Mixtape Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Mixtape Review (May 7, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast dives deep into the newly released game Mixtape by Beethoven & Dinosaur (of The Artful Escape fame), published by Annapurna Interactive. The hosts—Greg Miller, Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and Bear Courtney—share their reviews, discuss the game's emotional impact, narrative style, music, and how it stands out in the modern gaming landscape. The panel also explores its universal coming-of-age themes, accessibility to non-gamers, and how it fits into the wider canon of narrative-driven video games and coming-of-age stories.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Initial Impressions & Ratings

Tim Gettys (05:57–08:40):

• Beat the game three times, each playthrough 3–4.5 hours.
• Felt an intense personal connection:
  “Multiple times playing this game, I'm like, is this my favorite thing ever?” [06:59]
• Praises the game’s ability to let everyone find personal resonance, even if the specific music is unfamiliar.
• Declares it “a masterpiece” and a 10/10:
  “I can't say it's anything but a masterpiece… one of the best examples of mixed media I've ever experienced.” [08:24]

Greg Miller (08:40–11:06):

• Echoes Tim:
  “This is a 10 out of 10, you know, this is a masterpiece.” [08:41]
• Emphasizes how the game blends the best of video games, film, music, and nostalgia.
• Calls it the “definitive coming of age video game.” [09:42]

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (11:06–13:20):

• Rates it 9/10, calling it “an excellent game—special video game.”
• Draws comparison to Artful Escape, Life is Strange, and especially Sayonara Wild Hearts for the music-driven structure.
• Notes a disconnect: didn’t personally connect as deeply, possibly due to cultural and era-specific elements.

Bear Courtney (42:16–47:01):

• Not a big fan of Artful Escape, but Mixtape resonated more due to its universal feelings about transition and change.
  “This game got me to tear up a few times… I just felt so, like, drained.” [44:43]
• Gives it a 9, praising its unique place in video games as an entry point for non-gamers into narrative-driven experiences.

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2. Thematic Depth — Universal Coming-of-Age Story

• Mixtape centers around three friends on their last night together, reliving memories via interactive vignettes set to a multi-genre soundtrack (not just 90s).
  “A perfectly sequenced set of music to describe the emotions and moments that these kids are going through.” —Tim [07:06]
• The structure: episodic, music-video-like gameplay sequences.
• Not era-locked: Music and story touch on universal emotions of adolescence, nostalgia, and the bittersweetness of moving on.

Memorable Quote:
"True nostalgia isn't the replication of a specific place or time, but a feeling...Mixtape knows it." —Simon Cardy/IGN, quoted by Greg [18:54]

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3. Music & Mixed Media

• Extensive discussion about the mixtape concept and the significance of licensed music in tying memory, gameplay, and emotion together.
• Tim: “This is the first time I've played a game in 20 years where I can't wait to have the Spotify playlist of licensed songs.” [20:17]
• Music drawn across eras—players’ nostalgia comes from memories they associate with media, not just era accuracy.

Bear:
”The writing is honest, very much about the bonds music and creativity form.” [42:18]

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4. Narrative Strength & Character Writing

• The hosts praise the authenticity and depth of the writing and performances: “The writing is effortless and the performances are fantastic… They feel like real teenagers talking to each other.” —Tim [26:24]
• Pacing is lauded as “perfect” and brisk, making the game hard to put down.
• Surrealist elements (inspired by shows like Atlanta) infuse the otherwise grounded story with moments of dreamlike feeling and whimsy. [28:00]

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5. Interactivity & Gameplay

• The hosts highlight the game’s accessible, varied micro-mechanics—skateboarding, mini-games, surreal vignettes—each tied to emotional beats rather than just gameplay loop.
• Gameplay is designed to be approachable for newcomers. Even non-gamers could enjoy Mixtape.
  “You can recommend [Mixtape] to a complete non-gamer… it is very accessible.” —Tim [32:18]

