If anyone were to proclaim Mixtape as some kind of multimedia masterpiece, I would tell them they hadn’t seen enough movies, nor played enough video games. I would, however, appreciate their taste in music. While the titular MacGuffin serves as a melancholic time capsule, the rest of the experience is an empty derivative of cinematic nostalgia.
Mixtape follows three youth spending their last evening together in Blue Moon Lagoon – uncoolly, yet repeatedly, referred to by our lead trio as The Big Suck. It’s a narrative title in which, as per the developer’s synopsis, you play through “a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation.” The creators didn’t appear to have many original memories of their own, relying instead on cultural touchstones left by others. This is perhaps most evident in its adherence to fourth-wall-breaking song introductions reminiscent of titles like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and High Fidelity. Mixtape’s dependence on the player’s reverence for cultures past was constant: Unfortunately, I had seen its scenes elsewhere first, better, and with less pomp and circumstance. Praise, then, is best reserved for the references, not for those who reference. What remains is a composite shot of the coming-of-age form without an identity of its own, which is ironic, as finding one’s true self is a quintessential feature of the genre. And because the gameplay is as minimal as it is, cinematographic and narrative choices are the only areas where any boundary-pushing could have been achieved. Yet, in this comparison, Mixtape just doesn’t match its competition:
Want to rediscover the magical realism of childhood? Try Weston Razooli’s Riddle of Fire. Recount the legends of adolescence? David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of the American Sleepover. Embark on a road trip with teen misfits? The Ross Brothers’ Gasoline Rainbow. Feel empowered? Emma Seligman’s Bottoms. Witness radical ethnographies of high school trauma? Gus Van Sant’s Elephant and Paranoid Park. Etc.
These titles might not always succeed, but they dare to be different and challenge their audience. If critics are left impressed by Mixtape, the industry has yet to mature.
As to the game’s integration of music. I’d rather play the CD.
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