Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Somewhere between game and motion picture, Mixtape invites you to an experience that lets you live vicariously and experience the 90s all over again.
Very rarely does a game grab me from the trailer. Very rarely, do I simply say “I’m buying that immediately” with any gaming title.
With Mixtape, the conversion of theme and style just hit me in a way where I said “take my money”.
I was not disappointed.
What is Mixtape?
Developed in Australia by Beethoven & Dinosaur and then published by Annapurna, Mixtape is a surprise that feels like it came out of left field.
Written almost as if the master John Hughes had written this fiction in the 90s, Mixtape follows three teenage friends growing up and moving on with life.
It takes place in Blue Moon Lagoon, a fictional Californian city where the teens at the centre of the story are about to have their last night together, just before the main character, Stacey Rockford, heads off to the other side of the country to become a music supervisor in New York City. The Big Apple awaits her, and so does constructing the perfect soundtrack for programs.
So in line with her future career, she has set out a perfect soundtrack for the evening, complete with a few extra tracks thrown in for good measure.
Mixtape takes you through them in a single-player assortment of games that don’t really have a win or lose state, and can just keep you in the moment. The editing is sharp, the soundtrack on point, and the characters are teens growing up in a world devoid of mobiles and social, and simply living.
They dream and dream big. They cruise down roads on skateboards. They drink. They smoke. They listen to music and make their own. They’re believable. They’re relatable.
They live. They love. They connect. They fall apart.
How does Mixtape play?
Somewhere between a game and a movie, Mixtape doesn’t feel like a conventional title where something has to happen.
There’s no achievement beyond simply playing the through the story and taking part in the memories, but there are a bunch of games, and some of them will take you by surprise.
You’ll ride a skateboard down long, windy roads, the characters calling out “car” as a sign you should dodge them. Fail to do so and the game will rewind like a 90s video that has seen too many rentals and much better days, letting you replay the moment again.
That rewind is your only fail state, because every game is simply living through a memory, and only has an end when it finishes, rather than when you lose.
You simply can’t lose in Mixtape. Every little game is different and gives you a memory to play along with, some of which are genuinely bonkers and brilliant all at once, including:
- Skateboarding
- Headbanging
- Flying over a park
- Conducting fireworks
- More skateboarding
- Tonguing during a kiss
- Taking photos and videos of friends
- Running through the neighbourhood
- Pouring a frozen beverage
- Throwing toilet paper over a house
- Hanging with friends, and
- Yet more skateboarding
Ultimately, each game is a little mini-game, with every little addition becoming a memory that you’re partaking in, complete with basic instructions to keep you playing with ease.
The look is clever, too, coming off like a cross between the Spider-verse films with a little more stop motion for its own good. It’s an animation style that feels almost like a living, breathing comic, and entirely moder,n at that.
Is it fun?
Reviewed on the Steam Deck, Mixtape can be found an assortment of consoles, including the Xbox, Playstation 5, Switch 2, and of course Windows, and it’s a game that really has the ability to surprise.
Some parts of the game are more fun than others, but the entire game just keeps you connected with different parts of this memory-based journey.
Key to this is the soundtrack, which is a mashed together playlist of rock, grunge, alternative, and even jazz over the years. It’s such a combination where you feel each chapter and portion of the journey is a time just waiting for the next track, and the next set of thoughts about what’s to come.
Almost like Patrick Bateman talking about 80s music in American Psycho (technically both the book and film), Mixtape‘s protagonist Stacey goes to lengths to explain sound as she speaks, giving reasons as to why this track matches this moment in time, the moment that you’re experiencing with her.
Each moment has the ability to be fun, and some moments even feel like subtle nods to other video games, reviving the fun you might’ve had previously. Skateboarding can feel like a nod to Tony Hawk, while flying over fields as you make your way somewhere brings up memories of Flower, particularly since your journey grows flowers in the grass below.
If each game is about partaking in a memory Stacey and her crew recall with fondness, Mixtape almost encourages experienced gamers to remember where some of these ideas might have come from. Though it’s also entirely possible this reviewer is delving too deep.
Who is Mixtape for?
Old gamers might be exactly who this title is for, but in reality, anyone who loves a great story and is happy to leave their expectations about what a game is should consider playing it.
It’s true that Mixtape isn’t your conventional win-lose game, and that’s fine. In many ways, this reviewer was reminded of a walking sim, only with a lot more to it.
This isn’t a walking simulator like Gone Home or Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. It’s not even technically a walking sim, though it can sure feel like one at times.
What it manages to be feels more like an interactive movie with a few hours of runtime. You’ll be lucky to hit just over three hours when all is said and done, and come away from it feeling like you’ve taken part in a movie, rather than simply played a game.
That’s not a bad thing. You’re playing the memories of a fictional character and living vicariously through what can feel like joy wrapped up in a neat little bow, tied nicely, and delivered with more profanity than otherwise expected. The script is sharp, the acting is great, and it’s really easy to connect to the characters that matter.
It’s actually staggering there’s any controversy to the title at all, with Aftermath’s Nathan Grayson noting just how complex that all is. Even talking about the game online draws ire, and unnecessarily so. Utter any sense of positivity and you’ll be greeted with unnecessary talks of ethics in game journalism and questions whether journalists are paid to say so (they’re not).
Without getting into it, game reviewers are likely finding the same thing this reviewer did: Mixtape is genuine fun, and a title that aims to connect with its audience.
Kids and teens that grew up in the 80s and 90s, and recollect over awesome soundtracks and people just living their lives without technology taking over everything will connect with it. Adults intent on simply watching on-screen recreations of youth will connect with it. And anyone who fancies a good story but doesn’t want to get bogged down in “will they have to be stealthy to finish a game or do something awkward that drives their experience down” will also connect with it.
If you’ve come to Mixtape expecting COD or another complex first-person shooter, it’s not for you. If you go looking for mini-games that require skill, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
But if you keep an open mind and look for a title that tries to blend genres, marrying movie and music and interactive memories, you’ll be delighted.
That is arguably the point. Mixtape is about connecting you with someone’s memories, and letting you skateboard through them in the best way possible.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
Weird discourse aside, there’s so much to like about Mixtape, a game that’s more about memories than music, yet uses the latter to connect you with the former.
Its replay value seems a little hamstrung, though you’ll want to go back to key scenes just to do them again. Headbanging and trying to find every last line of the script to hear, to connect with kids possibly making terrible decisions, and yet feeling powerless to stop.
You are here for the ride, and yet you’re not making any real tangible decisions to change things. This isn’t Mass Effect where you actually have control, but rather an experience where you don’t.
You are here for the ride. Enjoy it.
Highly recommended.
