Mixtape: the best compilation of 2026

Some games you don't really see coming. Not because you were wary of them, but because you didn't realize you needed them. Mixtape is that kind of game. Beethoven & Dinosaur, the Australian studio that already delivered The Artful Escape in 2021, returns with something more personal, more accomplished, and harder to shake once finished.

96 on OpenCritic at the time of writing. 10/10 at IGN. We played it. We understand.

What it is

Mixtape is a narrative game about the end of high school. Three friends, one night, memories to relive. The setting is deliberately American: late-80s aesthetic, suburban sprawl, supermarket parking lots at night, skating, cassette tapes. For those not born into that cultural context, that might be the first barrier. It feels like John Hughes. It owns that.

This is not a game that disguises its intentions. Mixtape wants to provoke nostalgia, and it does so openly. Not the opportunistic nostalgia that waves references like products. The nostalgia of what it feels like to be 17 and sense that something is ending before it's even begun.

The music, and why it really matters

Mixtape's soundtrack isn't a backdrop. It's the backbone of the game. And these aren't tracks everyone knows: most of the picks are sincere, less obvious choices that say something about the taste of those who chose them. That's precisely what makes them work.

But what sets Mixtape apart from a film with a good playlist is the interactivity. There are sequences where the game asks you to click, to move, to headbang to the beat of a track. It's not gameplay in the mechanical sense, it's a way of inhabiting the music rather than enduring it. The difference between dancing and watching others dance. It's right there.

The question of "why play rather than watch a let's play" is relevant for narrative games. Mixtape answers it: there are two or three sequences where physical involvement in the music creates something no spectator will feel in the same way.

The animation

The visual style makes the low-framerate choice, in the vein of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It divides opinions. Some find it choppy, others see it for exactly what it is: a will to imitate traditional 2D animation, animated on twos, with everything that implies in terms of economy of movement and stated style.

We're in the second camp. The rendering has something particular to it that suits the atmosphere. This isn't an optimization flaw, it's an artistic choice consistent with what the game wants to be.

Who it's for

Mixtape isn't made for everyone, and it doesn't claim to be. If narrative games don't speak to you, if American 80s culture feels foreign, if Life is Strange left you cold, you may remain on the outside.

For everyone else, for those who have a place in their library for coming-of-age stories that know what they're doing, Mixtape is one of the best games of the year. Maybe of recent years.

We have the music in our heads. The story too. It's the kind of game you don't put away immediately after the final credits.

Why the 9

The 9 comes from Mixtape doing exactly what it promises, better than we hoped. The soundtrack is magnificent. The story is gripping. The animation is a choice, not a weakness. The interactive music sequences create moments we didn't expect.

What keeps it from a 10: its very American cultural anchoring will create distance for some players, and its pacing, deliberately melancholic and slow at moments, isn't for everyone. Beethoven & Dinosaur made something exceptional in a niche register. That's already a lot.

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Review based on PC version. Mixtape is available on PC, Switch 2 and Steam Deck.