Mixtape, the latest narrative adventure game from Beethoven & Dinosaur, brought me back to memories I hadn’t thought about in a while.
Drinking in parking lots, staying out way too late, making a flamethrower out of a can of Axe – a wash of memories covered in the glow of youth, bad decisions, and the people I made them with. Revisiting these spaces in the past, all have a soundtrack playing, songs tied to each one. I was a bit too young for the mixtape era, but I burned more CDs than I can remember.
Each song was a specific pick, a choice in a playlist, a vibe matched or a moment in chorus. Each CD had a limited number of tracks you could fit, so each choice was a careful one. Mixtape understands this, a celebration of youth and a friendship at a time when it was all but fleeting. It’s a fantastic, albeit short, love letter to a bygone era, one that I’ll revisit again and again.
One Last Night
Mixtape stars Stacy, Van, and Cass, a group of friends on their last night of high school together. It feels like a lost teen movie from the 90s and early 2000s, as the gang aim to get booze for a party. When the morning rolls in, Stacy takes off, chasing dreams of being a music producer in New York. The writing and voice acting across the board are pitch-perfect here, a totally tubular tale of a time when a fight between friends felt like the end of the world.
Stacy is the main lead, spiking the camera and briefing the player on the song, matching each moment. She’s obsessed with music and the feelings it evokes, clearly passionate not just about the song itself but about the history around it. Always equipped with headphones, the songs here are diegetic – Stacy hears them as we do. When things go awry, and the playlist falls apart, we don’t hear the music because she doesn’t either. She’s a fantastic lead, spunky and full of youthful passion, but her co-leads are just as strong.
Van is Stacy’s oldest friend, a chill dude who’s content to live in the moment with his friends. He’s the rock of the group, always there for those who need him.
Cass comes from a strict family – dad’s a cop, and the entire weight of expectation rests on her shoulders. The last few years have seen her rebelling against the life she’s lived, embracing the chaos that being a teenager brings.
The bond between these three is endearing, and I saw faces of old friends in theirs, folks I haven’t seen in years but made my earlier years what they were.
A Playlist Full Of Memory
As you move down the playlist, and the adventure for booze and parties begins, you’ll visit memories and take place in awesome bits of fun. From skateboarding to flying through a field, each new song brings a new mini-game-like section. It turns something as simple as sweeping leaves out of a new fire pit into a game. Each new section of gameplay feels like the magic of youth, where everything felt new, whimsical, and massive. All of it flies by, considering the game is only 3-4 hours long, so nothing overstays its welcome, but each section set to a new song on the playlist is a blast.
From the opening skating sequence set to the sync rock rumblings of “That’s Good” by DEVO, to shooting cans off a ruined car with the backing of acoustic guitars and the crooning of David Gray, each song is handpicked. They all fit the mood of whatever’s going on, each one making a memory and elevating the scene. Mixtape is both a celebration of music and the people that listen to it, a symbiosis of sound, emotion, and memory.
Mixtape Is Straight Up Beautiful
Accompanying the sonically perfect choices are visuals that are constantly gorgeous and imaginative. The bright colour work and lighting bathe the entire game in a nostalgic glow. It’s like an indie movie set in the Spider-Verse universe, and it works so well. It also runs well on Steam Deck, maintaining a relatively stable 30 fps. There are a few frame drops, but nothing major or game-altering.
Verdict
Mixtape‘s narrative is beautiful and fleeting; each song is carefully picked, and even though it goes by fast, Mixtape is incredible. The run time didn’t end up being a problem for me, as it feels like an interactive movie with absolutely no bloat or wasted sound. A song can repeat, but the memories you make to it and the people you do it with will never be the same. Mixtape is a celebration of fleeting youth, of the people who help make you who you are, and it is worth every minute.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: Steam Deck
