I keep in mind the primary time a boy made me a mixtape (okay, combine CD, identical diff). It wasn’t even a romantic gesture – he made them for all our pals. Mine had a now-embarassing mixture of Morrowind music, Naruto OPs, Queen and Kansas (inexplicably), and uh, this song. It was a wild mixture of nerd stuff and absolute bangers that made no sense collectively in any respect.
So I can recognize a extremely, actually good mixtape, one which makes you’re feeling massive emotions and assume massive ideas. Certain, I make my very own Spotify playlists now for myself, however there’s one thing tangibly retro about somebody handing you a bodily merchandise of songs, completely chosen and ordered, that they curated for an individual, a second, an area and time.
So what if that, in online game type? That’s the whole premise of the aptly named sport Mixtape that I previewed at Play Days final week. Mixtape follows three teenagers: Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra, although it is advised from the angle of Rockford and their closing mixtape of the summer season: a group of musical hits to encapsulate their final night time along with their finest pals. See, Rockford has massive goals, and is headed to New York within the morning to take an enormous, ridiculous swing on a future profession that is extremely, appropriately teenager of them and unlikely to repay (although Rockford’s loads assured). So Rockford has assembled a pretentious lineup of excellent songs, every backing a distinct vignette from the crew’s closing night time of mischief (and, often interrupted by a flashback or a music they did not essentially intend to incorporate).
Look, even when Rockford’s entire schtick is being a music elitist, they’re proper about one factor: they do compile a wonderful mixtape. The entire sport opens on “That’s Good” by Devo, and the phase I performed proceeds by means of Jesus and Mary Chain, Alice Coltrain…I do not need to spoil it an excessive amount of, as a result of the songs themselves are such a elementary a part of every second and do quite a lot of heavy lifting to play into Mixtape’s general aura of nostalgia.
In truth, I feel one factor I recognize most about Mixtape is that apart from the music, this is not a sport jam-packed with particular popular culture references like so many different nostalgia performs like to do. The songs have gotten it coated. I am not stopping each few seconds, pointing at an artifact or a joke and going, “I acknowledge that!” And but, Mixtape manages to successfully seize a really particular taste of reminisence for one’s youth, and that feeling is injected into the whole lot from Rockford’s room decor to how the characters converse to the light, golden, almost-autumnal mild permeating the whole lot within the opening.
Here is one other factor that struck me: the three predominant characters are, frankly, fairly annoying! And I adore it! They’re such teenagers. Older teenagers, positive, on the cusp of maturity, however teenagers! I am 34! I can not take them remotely significantly, and I am not purported to. The trio, whereas distinct of their personalities, all carry a barely exaggerated self-obsession, that feeling I keep in mind properly from being 17, 18, 19, and pondering my issues had been on the heart of the universe. Obnoxious quirks and all, I will be comfortable to spend a full night with all three within the full sport.
The precise meanest factor I can say about Mixtape is that no less than within the snippet I performed, you are not doing very a lot. There’s some skateboarding, and a sequence the place you careen by means of the city on a buying cart, and in each conditions you steer, however I am unsure there’s actually any penalties for doing both exercise properly or poorly, or any purpose to strive very laborious. You’ll be able to headbang to music performed loud in a automotive. Largely, from what I noticed, you stroll round a room and take a look at issues whereas speaking to your folks. Probably the most attention-grabbing gameplay was an prolonged part the place you simulate two awkward teenage tongues making out in a concurrently hilarious and disgusting interchange. I get the sense that the broader sport will possible play out extra as a sequence of minigame vignettes that one particular taste of online game, however because it stands I am hard-pressed to elucidate to you what it’s you are going to be doing, largely, all through the remainder of Mixtape.
The factor is, whether or not the remainder of the sport seems to be action-packed or not, I am not likely positive it issues for what Mixtape goes for. It is a vibes sport through-and-through, and Mixtape’s vibes are impeccable. I am comfortable to let Rockford take me alongside on no matter journey they and their pals are about to go out on, one music at a time.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You could find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.