Annapurna’s Mixtape is a coming-of-age teen summer adventure with skating, romance and a banging soundtrack
The Artful Escape developers Beethoven & Dinosaur are following up their musical platformer with another soundtrack-driven narrative game. Mixtape draws on the classic tropes of coming-of-age teen flicks, adds striking stop motion-style visuals and completes the package with a soundtrack that would feel right at home in a John Hughes movie.
The Annapurna-published offering was shown off during tonight’s Xbox Games Showcase, clearly inspired by the look and feel of a trailer for a 1980s rom-com film, deep-toned narrator inviting us to “Go back to a time when summers lasted forever” and all.
The story-driven adventure follows three friends on the last night of high school - of course - as they make their way to a party, reminiscing about their teenage years together growing up in North California.
The tropes and moments here are classic teen drama - kisses, unbreakable friendships, sneaking out of the house, getting into “good” trouble with the law and so on - with familiar cinematic set pieces: standing up in the back of an open-top car while fireworks explode across a bridge, riding down a hill in a trolley with friends and skating down curving roads, along with the more surreal symbolism of floating into the night sky while lying on a roof, riding a dinosaur across a vast plain and lifting off the ground while running through wide fields.
It all looks fantastic, thanks to the pastel-y 3D models and stop-motion feel, while the cracking soundtrack features some genuine all-timers: Devo, Roxy Music, Lush, Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and the like.
We’ll be waiting until sometime in 2025 for a release.
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