Video Gamers Podcast - Mixtape Deep Dive, Play It Bro – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are diving headfirst into the emotional and unforgettable world of Mixtape! From wild teenage adventures to a soundtrack packed with nostalgia, we break down why this could be one of the most unique video games ever. Is Mixtape the next big storytelling hit in gaming, or just another stylish indie trying to capture lightning in a bottle? We’re covering the gameplay, vibes, music, and emotional moments that make this one gaming deep dive you don’t want to miss. If you love creative video games and passionate gaming discussions, this episode of the Video Gamers Podcast is for you! AND TO YOU NERDS, THIS IS A GAME!!!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and Night Wizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

up fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast. Mix tape released to wild acclaim and internet debates. But what's the real story behind this nostalgia-fueled coming-of-age story? Is it as good as scores would have you believe? Or is it really just a movie that's masking itself as a game? Well, we've played it and we've got the details you need. But before we get to that, some introductions are. in order. I am your host Josh and joining me he was once known as PeeP Pants Ryan in grade school,

but then he worked his way into that high school cool phase. It's Ryan. You know, bro, I'm just like just trying to like save the environment. You know, like you just got to, you just got to go where you go. It's called the free pee. Free pee. Free pee. No? You guys. guys don't free pee? Like, no, come on. Not free peeing.

Oh my gosh. Although that's a, that got me pretty good. That's a felony. That was not bad. Oh, man. And joining us.

His parents were totally not cool and enrolled him in a cult, but he broke free and now he's living the good life of a gamer. It's Ace. Bro, you totally just gave away all my lore. Like, Ace is Cassandra. All my mystery.

Dude, you are not wrong. Brother, oh my gosh. Ryan, you're, okay, so you're doing the voice for Slater in this game. I'm terrible with people's name. Yeah, he's his name with Slater. Right. But I will never forget. I had an acquaintance.

I won't even really call him a friend. I had an acquaintance whose name was Stu, right, that talked just like Slater talked. And I'll never forget this at one point, one of my very good friends who hadn't met Stu, like we came together as a friend group because we were going. going to a party or something. And I was like, you know, hey, Mike, this is stew, stew, this is Mike. And Mike looks over at stew and he's like, isn't that a thick soup? Like, because his name was Stu. And then I was just like, that's all I remember from this. It was the dumbest memory ever. But it was just like, isn't that a thick soup? And I just remember losing it and

cracking up. And that was how these two friends of mine met. That's so dumb. That's a good description of his stew though. Like that's a thick soup. Like it is. Because that's what he's like, I'm stew. And he's like, isn't that a thick soup? And it was just like, what? Like a chicken noodle soup. You don't call it a stew. You call it a stew. Like a stew is like a thick. Yeah, I love it.

Oh, man. Well, welcome in everybody. We are going to be covering mixtape today. This might be one of the easiest games that we had to play. It's only four hours long, which is, you know, one of the things that the internet is talking about. So we're going to talk about, you know, whether it's good, whether it's a game, you know, why the internet might be stupid. We're going to give your thoughts on it, whether it's worth your time. and all that stuff.

But before we get to that, guys, we have a couple people to thank. Yeah. This trend. This is like my favorite trend that is happening on this show. It's a good trend. We love it. So first and foremost, a huge shout out to Mr. Rodeo clown. We met through our private Rust server.

He started playing with us on that. Also, Mr. Rodeclan, we've been having a blast together. like I love playing with this guy. It took you long enough. You know what I mean? It took you long enough to sign up, buddy. Come on. Just saying.

But you know, better late than never is our motto on this. So, uh, and then we also have a new supporter. I don't think they're in our Discord so I can't troll them personally yet. But a huge shout out to Tino for also signing up for rare status. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And to everybody else out there that supports this podcast and makes it possible. And then Ryan, next to thanking people for signing up and supporting the show, what's our other favorite thing to do? You know, our other favorite thing to do is read reviews. Yeah. All right. Especially five-star reviews, not one-star reviews like Ace of Shane gives us. Never going to live that one. Never, ever, ever, ever will you ever live that down? Also, Ace, your lips are looking much more neutral. Oh, yes. Oh, I didn't even notice.

Okay, we have to, okay, real quick, we're going to sign bar for a second. We've got to We're off the rails already. Yeah, we're going to sidebar. This episode won't be too long. But like, Aces, red lips, even my wife, she was watching the pre-show because we were covering something that she wanted to hear our comments about. And then she goes, and unprompted, I didn't say it worse. She goes, why are Aces lips so red? Is he wearing lipstick?

I died. I started cracking up laughing. I was like, no, but we spent like 20 minutes riffing on it, you know, and just. just roasting him about it. And I even made a really, really, a really good AI image with, uh, it was, it was really it was a little too good. Uh, yeah. So what happened?

It's not your shade? You decided to change colors. He's lighting it up, you know, he's just going to go. No, it turns out I do not put my white balance on my camera back to where it should have been after I finished my mouse PI streams, which were all in black and white, uh, mind you. So all of my colors. This was ACE's lips.

