MalodyV

Review by eFreeware

Rhythm games tend to make you choose between two things: a polished set of songs someone else picked, or the freedom to chart whatever you like. Most players want both, and most games only deliver one. MalodyV is an attempt to hold both ends at once.

The original Malody started in 2014 with a single key mode. MalodyV is a rewrite on a new engine, and the developer says hundreds of bugs from the older version were fixed in the process. Alongside the engine work came improvements to the editor, profile, collection and music player.

It is free to download, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases. The install base sits above 100,000, and the average rating is 3.3 from 810 ratings, which is worth keeping in mind: enough people have tried it to form a view, and that view is mixed. The game released on June 7, 2022, and was last updated on August 11, 2026, so it is still being worked on rather than left to sit.

Seven ways to hit a note

The core loop will be familiar to anyone who has played a falling-note rhythm game: notes arrive, you hit them in time, and the game scores you. What separates MalodyV is how many shapes that loop takes. There are seven modes in total, covering Key, Catch, Pad, Taiko, Ring, Slide and Live, and each one comes with its own full-featured chart editor and online ranking.

That editor is the part I find most interesting. It is built into the game rather than bolted on, and it is meant for both creating and sharing charts. If you have ever wanted to chart a track nobody has touched, or adapt something for a mode the original chart never considered, the tools are there in the same place you play.

The game also supports full keysound charts, which matters to players who care about charts where the music itself is built from the notes rather than played underneath them. Play recording is included as well, so a run can be captured rather than just scored.

For players who like to change the terms of a chart, there is a set of play effects: random, flip, const, rush, hide, origin and death. These alter how a chart behaves rather than how it sounds, and they are the sort of thing that extends the life of a chart you already know well.

Charts from other rhythm games

One of the more useful features here is format support. MalodyV reads charts in osu, sm, bms, pms, mc and tja formats. For anyone with a folder of charts collected over the years, that means a good deal of existing material can be brought across instead of starting from nothing.

Progression is tied to online ranking, which exists across the modes. There is no single campaign to work through; the structure comes from comparing your scores against other players on the same charts. Multiplayer rooms are available for every mode, so charts can be played alongside friends online rather than only solo.

Custom skins are supported, though the developer marks this as a work in progress, so I would treat the skinning side as something still being filled in rather than finished. A private server option is also offered, which suggests the game is built with the expectation that some groups will want to run their own setup.

What the free download includes

MalodyV is free to download and there are no ads in it. In-app purchases are offered, but there is no breakdown of what those purchases are for.

The core structure, the modes, the editors, the ranking and the multiplayer rooms are all part of the game. No mode or chart editor appears to sit behind a purchase.

Who tends to stay with it

The players I would expect to get the most out of MalodyV are the ones who treat rhythm games as a hobby rather than a pastime. If you enjoy charting, tweaking a chart's behavior with the play effects, or chasing a rank against other players on a chart you have practiced, the feature set lines up with that. The format support matters most to people who already have a library of charts from elsewhere and want one place to play them.

The seven modes also suit players who like to move between styles instead of committing to one. Someone who plays key charts seriously but wants to try Taiko or Slide without installing a second game has an obvious reason to be here.

The mixed rating is the thing to weigh. A 3.3 average from 810 ratings suggests a game that some players find worth the effort and others do not. The skinning support is explicitly unfinished. If you want a rhythm game that behaves like a finished commercial product, this is a different proposition. If you are comfortable with a game that is being built in the open and updated over time, the scope here is unusually broad for a free download.

A broad rhythm game for chart builders

MalodyV is worth considering if you want a free rhythm game with more modes than most, an editor built into the game, chart format support that reaches across several other rhythm games, and online ranking and multiplayer rooms on top. The absence of ads makes the free download an easy thing to try.

The caveats are real but specific. The rating average is modest and the skinning support is flagged as unfinished. None of those stop the game from doing what it sets out to do, but they are the reasons a cautious player might wait or check further before committing time.

My read is that this suits the player who wants to build and share charts, or who has a collection of charts in other formats and wants somewhere to play them, and who is comfortable with a game that a volunteer group is still developing. If that describes you, the free download costs you nothing but the time to see whether the modes click.

What's new in version 6.7.22

Bugs fix.