I am immediately suspicious when woke game websites give something a 10/10 across the board.
☝️Those are the galactic-level scores for "Mixtape," a game developed by Australian company Beethoven & Dinosaur for all the major game systems. According to Wikipedia, the game is "inspired tonally and visually by 1980s coming-of-age films similar to the work of John Hughes," and it's engineered to be a veritable nostalgia dump:
Teens Stacy Rockford, Van 'Slater' Slater and Cassandra Morino are best friends in the fictional northern California town of Blue Moon Lagoon in the 1990s; Stacy and Van have known each other since they were kids, while Cassandra, the daughter of the local police chief, joined them during high school, seeking to be rebellious against her strict parents. The game's events as well as the character's backstories are told as parts of memories and playable vignettes throughout the game, such as skateboarding down a hilly road, slinging rocks across a pond, or exploring a run-down dinosaur park.
A sampling of the critical reactions:
A musical delight from start to finish that sets a new standard for coming-of-age stories in games.
The nostalgic antics of a trio of tenacious teens make for silly yet undeniably enjoyable gameplay.
Mixtape is an adventure game with immaculate vibes, urging gamers to experience something unique, heartfelt, rebellious...
If minimal interaction, beautiful animation, and a strong coming-of-age story are in your wheelhouse, Mixtape is a must-play.
Sounds compelling!
Well, may I present, a mini-game where you make two teens French kiss:
[Warning: Super gross, but apparently 10/10?]
That's not all. Most gamers take issue with the 3-hour game being called a "game" when it mostly plays out like a movie, devoid of user input.
One player put it succinctly: "It isn't even a video game. It literally plays itself."
[Warning: Language in some of the following videos]
Many social media reviews underscore this element of the gameplay — namely, there is no gameplay, just a sort of running digital narrative.
Even in cases where you are able to do something, well, it doesn't seem like there is actually much to do:
And even when there's sort of something to do, the stakes are apparently more or less nonexistent — it is apparently impossible, in any event, to "lose" the game:
Evidently one of the climaxes of this "game" is when a daughter (AKA the feminist game devs) addresses her police-officer father (AKA the patriarchy) with some sort of heroic woke girl boss confrontation:
And yes, it's as absurd as it looks:
A misplaced firework causes the shack to catch fire, ending the party, and as the police arrive, Stacy, Slater, and Cassandra make to leave, but Cassandra decides to stay back, telling her father she had set the shack on fire as an act of defiance against her parents' strict upbringing, which she will continue to rebel if they hold her back. Her father acknowledges they have an understanding...
Ah, yes, the 1990s, when strict LEO fathers let their daughters go after committing acts of arson.
Here's a good summary that I saw:
Mixtape Works Better as a Vibe Than a Game
I think I'll just stick with Super Mario World, thank you very much!
Watch our latest video 👇