Oh, it was bad. hilarious. I couldn't fix it in time. So we just had to roll with it. Ace just kept scrubbing his lips trying to be like, why are they so red? I was drinking like a code red. So I thought maybe it was coming from that. And then I was like, oh, this isn't that.

Just scrubbing his skin off his lips. It's his white balance on his camera instead. That's all it is. You're looking much more natural. No, thank you. There's a much more natural lighting. Although now I'm kind of disappointed. Like I was, you know,

I'm like, I'm not looking at Ace the same. anymore. I should have done it for Mother's Day, honestly. All right. Stupid side with a sickway aside. What do you got for us,

Ryan? Back to where I was going. We got another amazing five-star review. One of our favorite things to read is this one comes to us from Blaine and it's titled A How to Guide on Loving Gaming

and it reads as follows. This podcast does a truly amazing job in creating a gaming community to just love games. The hosts all have backgrounds in different games that inspire myself to branch out and try new games and come back to their old games and debate with them in my head. Love the podcast, the banter, the news, the obvious love they all have for games and their community. Keep it up, gentlemen. I don't know if I've ever been called a gentleman before. I don't know how to feel about that part. Today is the reviewer. Awesome.

The view is wonderful. Today is the day. You know, I think I think this one showed up and I got to be called a gentleman because I don't have red lips. Yeah, there you go. I'm not a lady today. That's true. You're going to be a gentlelady, gentleman. Like, it's 2026, man.

We're good. This is true. Oh. All right, guys. So let's talk mixtape on this. Now, I don't, we don't like to tut our own horn. You know, but like sometimes we have to just toot our own horn a little bit. Guys, I love how the internet is all like,

have you guys heard of this game called mixtape that just came out? We're like, bro, we covered mixtape like two years ago. You know what I mean? So like four times. The whole point is that occasionally we might know what we're talking about when it comes to games. Yeah. You know, and when we get excited about a game, more often than not, and we're not claiming to always be right, but more often than not,

we're able to sniff out something that says, hey, we think there might be something here. Now, sometimes it's not quite what we hoped for, a la, replaced for me. Doesn't mean replaced was bad. It just means my hype level was way beyond what I thought the game was going to be. But I remember us going into mixtape being cautiously excited. And we've talked about this before. And if you want a fact check us, please do.

But go back to any of our episodes where we mentioned mixtape before. But we talked about this. And we said this coming of age game with this stop motion and, animation and the art style and this with the soundtrack, this game just looks incredible. And then the game came out. And then we started playing it. And then the very next day I went, well, I just beat mixtape, you know. But I did, I did reach out to you guys.

And we don't normally share our thoughts on a game. You two have not shared your thoughts on this at all. I, I like the excitable person I am. Might have spilled the beans a little bit. And I said, guys, I got to play mixtape for about 30 minutes this morning. and it's off to a very good start. Yep. So that that initial impression was like, ooh, and that really got me excited.

Where were you guys at with going into this? Like before we ever played it, I know we've covered it on the show, but were you guys like actually excited for mixtape? Did you think it was going to flop? Or what were you thinking on that? I was pretty excited for mixtape being the indie guy. I do my research into what the big indie games are going to be. But wait a minute, it's not an indie.

It is not an indie. All of them can shove it. This game has funding and stuff, every game has external funding from somewhere. It's an indie game. It was published by Anna Perna, which if you know anything about it. I'm just repeating. That's my internet voice. That's Josh being the internet, by the way.

That's Josh's the internet voice. That is the argument people are making right now is that. Which who cares by the way? Mix tape in Expedition 33 are not indies. And it's like, no, they're still indie games. It's just slightly less indie than you want them to be. But don't get me on that. I know.

But it's being published by Annapurna, which is a very, very high quality indie game publisher. They freaking publish the Outer Wilds. Like that tells you the quality of games. Oh, and you're telling me they're indie? The Outer Wilds is indie. Yeah. Not the Outer Worlds. The Outer Worlds.

Yeah. Which I do. I did not in this circumstance like get them mixed up, but I do usually get those mixed up. Oh, everyone gets those best up. Even Josh gets those mixed up, which is kind of full. I don't get the next up. You see people say outer worlds and immediately like auto replace it without. Right.

Yeah. Well, because one game is better than the other by far. Oh, okay. That's true. Anyway. But yeah, I was excited. I was excited to hop in it. I was excited to hop in a mixed day for sure.

Maybe not as excited as you because it was in a generation like I grew up in. So I don't have like a lot of attachment to it. We talked about that too. Yeah. I was. I was very excited. I was stoked. I,

I had a really good feeling about this game. I know you and me, Josh, just the vibes just from the trailer from day one, we were like, I think there's something here. Like, I'm getting a good feeling. Whatever it's going to be, I hope it leads to something really, really good. And so I had a really good feeling, a really good vibe on what we were going to get, how much gameplay and how much whatever was going to be determined. But I think I had a really good anticipation on the outcome.

outcome, if you will, I guess. Yeah. No, that makes sense. You know, to just to quantify for people, because there's going to be, I've seen the argument on the internet where it's like, you know, if you have nostalgia, then this game's going to land for you. And if you don't have nostalgia, if you didn't grow up in the 80s and 90s, then this game's not going to land for you. And lo and behold, guess what, people, you have the perfect mix of people here to talk about this game because I grew up in the 80s, Ryan grew up in the 90s and Ace grew up in the 2010s.

