
-The day is saved

If this is the kind of humour you are looking for, buy this. Otherwise, buy this.