I walked out of my Summer time Recreation Fest 2025 demo for Mixtape beaming like an fool, a smile caught on my face. I can not consider a recreation that has ever vibed as arduous as Mixtape does. Beethoven & Dinosaur’s debut, The Suave Escape, was a vibes recreation, too. Mild on conventional gameplay mechanics and mainly missing any fail states, it as a substitute leaned into aesthetics, temper, and tone. It was extra of a sense than a standard recreation, however I liked it for that.
There are many vibes video games, like Unpacking, Night time within the Woods, and Firewatch, to call a number of. I like an excellent vibes recreation, and Mixtape, the following recreation from the staff behind The Suave Escape, feels prefer it may very well be the last word instance. I performed about half-hour of Mixtape and noticed what you may name a number of ranges of the sport, which performs like a ’90s-set coming-of-age story however is supposed to really feel “sorta like channel-surfing [old-school] MTV at 3 AM,” developer Johnny Galvatron instructed me.
In Mixtape, you play a gaggle of three high-school buddies on the cusp of graduating and trying to make it to a celebration on the seaside to cap off their childhood. The occasion goes to rule if they will simply get there, and every figurative step towards that finish purpose is performed out to a special tune that collectively makes up probably the greatest licensed soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a online game. Pleasure Division, The Treatment, The Smashing Pumpkins, and lots of extra carry a lot life to this recreation. One thing in regards to the becoming a member of of gaming and music has all the time been extremely highly effective to me, and Mixtape’s approach of bringing these items collectively sincerely blew my thoughts.
It is not that the gameplay aspect of Mixtape is very intricate. But it surely’s all the time altering. The foremost mechanic looks as if it’s going to be what you could have seen within the trailer: coasting downhill in a skateboard, dodging automobiles, flipping off cops, and stopping to sneak a few beers out of your home. However the recreation toys with not simply this format–like a later stage by which I led the police on a high-speed chase in a careening procuring cart–but additionally cleverly gamifies the group’s friendship and experiences in different methods. I laughed out loud after I was hit with a French-kissing minigame, the place every joystick managed one tongue, and I used to be free to mash and swirl the tongues collectively in what is certain to develop into a viral second.
In a later scene, the kids have been driving to a quick meals restaurant and blasting music alongside the best way, turning the second into an interactive headbanging mechanic by which you’d transfer to the music and rock out together with your buddies. There is no penalty for doing it poorly, and seemingly no demand you do it in any respect. Mixtape is basically on rails in a way, in that it is paced to play out almost the identical irrespective of how a lot you toy with the world in these fleeting however emotionally impactful methods. As an illustration, you do must French kiss for a bit, however even then, you’ll be able to maintain it going for much longer if you wish to, lengthy after the immediate tells you “that is sufficient.”
Mixtape is a tough recreation to explain. When you’re not one to search out music particularly transferring or necessary, you certainly will not discover the gameplay moments carry you thru to having the identical euphoric expertise I and lots of others had at SGF–I have been listening to lots of people name it their recreation of the present. Nevertheless, in the event you’re like me, and you’ve got some mushy nostalgia for the ’90s, a romantic view of bands like The Treatment, and a willingness to let an expertise be one thing fairly in contrast to a standard online game, you may seemingly come to the identical conclusion I’ve: Mixtape is transcendent.