2010s, yeah. Born in 2000, grew up in the 2010s. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, so it's like, so we are covering the gamut of, of people that were born at different times and in different decades and stuff like that. I will say that for me, this nostalgia in this game is top tier. Ryan, you had mentioned, you know, you even reached out to me and you said, Josh, the nostalgia kick on this must have been through the roof for you. Yeah. And I went, yeah, it really was. But then you mentioned there's a ton of nostalgia for you as well as somebody that grew up in the 90s. Yeah.

You know, Ace, you don't have that 80s 90 nostalgia to go on. So the question is, without giving away your thoughts on the game, is this game predicated on you having grown up in a certain decade? Can you enjoy this game only if you were a child of the 80s or 90s, or is there more than just nostalgia to this? I think you connect with it better if you were born in those, you know, eras obviously, but I don't think you need it. I think this is a strong enough story on its own. It's very set in this world

that you could kind of just immerse yourself in and believe. Like, you have to have a little bit of whimsy in your life. Don't give me wrong. Like, this is a very, like, good environment. Not like maybe what you grew up in. But if you can do that and like set that aside, I think you will enjoy this game regardless of nostalgia. I mean, I...

Also, if you're like me, you get a whole new era of music. you've never heard before. There you go. Heck yeah. We'll get to the soundtrack on this in a minute because that's something that you have to tie to this game very intimately, you know. I mean, the developer came out and said this too.

So we'll get to that. All right. Yeah, we will. Ryan, what were you going to say? I was just going to say real quick. Like, I don't, I mean, I don't, I obviously wasn't born in the 30s and I didn't grow up in the 40s and stuff. But like World War II, I, I, I, I, I,

find myself aligning so much with just that world and I and I and I love everything about it and and every game and every movie and everything I see so that always you know just because you weren't part of that error doesn't mean you can't align with it and have those feelings with it and so I think this is something to where if people people like get a good feel from it and a good vibe from it you're you're gonna like this game you know type type situation yeah absolutely well I'll tell you what, guys, let's talk about the game itself because there are people that are saying this isn't a video game. It's just a movie.

You know, it's not a game. There's very little gameplay elements. This is a movie that disguised itself as a game. Now, there are gameplay elements. I'll be honest. The 30 minutes I spent skipping stones says otherwise. Yeah, exactly. Checkmate.

Yeah. I mean, and so here is the issue. And anybody that has been following mixtape, like us, you know, knows what we knew what to expect to. going into this. We said, guys, this is going to be very, very light on the gameplay. It's going to be very heavy on the story elements. You know, I think at one point we said it's kind of akin to Firewatch where you're playing this game 100% for the story and the characters. You're not playing this for gameplay. Do you feel like that is an accurate assessment that we had going into this?

Because there are gameplay elements for sure, but they're pretty light. So, you know, do you feel like the gameplay elements were enough to quantify this as a video game, or do you think to people saying this is simply a movie disguising itself as a video game or right? I think this is plenty. This is obviously, this was a narrative first game. That's what what the goal was, was to get the narrative across and get you attached to the story, the characters, and the music, obviously. That's the big deal. It's kind of like dispatch. Is dispatch still a game, even though all you're doing is making choices and playing that little console thing every now and then? Yes, dispatch is still a game. This is still the game. This is just a game. This is just a game. This is just a game.

just like life is strange, except for you don't make any, like, life-altering decisions. You're just exploring the 3-D environments and playing these mini-games every now and then to some banger songs. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's funny because, oh, go ahead, Ryan. I was just going to say that. I think Aces is spot on with that is, is that, I mean, it's still a game. It is. Whether you want to say it or not, I think some of the skating montages that you could do,

they're better than skate. Or Tony Hawk. It was, I mean, like, it had some actually genuinely good, like, skating. Like, yeah, dude, you can, you can jump over stuff. You can kickflip. You can airwalk, you know, all these abilities. So there's a lot there. There is definitely a good bit of gameplay mechanics and things that you can actually do within this game.

Yeah. I will say, I think the gameplay elements were enough to qualify this as a game. I actually really enjoyed the gameplay elements where I thought they were going to be kind of afterthoughts or something stupid. We're going to try to stay away from spoilers for the most part for people, but we are going to talk about a couple scenes here and there

or a couple of memories that the kids had or something like that. As is any of our deep dives, if you haven't played the game and you're going to play the game, you know, you should probably play the game first and then come back and, you know, that kind of thing. But again, we're going to try to avoid any kind of major spoilers on this. It's not long.

