The Rhythm Heaven Revolution: How Bits and Bops, Melatonin are reviving a genre

destructoid.com:

I believe there has never been a better time to be a fan of rhythm games. This is thanks to a resurgence of gameplay styles inspired by earlier waves of rhythm-based classics, weaving tried-and-true designs into contemporary systems.

If the first wave includes titles such as PaRappa the Rapper , Dance Dance Revolution , and Guitar Hero , and if the second consists of games like Hatsune Miku Project: DIVA and Rhythm Heaven , then we’re seeing a callback in this third, current era with Scratchin’ Melodii , Bits and Bops , and Melatonin.

I was a late adopter to ‘Heaven-likes,’ as my first experience with Rhythm Heaven Fever was in 2022. But I fell head-over-heels for this silly little game that nearly drove my roommate at the time to kick me out over the sound effects — if you know, you know . I rapidly consumed everything this 2011 Nintendo Wii-era rhythm game had to offer, and, while I knew it unlikely, I hoped for a new game to come soon.

Little did I know at the time, but that sentiment was hardly unpopular. In fact, two separate indie studios were working on bringing their own Rhythm Heaven -inspired games to life in the form of Melatonin , a dream-based rhythm game focused on one character’s existential angst, and Bits and Bops , which takes the wacky and playful aesthetic of its inspiration and turns it up to 11.

Half Asleep Games released Melatonin in December of 2022 for PC and Nintendo Switch. It is one of — if not the only — rhythm games I have played to lean heavily into using lo-fi hip-hop beats to study/relax to as its main draw. And, while it definitely works with the vision the game presents, the soundtrack has the potentially unintended, but wholly ironic, side effect