A Teenage Dream

Mixtape delights in nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses (mostly)

Rolled Credits in 2026: 5

Rock and Roll (read spoilers) throughout

Let’s Begin at the Beginning

I immediately played Mixtape when it launched, but had watched too many reviews of it and so I had a hard time deciding how to talk about it, and what to say. Not that I necessarily review the games I’m talking about on here, but formulating one’s thoughts when you are consuming content talking about the subject matter does make it a bit more difficult to decide what is my own thoughts/opinions/takes instead of regurgitating others. Now that I’ve had some space from all that, and before I work for my License to Kill (I’m playing 007 First Light next), let’s get into it.

First thing’s first, one thing that I have noticed is the discourse around whether Mixtape is actually a video game. The clear and obvious answer is yes. You follow a narrative, move around in the world using some form of a controller, you interact with various objects, avoid obstacles, achieve goals, select dialogue, play minigames that determine varying outcomes, etc. All of these things, and more, packaged within a game engine make this a video game.

Saying Something

Mixtape is very much a game that is saying something. It looks back at nostalgia from a close lens to get to the emotion of the end of school days. It uses the ploy of the titular mixtape to express all of the emotions a teenager feels when they’re about to embark on a new journey post-graduation. You start with joy and exuberance, to turmoil, to a retrospective look at the way the three main friends met, to first love, first kiss, partying, rebellion, and so much more.

While I didn’t get as emotional playing this as I did playing And, Roger at the start of the year, I still found myself connecting with the group of friends. They each were well-defined characters that served a purpose in moving the plot along and shifting the mood of each moment they interacted.

Despite not having a strong connection with any of the songs, and my own last days of High School not being all that momentous, I did get nostalgic for the days I roamed the halls of my High School. I reminisced about my first kiss, my group of friends, most of whom I haven’t talked to in years, the parties I attended, the band competitions I competed in, the adventures I had riding around town on my bike, breaking curfew, miscommunications and being grounded, innocent fights with my siblings that felt like WWI trenches at the time. The list goes on and on, but you get my drift?

It’s a game that says what it has to say, hopes that you had similar enough experiences that you can connect with the characters, and plays you music it hopes to turn you on to if it wasn’t already your jam in the first place. I highly recommend it to anybody remotely interested and I don’t think I spoiled any of it really.

Anyway, go play this game if you haven’t already, it’s pretty cheap and is maybe 10 hours of your time, well worth it in my opinion. If you have already played, what did you think about it?

Also, apologies for such a delay, I really got lost on how to talk about this game and ended up not finishing another game and then got stuck in on Windrose which I’m just playing for fun and not trying to roll credits on because it’s early access.