Five hours now. It's not long at all. Five hours if you're a long. wander four hours if you run you know quick you know like it's not long yeah you can you can get through this one pretty quickly so you know i do feel like the gameplay elements were a lot of fun one of them in the very very early parts of the game is you know you relive a kiss right i think this other than the skating in the beginning which is how the game starts off this is one of the first gameplay elements is like you know it's you're reliving uh the main character stacey's first kiss

and you go into this mini game that just completely shocks you And it's a tongue mini game where you're basically just controlling the left tongue and the right tongue with the different thumbsticks. And it's just like, and then one of the kids has like braces on their teeth. And it's the most awkward, weird thing in the world. I played that like Mortal Kombat. It fits so well because whose first kiss isn't awkward. You know what I mean? It's just this is like part of like this is the nostalgia part where it's like everybody remembers their first kiss.

you probably screwed it up somehow or you wish you had done it differently and you're playing this mini game where you're like, bro, what is this? No, no, no. Dude, your mom said it was amazing. It was amazing. On Mother's Day, Ryan. She was being really nice to you.

She also told me some stuff about you that I won't say on the show right now. But let's just, you know. So we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. Let's summarize what mixtape is for people that have been living under a rock and don't go on the internet or listen to our show very often. Mix tape is a story of three high school teens. You've got Stacey, Slater, and Cassandra. They are their best friends.

It's their last night of high school. It's set in the 1990s in Northern California. You know, this is the last night that they're all going to have. together because Stacey is moving away, you know, for reasons that will leave you to discover in the story. Yep. So this is the setting for mixtape. It's the last night.

They want to go to a party. They're hanging out together. You get the friend vibes instantly. You get the nostalgia vibes instantly. The game starts off with a skating sequence with them skating down a hill and yelling, car, car. Yeah. Yeah.

Every time. We did this as kids, man. I can't tell you. Yeah. This is such a thing. My son asked me, he's like, why are they yelling car? I'm like, that's what you do. Like, you're running.

Courtesy, man. That's what you do. Yeah, you yell car. So you know, and you move and like, even if you weren't skating and you were playing in the street, car, car. And you, everybody moved out of the way. Like, that's what you did. And that was still a thing in the 2010s because skate culture was very big in the 2010. Oh, for sure.

Big time. Yeah. So, yeah, that, that carries over. Yeah. So, you know, I love the way this game started off. I made no qualms about it when I told you. guys, hey, I got like 30 minutes into the game before I had to go to work. And I was like, guys, I think this game might be really good. I got really excited very quickly. So it makes in a

phenomenal first impression. We saw this in our Discord server where a lot of people did the exact same thing. They said, guys, I got like 20 minutes into mixtape. And oh, my gosh, I think there might be something good here. It leaves a very, very good initial impression. The way that this game works is you are going through memories that you have with your friends. So you are hanging out in real time or real life with your friends. And then you might be walking around a room and you find a photo. You interact with the photo. And then that takes you back to a memory that is a sequence in the game at that point. Okay. And then you kind of rinse and repeat. So you kind of get this backstory with how you met your friends and how Cassandra comes into your group because initially Stacey and Slater were

friends, that Cassandra comes in. And you learn this through memories and little mini games sometimes and stuff like that. So that's basically what the gameplay is. But my goodness, dude, like, my goodness, if this game doesn't make you feel like you are just back with your friend group in high school hanging out. I got to say, I personally love the fact that this captures teenagehood so well. Yeah. And they don't, they don't hide it from the really weird kissing mini game where you have to control the two tongues, which is a little awkward, to the fact that these kids are just trying. trying to go get drunk and they're trying to score alcohol for this party. You know, you're going back to Stacey's room to get your stash so that you can smoke some

weed, you know, like, and it's not glorifying these things, but this is kind of part of being a teenager for a lot of people. And especially in the 80s and 90s, you know, it's like, this is, this is kind of how teenagehood was. And again, we're not saying go out and drink and smoke weed. My point is, is that the game isn't shying away from trying to, like, show you what teenager life was like. And honestly, I feel like they absolutely nailed it, dude, from the being wasted in a parking lot laying on the hood of your car and then trying to go rent a movie, which I thought was phenomenal, to the something happened and now I'm super angry, right? It's like this,

emotions that teenagers have that you don't know how to control necessarily. Like, this game nails it all, dude. Like, it does such a good job of just, like, showing teenage life. And I love it, dude. Like, I honestly love the little moments that this game does.

All right, we'll talk about a few of those moments. We won't get too spoiler, but we've got to take a break. And then we'll talk about some of maybe our favorite parts of the game. And then we'll address some of the stupid internet debate that's going on, too, because we have to at this point. So we'll be right back after this break. All right, we're back. Okay. I got ahead of myself before the break. We have to talk about the music. Yeah.

Okay. Because that's the whole premise, right? Like, it's the last night these guys are together. And Stacey has put together the ultimate mixtape for how the night is going to go. And that's what you're following. A song for everything. Every time something changes, the song changes. Yeah. But. Some wrenches have been thrown into that mix tape along the way. Yes. Yeah. I will say that one of the things that I really like about the game is Stacey kind of breaks the fourth wall occasionally. Yep.

I love it. She says, hey, you know, this plan that we had for this part of the day, this is the song that I picked out to go with this plan. And she's talking to you like the player at this point. And she's saying, you know, you need a song that's edgy and is going to, you know, do this. Or you need a song that's going to let you rage out, you know, and just. screw the world kind of thing. And so she tells you that. And then that's always at the start of the sequence.

