Mixtape
Developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur · Annapurna Interactive
Narrative Adventure · PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch 2 · 2026-05-07
“The most divisive three hours in gaming this year, a gorgeous coming-of-age mixtape that critics handed a 10 and players handed a receipt.”
Mixtape follows three teens reliving their memories on the last night of high school, soundtracked by a needle-drop playlist and rendered with the kind of art direction that makes you stop and just look. Beethoven and Dinosaur built a genuinely beautiful, emotional thing, and critics responded with near-perfect scores and an OpenCritic average that briefly made it the best-reviewed game of the year. On pure craft and feeling, it earns the praise.
Then the players showed up with a calculator. Three hours long, twenty dollars, no fail states, no real mechanics, mostly cinematic moments and light interaction. Half the audience called it a moving interactive film, the other half called it a glorified cutscene wearing a price tag, and the whole thing detonated into the loudest is-this-even-a-game fight of 2026. When the discourse runs longer than the runtime, you have made something.
The honest answer is that both camps are right and nobody wants to hear it. Mixtape is a lovely, slight, deeply felt experience that absolutely is a game, and it is also three hours of nostalgia that lives or dies on whether ninety minutes of mood is worth your twenty bucks. Annapurna did not make a bad game. They made a Rorschach test with a killer soundtrack.
- 01
Stunning art direction and a needle-drop soundtrack that carries real emotional weight.
- 02
A genuinely moving coming-of-age story told in tight, memorable vignettes.
- 03
Near-universal critical acclaim, briefly the highest-rated game of 2026 on OpenCritic.
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At twenty dollars and on Game Pass day one, the barrier to trying it is low.
- 01
A roughly three-hour runtime that leaves many players feeling short-changed.
- 02
Almost no traditional mechanics or fail states, fueling the is-this-a-game backlash.
- 03
Heavy reliance on nineties nostalgia that can tip from evocative into hollow.
- 04
A central character, Stacey, that some players found too self-absorbed to root for.
Players who loved the mood of narrative gems like Florence or Before Your Eyes and care more about feeling than fail states.
Anyone who measures value in hours-per-dollar or needs mechanics, challenge, and a loss screen to call something a game.
Your website, CV, or whatever you made. I'll roast that too.
A full teardown from €2,99. No mercy.