Genre:
Adventure / Walking Simulation
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Developer:
Beethoven and Dinosaur
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Publisher:
Annapurna Interactive
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Platforms:
Steam/ Nintendo Switch 2 / PlayStation / Xbox (review)
Introduction
When I was first introduced to Mixtape, watching an early trailer, fed to me by my ever-reliable YouTube algorithm (tongue firmly in cheek) I was immediately taken back to around 2005 and my trusty PlayStation 2 console, playing Quantic Dream’s Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America). Thinking back as I write this, I may not have even owned the game, I just loved the demo so much, I played it to death. How awesome were those demos stuck to gaming magazines?! Another classic that warped itself into my brain whilst watching the trailer, was Dontnod Entertainment’s Life is Strange, a game that truly established this style, into modern gaming, you were essentially playing a movie, pulling at the strings on your heart throughout. It was an experience, I was lucky enough to score a Limited edition on PlayStation 4 with the soundtrack included, it was not my usual genre of music, however, I found myself listening to it constantly due to the connections to specific scenes in the game. Anyway, this isn’t about Quantic Dream history of banging games or the establishment of this style, it’s about Mixtape and my thoughts on this controversial (ratings wise) video game. After watching the trailer, I was sold and immediately added it to my steam Wishlist and even messaged our very own Retro Gamer Tom asking him if he’s seen this, it also caught the attention of our discord group with the trailer being shared on there. Now the dust has settled, and I’ve actually gotten around to playing it, here are my thoughts.
Narrative
Mixtape is set in fictionalized Californian town called Blue Moon Lagoon or affectionately called “Big Suck” by the three high-school friends that this game follows. Stacy, Slater and Cassandra have a plan, the plan is to embark on one final adventure together ending in the typical 90’s fashion, the cool kids’ party. Stacy aspires to be a musical supervisor and has created a perfect curated music playlist (hence the name ‘Mixtape’, although she plays it on a CD Walkman but anyway), those aspirations also mean she’s ditched the groups following plan of going on a road trip, instead Stacy has booked a flight to New York leaving the next day, this is an area of contention throughout the story, especially from ‘Cass’. I could say more about the narrative, but I’d genuinely be spoiling this game, it is very short.
Gameplay
As well as being short, Mixtape prioritizes the story and atmosphere over interactivity, the game is essentially a movie, that has you press some buttons, sometimes. There are some contextual ‘mini-games’ as such, which for me are the highlights (unbelievable, I know, the best bits of the game are when you actually need to hold the controller) Skateboarding downhill, with the ability to pull a flip, grab or ollie trick is fun but limiting, another has you skimming stones on a pond, with objects to hit, again initially fun but limited. The rest of the game is essentially vignettes or walking around a small bedroom pressing X to initiate dialog.
In Short and final verdict
Graphics
Mixtape does look great, mostly. The scenery is at times beautiful, beams of Californian sunlight breaking through autumn trees, are honestly stunning. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of the character stop-motion esc design, I felt at times their movements were distractingly jittery.
Sound
The main event of this game is the music, I loved how each song is introduced by Stacy, giving us key information about how the song was made or how it made her feel and why it was appropriate for this part of the story. However, I’m 39 years old, and for the first time in a long time I felt a little too young. The songs just missed the mark for me, not in terms of how they fit the narrative, that was on point, but I just didn’t really enjoy listening to them that much. I believe this to be a very personal thing, and those who are slightly older than me, early 40’s, may get more of a kick out of the music. The rest of the sound in the game is okay, standard, doesn’t stand out as being particularly special and I just couldn’t get Owen Wilson out of my head every time Slater opened his mouth and with such iconic characters as ‘Lightening McQueen’, I found that a little distracting.
Gameplay
what gameplay? Seriously though, the little mini games were fun, for a very short time, maybe I was just happy to do something, as when ‘playing’ this game, I feel like I put my controller down more than I actually held the thing. I also found myself picking up my phone and checking social media, I mean I think that speaks volumes.
Story
The story is okay, decent enough, but something I seem to have seen a hundred times, underaged kids try and get alcohol, for a party at the cool kid’s house, a nod of appreciation to movies of the past, however for me it’s a little immature. I’m personally not a fan of drugs being shown in a positive light or without ramifications, call me a ‘square’ but I don’t care for it.
Performance
It ran well enough, small amounts of stutter but nothing drastic, I was playing on my gaming PC through Xbox Gamepass and I had no issues. However, I did notice that in one of the final scenes, they forgot to animate Stacys patches on her jacket, which I thought was a bit of an obvious error to make.
Final Score
I believe nostalgia to be dangerously contentious, nostalgia blinds people to reality, a simple memory of something happening or doing something at a particular time in your life and remembering it to be far better than it actually was. For example, someone once tried to tell me that the Nintendo Game Cube had the best controller ever, no it didn’t, it just simply did not. I can see someone, a pop music loving, early 40’s plus, hitting that demographic sweet spot for this game and falling in love with it. I can also see someone who spends their days playing video games as a job, maybe for reviews, finding this remarkable, simply because it’s different. Different is not broken, but difference isn’t always better. I enjoyed small aspects of this game, some of the stunning views, the skateboarding was fun, the music connecting to the narrative and gameplay is an achievement and an enjoyable experience. However, the lack of gameplay elements, the quite immature storyline, and the actual songs missing the mark, left me feeling a bit bored. I planned to review this game as I was so looking forward to it but ultimately, I’m left feeling disappointed and would have probably just stopped playing it after the first hour or so, but persisted for this review, luckily for me it only took me 3 hours and 27 minutes to roll credits. Like I said, it’s short. It’s an easy platinum (or equivalent) but I have many other games to play, and this hasn’t entertained me enough to warrant going back and replaying scenes, however short they were.
