Mixtape is a celebration of music; the way it punctuates life, makes it better, underscoring the highs and lows. I rarely do anything in life without music, be it in the background, practicing for an upcoming musical, or performing for traffic in my car. Music is something I value incredibly highly. Of course, in these day-to-day interactions I hardly consider my life being soundtracked.

I can’t help think back to last June where one of our rabbits became incredibly unwell and needed to be put to sleep. A member of the family for eight years, my first pet proper, it was devastating for me. I remember driving to the emergency vets to say our goodbyes with my wife, and I can remember a song by Volbeat playing in the car, ‘Time Will Heal’. I just remember driving through the rural roads from my village, watching the headlights pass me by as this incredibly sad event was playing out. It felt apt, and serendipitous, that this was the song that was playing at that moment.

Why am I telling you this? The premise of Mixtape is that of the perfect soundtrack to life. The story is focussed on Stacey Rockford, and her close friends Slater and Cassandra; apathetic teens looking to rebel, drink, smoke weed, and live their best lives in the “Big Suck” of the 1990s. Stacey is obsessed with music, so much so that she is leaving her friends and home to move to New York to become a Music Assistant. This is someone who finds the perfect music to go with a scene in a movie or other media. Rockford has an extensive knowledge of music and we see this throughout Mixtape.

Life is Strange

As the story progresses, we learn a lot about the three characters; their wants, difficulties, and their home lives. The story is well told, and incredibly compelling. The characterisation of Rockford, Slater and Cassandra is excellent and I found myself genuinely wanting to know more and learn all I could about them. Additional tidbits of lore are added through interacting with items in the different areas you visit. Rockford acts as narrator, performing soliloquies to the audience (us) while also chatting with her friends. Cassandra struggles with living a life that her parents have chosen for her, leading to her becoming more rebellious in defiance of her parents. Slater is super chill, but an underappreciated creative, with a wealth of ideas. He’s wary of putting himself out there though.

I felt like there were some great commentary and observation on life as adolescents as well as the importance of music. I’m sure that other media have made similar observations, but it felt articulated well and natural in the context of the game and its story. Nothing ever felt forced.

True Colors

I enjoyed the dynamics of the three too (one, blast off!). They’re best buds. Cassandra being newer to the trio brings more unknown territory, compared to Slater and Rockford. I was really impressed at how natural the relationships felt. Slight tensions here and there, but they knew when they were comfortable to just talk straight about things and not be embarrassed, whilst still holding on to issues of frustration and antagonism (we don’t mention the road trip!).

They’re written well, at the beginning they come across as the classic “like, whatever” teens but thankfully that isn’t all they are. It made me laugh early on in the game when Cassandra describes having a dream about Rockford and her immediate reply was “were we doing it?”. The voice acting throughout is excellent and the team have done a great job bringing these characters to life.

Tell Me Why

With Rockford leaving, the three decide to have a final night blowout by attending a beach party and celebrating one last time. As part of these celebrations, Stacey has compiled a set of tracks, the perfect mixtape (ah, he said it, he said it) to soundtrack their final day and night. The gang spend their final day together visiting each others houses, secret hideouts, and regular haunts. As you visit these locations you’ll interact with key items that trigger memories that you will play through. These vary in style from a variety of minigames / mini-levels to straight cutscenes to add to the story.

The gameplay in Mixtape is a great assortment of activities. The game starts with a skateboard run down a road, ollie-ing over cars and taking in the sun as you go. Before long, you’re unlocking an achievement for french kissing for over 60 seconds (yes, really), full tongue and everything. Like literally, you’re in a mouth, you don’t even see the humans, you see teeth, braces, and tongue. Before long you’re toilet papering houses, playing baseball, escaping a house party in a shopping cart, and skimming stones across a lake; living the quintessential 90s teenage experience. They were all enjoyable in their own way. Some lended themselves to additional humour, the escape on the shopping trolley being one for instance, whilst others were more reflective, matching the activity with the mood of the scene.

Before the Storm

Another chapter in the game has your control all three whilst they drive to some metal music. Your input makes them headbang in a different way, and it’s hilarious watching all three bang their head in unison in a range of increasingly humourous ways. Who knew you could headbang in a car flicking the interior light switch?

None of them made me smile as much as a sprinting section towards the end of the game though. It felt like you were playing a scene from a 90s movie, bringing the perfect song, great humour, and the right impetus to really make it work. The game has the right balance in its tone. Between teenage angst, apathy, comedy, and familial abuse, it walks a nice line of never veering too far in one direction. The game doesn’t stay grounded, it leans into the fantastical at times to add flair and grandeur to the proceedings.

