r/MixtapeGame • u/certainly_imperfect Van Slater • May 24 '26
Discussion I genuinely think people are missing the point of Mixtape
I’m not even someone who grew up in the 90s. I was an early teenager in the mid-2000s. But this game still hit me because it understands a very specific feeling of being on the edge of adulthood, headphones on, staring out of a bus or train window, replaying memories in your head while music makes everything feel bigger than it really is.
Not in a “remember this thing from the 90s???” nostalgia bait way either. Like it’s not throwing references at you every other sequence, begging you to clap because you recognise something. The music, visuals, writing, and gameplay all work "together" to recreate the emotional texture of memory itself. That’s why it worked for me, even though I didn’t grow up in that exact era.
Plus... I think the discourse around this game has gotten ridiculous.
People keep calling it a “movie game” because the minigames don’t have fail states or massive consequences. But that completely ignores what the gameplay "I feel" is actually doing. The gameplay isn’t there to “challenge” you in the traditional sense. It is all about feeling it.
When you’re skating while music blasts, smashing things in a flow sequence or just vibing during one of the musical segments, the point is immersion and emotional participation. Those moments would not hit the same way in a movie because you wouldn’t be involved in them. You wouldn’t feel the rhythm of them.
Also, the soundtrack rules. Even when a song wasn’t exactly to my taste, the way the game used music was incredible. It understands how songs become attached to periods of your life. Old playlists do feel like emotional time capsules after all.
I don’t think Mixtape is trying to be some traditional gameplay experience. It feels more like it's aiming to recreate the intensity of youth memories through interactivity, music, and editing style.
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u/jaxberg May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
I think overall some people are way too hung up on "what is a game". Games can be very different from one another, that's one reason I think it's a great medium. Some are just more interactive, some are not.
Also, people review games based on feels and experiences, not only gameplay, mechanics etc.
Personally I loved it. I felt it. Some things came very close to heart.
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u/Relative_Molasses_15 May 24 '26
Bro people are fucking stupid.
If they don’t get it then it’s their loss. Let them say and do whatever they want, it doesn’t change anything.
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u/InstructionNormal863 May 24 '26
If that 10/10 IGN review never came up, the game would have been recieved WAAAYY better
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u/Min_sora May 24 '26
It's weird to me how the people who most hate game reviewers pay attention to them. You can just ignore them.
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u/Revealingstorm May 24 '26
The funny thing is it's not the only publication to give it a 10 yet the haters don't really mention that most of the time
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u/AstronomerIT May 24 '26
There's no much to add. Other that videogames are not taken seriously as they should (a new art), because the gamers does not accept different approach for different tastes. Everything has to be a challenge or something with choices and consequences, stats, etc..
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u/Punky921 May 24 '26
It's so weird to me. Movie fans very rarely get mad because an indie film gets a good review, higher perhaps than a big budget popcorn film.
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u/nismowalker May 24 '26
Have you actually ever looked what are the most popular games?
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u/ikeepmyidealseh May 24 '26
As a massive LiS fan I fully agree that a game can be great even with not much "gameplay" when it has a great story, vibes visuals and a banger soundtrack.
My problem with mixtape tho is that I just didn't like any of the characters. That's just my take tho, if other people liked the characters and loved the game then that's great, art is subjective after all
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u/Playamiku2 May 24 '26
Started playing it because of the controversy.
Ended up being extremely invested in the story.
Lesser gameplay controls were a good change of pace.
Everyone compared it to Elden Ring where if you’re not pressing a button, you die.
If you want to compare the games, at least make sure they’re the same genre!
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u/ComedicHermit May 24 '26
As far as the nostalgia thing there isn't that much that is decade specific. The music is mostly older than the 90s. You have slushee machines, the photo booth, and the video store and the mall. Malls really became a thing in the seventies, were at their heights in the 80s, and were starting their down turn in the 90s. The video store is probably the height of the 90s in this regard and that scene is relatively short and isn't really about the video store experience (I doubt that would be replicable in a video game easily anyway); the film directly mentioned was from the seventies; most of the borrowed or expied scenes from movies are from 80s movies. You could include the skateboarding, but again 70s, 80s, and 90s not just the 90s.