Mm-hmm. And then you just go into the sequence with this song playing very prominently. Guys, the vibes. The vibes are immaculate, dude. Are they not? They are. They are, but I just knew I was like, as I was playing, all I could think about, I was like, Josh is loving this stinking game.

I was like, Josh has to, he's got to just. be just viving so hardcore with this right now. Tell me you guys weren't vibing too. Oh, I was vibing too. Oh, I was absolutely vivant. Some more than others, but definitely like hit some serious vibes. Like what you talked about like how they got really angry at one point. So she mixes up the playlist and pulls out love by the smashing pumpkins.

Yes. You just start driving down and flipping everything off and it explodes. It's like. So little spoiler. Again, these, these sequences, us talking about them really isn't going to take away from for people. Like, you have to experience it to truly, like, you got to hear the music.

Yeah, she's very angry. You're skating down this hill and she is flipping the bird to anything and everything. But when she does, it explodes. So into glorious explosions, by the way. You know? Yeah. And so this is kind of how this game goes where you are, you're in this sequence. You're in this memory.

There's an incredible, I got to, dude, the music in this game is top notch. And I'll be honest, even as the oldest guy in the bunch, I don't know some of these songs in these groups that were playing, but dude, they fit perfectly with whatever you're doing. So whoever the person was that picked these songs to go with these sequences, you were a mastermind, a mastermind of like,

of actually having a mixtape. They were the real Stacey. They were R.R. Yeah, no, they were the real Stacey. Like honestly, I want to know who did that because kudos to you, because you absolutely nailed the music. that went along with the vibe in the game that you were doing.

There's, I mean, I feel like there's probably what, like, I think they had 12 sequences, like so a dozen of these sequences in the game, maybe even a few more than that, where, you know, there's a song that's going along with this memory that you're playing out, you know, whatever that might be is going along with it. But if you just sit back and you kind of go, dude, you like pay attention to the music in this game because it's the forefront of the game. Ace, you and I were talking that the developers for this, there's no streamer mode for mixtape.

And now you know why. And that's a huge no-no in today's day and age, especially when you're an indie game and you're like, hey, I got to get in front of as many people as possible. You have to have streamer mode. And mixtape came out and said, we're not doing it. Because the music is literally the heart and soul of this game.

And to neuter the music is to neuter the game. We want you to just have the experience. You would ruin the entire story. Because not only is the music playing in the background, it's part of these sequences. Like you said, you're being introduced to this music too by the actual character. Hey, thanks for the follow Big Daddy 69.

We're good to go. That's what you don't want. You don't want that in the middle of all this. Exactly. That's the other thing. Not every gaming experience you would need have needs to be shared with millions of people. You need to have some personal experiences. Absolutely.

Or you're going to harsh your vibe. You're not going to be able to immerse yourself into things like this. This is all about vibe. look into the side. I know, I use the word vibe. All about the vibes. This game is legitimately all about vibes. And I think that's where people on the internet

get it wrong. You know what I mean? Where they're like, this is in a game. This is a movie. This is a movie. The gameplay element is stuck in this game. There's hardly any gameplay at all. And then it's like just sit down and enjoy it, man. Yes, you're approaching this wrong. Those are people that wouldn't be happy no matter what they put out.

Like those, you know, those are the ones that you can't, you know, you can't worry about it. You can't, uh, uh, you know, be concerned with their opinions. Like I, I, I, you know, if you even wanted to do like a, uh, a goosebumps counter or, or like a vibe counter, whatever you want to call it, but like the amount of times where I was just like, my jaw dropped and I just got goosebumps and I was, I was just feeling the moment. And I was, I was in, in the game. I felt like I was part of the game and I was just feeling it.

Like, you don't, you don't, you don't even. I mean, you don't get that that often, no matter how long or how amazing or anything, you know, like there was, this was about emotion. And that's what this game delivered in spades. Like this, this was an emotional journey that you, that you went through, you know, and not to tip my hand on like how I felt about the game. But like, there was, there was a lot there. Like, you just, that's, that's what this game was there for. And so to say that it's not a game is just, it's stupid. It's just people complaining.

It's a complaint. Yeah. It is a game. It's dumb. Yeah. It is a game. It's dumb. People want to just complain about anything that they can online. It's not only is it a game, but I'm going to say that this game belongs in the upper

echelon of story-based games. Like we talk about Firewatch. We talk about what remains of Edith Finch. We talk about recently dispatch. You didn't hear people griping about dispatch with this stuff. Dispatch's gameplay was dumb. Yeah. Like, I'm not saying I didn't like it, but it's just, it was very, very simple with dispatching the

heroes and that was it. Otherwise, you're just watching what's going on and maybe you make a choice or two. So you made choices in the dialogue. But yeah, you do. But like, but like, but it's not, you know, I mean, but nobody was complaining because I wasn't good at it. Yeah. Yeah. The thing and I was just like, wait, I click it and I'd be like, oh no, that's the wrong one. And then it's like, you tell me you're a terrible dispatcher. I was, oh yeah. I was a bad dispatcher for sure. Yeah. Brute force doesn't work in dispatch. catch. Here's the thing with mixtape for me is there were some moments. And Ryan, you touched on this with the chill bumps.

