MIXTAP TURNED WITH BACK INTO A MILLENNIAL TEENAGE DIRTBAG – ryan

Mixtape is the Answer to the Question, “What if the Movie High Fidelity was a video game? ” IT’S NOT A PERFECT ANALOGY, BUT ITTY DAMN CLOSE, AND EATHER WAY A SIGN THAT Mixtape is going to be a fabulous slice of late-1990s, Early-2000s Nostalgia, Complete with a Banging Soundtrack.

You can Hear it in the trailers – Mixtape Absolutely Nails the Classic Moviefone, and it seames that this vibe extends to the full game. I played roughly 30 minutes of Mixtape At Summer Game Fest 2025, and in that time I became enamored with the game’s lead character, a rebellious and insufferably cool teenager named rockford who’s suburbia to pursue her dreams of becic a superstar in new York City. She talks directly to the player as she introduces her two also-fry-COOL BEST Friends and cues up the game’s music, breaking the fourth just like John Cusack. Most of the Game Play Out in a Third-Person View, Following Along As Rockford and Her Friends Casually Skate Tree-Linked Streets, Flee from the Cops in A High-Speed ​​Shopping-Cart, and Hang Out in Her BEDROOM, Looking at Polaroid The Planings and CDS and CDS and CDS. Best Way to Steal Liquor from Her Parents’ Stash.

Mixtape comes from The artful escape Studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, and It Similarly Uses Music As a Core Storytelling and Schene-Satting Device. This Makes Perfect Sense, Consding the Studio’s Founder, Johnny Galvatron, Is A legit rock star Based in Melbourne, Australia. Leaning Into Musicality ALSO WORKED OUT WELL FOR The artful escapewhich Earned Beethoven & Dinosaur a Bafta Award in 2022. Mixtape‘s soundtrack is populated by the top teenage-dirtbag bands from the 80s, 90s and slightly beyond, Including devo, Roxy Music, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxie and the Banshees, Joy Division and The Cure (but not wheatus.

Visually, Mixtape has a painterly 3D aesthetic with gorgeous golden light and purple shadows, reminiscent of Life is strange Or Teltale’s The Walking Dead Series. In Action, The Characters Move in a Windswept, Spider-summer Animation Style that doesn’t interrupt the gameplay flow. Eight soaring down the snakelike asphalt on a skateboard, rockford responds immediately to controller input and her ride isn’t interrupted by Stray or Late Animations. Mixtape LOOKS Lovely and Feels Great.

There are Also Surpring Little Moments With Alternative Mechanics in the Game’s First Half Hour, Including a Skene Straight Out Wayne’s World Where You make the trio headbang in a car, and another where you control two tonges MAKING OUT IN A CLOSE-Up, Ren & Stimpy Kind of cartoon realism. Wen rockford explains what a music supervisor is, real-works reference images Fill the screen in a tongue-in-chek educational interlude. Throughout all of this, the music continues to roll, the each songsfullly placed and givinni to shine.

It would be easy for Mixtape To Feel Like a Cheap Nostalgia Grab, An Exploitation of Millennial Players’ Memories of Skipping CDS and Pre-Cellphone Party Planning, but that Simply isn’t the case so far. Mixtape Feels like a love Letter to the Early AUGHTS, filled with Surpring Mechanics, Beautiful Graphics and All the Right References Executed Extremely Well.

Mixtape is due to hit SteamPlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S In 2025, published by interactive Annapurna.