You CANNOT be serious..

Your IGN gave a 10 out of 10 to its latest game. What is this? It's called Mixtape. Yeah, I can look at this. Mixtape. What is this? It's a 10. True nostalgia isn't the replication of a specific place or time, but of a feeling. It's those flashes of emotion that transport us back into memories that have long sat dormant. I was born too late to be a teenager in the '90s. And believe it or not, with this accent, I grew up thousands of miles away from the schools of Northern California. I've barely stepped on a skateboard outside of a few scraped knees in the summer of 2003. But none of that matters. And mixtape knows this. Australian developer Beth Hovind and Dinosaur fills each and every moment of its coming of age tale with incredible music perfectly handpicked to set the tone for its free flowing chapters in a way only nostalgia can. As original as it is reverential, it's a masterfully constructed dose of new memories hinged brilliantly on how they remind us of our own. The coming of age story is perhaps my favorite framework in all of fiction. That longing for a time I didn't live in and being given a chance to hang out with friends who never knew me are sensations I find myself coming back to often. This is far far from the first video game to tackle the concept of course, but it might just be the first one to have nailed a tonal balance that hits just right for me. I've tried to enjoy the Life is Strange series more than once, but I've just found its dialogue a little too corny for my liking to fully get into. Mixtape, on the other hand, feels more rooted in how actual people talk and is all the better for it. Sweet without being saccharine, thoughtful, but never forced, and always funny. There have been noise complaints. Okay. The story centers on Stacy Rockford and her group of friends as they look to make the most of their last day together and reminisce about past adventures before she skips town to chase her dreams in New York. You aren't given choices here, but experience these fully formed characters. I think that we should make being a millennial against the law. I think that I think that's the only option we have left. I don't know what else we can do. I I I this is I mean hy jinks and heartaches warts and all and they feel all the more realistic for it. That's not to say their recollection of these adventures isn't laced with bllights of fantasy, though, as they've clearly been embellished in Rockford's mind, allowing each to be presented with lashings of style as if they were playable music videos. There's a great sense of spectacle later on that I wouldn't dare spoil, but I'm going to show you a couple of little clips here of the sort of thing you'll be getting up to earlier on, including like a trippy softball session and a police raid of a house party that you escape by hurtling downhill in a shopping cart. And these are all soundtracked by some brilliant songs. None of which I can sadly play for you here because YouTube won't like that. But trust me, the playlist is incredible. 3-hour game. Should I play it? Secret handshake. Holy [ __ ] Holy. And music is kind of a big theme of Beethhovven and Dinosaurs games. If you played their debut, The Artful Escape, you'd know they use psychedelic metaphor to tell a tale of self-expression. Psychedelic metaphor to tell a tale of Yeah, we need to make being a millennial against the law. And all the theater kids need to be put in like a re-education camp. You can either go into finance or you can go into welding. And uh if you don't, you're put on manual labor for the rest of your life. I don't know what else we can do. Like this is such a huge problem that I don't I don't know what to say. This is scary. I'm I'm worried. Though is far more grounded in its exploration of friendship and how those closest to us help us grow. It's a story that won't necessarily surprise, but will comfort and is often hilarious. It's like those aimless afternoons you spend with friends without any specific goal for what the day had in store. But you'd always end up learning something new about them, whether they'd want to reveal it or not. Obviously, those unlocked memories aren't yours. They're Rockfords. But these memories are just so well observed that they come across as universal, as if they could be ripped straight from your teenage Facebook or MySpace page if you're getting on a bit. Yeah. By your MySpace page. Like this is this is it's for [ __ ] this Facebook or MySpace. Like this is so millennial coded. This is insane. Holy. This me in many ways, it's best to treat mixtape well like a mixtape with no knowledge of where it will go next beyond a trust place. Please play this. There's no interest in fail states or high score chasing here. Instead, prioritizing existing in and enjoying the moment. It's simple mechanics. People didn't do that really. Like you you didn't you didn't do that really. I mean, I feel like, yeah, maybe it happened once or twice, but like that wasn't really even a thing. Like, this is the thing is like you, this kid is like too young to That's not even really what happened. I did. I didn't. I never I never knew anybody. It's in movies. Yeah. You egg cars like it's just with each twist aiming to elicit a fresh emotion through interactivity in a way that only video games can. That can be as simple as hitting a series of buttons to head back in rhythm to silver. I really wish that we could have a game that was made like this that was made by people that grew up and had friends. Can you imagine how good that game could be? And it like wasn't like a weird loser, dude. It