You're kind of in awe. You're just feeling the vibes. There were multiple times in mixtape where I went, this is one of the coolest sequences that I think I've seen in a game. Like legitimately. Yeah. I mention all the time how when we covered Senoa's saga. Oh, yeah. So the second Sennawa's sacrifice that there was the fire ritual.

where you know you're crawling through the blood and there are people getting murdered over you and I went this is one of the this scene is forever burned into my memory because it was that cool like it was that memorable that impactful you know when you meet the giant for the first time and it comes like in the cave and you're like holy crap like what is this like that's another one of those absolutely burn into your memory type sequences in a game that's mixed tape dude like there's like and again I you know the finale we'll call it you know with the with the fireworks. I'm trying not to be too spoilery here. But that like sequence was one of the like this is absolutely gorgeous. This is like this scene is will be with me forever. You know what I mean? And there were multiple times in the game

where it was like that. And that to me is worth more than like really good extreme gameplay or something. So you like I find it hard to believe that people can walk away from mixtape and not feel some of that. unless you're just going into it having no idea what this game is and then going,

this isn't a game. This isn't a game, bro. It's a movie. But it's like, do people not realize what they're getting into when they just load up a game? Like, do that many people truly, blindly just load a game that they know nothing about

and then get mad at the game when they're in the mood for? I mean, you got to think this was on Game Pass. So there's probably a ton of people who just saw it That's fair. Yeah. All right. We got to kind of get to how we feel about this game if people aren't picking up what we're putting down already.

We've talked about the music. We've talked about the gameplay. We've talked about the nostalgia. Is there anything else that we need to bring up before we get into what we actually think about this game? I feel like we've touched on most on everything we can without spoiling anything. What did you guys feel about the art style of it all? I love it. It's very Sony animation style.

very stop motion almost. Little, little kind of stutter graphics. Yeah, I saw people complaining about the stuttering and like the, like how they move at like, you know, three frames per second sometimes. Yeah. But I was like, that's part of the idea. Yeah. That was part of the style.

It was built in. I'm, you know, everybody knows I'm a little bit of a graphics. I'm picky about my graphics. But I legit think that the art style and with the stop motion animation that they kind of used on this absolutely played into the vibes and the nostalgia on this game. dude. At one point my wife walked in while I was playing and she looked at the screen. She's like, oh, that game looks really neat. Like, what is that? And I told her. And so somebody that doesn't know, like she was like, she was impressed. And then my daughter came in at one point. She's like,

oh, this game looks really pretty. And I'm like, yeah, it really just kind of works, man. So I would, I would say that I think it was a huge benefit. Sometimes we see an art style and we go, why did you make this choice? But in this, in the case of mixtape, I personally felt like it worked really well. Agreed. Yeah, I thought it was good. If you try to go to. realistic, then it just looks weird and you can't relate to the characters. And if you went too pixel-y, I think at that point, you can't relate to the characters. So I think they really nailed the art style on this. Yeah. Fit the setting for sure. Yeah. All right. I'll just, I'm going to start the charge, guys. I went into this. Very hopeful. I think this game was incredible, dude. I

legitimately could not wait to play it. I teased myself with it by playing for like 40 minutes before work and then I had to sit at work all day. And then I came home and I beat the game in one session. I was absolutely enthralled and hooked on this game. You know, it's tough because people want to say, well, you know, rate it as if it's a video game. You know, don't rate it on the story. Don't rate it on the vibes.

Rated it as a video game. But I think you can't do that, dude. The developers, from day one, from day one, the developers came out and said, we're trying to tell a story of a coming of age of this friend group. We're trying to capture what it's like to be a teenager in the 90s and the struggles the teens go through and that awkwardness and that uncertainty in life. And what do you do after high school because nobody knows? And what happens when your friend group breaks up and people go their different directions in life?

Because that also happens. I cannot think of a game that captured that feeling more masterfully than mixtape did, dude. like honestly like i'm stunned at how well these people knew what it was like to be a teenager and remembered what it was like to be a teenager it's not a perfect game they're you know the yes the game plays minimal and stuff like that and there's a couple parts where it's like okay it you know this sequence wasn't as amazing as that sequence but that's more just a testament that that one sequence was incredible and then this one wasn't and so on and so forth i'm giving mix tape a 9.5 dude I freaking thought this game was, like, you know, there's a lot of people that it's like,

oh, gee, give it a 10 out of 10. And this isn't a masterpiece of a game. It is a masterpiece of a game. Like a 9-5 is an incredible score for a game like this. I'll go so far as to say that I think I, mixtape for me supplanted Firewatch as a game that I would say, if you want a story-based game, you should absolutely play this. And Firewatch is one of those games that I almost always recommend to people.

And I think now I'm going to be like you should play mixtape if you want to see how good a story can be in a game and how interactive that story can be. So 9.5 for me, this is an absolute must play, dude. Absolutely. And you can beat it in four hours. So there's no reason whatsoever that somebody shouldn't play this game. So you're saying mixtape is worth paying $20 for a four hour game. Yes, dude. I agree.

