PLOT: On their last night of high school, three friends embark on one more adventure together. Play through a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation, and feel like you’re part of something fleeting and meaningful, of what now feels like a bygone era.
REVIEW: As Stacey Rockford will attest, there’s an art to making the ultimate mixtape. For some people, like myself, music isn’t just something you listen to; it’s something you feel. It’s an expression of yourself through other people’s art. When you make a mixtape, you’re capturing a moment in time, recording it on thin, polyester-like film with magnetic material to encapsulate thoughts, emotions, and memories. I still make mixtapes, making sure each track flows effortlessly into the next for an epic journey through soundscapes that demand repeat play. Mixtapes aren’t just playlists; they can be an offering of your soul, something to share with those who will listen, and let the music into their heart.
Coincidentally, I graduated from high school in 1999, the same year Stacey, Van Slater, and Cassandra’s main story takes place. In my youth, I was Stacey (and a little bit of Van, too, I’m not gonna lie): obsessed with music, headphones always resting on my head, knowing the perfect song for any occasion. To say I identified hard with Mixtape is underselling the wave of emotions I felt while playing this masterpiece from Beethoven & Dinosaur.
Mixtape is an adventure game with immaculate vibes, urging gamers to experience something unique, heartfelt, rebellious, and for some, nostalgic and familiar, like remembering your first private makeout session or the goosebumps from the first time you heard your favorite band. The story focuses on Stacey Rockford, Van Slater, and Cassandra Morino, three inseparable spirits navigating the trials of youth and transition into adulthood together, right up until the moment they must say farewell to confront their lives after high school. Throughout the coming-of-age odyssey, Stacey relives memories associated with the trio’s most impactful moments, all while marching toward the ultimate senior party to set their future off like fireworks.
The most important piece of advice I can give you while playing Mixtape is to expect the unexpected and let go. Fueled by the music of bands like DEVO, Lush, Joy Division, The Cure, Silverchair, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Iggy Pop, The Smashing Pumpkins, Wooden Sword, Stan Bush, Alice Coltrane, and more, Mixtape is a narrative-focused interactive experience emphasizing story, characters, and immersion over complex gameplay and puzzle solving. That’s not to say that you won’t get to do some fun stuff while controlling Stacey throughout the adventure. When Stacey triggers a memory, the game transports players to an interactable vignette with breezy controls and uncomplicated button prompts. I don’t recommend you come to Mixtape for a challenge; rather, surrender to the mood, music, and melancholia of teens on the precipice of life-altering change.
So much of my enjoyment of Mixtape comes from the game’s lead characters. They’re astonishingly well-written and almost cringe-free, while displaying empathy and genuine interest in each other’s emotions and well-being. These characters are about to say goodbye after becoming intrinsically linked. They give each other strength, and that bond is about to be altered, their safety net stripped away. They recognize the weight of this change and act accordingly. Whether you’re riding a skateboard down an epic hill, shouting “Car” as vehicles whiz by, sneaking into an abandoned theme park, or searching for a hidden stash of “party favors,” each scenario shapes the group, their bonds growing tighter with every mission accomplished.
I adore the use of vignettes to tell Mixtape‘s story. The game’s overall presentation feels like a mix of Into the Spider-Verse‘s low-framerate animation and Wes Anderson set dressing, if John Hughes directed it. I understand some players calling out the gameplay for being too simple, but those people forgot why some of us play games in the first place. I’ve been playing games since the Intellivision, and have watched gaming (as an art form) transform throughout the generations. Video games come in many forms, and Mixtape offers a respite from traditional, high-budget blockbusters in favor of something meaningful, quaint, and cozy.
As I’d said, I’ve lived this game. I see so much of myself in Stacey, and I had friends like Slater and Cassandra. I used to hang out at a ramshackle house playfully referred to as the “Crackhouse.” I’ve run from the cops while hopping fences and sneaking through neighbors’ backyards. Mixtape isn’t a nostalgia play; it’s a bottling of those memories uncorked and running rampant with a middle finger raised high. Beethoven & Dinosaur didn’t make Mixtape to give you a hard time. They made it to simulate what it was like to be a kid in the ’90s, complete with the attitude, mischief, and heartbreak that comes with a seismic shift in your core friend group. There are failstates to the gameplay, but no penalty, letting you reset and continue the story as if nothing happened. Never losing that flow is part of what makes the game so special, as the typical frustration of starting over is nowhere to be found.
In one sequence, you’re getting revenge on a school official who’s made your life hell by TPing their house. In the next, you’re wandering through a local video store while high, trashing aisles, wobbling to and fro, searching for those three movies that will start your year-end celebrations with a bang. Mixtape comes at these sequences with humor and wonder, each scene an opportunity for character growth in a game that shines with polish and immaculate presentation.
Mixtape isn’t just a collection of James Gunn-like needle drops. The music informs the game itself. It helps shape the characters. It tells an impactful story and raises the bar for any studio hoping to replicate this game’s style in the years to come. The songs drive home the fact, not the opinion, that music is the soundtrack of our lives. Even if you’re not an audiophile, music exists on the periphery, filling your travel, errands, and social interactions with sounds that help make the moment. Mixtape does something spectacular by taking this phenomenon, this feeling, and transmuting it into an interactive experience that feels like a window into another life for some, and a time machine for those of us who were there back in the day.