Bloom and Rage

After a cutscene of particular anger, you’ll be skateboarding to your next location, full of rage, so you start taking it out on the street by blowing up anything and everything you can. Soundtracked by some angrier music, your finger guns ‘blow up’ cars, fire hydrants and tennis courts, creating some visually satisfying scenes. Later you’re ‘conducting’ fireworks as you stand up in a convertible, feeling the wind in your face. Mixtape does a fantastic job of visualising and gamifying the emotions being felt in particular chapters. Sad scenes, feel floaty and slower, whereas the happier moments are bouncy, brighter and joyful.

But…does the game about having a perfect soundtrack, have an appropriately good soundtrack? Hell, yeah it does. Including over 20 licensed tracks from a range of artists, including names such as The Smashing Pumpkins, DEVO, Iggy Pop, Joy Division, The Cure and many more, the soundtrack is great. What I like is that they haven’t just picked the ‘known’ titles (I assume there’s a cost implication too, of course), but they’ve truly gone for tracks that work.

Double Exposure

And the music isn’t just there. More often than not, at the beginning of a chapter, or when a new song is lined up, Stacey will talk directly to us about the track, who it is, maybe some trivia about the song, and why she picked it. I loved this little inclusion, it added to Rockford’s character, whilst also conveying the love of music that the team at Beethoven and Dinosaur have. And they were kept in the context of the scene, the aforementioned running scene, Stacey is telling us about the song as she’s running, out of breath. It’s little touches like that. They’ve clearly done their research and what a job that would be to find the right music to go with the mood, action on screen and tone of your message…I get it Stacey, I get it.

As Dusk Falls

Visually, Mixtape is striking. There are some fantastic environments, as well as detailed interiors. When the fireworks are going off, or when you’re exploding parts of suburbia, it all looks great. There’s a nostalgic warmth to the artistic design that I really enjoyed. Then, switch to the night, and the glow from the street lamps, police sirens, and fire create the right atmosphere. There are visual moments that make use of tech from the time, such as GameBoy level pixellated cameras, or old school video cameras, and it is executed perfectly.

The character designs are great too. They all move with a type of stop-motion effect that works really well. The detail in the character is impressive too. Stacey’s jacket has a range of patches while Slater sports his own custom t-shirts. In flashbacks, the trio wear different outfits that continue to match their personalities and style, it was a nice touch that I appreciated.

I must commend the developers on Mixtape’s presentation. The game runs smoothly, and I did not encounter a single bug or issue in my playthrough. There’s also a generous chapter select available from the off. This is great for heading back to a scene and having another go at a mini-game (I still haven’t figured out what Slater’s secret smoothie recipe is).

Lost Records

The only real qualm I have is the length of the game. Whilst not unusual for games of this type, it’s a fairly short affair. Being over in 4 hours or so, and I expect you can do it quicker than that. I was trying a lot to get some of the game’s fun achievements / trophies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing of course, the game never outstays its welcome. I also suspect that basing a game around the perfect and then finding said soundtrack is difficult. Making it longer, even more so, would be even harder. But when a game’s well done, you can’t help but want more.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad playing Mixtape though. Knowing the way that music licensing seems to work in games. I imagine there’ll be a time when this game is no longer playable because the licenses have expired. So I must recommend playing it while you can (and I’m sure that inevitability is a few years down the line).

Hindsight

In Mixtape, Beethoven and Dinosaur have created a well-crafted narrative of the inevitable change that comes with growing up, and growing apart. Fighting against it, and accepting it.

In the face of all that, one constant remains, one that brings back memories, and underscores our lives. It reminds us of those sad times, those happy times, and those times in between where you just had to blow up some lawn flamingos because you were so goddamned mad, or float through pig balloons while the world bleeds of colour because of the immense sadness you feel.

Mixtape is fun, fantastical and heartfelt. It may be fleeting, but I expect it will stick with you for a long while. Especially when you’re inevitably playing one of the game’s songs in one of your playlists and someone asks you “where this song is from?”.

Mixtape releases on 7 May 2026 and is available on PC, PS5, Switch 2 and Xbox Series. The game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.

Gamer Social Club would like to thank Annapurna Interactive for the review code.

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Mixtape Guides

• Unlock the “Thrashed” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “French Connection” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Grunge Metal Alchemist” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Smooth Shopper” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Cone Island, Baby” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Skim Gordon” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “And It’s Outta There” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Triple Ply” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “It’s the Pigs, Darling achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Instructions Not Required” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Don’t. Move.” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Appetite for Destruction” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Paint it, Black, If You Want” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Sofa King Fast” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Leaves That Are Green” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “From the Hip” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Tapehead Graveyard” achievement / trophy
• Unlock the “Doppelbanger” achievement / trophy