Nostalgic 90s story game Mixtape is out now, and it’s generating some of the poorest gaming discourse we’ve witnessed in quite some time.
We happened to like the game, awarding it a 9/10 and describing it as a “truly special story experience”, but this type of title is not for everyone – we mentioned as much in our review.
Not everyone will have nostalgia for its licensed soundtrack, for example – others may not like its limited gameplay stakes.
That’s fine, and appears to be reflected in its Metacritic, which currently carries an 85 rating – highly recommended, but not completely flawless.
And yet the discourse on social media around this game is weird.
A lot of it seems to stem from an uninterrupted gameplay clip first shared by Christina Tasty, which shows an on-rails running sequence with button prompts, which the player purposely fails.
There’s no consequence for missing a prompt; the scene keeps going regardless.
While we can certainly appreciate why this type of experience would turn some off, it’s not trying to be Super Meat Boy. The audiovisual achievement is spectacular, and in this specific type of title, that’s the point.
To be fair to Christina Tasty, they are clear that this is their personal opinion on the game, and that’s perfectly valid.
But unfortunately, this being the Internet in 2026, the discourse hasn’t stopped there.
Some have been ridiculing IGN’s 10/10 rating of the release, which pretty clearly lays out “there’s no interest in fail states or high score chasing here” in its sixth paragraph; the writer even admits they’re a “mark” for this type of title – and that’s totally okay.
But it hasn’t prevented ex-Xbox and Blizzard executive Mike Ybarra from unnecessarily joining the pile-on, quoting the review in response to another “hot take” about the title’s lack of interactivity.
Others have inexplicably taken issue with the release’s extravagant press packs, asking how an “indie developer” could afford to send out promo kits with fully functioning CD players included in them. (We didn’t receive one, for the record.)
But to our knowledge, this game has never been sold as an indie game; it’s published by boutique label Annapurna Interactive, yes, and made by a small team – but it’s never, ever been presented as some impossible rags-to-riches achievement, made on an old Dell desktop in one person’s garage.
Clearly the games industry has grown exponentially over the last decade, and there are multitude of different experiences now to support a variety of different tastes.