would be so badass. Chaz freak. [ __ ] Cops. I don't know. Yeah. Are they gone? Or just having a good time designing your own slushies? I will admit, okay, to be fair, we did do that one time. A cop shined their light on us and we thought that if we looked forward and we didn't look at the cop, he wouldn't arrest us. To be fair, we did do that actually twice. From a selection of flavors. Some though are a little more out there, such as the recollection of Rockford's first kiss, where with each analog stick, you control the tongue, you awkwardly have to navigate a set of brace teeth until mercifully a button pops up at the bottom that says, "That's enough." It's funny, it's gross, but you know, I pressed that button as soon as I could. Each memory sequence spawns from estrogen maxing. Yeah, bro. Like, god, dude. Found around the world that smartly serves as the key to unlocking cherished memories. In this regard, mixtape is somewhat similar to what remains of Edith Finch. Although I'd never say nobody had boards like that. Nobody had a skate. The only people that had a skateboard like that were like 8-year-olds that you would throw rocks at. Like anybody that was actually skating, nobody like at least here in Austin, Texas. I I I've never seen a single one like that. Like everybody had just your traditional board. That was it. this. Yeah, it's from like the 80s or something like I remember that at all. Carries anywhere near the same amount of emotional weight as Giant Sparrow's masterpiece. Instead, sidelining deeprooted familial trauma for a focus on youthful joy. Any replay value is found in wanting to revisit these short pockets of fun. They won't change, nor will the relationships or conversations within them. But familiarity is at the core of nostalgia, and I can see myself treating Mixtape like one of those comfort films you pop on every couple of years. You know what's going to happen, so the surprise factor is gone. But spending time with these characters whose lives are only a Yeah, I have that like with uh Pulp Fiction or Englorious Bastards or V for Vendetta or uh Children of Men or Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, right? This few hours long is still valuable. That's probably why I've already played through its roughly 3-hour campaign three times already. Oh, it's only 3 hours. What are you doing? I try this. Hanging out, getting buzzed. Even he said it. I've got to get out of this place. I could play this [ __ ] Best friends Slater and Cassandra are excellent foils to Rockford 2, with an instant sense that these three have been a close-knit group instantly delivered via quick hit, sarcasm fueled jabs, and the sort of goofy noises spilling out of their mouths that only occur when you feel completely comfortable around someone. The writing and performances really do come across as just almost effortlessly natural, which is such a difficult thing to accomplish. Cassandra in particular has some standout scenes and ended up being my favorite of the bunch. Even if some aspects of her character change a little too abruptly to be 100% believable at certain parts in the story. I'm bored. I'm too young to be this bored. You want to get blackout drunk in a field? I can't. But the star of the show arguably is the music. Rockford herself is an aspiring Hollywood music supervisor and as such pop songs from the early '9s and decades before propel much of the adventure. Big artists are here but not always alongside their biggest hits. It's a nice touch as if someone like Rockford, a music connoisseur who dreams of a profession centered on unearthing audio gold to match a mood has curated the soundtrack. I particularly enjoy the way you can walk around and get her to comment and give analysis on some songs like some sort of Patrick Baitman with far less violent intentions. Portis head's debut album, Dummy, a must-have. Cinematic, ambitious, ahead of its time, just like me. The opening skate to DVO's That's Good is the perfect high energy pace setter. Whereas the scuzzy love by the Smashing Pumpkins provides a fantastic backdrop for some explosive angst. I'm This is just cra like This is crazy. This is really I think I'm gonna have to play this. I'm going to have to play This is Somebody has to put these theater kids in their place. Somebody has to put them where they belong. And it's going to have to be me. I'm going to play this tomorrow. I am. I'm going to play it tomorrow. I'm not download tomorrow. Plot twist is going to love it. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll love it. Maybe right now I'm just being an [ __ ] And because I think this like here's what it looks like to me. It looks like um life imitating art imitating life of an example of like people that are trying to relive an experience they never had. And because they're kind of like I think a lot of the people that make games like this are like weirdo losers. They're not able to like really capture the visceral feeling of it. And so they have to go off of like tropes like for an example the skateboard or um like tepeeing the house like you know being at the mall skateboarding in the mall there's like a core essence and I guess everybody people grow up they have different experiences right but I feel like this is mainly a this is basically like a game of telephone and it's being reduced to the Hollywood highlights. You see what I'm saying? Like not sure I felt a game connects so intrinsically to its music in such a charming way of wild hearts and only an slop is better. It consistently hits a delightful cross-section of games, music, and movies. From Dazed and