Stacey Rockford is about to move to New York to follow her dreams, potentially leaving her friends and hometown forever. It’s the end of an era, the death of their childhoods, and the ticking clock has serious emotional weight. I love coming-of-age stories, but Mixtape stands out even among my favorites for how well it nails its earnest, whimsical tone, treating life milestones with grave sincerity. Its stellar writing, concise runtime, and inspired use of its licensed soundtrack make it an instant classic and a heartfelt trip down memory lane.
Rockford and friends drive down the coastline as Rockford conducts the fireworks in the sky.
To commemorate their final day together, Rockford puts together a playlist to score her remaining time with her best friends, Van Slater and Cassandra Morino. That titular mixtape plays in the background (and sometimes the foreground) for the game’s full three- to four-hour length. The songs are similar to playable music videos, with developer Beethoven & Dinosaur providing light interactivity to engage with the story. You do skate tricks as you cruise down a hill, take photos, skip rocks on a lake, hit baseballs, and float listlessly through a rainy day. They’re incredibly varied, with few repeated mechanics, and they never overstay their welcome; I didn’t measure, but I’d be surprised if any segments lasted more than three minutes. I greatly enjoyed these, as they functionally make the player a more active participant in an otherwise passive experience. It’s heavily dialogue and cutscene-driven, but I played the whole game without setting my controller down.
It helps that Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra are an amazing trio of characters, each with much more depth than meets the eye. I especially appreciate the work that went into writing Rockford. It’s clear that the concept of “a mixtape game” was conceived mechanically before the story was written, but Beethoven & Dinosaur really thought about the kind of person who would insist on listening to one playlist all day long. How would she feel about music? Why would that structure be so important to her? The concept was developed into a fully fleshed-out character, with a great supporting cast to contrast her romantic view of the world.
Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra drunkenly stargaze on the hood of a car.
Of course, Mixtape also has a killer soundtrack. As someone with a more modern taste in music, I recognized very few of the game’s songs, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Rockford is correct that she has a cosmic talent for picking the right song for every moment, because the playlist was both fitting and sonically diverse. And for being a collection of licensed tracks, Beethoven & Dinosaur did a killer job editing each song to fit the minigames’ varied lengths, and the transitions between tracks are seamless.
If I have any gripes with Mixtape, it’s with the pacing in the game’s first half, but even that’s a minor complaint. After Rockford and friends declare their intent to prepare for and attend an epic beach party, most of the opening is instead a trip down memory lane, with Rockford touching various keepsakes in a series of bedrooms to reminisce about her past with her friends. I don’t dislike this section; it provides important, worthy context for the characters and their relationships, but playing so many memories back-to-back made me slightly impatient.
Rockford and Cassandra talk on the phone.
By contrast, gameplay in Mixtape’s second half is more grounded in the modern day and has higher stakes, as players don’t know what will happen next. The game is so short that this pacing issue isn’t much of a hurdle, and ultimately accentuates my enjoyment of the game’s conclusion. Rockford’s whimsical view of the world isn’t limited to her perception of the past; it’s how she lives her whole life.
Mixtape has an incredible atmosphere, and like my favorite coming-of-age stories, makes me nostalgic for a life I never lived. I do not often finish reviewing a game and immediately contemplate my next playthrough, but I am certain I will be replaying Mixtape for years to come. Rockford and her friends are right to feel emotional at this story’s bittersweet ending, but as the player, I’m lucky enough to add this game to my rotation to play again and again.
