When I saw Mixtape getting 10 out of 10 scores, I immediately downloaded it. But after I watched a review of it, it didn’t really look like a game, but more of an interactive story or visual novel. That’s not what I was looking for and I immediately lost interest. A few days went by and the reviews kept rolling in calling it a masterpiece, but also lots of division within the gaming community about those high ratings. I figured I had to see for myself.
It took only two days, about 3.5 hours of total gameplay, to finish it.
For me, it’s a 6 out of 10. It’s not a masterpiece, but also a lot more of a game than the angry reviews give it credit for.
The Plot
You play as Stacey, a music-obsessed teenager in a fictional Northern California town, on the last night of high school before she flies to New York the next morning to chase a music supervisor career. The whole game takes place over that single night with her two best friends; Slater, who she’s known since they were kids, and Cassandra, the police chief’s daughter who joined the group later as an act of rebellion against her strict parents.
They’re trying to get to a big party, which means scrounging up booze, dodging Cassandra’s dad, and working through some real friend group tension before everyone scatters the next morning. Each chapter is built around a song from Stacey’s mixtape, which she introduces to the player as it starts.
Is It Actually a Game?
It’s way more of a game than I expected. There are mini games mixed in all the way through, and there’s a ton of variety. The whole game is basically interactive mini-games.
One of the earliest and funniest mini-games is a scene where Stacey reminisces about her first kiss.
You ride a shopping cart down a hill and steer around obstacles. You skate downhill while dodging cars, and doing tricks. You make slushie recipes. You skip rocks across a lake (this was my favorite mini game) and try to hit different objects floating in the water.
There’s a slingshot scene where you knock cans and bottles off a car. A mad dash through the neighborhood where you jump and slide through obstacles in yards and the school.
None of it is deep and you can’t really fail in any meaningful way, since hitting something on the cart or skateboard just rewinds and lets you try again. But it’s gameplay, and it kept me more engaged than I thought it would.
What Worked For Me
The nostalgia is the best part, and it’s not the surface-level “remember the 90s” stuff, although there is plenty of that. It’s more about the nostalgia of being young. The game keeps triggering memories I hadn’t thought about in years.
The house party chapter really sent me back. My house was the party house almost every weekend when I was in high school because my mom worked the graveyard shift. There was one party that got so out of control that the cops were called and people scattered all throughout the neighborhood. I couldn’t run, because it was my house. I was sent to detox that night – something I’ll never forget.
All of the CD references pulled out some fond memories too. In the 90s and early 2000’s, I had a ritual of buying new CDs from Best Buy (and sometimes Circuit City and Media Play) every Tuesday when new releases dropped. I’d get four or five albums every week. I remember browsing albums at Sam Goody at Westminster Mall all the time too but never buying because they were too expensive. Or going to Angelo’s CDs to look for rare albums. I still have around 2,000 CDs in storage and many of them take me back to another time of my life. I was obsessed with music, much like Stacey in this story.
There are so many things that bring back memories, like the slingshot scene, TP’ing the house, running from the cops, running around with friends, or even just sitting around being lazy and bored in a friend’s room. Stuff like that is what this game does well. It tells you a story while also giving you the opportunity to let yours surface too.
The core idea of the game is that there’s a perfect song for every moment, which I enjoyed. It reminded me a a song from Biohazard that I used to listen to when I wanted to feel sad. I cringe now thinking about that, but hey, I was a teenager. Music doesn’t hit me that way anymore, but Mixtape made me remember when it did.
And then there’s what the game doesn’t say explicitly but makes you feel. You lose friends after high school. It might happen all at once like with Stacey, Slater, and Cassandra, or it might happen slowly, like it did for me. You get married, you have kids, people stop drinking, people move, and one day you look up and the group you spent every weekend with is gone. That’s underneath the whole game. The trio is about to scatter, and they know it. And if you’re old like me, you remember when it happened to you.
What Didn’t Work
Pacing was a big problem for me. Some scenes go on much longer than they need to. I got bored of several mini games, like the slushie mixing scene, the drunken stumble through the video rental store, and walking around with the camcorder. I just wanted those scenes to end to keep the story moving.
Also, the walking speed is soooo slow and there’s no run option. The stop-motion style was clearly a deliberate choice, and it’s interesting, but I don’t love it in motion. It looks great in stills, but choppy and slow when you’re actually moving.
The soundtrack is also a mixed bag. I think the only songs I really liked were Freak from Silverchair and Love from The Smashing Pumpkins. The other songs were fine, and fit the mood, but most tracks feel like B-sides, even the two I just mentioned. I think it shows where the licensing budget might have created limits. The big era-defining songs aren’t here. To be fair, the developers might simply be huge music nerds and the song choices might not have anything to do with their budget, but either way, the soundtrack didn’t land for me.
By the end of the first half of the game I was a little bored. Taking a break and coming back the next day for the second half of the game helped. I don’t know if I’d say either half of the game is better than the other. Both invoke very different feelings. For example, the first half is more about positive memories and the fun you had with your friends, while the second half focuses more on the sadness and anger of your group growing up and going different ways. Both had strong emotions and both had highs. But the highs weren’t high enough to cover the slow stretches.
Who Is It For
This game would probably appeal most to people who like interactive story-based games. And couples who enjoy watching games together. For example, my wife doesn’t like playing games, but she likes watching the story when I play games. She didn’t get to watch this one, but I think she would have enjoyed it if she did.
I think it’ll also appeal to kids of the late 80’s and 90’s. Interestingly, I’ve seen that people who didn’t grow up in the 90s are also enjoying it, seeing it as a sort of window into an era they didn’t get to live in. This game is missing the ultra baggy clothes, cruising, and going to the mall, but it’s got enough “90s” to be interesting.
Who It’s Not For
Anyone who wants mechanical depth, anyone who finds cozy games boring, and anyone who needs a challenge or a real fail state to stay engaged.
I also think there’s a good chance this story won’t resonate with people who grew up very differently. For example, I grew up in a poor neighborhood with a 48% Hispanic demographic. We didn’t have fields to run in or big houses. There’s also very little diversity in Mixtape and the people appear to be more middle/upper class. Some of the things in this story are so far from the reality I grew up in. I had to make some big reaches to connect.
Final Word
I’m glad I played it. I wasn’t going to, and the split reviews are what pushed me into it. I wanted to know why people loved it and why people hated it. I didn’t dislike this game like I thought I would, which goes to show that you won’t know what you’ll think of Mixtape until you sit with it yourself.
I can understand why it’s a 10 to some people and a 4 to others. It’s a 6 for me. I played this as part of my GamePass subscription. Outside of that, the game is $20. If I had paid $20 for this, I probably would’ve been a little disappointed.
I don’t know if I’ll play another Beethoven and Dinosaur game. This one was enough for me. But I guess that depends on what they come out with next. Maybe if they made one about from the parents point of view to see if us old folks with kids now see their point of view. I bet many of us would! 😀
But this was a nice short game, with some unique game design, and I don’t regret the time I gave this one.