REVIEW: Mixtape is a stunning artful testimony to music, adolescence, and the power of whimsy

We've all had that moment with music. The indie movie moment where a perfect song plays at a perfect time to seal a moment in your memory for time immemorial.

For me, it came in the most unexpected of places. Church.

I'm not a religious man but I was meeting some family at church during a service. It was one of the first times I'd come home to San Diego since leaving for Oregon and I was on the brink of attempting something very important and serious. I found myself standing near the front of this large room as the pastor started passionately speaking about something while a drummer on stage started riffing behind him. Before long, a full band broke into some magical Christian rock. The words didn't matter; the intent didn't matter. Only the thumping in my chest and the feeling that came with it: that what I was about to do was more consequential than anything I'd ever done.

Music has power. And on the brink of what feels like the most important event in the lives of three teens, Mixtape brilliantly showcases that power in an incredible coming-of-age tale unlike anything else you'll play this year.

It's an exploration of friendship and love, the bone-deep kind . . . that many of us chase desperately as we get older, when the world separates us from our chosen people.

​Just the Facts

Developer: Beethoven and Dinosaur

Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

​Platform(s): PC, PS5*, Xbox Series S and X, Nintendo Switch 2 *denotes platform reviewed on

​Price: $19.99

Release Date: May 7, 2026

Review key provided by publisher.

Mixtape is the second project from Beethoven and Dinosaur, an Australian studio led by Johnny Galvatron, the lead singer of the band The Galvatrons and one of the minds behind the transformative 2021 release The Artful Escape. With their debut, Beethoven and Dinosaur showcased a deep understanding of the utility of music in an artistic endeavor, an ability to produce some truly otherworldly visuals, and the capacity to use both of those things to craft a unique story based in finding one's identity.

Mixtape is, pardon the musical pun, all of that turned up to 11.

As the disc starts spinning on this story, in the 1990s, players drop into the lives of three "delinquent" teens, Stacy Rockford, Van Slater, and Cassandra Morino. Three best friends standing on the edge of many things: the end of summer, the hopeful end of the malaise of small town life they call "The Big Suck," and the unspoken dread of the end of their time together. Rockford is leaving town in the morning, heading to New York in pursuit of her dream career as a music supervisor. That decision has upended the final journey this trio was meant to embark on, a road trip to end all road trips that would take Cassandra off to college.

Rockford is committed. She understands music. She knows what tune fits the moment better than anyone. And while the friends' final day together is fraught with things left unsaid, all three know that the soundtrack will be perfect.

And so they grab their skateboards, barrel down a hill to Devo's "That's Good," and begin their last best night together.

Mixtape drips with comforting nostalgia — an ode to simple times, where figuring out how to acquire booze for the night is the biggest concern. When petty rivalries with schoolmates dictate where you go and when. When the people who choose to spend that time with you are the most important human beings, and no one else could ever compare.

Where the specific place and time of Mixtape won't resonate with every player's teenage nostalgia, the adolescent attachments at its core just might.

It's an exploration of friendship and love, the bone-deep kind that's shared through shoulder shoves and the kind of precise button-pushing that only comes with the most privy, sincere understanding of one another. The kind of love that many of us chase desperately as we get older, when the world separates us from our chosen people after decades keeping us in close contact with each other. There's a potent nostalgia present throughout the experience for anyone who has ever had to say goodbye to those people. For those who "got out of their hometown" but at the expense of these connections and memories that will follow you forever.

It's a love letter to whimsy, to seeing the world with charmed eyes. To letting the music flow through you. To letting your emotions explode out of you regardless of shame. As Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra roam between their hangout spots, they reminisce on their core memories and remember them as the bigger-than-life moments they always were. A day exploring an abandoned amusement park turns into a time traveling journey. A night spent chatting on a rooftop sharing vulnerabilities turns into friends floating into the sky.

Mixtape is a special project that'll have you smiling big or crying or laughing — and never wanting any of it to stop.

