A Narrative Rollercoaster That is Hit After Hit After Hit
Stacey Rockford, the main character of Mixtape, sees her life as a Greatest Hits CD. She doesn’t remember the filler moments: she remembers the ‘hits’. It sounds like a world-view born out of nostalgia, but she’s actually being forward-thinking. If she approaches a situation with the intention of making it a future ‘hit’, then she will have a full and satisfying life that she can look back on positively. Embrace the moment, set it up for success, and you will have a memory for a lifetime. It’s a lovely way to approach life.
That philosophy translates over wholesale to Mixtape, the latest game from Beethoven & Dinosaur, the team behind The Artful Escape. Mixtape is presented as a Greatest Hits CD. Each scene is a song, and that song soundtracks a moment from the three main characters’ lives, from both their past and their present. And just as memory will amplify and distort what happens in your life, Mixtape does the same. Events are dialled up to 11. Riding on a shopping trolley becomes a car chase out of an episode of Cops. A moment of elation becomes a flight through the canopies of a forest.
Life is Better When it’s Strange
It’s Mixtape’s secret to success. If Life is Strange finds beauty in the mundane, Mixtape is about finding joy in the exaggerated. The events in Mixtape are true, at least from its characters’ perspective, and the writing, art and characters ensure they feel true. But from that solid foundation, Mixtape goes wild. The events and emotions are extrapolated to a ludicrous degree, which – of course – is incredibly fun to play. Sure, it’s fun to play a skateboarding sim. But what about a skateboarding sim with Burnout elements? A dollop of magic realism doesn’t only underline the feelings of the characters, it makes it joyous to play, too.
There were about four different moments – all skirting near spoilers – where my appreciation for Mixtape escalated to a new level. It was like a favourite pop song, adding instrumentation with each verse and then nailing it on the final chorus. I’ll try to blur the edges of these four escalating moments, so you can get a sense of why I love Mixtape so much without spoiling the whole thing for you.
A Compounding Sense of Brilliance
My first ‘moment’ was the art style, which hit me almost immediately. It won’t be clear from screenshots, but there’s a stopmotion-like, jerky framerate to the characters. I felt like I was watching something akin to Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox. But everything else, particularly the backdrops, are gorgeously realised. The characters are an ungainly, half-formed force in this beautiful world, which fits the themes of Mixtape. These are unrealised characters, trying to find their place.
The second moment came reasonably quickly after the first, and made me realise I was in good hands. There’s a memory from Rockford’s early romantic misadventures that is gross, sweet, hideous and hilarious all at once. I get the feeling that it’s going to be remembered in the same way as that eye scene in Dead Space, and that funeral scene in COD. It’s just so confident in its playfulness that I was very suddenly paying attention. I wanted to know what else was going to surprise me.
Then there’s the scene in a field. I wonder if others will find it to be the conversion moment that I did. It’s when I realised that Mixtape wasn’t just a nostalgic memoryfest, or a puckish narrative game. It was art, and it was capable of drawing huge balls of emotion out of me with the simple tap of an A button. It’s when I realised that I was playing something that everyone should play.
The fourth and final moment was personal to me, and I think that’s important. Because I suspect that almost everyone will have a moment in Mixtape that will resonate with them. Mine was in a rundown park (I’m only going to reveal that much) where a particular movie scene was recreated perfectly. Mixtape didn’t draw attention to the recreation, it just tossed it out like it was any other scene. But it gave me a glow all the same.
The Hunt for the Perfect Album
I know that there are flaws in Mixtape: too many for me to confidently slap a 5 out of 5 sticker on the review. The three main characters have Max Caulfield-itis on occasion, and talk like a teenager never would (I groaned at “this year I want to ride a flaming stallion of delinquency”). You could argue that dialogue like this is appropriate in the context of ‘heightened’ recollections.
The narrative structure is also lacking in stakes or even plot. Just like most Greatest Hits albums, it doesn’t have much of a through-line. There’s not much holding it together, other than a party that everyone is hurtling towards. And the music, even though it’s presented as eclectic, is very anglo-centric and white. It’s amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also a little narrow in a post-punk, shoegaze way.
But I want to look you earnestly in the eyes and say that, while Mixtape is a 4.5 out of 5, it’s a must-play 4.5 out of 5. It’s the opposite of a buzzkill. It’s a buzz-factory, pumping out moment after moment, joyous sensation after sensation. It’s impossible not to beam wildly as you play it. Even when I knew what was coming, and could tell exactly what the designers were doing, I was happy to be swept up and carried along like a big old loon.
As a gaming experience, I was reminded of The Beatles: Rock Band, of all things. Like that game, the wondrous, fantastic music is a springboard. It projected me forward with velocity, which is where the visuals and gameplay took over. Mixtape picked its songs wonderfully, from the well-known artists (Roxy Music, Joy Division, Siouxie and the Banshees) to the less known (Curtis Dunn, Mitch Murder, Abrahams and Mole), and then projected a starmap of gorgeous visuals and low-stakes gameplay.
To call Mixtape a ride is a little one-dimensional, as there are so many feelings to be had on the way. A ‘joyride’ fits Mixtape slightly better. A joyride with a tailor-made Greatest Hits tape playing along.
Important Links
Skate, Party And Relive Memories In Mixtape On Game Pass, Xbox, Switch, PlayStation, PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/skate-party-and-relive-memories-in-mixtape-on-game-pass-xbox-switch-playstation-pc/
Mixtape – Game Pass’ greatest hits of teenage friendship – https://www.thexboxhub.com/mixtape-game-pass-greatest-hits-of-teenage-friendship/
Download through the Xbox Store, via Game Pass if you like – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/mixtape/9nh0msg29x6l
