Do you believe it’s okay to judge someone entirely on their taste in music? American teen Stacy Rockford thinks so. She also believes that life should be accompanied by a bespoke soundtrack, full of transcendent highs and melancholy lows. When the time comes to move home and say farewell to her closest friends – the slightly more reserved Cassandra, and the stereotypical stoner Slater – Stacy puts on her orange foam padded earphones and presses play on her personal stereo to relive cherished memories, complete with a soundtrack that has taken years to compile.
Over the course of around three hours, you’ll get to relive those moments through short sequences with various emotional beats. Calling these ‘mini games’ would be disingenuous, but it isn’t entirely off the mark, and each is purposeful, either setting a tone or expanding a backstory. Between memories, a story unfolds set in the present (the ‘90s) with the trio looking to score liquor before hitting a party held by a high school student a few rungs higher on the social ladder. This perfect plan soon comes crashing down after Cassandra’s father, a police officer, forbids her to meet up with her fellow juvenile friends. In typical American teen fashion, it’s time to rebel.
Mixtape is presented similarly to a modern heavily stylised CGI movie, with stop motion like animation, moderately exaggerated and delightfully dorky facial expressions, and a high level of detail. Enforcing the central musical theme further is a passion for the medium, with stereos clearly based on real-life boomboxes, and an assortment of bootleg CDs found scattered around Stacy’s room. There are several references to cult rock performers during dialogue, while the soundtrack is formed of licensed music from the ‘90s, with each example used to tremendous, frequently neck hair raising, effect. Starring the likes of Iggy Pop and Devo, we’d have to go back to 2023’s Hi-Fi Rush to find a soundtrack this well implemented.
Another returning theme is skateboarding, with a few sections featuring lengthy parts of the woodland encompassing Blue Moon Lagoon to skate through. Controls feel tight, and performing tricks – which serve no purpose whatsoever – feels satisfying. Richly detailed scenery whizzes past, changing from the suburbs to the school, and even a jaunt through an in-development shopping mall. A police chase with a spinning shopping trolley also features, being purposely tricky to control while it veers haphazardly. This sequence takes place early on, setting the comical tone perfectly, while capturing the trio’s rebellious teen personas.
The more involved sequences look and feel like snapshots from big budget titles, including a jaunt through an abandoned dinosaur amusement park, complete with a ’90s-style low-fi video camera to capture the mischief. This antiqued camera needs to be fiddled with first, flipping it around to swap out the AA batteries – with an achievement to gain for putting them in correctly in under 15 seconds. A lot of other achievements follow suit, in the way that you’re unlikely to unlock them first time – which is where the chapter list comes in handy.
While Mixtape’s more dreamlike sequences can come across as padding, with the trio drifting, flying, and twirling through the air, they also successfully solidify the central theme of a hazy day spent together. They captivates the trio’s glorious highs without the need for dialogue explaining as such. A few instances are heightened further by flashy firework effects. No, these scenes aren’t going to push your finely honed gaming skills – they’re just there to propel the story along. Even the skateboarding scenes are frustration free, rewinding five seconds or so should you collide. Mixtape is here to tell an emotional tale that leans heavily on nostalgia, and nothing more.
There are a few other examples of neat tech, from a curiously detailed French kissing section to a slushy mixing contest between Stacy and Slater. Later, Slater must casually stroll into a quintessentially ‘90s video store while intoxicated, seeking the perfect trio of movies to rent. Putting their arms out as they stumble, tapes fly off the shelves, much to their chagrin. Even the pause screen – an almost photorealistic replica of a CD in a jewel case – is mildly fascinating to play around with, reflecting a light source. This is very much an experience with style to spare.
To reveal more about Mixtape would only spoil things. Rest assured, the storyline beats are here, mimicking a typical coming-of-age comedy; avoiding the parents, scoring the booze, causing a raucous through teen rebellion, and a tearful goodbye. You’re able to learn more about Cassandra and Slater through optional interactions, and there’s plenty of gooey ‘90s nostalgia to wallow in. While some of the dialogue is a little contrived (Stacy’s fond of yelling “eat a bag of dicks!”) it’s still relevant to the era, while playing into the personalities of each character – such as Slater’s random musings. Cassandra isn’t as well fleshed out, forever in Stacy’s shadow, but ultimately, all three could have existed in a juvenile teen movie circa 2005.
Mixtape is further proof that video games are the ultimate medium for delivering experiences as soulful as they are dreamlike, and although it skirts around giving players meaningful choices to make, a la Life is Strange, the cast interactions still amount to something far greater than being handed a film director’s fixed vision. At a modest £15.99, this is a delectable treat, and chances are you’ll want to replay choice cuts – if not to bag their associated achievements, but to gawp at the pretty visuals, listen to the score, and take in the moment. Simply, the colossal hive mind studios of the industry could never replicate something with vibes this immaculate.
Beethoven and Dinosaur’s Mixtape is out now on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. Published by Annapurna Interactive.