Confused to Ladybird, it reminds me of some of my favorite coming of age stories without ever feeling like pastiches of them. Mixtape does this elegantly and with a genuine love for the genre its creators clearly hold close as Beth Hovind and Dinosaur itself comes of age with its sofa more effort. But it isn't just tonally looking towards cinema. It plays with the form in turn becoming a mixed media wonderland of a video game. There's the glorious, painstakingly handcrafted Spider-Versesque animation that enraptures at a glance. Makes me a grainy live action music video like editing. I'm getting so I'm getting so mad, bro. It's not afraid to experiment and I don't know why different styles on different scenes and is all the better for it, keeping things constantly fresh. Look, I was always going to be a narcissist nostalgia. As a coming of age movie lover with an ear often lent to the guitar music of decades past and someone who likes to indulge in the bittersweet sensation of melancholy, it's as if Beth Hovind and Dinosaur made this just for me. I mean, it even references David Sh's unused apocalyp. I've said before in a lot of these instances where it was people that um you know, they couldn't make the cut to be film critics or cinema critics or music critics and so they're video game critics, but they're trying to manifest that into the higher uh cultural valued level of being one of the other ones. I think this is like the perfect [ __ ] example of that. It's like your shitty [ __ ] your your shitty little story couldn't get made into a movie and so you made it into a video game 100%. Like, bro, it's not that deep. Like, I I I this [ __ ] No, no, cuz there's a whole there's a whole industry around this that makes me mad. Like, it's not just this that makes me mad. There's other things that make me mad, too. score in an early I can't help but fear I've been actively spied on. But the beauty of mixtape is that you don't need to be exactly the type of person it's for to get a lot out of it. Much like nostalgia, it brings out feelings you may have long forotten through faces and songs you may have never seen or heard before, but which bring familiar faded emotions with them all the same. It reminds me of times I once enjoyed, but in hindsight wish I'd held dear in the moment. It's a mistake I didn't let happen again with Mixtape as I savored each and every minute all the way to its final powerful button press. Oh, this section. This is what I'm talking about. Nostalgia is a bittersweet feeling, but one we can't help but fall into the clutches of whether by choice or not. It's a sensation immaculately captured by mixtape. A soulful journey that creates new memories you felt like you've had for years at every turn. Each song choice is perfectly matched to the novel vignette it backs, delivering a new fleeting joy with every chapter as surprising gameplay twists are woven throughout its funny yet touching campaign. A musical delight from start to finish. Mixtape sets a new standard for coming of age stories and video games and does so with a masterful sense of style. reviews director Tom Marks here with Simon Cardi, our reviewer for Mixtape to talk a little bit more about that very big number that just showed up at the end of the video. Uh, if you you probably You're going to give it a 10 out of 10. You're going to give this game a 10. He reviewed Death Stranding 2 for us. Astrobot, Overwatch, gave Crimson Desert a six. The one and two, Horizon Forbidden West, a bunch of stuff. Cardi, this is your fourth 10, I believe, over your long tenure at IGN. Yes, but guys, somebody has to put a stop to this. the amount of performative like theater kids that are involved in media nowadays is so [ __ ] bad. It's so [ __ ] bad. I'm so tired of it. Makes me so [ __ ] annoyed. And I know I I know that I'm probably overreacting, but I'm making up for the other times that I didn't react. Rage bait just for me. Yeah, this is this is like you make rage bait just for me. And like what I'm saying is like I I think that the reason why they're all rating this so highly is because it's this artsy musical experience. And it's like what I've said before about how the things that these people care about for video games, people that play video games don't give a [ __ ] about. So there's these overvaluations of musical score and you know uh ludo narrative dissonance. You have the um you know continuity. Um you know the the plot of the story. I don't know what the [ __ ] Crimson Desert. What the [ __ ] is the Why the [ __ ] did they How' they bring him back to what the [ __ ] I don't know. And then you fight some big thing in the air. What the Where the hell did he come from? I don't know. That game is amazing. So he did say he was from California. Oh. Oh. But I Oh, I I Okay. Never mind. Never mind. Okay. So, they're also rating it highly because critical reviews again on YouTube get taken down due to copyrighted music of the game. They think they're immune to bad reviews of it. Well, they didn't show the music. I don't think that's the reason why it has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, though. It's not critics only, though. All right. All right. I'm going to try it out. I'm going to try it out and see it for myself because I certainly don't feel that way. It doesn't feel that way to me at all. So, it seems like a silly game. And I feel like really now I want to know what the truth is. I want to know what the truth is. I want to know if it's actually any good or not. Because if it is good, then I get a good game. And if it's not, then you know, like I guess I was right about