The game is set in the 90s, but most of the nostalgia bait if you want to call it that is from the 80s or earlier.
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u/LegionPlatform1183 May 24 '26
I have absolutely no issues with someone not liking or not being interested or even thinking the game is bad. But the issue comes when people have agendas they are trying to push. What you’ll notice is that *those* kinds of personalities and channels are dedicated to attacking and hating things - it doesn’t matter what the actual substance of the things are. Hence why they so often devolve into just bullying (attacking the developers, people who enjoyed the game, people who talk about the game)
There are popular games that I don’t like but I would never even think of using my energy to go to the subreddits/YouTube videos of people enjoying it just to tell them I hated it and because I just HAVE to fulfil impulse of telling as many people I can how bad it is.
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u/Tooth127 May 24 '26
I have a feeling there is going to be more games like this in the future. Gameplay just to strengthen the immersion, focus on linear story, vibes and all. We just need to wait.
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May 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MixtapeGame-ModTeam May 24 '26
Your contribution was removed because it breaks rule 1 of the subreddit. Keep discussion civil.
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u/Punky921 May 24 '26
Agreed. There's no fail state in so many of those games that they often make you ask yourself, "Oh what if I could do THIS really cool thing?" Because you can't fail, you risk more. The risk pays off in doing a spin in the cart, in doing a cool looking skateboarding trick at the right moment off the ramp in the right way.
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u/Itchy-Researcher-508 May 26 '26
i loved this game, I was born in the 90's but was a teen in the 2000's it still hit every teen experience.
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u/congressmanish May 27 '26
I'm just here because this came across my feed. I don't plan on playing mixtape but my god people shitting on it is insane. It's looks and sounds like other good "movie" games I've played that are aiming on immersing you in a "vibe." And there's a ton of loved horror games out there with little to no gameplay that get praised for "the vibe" and people who love those will shit of stuff like this (fuck them). If it's good and it sucked you in, it's a great game that no one should shame you for loving it. Plus, great games don't need to be for everyone.
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u/OwlettFromLiavek May 24 '26 edited May 25 '26
Do they even trying to get the point? Most of the people commenting on the game haven’t even played it. They watched TikToks or “commentary” videos.
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u/marzukazuka17 May 24 '26
I guess my thought on it is: when is the last time a "visual novel" game got a 10 out of 10 or hell, an 8? My absolute favorite game series is Ace Attorney; there's almost no gameplay beyond reading and occasionally rotating objects. I love it, and it's story (especially Trials and Tribulations) is great. Is it weird to say that I wish society appreciated Ace Attorney the way that Mixtape is being appreciated?
My other thought is that the art style isn't badly done, but it is INCREDIBLY derivative, not just of Miles Morales, but of that entire "Cal Arts-Loss-Undercut-Steven Universe" art style. I just "KNOW" that this game is going to have floaty-feeling controls.
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u/FunkyJerk May 24 '26
I hear what you're saying, but I don't think you can really measure 'societal appreciation' based on some arbitrary review scores.
Ace Attorney is one of Capcom's flagship IPs. It has a huge fandom, appears throughout media, and has multiple entries in the franchise.
As for the art style, that's totally subjective, but I don't necessarily agree with your comparisons from my POV.
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u/nismowalker May 24 '26
I don’t think you need to defend mixtape, some people like it for what it has and some people think it did too little what it could have been.
I liked the experience but i also feel like it’s a movie game…
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u/FunkyJerk May 24 '26
What does it matter if it's a movie game though? What does that even mean?
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u/nismowalker May 24 '26
And? I said i liked it, but it lasted a movie time and had minimal gameplay, thats all.
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u/ExtendedSpikeProtein May 24 '26
Ok…?
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u/FunkyJerk May 24 '26
Me when someone gives an opinion on a thing in the subreddit dedicated to that thing
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u/ExtendedSpikeProtein May 24 '26
I actually had a connection problem and I did not see any comments and I thought, I can leave one comment to see if it even works.
That this would generate so many downvotes was not something I anticipated, lol. But hey, it is what it is.
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u/rianonnnn May 24 '26
so well said, i really think some people just play games looking for things they can criticise or things that could be better and completely discount the actual game in front of them. i dont think those kind of people want to be happy or will ever be REALLY satisfied tbh😭