Melatonin
Developer/publisher Half Asleep
Format PC (tested), Switch
Release Out now
This gently captivating rhythm-action game makes no attempt to hide its biggest influence: thanking Japanese songwriter Tsunku and artist Ko Takeuchi in the credits, David Huynh has essentially brought us Rhythm Tengoku for tired millennials. If it doesn’t quite have the same vibrant energy and colour, that’s deliberate: the whole thing takes place across a few nights of an exhausted-looking young person, their present preoccupations bleeding into their dreams. Surrounded by takeaway boxes and empty cans, when they first drift off they imagine themselves floating through the air, gulping down burgers and pizza; little wonder that by night two they’re considering a fitness regime, pumping iron alongside a taller, more muscular version of themself. And following an evening glugging energy drinks, our bug-eyed protagonist gets more jittery, fixating on the past and the future by turns (though a stress dream involving jumping between ladders to escape rising lava seems far less fraught than your average Edge deadline).