We were thrilled to have a solid thirty minutes to sit down with Annapurna Interactive / Beethoven & Dinosaur title Mixtape during Summer Game Fest Play Days. We have been tracking this title from the first moment it was announced and have been anxiously awaiting the chance to dive into the halcyon look at a roughly 1990s time of carefree teenager life. Initial trailers hinted at a large element of magical realism with the story’s main character being able to traverse life threatening circumstances with ease and at times even fly. After our demo, we spoke in detail with Creative Director Johnny Galvatron about this mechanic (watch our whole interview with Galvatron below) and he indicated this was mostly a metaphorical mechanic meant to emulate the emotional, transcendent or gut punching moments of your formative years. Supernatural elements or no, we still loved every moment of this.

The demo we played began with lead character Stacy Rockford ominously kicking off her trio of friends skateboarding down a perilously steep hill indicating that hopefully none of them die today. This begins a peaceful segment where the player controls skateboarding down the hill avoiding oncoming traffic. It’s easy enough to control that it becomes an instant way to dive in and feel a sense of autonomy in this just-a-smidge-off-reality ’90s-esque world. The three friends are in planning as Rockford is on her last night in town before bouncing from their quiet, little mountain town. You see, she’s obsessed with making mixtapes. For the younger folks reading this, in the time before streaming of music, it was common that people would painstakingly curate a playlist and dub one song at a time to blank cassette tape. It was personal, vital and always somewhat lo fi in quality, but it always felt massively special. Rockford knows more about music than any average ten kids would even bother to and relentlessly shares her knowledge with her friends and you as the player. She almost understands how to capture and summarize moments this way better than she can live them as they’re happening.

The three scheme on finding beer for a party and then decamp to her house where she details her master plan to head to the big city and meet cute her idol, a famous music supervisor in a hope of becoming her assistant, thereby kickstarting her own music supervision career. But not before one last bash celebrating their years of freedom, friendship and fun-loving destruction. Mixtape takes you through moments where you can explore and learn about totemic objects in a childhood bedroom (a la the exploration mechanics of Life is Strange) and then flashback mini games where you see the “greatest hits” moments of the three friends’ lives together. One moment remembers them fleeing a party drunk in a shopping cart, speeding away from cops in high pursuit like a high school Grand Theft Auto getaway. Another is a hilarious French kissing minigame where Rockford remembers a first kiss with a brief romantic partner (it’s a Wayne’s World-like extreme close up for sure). You even have a chance to roll with them head banging with manic glee driving home after getting fast food.

The game’s soundtrack is top notch and features a bevy of legendary artists from numerous decades of counterculture music: The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Roxy Music, Devo, Joy Division, The Toadies and even Ronnie James Dio fronted Rainbow are all a part of the fun. Galvatron points to this game being more like a Richard Linklater Dazed and Confused soulful rumination as opposed to the branching narrative choice consequence laden explosion from games such as Life is Strange and Oxenfree. But judging by this brief preview, we’re fully ready to dive into this nostalgic sweep of bygone culture and weep our eyes out. Give us more, and soon, please!

Watch our full interview with Johnny Galvatron of Beethoven & Dinosaur below: