Mixtape Review: A Coming of Age Movie Disguised as a Game

Everyone experiences nostalgia in some capacity. It is the feeling of looking back and remembering the good old days when things felt less difficult, maybe even magical sometimes. But just because something invokes that feeling of nostalgia for you doesn't mean that it will do the same for others. This is one of the major flaws of Mixtape. It tries to engage with your emotions, but unless you were a high school graduate in the 90s, the experience is not one that you will be able to relate to or appreciate in the way that Beethoven & Dinosaur intended.

Mixtape is about a trio of teenagers having one last night together before graduation sends them their separate ways. Aside from a few brief sections, you play as Stacey Rockford, a music enthusiast who put together an entire playlist for this momentous occasion. Over the course of the story, Stacey, Cassandra, and Slater reminisce about, as Stacey would call them, their greatest hits and prepare for the big party later that night.

It is a simple, straightforward plot of a coming-of-age story. It is meant to invoke feelings of nostalgia for the good old days and having to say goodbye to people you may never see again. If that particular genre is your jam, then you will love every moment of Mixtape. However, if you are hoping for a more complex or nuanced story, you will walk away from Mixtape disappointed.

While Stacey and her friends come off as annoying and insufferable at the start of the game, the writing and dialogue get better as the story progresses. That said, I would have preferred that they didn't have Stacey breaking the fourth wall every other minute to talk about the next song on the playlist. This could easily have been done as dialogue between the characters without resorting to any immersion-breaking shenanigans.

All the music consists of licensed songs from across the 80s and 90s. So unless you are a fan of that kind of music, or you grew up during those decades, the nostalgia angle that Mixtape tries to go for may not have the same impact on you. I wasn't even 10 years old yet at the start of the millennium, so I definitely didn't feel nostalgic like other critics did.

For the most part, Mixtape is almost entirely cutscenes with small chunks of gameplay sprinkled through its brief three to four-hour runtime. When you actually get to play, you will mostly be either walking, skating, or doing some kind of random mini-game or activity. This also includes progressively more dream-like visuals as the gameplay turns more into an interactive music video during some segments.

While these segments are completely functional, they aren't exactly remarkable. If anything, it feels more like a tech demo that tells a story. They work just fine and fit with the narrative, but they weren't particularly fun or interesting, save for the part where you escape the cops by riding on a shopping cart.

Actual gameplay is so brief and infrequent that Mixtape often feels more like a movie and less like a video game. If Mixtape gave players control over how the story plays out, this wouldn't be much of an issue. Honestly, Mixtape could have just been a two-hour animated film and still have been able to convey the story it wanted to tell.

Bland gameplay aside, I have mixed feelings about the graphics. While the environments are absolutely gorgeous and the art style is fantastic, I had a hard time getting used to the animation. It is difficult to describe, but the characters moved in a way that reminded me of stop motion. While this was an intentional design choice made by Beethoven & Dinosaur, I found it to be both very distracting and jarring.

Aside from some going after some achievements that are easily missed, Mixtape doesn't really have much in replay value. It is the kind of game that most players will beat in a single sitting and then never touch again. While the game only costs $19.99, it is difficult to justify that price tag when there is barely any gameplay in Mixtape to begin with.

Overall, the intended theme of nostalgia is just too hit or miss to recommend this game. It is difficult to even call Mixtape a game with how infrequently you actually do anything. If you feel like you would enjoy a coming-of-age interactive movie, then wait for Mixtape to be on sale before you buy it.

Overall Rating: 6/10