A big part of what makes all of that sing is the soundtrack. Pulling liberally from the '80s and '90s, both from the era's coming-of-age films and its wildly varied musical styles, Beethoven and Dinosaur do in fact build the perfect soundtrack to accompany each and every moment. Mixtape is almost a jukebox musical, with tunes that perfectly punctuate every single moment and help the mood of the scene sink into you. One particularly grin-inducing scene sees Rockford flailing a baseball bat toward balls shot out of a pitching machine, lamenting that the bat is simply too small for anyone to do any real damage. Good girl turned rebel Cassandra grabs the bat and, timed perfectly to her first home run swing, Stan Bush's "The Touch" breaks out as the stadium around her slowly begins to shift with each successive hit.

Mixtape knows how to amplify the frantic energy of running from the cops just as well as it is able to pull hard-fought tears out of you at a friend's betrayal, all with a well-timed tune.

From the moment I first saw Mixtape announced, the John Hughes energy of it all was well apparent. But only after rolling credits on the 2–4 hour adventure did I realize just how well Mixtape emulated the iconic needle drops of films of the era. As you progress through the night and traipse through the trio's memories, Rockford pulls a Ferris Bueller and introduces each new track directly to the audience.

The vocal performances of the Mixtape cast — Bella DeLong, Max Korman, and Jessica Ma fulfilling the roles of Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra respectively — bring you right back to the era in their own way. Each with their own distinct take on the monotone nasal droning typical of kids in the '90s, delivering every "chyeah" and "duuude," the cast feels lifted directly out of a bygone decade in the most delightful way, without ever crossing over into being caricatures.

I will note that the game does not have any special tracks for streamers or content creators. So if you do plan on streaming or making videos about this game, don't expect to avoid the usual repercussions. But it's worth it to experience the game as it's intended, for this game as it lives and dies by this soundtrack, and denying yourself that joy is not worth it.

So what's playing Mixtape like? It's a grab bag of interactive experiences with simple mechanics. Each musical sequence in the game is accompanied by some unique gameplay gimmick. Some are much less involved, the gaming equivalent of a cutaway gag, and others are full setpieces that last the full length of some great songs. You'll guide a shopping cart down a busy city street, using both analog sticks to keep it steady. You'll leap through an open field after exploring a forest with friends. You'll skip rocks on a lake.

It's ostensibly a series of interactive music videos with a connecting narrative, each with its own unique gameplay twist.

All of the gameplay is simple, easy to understand, and goofy fun, meant to engage you in the cinematic experience that is Mixtape.

It's how you'll feel during these bespoke gameplay sequences that'll stand out more than how they play. Accompanied by whichever track in the mix is playing and some fun mixed-media visual tricks that Beethoven and Dinosaur employ here, you'll feel transported into these scenes. You'll soar alongside these kids and feel the pressures of barreling down a city street on your skateboard when it's powered by the thumping electronic beats of Devo. It's ostensibly a series of interactive music videos with a connecting narrative, each with its own unique gameplay twist.

One of my favorite bits, visually, is when the kids think back to a night spent driving around town and the scene plays out like it's being filmed for a music video. The car is up on a stand; screens outside the windows play scrolling feeds of a city or wilderness whipping by. The kids lurch out of the windows "dangerously" and the camera isn't shy about showing you the equipment making this scene a reality just on the edges of the frame. A nod to the era, a nod to the artistry of filmmaking, and a nod to the dreamy memories we make and how we choose to remember them.

Another fun thing comes in the lower frame rate animation of each character against the scenery, the stop motion-like effect popularized by the Spider-Verse films. Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra are clearly out of step with this town, with their peers — and by animating them a step slower than everything else as they navigate this city as a unit one last time, it really emphasizes how out of place they are in their environment and how in sync they are with one another as a unit.

Beethoven and Dinosaur are just as much visual wizards as they are sonic ones, with the cinematic framing of certain gameplay sequences and cutscenes consistently blowing me away. Their team of artists aren't just great curators, folks.

In a world that seems built to stamp the whimsy out of us as we grow older, projects like Mixtape unleash us from society's shame and remind us to celebrate every moment like it's the climax of your favorite movie. Because one day you'll have to say goodbye. And wouldn't you hope that, whenever you do, you made it the sickest story to tell on your way out? Beethoven and Dinosaur sure did.

Video Games Are Good and Mixtape is . . . TRANSCENDENT. (10/10)

+ a banging soundtrack full of killer needle drops, an emotional tale of deep friend love, one of the most unique single-sitting games you'll experience

- light on mechanics, content creation guidelines present obvious challenges

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