Patch Notes <\/strong>is a weekly newsletter bringing you the best of Polygon, sent on Fridays and published on the site on Sundays. You can subscribe here.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n People are really digging Mixtape<\/em>, the buzzy new coming-of-age game and this week’s major release. It’s “overwhelmingly positive” on Steam! IGN gave it 10\/10! Simon Cardy’s lovely review is full of personalized nostalgia \u2014 “Beethoven & Dinosaur may have made it just for me,” he admits \u2014 while our own Giovanni Colantonio was inspired to make and publish a mixtape of his own in his review. (Give it a listen.) Whether they love it unreservedly or not, this game certainly resonates with critics of a certain disposition \u2014 and age. As my editor put it after seeing the mostly glowing review scores, “The Millennials have logged on for Mixtape.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n I’m technically a Gen Xer, but I can relate. I’ve certainly made a lot of mixtapes in my time (on actual tapes \u2014 and MiniDiscs!) I’ve moped and mourned my youth while it was still happening. I’ve burned to get out of this dead-end And I dig Mixtape<\/em>, too. The game’s musical taste is impeccable and the presentation is verging on sublime. It’s a completely lush and enveloping experience to play. From such a small studio, the assuredness of the execution and seamlessness of the delivery is mind-blowing, Naughty-Dog-level stuff. It’s gorgeous.<\/p>\n But \u2014 unlike Simon Cardy and some other writers \u2014 for me, Mixtape<\/em> doesn’t feel personal. Developer Beethoven & Dinosaur has been so careful to make the game universally relatable (to, er, white Millennials) that it has lost some flavor.<\/p>\n The studio is Australian, and director Johnny Galvatron has clearly drawn on his own experience to make Mixtape<\/em>. But he chose to set the game in the universally recognizable, movie-certified teen dreamscape of Northern California. And the time period is a generalized 1990s that sometimes looks and sounds like 1993, sometimes like 2002, and sometimes like last week.<\/p>\n I get it, but while playing Mixtape<\/em>, I couldn’t stop thinking about last year’s Despelote<\/em>, a somewhat similar memoir-game about growing up. Where Mixtape <\/em>is expansive and inclusive, Despelote <\/em>is incredibly specific to its creator’s memories of growing up in Quito, Ecuador, during the country’s qualifying run for the 2002 World Cup. With a fraction of the resources available to Beethoven & Dinosaur, but a similar level of visual and sonic creativity, Despelote<\/em> transports you to an exact time and place, rebuilding it from real memories in a way that’s totally transporting. As a result \u2014 and despite having much less in common with the milieu \u2014 I felt much more connected to the person who made it, and more connected to the game.<\/p>\n I’d never say Mixtape<\/em> was ersatz \u2014 it’s clearly been made with real feeling and an honest desire to connect to players. But boy, I wish it was set in Australia. I wish I’d been walking the unfamiliar streets of suburban Geelong, where Galvatron is from, rather than the pine-lined streets of a Hollywood adolescence I’ve seen before and feel like I’ve lived before. Now that would have been a trip<\/em>.<\/p>\n \t\t\tThis Mixtape review is a real mixtape<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n Giovanni Colantonio turned in a playlist instead of a review, and who can blame him?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \t\t\tThese kids are using Minecraft to fix New York City<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n Simone de Rochefort spent a year following Battle of the Boroughs, an inspiring mix of Minecraft and social change, for this 40-minute doc<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\tHe traded his $130,000 supercar for Pok\u00e9mon cards<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n Patricia Hernandez talks to the guy who’d rather have Charizard than an Audi R8<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\tThey built a whole dang Batman: Arkham game out of Lego<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n Matt Patches finds the Rocksteady sequel we all want in an unexpected place<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\tNicolas Winding Refn is still chasing the ‘cocaine’ high of Pusher<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n Miles Surrey talks to the Drive director about his raw trilogy of Danish thrillers<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\ntown<\/s> small village in the English Midlands.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mixtape.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Beethover & Dinosaur\/Annapurna Interactive<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Fireworks](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/mixtape-fireworks-over-car.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=220&h=124&dpr=2\"\/)
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\n Plus this:
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