‘Mixtape’ Review: “Independent” Game and the Infinite Clowning

With me being a massive fan of narrative-driven video games, I’m always on the prowl for the next great video game story. I feel that it adds an extra layer of interactivity that cinema will never have. It wasn’t until this past Thursday that I discovered Beethoven & Dinosaur’s Mixtape, published by Annapurna Interactive. This game takes massive inspiration from teen flicks of the 80s/90s to give players a unique narrative experience following a group of friends on their last night together before college tears the trio apart. While writer-director Johnny Galvatron probably thought this was closer to an animated John Hughes movie, it comes across like a more competent Netflix original (make of that what you will). 

Mixtape follows a trio of friends, spearheaded by pretentious music fanatic Stacey Rockford (Bella DeLong), with her childhood best friend and the most relaxed of the group, Van Slater (Max Korman), and rage-filled softball player with a police officer for a father, Cassandra Morino (Jessica Ma), as the group reminisces about their “greatest hits,” set to 28 licensed songs on their final night together before Rockford travels to New York City to fulfill her dreams of becoming a music supervisor. In the cold open, set to Devo’s “That’s Good,” Rockford breaks the fourth wall as she lets players know her philosophy: make playlists to look back on, because soon you won’t be listening to just the music, you will hear who you used to be. While this concept is inherently fascinating and could be the basis for a great story explaining one’s relationship to music, the game’s need to, well, be a video game, is entirely where my problems with this lie. 

Mixtape is an experience that I will say would definitely have made for a better movie than it is a video game, as the need to constantly give the player “control” in between narrative beats bogs the experience down, as I just wanted to get to the next sequence in the story. Sure, there are some fun aspects of the gameplay, which include skateboarding to Smashing Pumpkins’ “Love” as you flip off objects you pass by, causing them to explode, controlling two tongues wrestling to Alice Coltrane’s “Galaxy in Turiya”, and driving a runaway shopping cart as you’re chased by the cops. Unfortunately, every other gameplay vignette feels like it should’ve ultimately been something I was watching, rather than playing. While the discourse for this game online has been an absolute cesspool of nonsensical takes, one thing I’d like to touch on is the fact that people have been comparing this game to recent narrative experiences like Dispatch or some of the Telltale games like The Walking Dead.

The issue with that is that experiences like Dispatch or The Walking Dead have infinitely more complex gameplay mechanics than Mixtape does. Sure, players are passive for most of the experience as they are story-driven, but players are given choices that impact the story. In Mixtape, no matter what you do during said gameplay sections, there is no consequence whatsoever on the narrative of the game. With that being said, why is this not just a movie? I mean, it’s clearly inspired by countless coming-of-age classics and even uses the same animation style that Into the Spider-Verse made popular (please stop using this style of animation; it’s lost most of its effect). Even so, the publisher of the game, Annapurna Interactive, has also produced countless independent films over the last decade. Which brings me back to the backlash this game is facing. It presents itself as an independent video game, but it has infinitely more resources than what would be considered an “independent” video game these days. For example, Annapurna Interactive is a studio founded by Megan Ellison, daughter of the sixth richest person in the world, Larry Ellison, and sister to Paramount head David Ellison, so it’s not like there was a shortage of resources during development. There are also 28 licensed songs in the game, and while the music is the driver of the narrative, those songs aren’t cheap when you add the cost altogether. Adding to this, Annapurna sent out care packages including the game’s soundtrack, old-school headphones, and a custom compact disc player featured in the game to numerous gaming content creators. With something portraying itself as independent and having a boatload of money to use at its disposal, it has rubbed gamers online the wrong way.

Now, this isn’t to say Mixtape is all bad, as there are some genuinely heartwarming moments between the main characters, a phenomenal soundtrack that elevates the gameplay sequences that lack depth, and there are some fun sequences that capture the essence of being young and dumb with your favorite people in the world. The performances from the trio are believable, even if a lot of their dialogue is painful to listen to. For those who want to watch a movie that pauses itself numerous times so you can dilly-dally about in the world, Mixtape is for you. If you were expecting something similar to a Telltale point & click game, you will be sorely disappointed, me? I’m in the middle. While it’s not the worst game ever created, like Twitter will have you believe, it’s also no masterpiece as countless critics have lauded, and ultimately is an experience I would’ve enjoyed more if I had no control while witnessing this story unfold from the comfort of a multiplex.

Mixtape was written and directed by Johnny Galvatron, developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur, and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game stars Bella DeLong, Max Korman, Jessica Ma, JB Tadena, Monique Thomas, Tessa Stokes, Ally Dixon, and Piotr Michael.

Mixtape was released on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch on May 7th by Annapurna Interactive.

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