Mixtape Game Review: Reliving Adolescence Through Music and Memories

Mixtape is the latest game from publisher Annapurna Interactive. Developed by Beethoven and Dinosaur, the narrative adventure tells the story of a group of teens reenacting their memories as a final note to what can possibly be their last day together.

Darn Kids

Stacey Rockford is a young teen who has music in her veins. Listening to rock is a passion for her and, as a desensitized teenager who has a hard time dealing with stuffy rules and the world around her, she has come to use music as a way to define her mood and feelings. The perfect track for every situation is what she’s always aiming for.

For years, she has spent much of her time alongside her two best friends, Slater and Cassandra, as delinquents trying to live their best years together despite living in a town they call Big Suck. This ultimate teenage experience is about to come to an end, however, as Rockford plans to move out of town to seek her dreams of a career as Music Supervisor.

It’s her last day in town and the trio decides to spend it reminiscing about their time together and creating a mixtape to represent the emotional roller-coaster of what they’ve been through. It’s the end of their rebel adolescence, a bittersweet time together trying to encapsulate a whole era of anxiety, growing up and regrets.

In between Rockford having self-aware moments of trying to present each music to whoever is playing the game, we get multiple moments that provide a look at these individuals. There are flashbacks, but also moments happening right then in the present of the story (during the 1990s) that show how these kids are trying to find some value in their life while also rejecting some rules. It’s a profoundly emotional take on this adolescence experience that feels very relatable.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

When it comes to the gameplay itself, Mixtape is a narrative adventure with a linear structure in which each moment of the story features some different elements. For instance, when they reminisce about a secret hideout of sorts, there are minigames in which Rockford has to use a broom to clean a round area and another about the other two moving a sofa around.

Each situation has specific minigames to go with them, exploring a few different things they were trying to do. Some of these are more mundane stuff, like cleaning, but there are also a few of them that add an over-the-top layer to them. Moving along some trails in the forest evolves into flying around, skating becomes an exercise in fully showcasing rage against the world while flipping the bird to destroy objects on the go.

This imaginative and somewhat crazy side helps emphasize the characters’ feelings in a metaphorical way. Rather than being taken at face value, it’s an interesting and effective way to make their feelings come across visually while the music guides players to meet them halfway emotion-wise.

It doesn’t always work, with some minigames feeling either too bland and shallow or a little hard to control. For instance, there are a few scenes that are only about pressing the button whenever you want, while running around and skating is more involved, demanding players to pay attention to traffic and avoiding accidents. If the player ends up hitting a wall or moving beyond the explorable area, the game rewinds a bit, using an animation akin to an old VHS.

A Bygone Era

When it comes to the soundtrack selection, the music includes The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the Cure, Roxy Music, DEVO and more. It’s an interesting representation of a music-obsessed youth from that time. While some music, however, like BJ Thomas’s Most of All, end up in moments that stand out in the story, some of the others feel like they could have a better highlight with the associated gameplay sequence being too bland or too similar to others.

Visually, the game also stands out for its unique style. Firstly, the models for the characters are unique in their polygons and colorful contrasts. The protagonist’s eyes are expressive with an angle that, by itself, already shows how much she’s emotionally exhausted about a lot of things she has seen and apathetic to others. It’s also impressive how the developers manage to pay attention to detail, like how her legs demonstrate impatience during a sermon from Cassandra’s father.

It’s a profoundly emotional take on this adolescence experience that feels very relatable.

This is but an example, but the models for every character have a great rendition of personality and expressiveness. Along with it, all scenes are voice-acted to make the experience more immersive, doubling down on the unique traits of each individual without making them feel like a caricature of something.

Some scenes feature real-life imagery, old photos and footage from a bygone era, all of which help with the mood of the story. In-game animations are also detailed and characters have fluid motions to them that feel surprisingly malleable when collisions happen.

Closing Comments:

Mixtape is an impressive take on what it feels to be a music-obsessed young person trying to come to terms with growing up and moving away from something they took for granted for years. The bittersweet feeling of having regrets and “big hits” stays as a lingering to a life that will never come back. It’s an emotionally powerful adventure in a way that's definitely worth giving a try.