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Mixtape Hands-on Preview: That Old, Familiar Song

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I remember the first time a boy made me a mixtape (okay, mix CD, same diff). It wasn’t even a romantic gesture – he made them for all our friends. Mine had a now-embarassing mix of Morrowind music, Naruto OPs, Queen and Kansas (inexplicably), and uh, this song. It was a wild mix of nerd stuff and absolute bangers that made no sense together at all.

So I can appreciate a really, really good mixtape, one that makes you feel big feelings and think big thoughts. Sure, I make my own Spotify playlists now for myself, but there’s something tangibly retro about someone handing you a physical item of songs, perfectly selected and ordered, that they curated for a person, a moment, a space and time.

So what if that, in video game form? That’s the entire premise of the aptly named game Mixtape that I previewed at Play Days last week. Mixtape follows three teens: Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra, though it’s told from the perspective of Rockford and their final mixtape of the summer: a collection of musical hits to encapsulate their last night together with their best friends. See, Rockford has big dreams, and is headed to New York in the morning to take a huge, ridiculous swing on a future career that’s incredibly, appropriately teenager of them and unlikely to pay off (though Rockford’s plenty confident). So Rockford has assembled a pretentious lineup of perfect songs, each backing a different vignette from the crew’s final night of mischief (and, occasionally interrupted by a flashback or a song they didn’t necessarily intend to include).

Mixtape manages to effectively capture a very specific flavor of reminisence for one’s youth.

Look, even if Rockford’s whole schtick is being a music elitist, they’re right about one thing: they do compile an excellent mixtape. The whole game opens on “That’s Good” by Devo, and the segment I played proceeds through Jesus and Mary Chain, Alice Coltrain…I don’t want to spoil it too much, because the songs themselves are such a fundamental part of each moment and do a lot of heavy lifting to play into Mixtape’s overall aura of nostalgia.

In fact, I think one thing I appreciate most about Mixtape is that aside from the music, this isn’t a game jam-packed with specific pop culture references like so many other nostalgia plays love to do. The songs have got it covered. I’m not stopping every few seconds, pointing at an artifact or a joke and going, “I recognize that!” And yet, Mixtape manages to effectively capture a very specific flavor of reminisence for one’s youth, and that feeling is injected into everything from Rockford’s room decor to how the characters speak to the gentle, golden, almost-autumnal light permeating everything in the opening.

Here’s another thing that struck me: the three main characters are, frankly, pretty annoying! And I love it! They’re such teens. Older teens, sure, on the cusp of adulthood, but teens! I’m 34! I can’t take them remotely seriously, and I’m not supposed to. The trio, while distinct in their personalities, all carry a slightly exaggerated self-obsession, that feeling I remember well from being 17, 18, 19, and thinking my concerns were at the center of the universe. Obnoxious quirks and all, I’ll be happy to spend a full evening with all three in the full game.

The actual meanest thing I can say about Mixtape is that at least in the snippet I played, you’re not doing very much. There’s some skateboarding, and a sequence where you careen through the town on a shopping cart, and in both situations you steer, but I’m not sure there’s really any consequences for doing either activity well or poorly, or any reason to try very hard. You can headbang to music played loud in a car. Mostly, from what I saw, you walk around a room and look at things while talking to your friends. The most interesting gameplay was an extended section where you simulate two awkward teenage tongues making out in a simultaneously hilarious and disgusting interchange. I get the sense that the wider game will likely play out more as a series of minigame vignettes that one specific flavor of video game, but as it stands I’m hard-pressed to explain to you what it is you’re going to be doing, mostly, throughout the rest of Mixtape.

The thing is, whether the rest of the game turns out to be action-packed or not, I’m not really sure it matters for what Mixtape is going for. This is a vibes game through-and-through, and Mixtape’s vibes are impeccable. I’m happy to let Rockford take me along on whatever journey they and their friends are about to head out on, one song at a time.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.