Hi, I'm Palipilino!
PC
6/17/2026
There's a definite benefit to experiencing games completely on your own without any time to build up preconceived biases or expectations. It's great to be a part of a community of like-minded folks who share your hobbies, of course, but this almost invariably—intentionally or otherwise—can lead to you having certain subconscious feelings built towards a game before you even get the chance to sit down with it. And this is just for your average game; when it comes to titles that receive a large amount of (usually adverse) attention, approaching it with an open mind, even if you are actively trying to do so, can be difficult.
This is something that just tends to happen every so often, unfortunately, and the most recent high-profile victim at the time of writing has been Mixtape, a 2026 narrative game published by Annapurna. Off the back of its 10/10 review score from IGN (and comparable high-scoring reviews from other outlets), it became a target of, just, the worst kind of people. You know, culture war, anti-woke, "Gamergate" folks. The worst.
The criticisms for Mixtape from the very vocal minority (many of whom likely haven't played it) are likely only giving the game more publicity, and if you are a sensible person who reviles at Gamergate and anti-woke culture, you might feel obliged to go to bat for Mixtape as a stand-in for a more accepting ideology. And this is how you have a lot of folks with very strong opinions about a game they haven't and probably will never play. And if they did...they'd probably see there's not all that much to get worked up over.
| Played For | 4h 0m |
|---|---|
| Completion Type | Ending w/ Half Achievements |
| Favorite Minigames | Skateboarding & Batting Practice |
| Not-So-Fun Suggestion | Do not go to the IGN comments on their review of this game... |
Some of the more common criticisms of Mixtape that haven't resorted to full-on brain rot are that it's very short and that it plays more as an interactive walking sim than it does a proper video game. Some folks go as far as to say it shouldn't have been a game at all and would be better served as a movie. This criticism is confusing, though, as Mixtape is always at its best and its most evocative when it gives you control. The game plays out through a series of vignettes, either in the past or present day, and without fail, its most impactful moments come when the soundtrack and the gameplay combine.
Mixtape is a coming-of-age game, largely inspired by John Hughes films of the 80s and 90s, and it makes no secret of its nostalgic influence. But when it puts you in control, brings those strong teenage emotions to the forefront, and lets you experience them firsthand in the way only a game can? Those are really magic. The game's opening scene is utterly fantastic at that, and later scenes of escaping the police in a runaway shopping cart, doing some batting practice, or simply just running through a grassy field...they just utilize the game's well-constructed soundtrack to great effect, and it can pull emotions out of you easily. This is a game about growing up in general, but it would be more accurate to say it's a game about reminding you what it felt like when you were growing up. Everything seemed so momentous. Mixtape's gameplay does a great job at capturing that.
Which is why the claims it would have made a better movie than game are so confusing. The narrative of Mixtape is safe, harmless, and relatively stale. It's risk-free and utterly inoffensive. The characters are relatively one-note and not all that enjoyable, and nothing really changes from the beginning of the game to the end. All their development seemingly has happened in the past or will happen sometime in the future.
The dialogue is cringy, but likely in an intentional way; Rockford is emblematic of the pretentious music nerd know-it-all teenager who doesn't actually know that much, and while the character is generally annoying, she also probably reminded you of someone in your high school within a few minutes of meeting her, so it's hard to say that it's not representative of the times. That doesn't make it that much easier to sit through some of the game's worse-written moments, though.
But really, Mixtape is just your typical run-of-the-mill story with a slight musical twist. And it's a great soundtrack, keep in mind. We've just seen this kind of story before, far too often for it to be anything fascinating. There are brief moments where it shines, but the lion's share of the game's best moments are a result of its presentation, atmosphere, and expression. It just is so hard to wrap one's head around why this game, of all games, was the one that perennially online capital-G gamers decided to set their sights on.
It's a great-looking and great-sounding game with some excellent moments interspersed into a mundane, run-of-the-mill narrative. How this type of game could offend anyone is a mystery. Is it a ten-out-of-ten unshakable masterpiece? No, of course not. But it has the power to move the player on more than one occasion and doesn't even require too much of a time investment to do it. That's good, right?