GordonJAGReview Mixtape Review

Truth be told, the discourse surrounding Mixtape has been one of the most enjoyable things in gaming for 2026. There’s been so much pushback on the game, and I get it to an extent, but then I see the favorite games of some of the people pushing back on it. In one case, it was Destiny 2, which is a hamster wheel with half of the wheel being unusable. Another person complaining about the game had their favorite game as a $50 visual novel, which does make me feel like we’re operating on some level of irony, but I also can’t underestimate the ability of people to disappoint me constantly. Now, I’m only smug about my (very cool and correct) video game tastes every moment I’m breathing and alive, but this did make me realize that some people just don’t quite get what gaming and interactive stories can be beyond a certain point. That’s fine, but at the same time, I can’t deny having myself a good laugh at the people who think they’re dunking on this game while simultaneously glazing the most 5/10 game you’ve ever seen. Anyway, talking about the game itself, Mixtape is about 3 punchable teenagers—Stacey, Van, and Cassandra—acting punchable before adult life gives each one a brutal reality check in the form of a hard kick between their legs. Outside of games like Until Dawn, where the punchable teenagers should end the game needing to be scraped off the linoleum flooring with a spatula, this is kind of how I want teenagers portrayed in games. They’re smug, loud, unruly, annoying know-it-alls. It doesn’t always make them the most endearing, but there’s no denying that their portrayal is just how a lot of teenagers act in real life, so it’s not hurting for authenticity there. You might not think that matters, but it really does help flesh the characters out more. Their collective story revolves around them reminiscing about their relatively short time together in small-town America, but since they’re all teenagers and apparently their lives have peaked at this point, you only get a small cut of who these characters are and what they’re about. And since it’s about 90s teenagers in small-town America, what they’re about is basically just being lazy and messing around while having aspirations beyond what they’re probably reasonably capable of achieving. When they’re not being lazy and messing around, they’re about as stereotypically anti-authority as you would expect 3 punchable teenagers from the 90s to be. The biggest draw of this game is how much you might personally be grabbed by its nostalgic callback to being a teenager in the 90s, with a few bonus points thrown in if you grew up in small-town America. Now, I was not a teenager in the 90s, I did not grow up in small-town America, and I did not spend my teenage years being anti-authority while trying to sneak out to parties with crappy booze I kept hidden under the floorboards. Because of that, I can’t relate to these kids in the slightest, and I lack the nostalgic connection to the game’s time period. So, admittedly, I'm not the target audience for what Mixtape is trying to be. Generally, this kind of coming-of-age story with teenagers I can’t relate to in the slightest wouldn’t really appeal to me, and that’s especially true with how light it is on actual gameplay. While there are definitely some instances where I feel like the game could have been better, I finished Mixtape feeling like it was basically fine. That’s not a very interesting way to put it or look at it, but I don’t know, I’ve spent more money on games I’ve disliked way more, so that’s kind of what it is. It perfectly sets out to do what it wants, and what it wants clearly doesn’t resonate with everyone who played it, and it leaves people like me a little closer to being 50/50 on it. It’s extremely confident in how it presents itself—maybe even boastful—and that can mask a lot of flaws. It’s kind of like Dispatch in that regard. Each game has about as much gameplay as the other, but they’re both so utterly confident in their entire package that it helps soften the blows from their more negative aspects. I think the only reason Dispatch didn’t get quite the same amount of backlash is because it appeals to the unattainable fantasy of being a confident guy that a hot girl wants to touch now and then, and Mixtape doesn’t have any of that. The quality of the writing is also up to a pretty solid standard. Each character has their own voice, feeling distinct among each other and within the narrative, so good work there. It's especially impressive since all the main characters come from a similar archetype mold. Really good performances help elevate the characters and make them all feel fully realized, even if them being fully realized means they’re punchable teenagers. Even if I did find the characters annoying—intentionally so, no doubt—there was some undeniable charm with all of them that had me invested enough in what they were going to do next. I couldn't help but want to root for them a little bit. That’s where some of the downsides come in. Even if I was invested in what was going to happen next, the whole story is basically just teenagers reliving their good times together. There’s some spark and life in those segments because of the good performances, but even when things get a little bit trippy with flying (which is used too much) or fireworks, Mixtape never feels like it quite reaches the same creative heights as The Artful Escape, though that does mean it feels slightly more grounded at the same time. Even if these relived memories don’t feel as creative as parts of The Artful Escape, I will give Mixtape credit for creativity in how these moments are framed. The entire game is basically one big nostalgia trip, both for the characters reliving these moments and for the intended audience, so having these scenes play out through these magical, rose-tinted glasses actually fits very well. Yeah, that thing you did when you were 16 that was the peak of your life up to that point probably would feel like you’re flying by spectacular fireworks when you’re remembering it through the lens of nostalgia. Those parts of how the characters and narrative are handled work very well. Beyond some creative issues that prevent the story beats from hitting as hard as they should, the biggest downside is the gameplay. Again, it has about as much as Dispatch does, which isn’t a bad thing, but with Mixtape being considerably shorter than Dispatch, it doesn’t do a lot with that limited time it has. You get some skateboarding stuff, you can skip rocks, you can take some swings at baseball pitches, and a few other small sequences along those lines. While I feel like it’s obvious that I didn’t need a few dopey teenagers to have gameplay segments I would expect to find in Doom, the gameplay that Mixtape does offer left me a little disappointed, especially when music-based games tend to have such strong gameplay loops. Again, I don’t feel like there’s a very interesting way to put my feelings on Mixtape. They were broadly positive because I thought the characters were solidly written with good performances, even if I couldn’t relate to them any more than I could an alien from Neptune. Even if the game lets itself down by some particularly uninteresting gameplay sections, there is some creativity in how the characters’ nostalgic teenage lives are played out and portrayed, and I think back on those moments fondly. Overall, Mixtape is probably worth it if you enjoy games that focus more on narratives than gameplay, and if you have $20 kicking around. There are definitely worse uses you could come up with for that money, but it really is dependent on your tolerance for lack of gameplay and your fondness for a 90s nostalgia trip. And, hey, if you hate it, it’ll be out of your hair in just a few hours.