I heard about Mixtape in passing before its release, but did not really give it much thought or attention at the time. Once it released and received perfect or near perfect scores from so many outlets, I became curious and decided to see what this game was all about. After playing it though, I have to say I do not get why this game is getting so much praise.
Mixtape is a narrative adventure game, and I am sure you have seen the viral clips of people putting down their controllers and letting the game play itself, and that actually does happen in many sections. There is gameplay involved, but not that much to be honest. This is not at all like games such as Life is Strange or Heavy Rain, which were also cinematic narrative adventure games, because those games did involve actual gameplay and choices did matter in Life is Strange, and other narrative adventure games like Dispatch, which would affect the outcome of the story.
Mixtape just has a few failstates every so often and all that happens is that the game rewinds a few seconds and has you try again without consequences. If anything, Mixtape does not feel like a game, but a movie with minimal interactivity that wants to tell a story about coming of age in the 1990s. But even that is something the game gets wrong.
The 90s as seen in Mixtape, is not the 90s as it actually was. It feels like the developers were born either in the late 90s or after the 90s and were nostalgic for an era they never experienced. Whatever research they did, was insufficient, as it was full of errors, such as the wrong headphones, which are actually based off of modern headphones done in a 90s style, but not what actual headphones looked like. Fixing the cassettes is also done wrong, as fixing them had to be done a specific way, while here it just feels like the developers heard about using pencils to fix tapes and did not do proper research.
Also, while mixtapes were still a thing in the late 90s, CDs were far more common at this time, especially among teens. It does not help that the characters, most of whom are extremely unlikable and hard to root for, act nothing like teens from the 90s would act. Mixtape is a game that feels like a fake 90s reference made by people who did not actually experience the 90s. The anachronisms stick out like a sore thumb, and give the experience of someone who was born into the internet era and grew up on social media’s take on what the 90s was.
It feels like Mixtape was conceived as a coming of age movie set in the 90s, but ended up as a game somehow. And here is the thing, if you like that, that is fine. I just do not understand why this game is getting so much praise. Some of the sections where there is gameplay just feels awkward to play due to how bizarre it is, and when a game like MOUSE: P.I. For Hire gets more nitpicking and criticism from the people lavishing praise on Mixtape, despite being infinitely more creative, I just am left wondering what people want in a video game, compared to what players want.
Maybe it is just me, but Mixtape feels like a game that does not deserve this attention or praise and is just kind of there. It does less than most narrative adventure games, many of which are trying to be innovative in terms of gameplay, making Mixtape feel lazy in comparison. Like I said, if you like it, that is fine, but this one just leaves me scratching my head.