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Mixtape launches with a ’90s mixtape: Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Iggy Pop and more
Mixtape launched May 7 with a licensed ’90s-heavy soundtrack including The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure and Iggy Pop, out now on major platforms.
Mixtape dropped yesterday (May 7) and its headline is the kind of soundtrack that makes the whole premise unavoidable: The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure and Iggy Pop sit alongside DEVO, Portishead and Alice Coltrane as you play through a nostalgic coming-of-age night.
Created by Beethoven & Dinosaur and inspired by the films of John Hughes, Mixtape sends three friends out on one last adolescent spree. “On their last night of high school, three friends embark on one more adventure together,” reads the games description. The beats are not window dressing; they shape rooms, sequences and conversations. Skate. Party. Avoid the law. Make out. Sneak out. Hang out.
The game launched on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC, but dont expect a flood of streamers to blow it up — the licensed-heavy tracklist makes capturing and sharing gameplay trickier than a chiptune indie with a royalty-free OST. “Mixtape is about music. Its about DEVO. Its about the Smashing Pumpkins, Lush and Alice Coltrane. Its about how you feel when you listen to Iggy Pop,”the games developers explained on X. “The characters talk about the songs. The levels are designed around the songs. We couldnt change the songs. We couldnt replace them. We just couldnt.”
Tracklist
The full Mixtape soundtrack reads like a mixtape youd find under a high schoolers bed in 1993. It includes:
- Atmosphere Joy Division
- Thats Good DEVO
- Plainsong The Cure
- Just Like Honey The Jesus and Mary Chain
- Monochrome Lush
- Have You Seen Her? The ChiLites
- Remember When Mitch Murder
- State of the Heart Mondo Rock
- The Touch Stan Bush
- Most of All B.J. Thomas
- Roads Portishead
- Freak Silverchair
- Love The Smashing Pumpkins
- Candy Iggy Pop
- Galaxy in Turiya Alice Coltrane
- More Than This Roxy Music
- Spellbound Siouxsie & The Banshees
- Sensitive to Light Rainbow
- Witchi Tai To Harpers Bizarre
- Yesterdays Hero John Paul Young
- Shine David Gray
- Dare Stan Bush
- Drunk Flamingo Abrahams and Mole
- Powder Allclear
- Airwalker Bertrand Dolby
- Deep Space Scan Curtis Dunn
- Zebra Crossing The Eye Gougers
- Moon Unit Wooden Sword
Early reception
Players on Steam have already embraced it, with Mixtape holding an “overwhelmingly positive” rating. Across critics, Metacritic lists a “generally favourable” score of 85 out of 100.
Its the kind of release that invites two reactions: excitement for the way the licensed songs scaffold the games scenes, and a practical shrug about how those same licenses limit discoverability in the streaming era. Still, for anyone who remembers swapping cassettes and timing tracks to fit a side, Mixtape feels designed for that rush.
In other gaming news, The Strong National Museum Of Play announced this years additions to the World Video Game Hall Of Fame: Angry Birds, Silent Hill, FIFA International Soccer and Dragon Quest.