How many times? Like, I just, I literally, okay, because I've seen this argument on the internet to, $20 for four hours. You get Silk's all to play for a hundred. You spend $16 to buy a movie ticket to go to the movies for an hour and 45 minutes. And you're happy about that. For $4 more, you get twice as much entertainment. And I'm telling you, there's something about being involved in this that changes it, dude.

So for all the people that want to say it's a movie and it's not worth 20 bucks, I'm sorry, but I think your opinion's just wrong in that example because this, $20 for four hours of the kind of joy in entertainment and nostalgia and emotion I got from mixtape is absolutely worth it. Yeah, I agree. What about you, Ace? So you're after the fact. You're a little bit removed from that kind of genre of like growing up in the 90s and stuff

like that. So how much this land with you? What was your whole like feelings with it all? I will say games like this do give me like a lot of fomo for how I grew up not having any of these kind of things. I was a very sheltered individual. I was a very kept from things, a kid. So I didn't get these kind of experiences growing up,

but being able to play a game like this and live them is very cathartic. It's very nice and enjoyable for someone like me. And I think that it will extend to other people my age who didn't grow up in this era. Being able to kind of see what things were like for maybe your parents or something like that. It's like, wow, that's totally different

than what I lived with. and it just kind of gives you a good feeling and a good vibe and you just kind of need that every now and then there's a lot of things that are really depressing right now and this is not one of them there's just a whimsy-filled game yep yeah and I feel like one thing that kind of transcends

all kind of age and all anything is music music connects everyone you can connect through music with almost anyone and this game has a phenomenal soundtrack phenomenal honestly I really like the story I really like all the characters I didn't find a single one annoying if I had to give mixtape a rating I'm going to give it a 9.4

I do think there were some really short story segments that could have just been either put all together in one or skipped over entirely like I'm just going to say it I don't feel like I needed to move that couch but you know that's just me oh

hey you got a place it man that's the party couch what are you talking about yeah so 94 from ace and see this is what I love Ryan you kind of hinted on this Ace doesn't have the nostalgia for the 80s and the 90s. And so, you know, this is coming from somebody that is approaching this game with zero

nostalgia factor for that time frame and is approaching it from simply just, is this a good game, does it tell a good story? Is it memorable? You know, and Ace is giving it a 9.4, which I love to see because it tells me that there's more than just playing on people's nostalgia here. Yes, this game is more than just nostalgia. I mean, you get your money's worth from the rock skipping mini game alone. Dude, yeah, I'll tell you what.

I sat there literally for 30 minutes just trying to like unlock all the secrets. I hit everything too. Did you get through the, through the tire wheel? Through the tire. I broke like six gnomes. Speaking of, throwback to the movie, the movie rental. Did you knock down like over a hundred or whatever? I just started wrecking that place.

I just walked along and just was like knocking them down. That sequence was so, you get an achievement. There's so many. Yeah. Yeah. That far, I'd love that. it. It was so good. There's so many of those in this game. A lot of great moments. There's a ton.

What about you, Ryan? So for me, this was like, I grew up, I was born in 88, so I was a little before the time of this game for like, you know, the quote unquote coming of age. But it still felt like I connected so much with this. Because

you look around and you know what you didn't see? You didn't see cell phones. You didn't see kids sitting around on their cell phones. And just the other day, I'm in the son at the gym. Every single person, was just sitting just with their head buried at a cell phone and there wasn't that community and the interaction and that's what they that's what you had to do back then and and it's like that kind of like yeah okay boomer and that's what i'm sure a lot of people will

say now but it's just there was something different man that you had to connect with people you had to be a part of it and this game this game showed that it showed what that communication was like and having to to have legends like there was legends and there was stories that you weren't totally sure if they were true and there wasn't really too many pictures of it and maybe you'd find one or two polarites of something or this or that, you know. So there was just so much there that was not only nostalgic driven, but like also just kind of a throwback to what life used to be like. And so for me, again, with you, Josh, the number that I came up with was 9.5. I had an absolute blast. This was, it's,

It's not only one of the best games that I've seen this year. It's one of the best games I've seen ever. Like it's, it was amazing. And you can call it a game or not. But the amount of sequences where they throw it in, where you do small stuff and then large stuff, and then you have these, these cool, just cinematic things that you're part of where you're, you're floating through, you know, the, the flowers and everything. When you're jumping it, you can still control it.

And it's kind of like choreographed. and you have to do a certain way, and it's like linear, but you still are part of it. And then you just, like I said, you get those goosebumps. And you're like, I can say that there hasn't been a game in a long time that I've sat there and played as much where I've recognized that I just sat with a smile on my face. Like just like, yeah, just like, yeah, I'm just smiling at the game. And I'm not talking to anybody.

I'm not, I'm not talking with anyone. I'm just sitting and, and receiving it. and I genuinely am just happy. And that's what this game made me feel like. And so whether you call it a game or not, like that doesn't matter. Whatever this is, whatever you want to categorize it as, this was awesome. And I absolutely freaking loved it. It was so, so good.

Yeah. I agree. Dude, I mean, listen. It was so good. I love it, dude. It was so good. Born in three different decades. Yeah.

All playing this game coming away with the exact same take on this. and we don't always agree on these games at all. But that tells you something that there is something special about mixtape. I think you hit the nail on the head, Ryan. I think you just, you enjoy your time with this game. You smile at the shenanigans that are going on. You get to observe and participate.

I got goosebumps now thinking about it. And it's like, it's hard to quantify to people. So what we're saying, if you haven't figured it out, is you should absolutely play mixtape. You know, Ryan, this is only the second, like, true kind of walking simulator story-based game that you've played. Dispatch being the only other one. Am I right on that one? Probably.

I think so. You didn't play Firewatch. You haven't played Edithfinch. You haven't played a lot of these other ones. No, not all of them the other ones now. This is, you know, and we see people, right? We have a pretty large Discord server. You should be a part of it.

It's, you know, 1,300 gamers plus. And, you know, we see people that say, hey, these story games, I get bored. I don't really participate in these. You know, and it's like, you as a gamer know what you like. But occasionally a game can come along that changes your opinion on the kind of genre or something like that. And the fact that this is only four hours long, I feel is the, you should give this a shot. You know, it's on game pass right now. It's only $20 if you want to take the chance.

I think that here's where the steam refund policy comes in so well. I think that if you were not hooked in the first 30 minutes of this game, bounce off of it and refund it because it's just not the right timer. It's not the right game for you. For me, the first 30 minutes, I knew. I knew that I was going to enjoy this ride and I enjoyed every second of this ride, man. It's literally that good. So give us a shot.

The three of us are absolutely recommending this very, very strongly. I mean, two nine fives and a nine four for a game from us is a lot. Yeah. You know, especially from three different. takes as far as like, you know, nostalgia, not having nostalgia and how it hits. So do you think mixtape will get nominated for a game of the year? I don't know if it'll get game of the year, but it'll definitely get indie game of the year. Yeah, that's what I, yeah, that's sorry.

I should have said indie game. I think there's just too many really big games this year coming that it won't be able to contend with something like if 007 first light hits, if Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resinct hits. And then, of course, GTA6 is at the end of the year as well. I could see this getting nominated and. winning best story. I could see best story.

Like legitimately, you know, there's, there's the best story category. There's the best, it won't get best family game. No, no. You know, and so, you know, there's something special about mixtape. That's basically what we're saying. Give it a try. You'll know whether you like it within the first sequence. Like, honestly, the rest of the game plays out like the first sequence does.

I'd give the best voice, actually. Yeah, it's, dude, everything about this game was incredible. I'm so happy because, like, it's just, a different style of game too you know what i mean like it's just something different than your standard games that a lot of people play i think that put some people off don't believe what you're seeing on the internet there's something magical here you should give it a shot all right ace would you have used to look like you were going to say i was you say what was your favorite track favorite track from the game oh man i i'm trying to think there was one very somber one uh that i hadn't

heard of. I'd need to see the playlist because I hadn't heard this track before. I don't remember the part, but I remember just vibing to it and being like, this is freaking cool, dude. Like, it might have been walking through the woods trying to find the cabin. I can't remember, to be honest with you, but the music all around is just incredible. I'm getting a single track. for sure. Yeah. There wasn't a single track where I was like, I don't think I really like this song. Like, every song was just like, whoa, dude, this fits so perfectly. This was like the one. This was like the one time I was super jealous of the fact we weren't big enough creators to like get sent

a goodie box from the developers because they sent out the music like the track and her headphones oh they sent out like a thing to play the whole soundtrack and her headphones like recreations like man but my favorite track was more than this by Roxy Music I just really like that song

that's good I'd have to listen to them all and then I'd be able to tell you you know so yeah all right there you go people there's mixtape Don't get caught up in internet drama is honestly one of the takeaways here. You know what you like. You do know what you like. But honestly, like there's a lot of people where they go, I don't think I like story-based games, but I could see them really liking this and it kind of changing that mindset a little bit too. Take a chance on it.

And then you can refund it if you don't like it. So all right, that's going to do it for this episode. Everybody, thank you for joining us. We mentioned it before. Come join our Discord community. It's the best community in gaming. if you ever want to ask questions about a game, people are always willing to give feedback. You know, it's one of those things where, you know, nobody opinion shames anybody in our Discord server. You're allowed to have an opinion. You're allowed to have a dissenting opinion.

If you don't like mixtape, that's fine. Like, honestly, like, there's people out there. It's not going to work for it. And that's okay, too. The only thing that we get frustrated with is the internet discourse where people start saying, because I hated this game, everybody should hate this game. Yep.

And that's just dumb. Just because we like a game doesn't mean that everybody should like the game either. So we've never been about that. That's why you should come join our community because that is on display there as well. It's just an awesome group of gamers. So come join.

You can lurk and just check it out for a little while. We love people that interact. But we have had many, many people. I'll go as far as to say hundreds of people that have said, guys, this is my gaming home. This is unlike any other gaming community I've ever been a part of and I love being a part of it. And if that sounds good to you, we want you to be a part of it because this is the kind of community you belong in.

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We need it. And it goes a long way. And that way we can keep doing this for a very, long time. That's going to do it for this one, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. There she is. Jenny F and Godspeed. Or good speed. Dang it. See ya. Peace out.