6. Accessibility and Universality

• Blessing notes not everyone’s nostalgia will align with the era/music, but the coming-of-age beats and emotion remain relatable.
• Chat questions: Would it resonate with older players? General consensus: yes, if they’ve experienced similar transitions or group dynamics.
  "Did you hang out with your friends at a mall at any point in your life? If the answer is yes, I think this game's for you." —Tim [53:56]

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7. Memorable Moments & Specific Sequences

Spoiler Section Begins → [58:13]

Standout Scenes

• Let Go Moment:
  “You and your friend holding hands. The bottom of the screen says, ‘Don’t let go.’ And then slowly the ‘don’t’ fades away.” —Tim [58:19]
• Softball Scene:
  “Cassandra steps up and she's just like, ‘Let me fucking rip this.’...and ‘The Touch’ by Stan Bush starts playing.” [59:20]
• Road Trip Planning:
  ”Road trip bucket list: see a celebrity, flip them off, meet cool people who think we're cool, eat a corn dog.” —Tim [62:13], linking his own youthful adventures.

Writing Highlights

• The game is full of "quotable" moments that felt authentic rather than forced or cliché. “The privilege of loudness. You got to earn loudness to be on stage. These motorcycles buy loudness, and thus they suck.” —Tim [65:34]

Gameplay Details

• Even small interactive moments, like headbanging in the car and flicking lights in beat, are called out as perfectly realized.

Emotional Impact

• Both Bear and Greg mention going to bed "emotionally drained" after finishing; the feeling of impending change and nostalgia is "simultaneously therapeutic and heartbreaking." [53:00]
• The ending (“chased her dream, but made mistakes with friends”) is seen as more honest and nuanced than most coming-of-age films.

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8. Replayability, Length & Pacing

• 3–4.5 hour playtime; chapters can be replayed to revisit favorite moments.
• All hosts agree: "I could have lived with these characters forever," and “wanting it to be longer” is a hallmark of great art. [25:09]
• Yet they also praise its restraint: "I'm so happy this game wasn't longer—it’s the perfect amount." —Tim [26:15]

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9. Technical Performance & Platforms

• Most played on PS5 or PC; a brief discussion about performance (no Switch codes tested).
• A slight slowdown noted during scenes with many objects, but “the stylized nature makes it a non-issue.” [47:51]
• A soundtrack playlist is available (via fans/Spotify).

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Tim Gettys:
  "It is the single most relatable thing I have ever experienced." [07:16]
  "It's a masterpiece. 10 out of 10 on the Kinda Funny scale." [08:24]
  "This could be the game you show a non-gamer and they'll be blown away." [32:30]

• Greg Miller:
  "It's the definitive coming of age video game." [09:42]
  "You want to hang out with them… you want to see where their story is going to go." [10:29]
  "This is Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dazed and Confused, for games.” [17:45]

• Blessing Adeoye Jr.:
  "We talk about friction a lot in games…there’s not much friction here, which works in its favor." [33:03]
  "There's something here for anyone who has ever said goodbye to friends." [16:42]

• Bear Courtney:
  "I really connected with this way more than Artful Escape…this game got me to tear up a few times…" [44:41]

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Host Scores Summary

• Tim Gettys: 10/10 (masterpiece; nearly flawless)
• Greg Miller: 10/10 (masterpiece; universal recommendation)
• Blessing Adeoye Jr.: 9/10 (excellent, but not a personal 10; some generational/subjective disconnect)
• Bear Courtney: 8.5→9 (unique for games, strong endorsement)

Kinda Funny Average: 9.5/10

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Recommendations & Final Thoughts

• Universally recommended: “I don’t know if there’s ever been a game I’ve played that I’m like, I could recommend this to anybody.” –Greg [08:52]
• Accessible even for non-gamers—“a perfect entry point to show what games can be today.”
• Emotional resonance spans ages and backgrounds, though mileage may vary based on personal nostalgia for the music/era.
• The panel predicts significant awards attention for Mixtape and hopes the developers will be celebrated in the wider industry.

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Episode Highlights & Moments

• [05:57–08:40]: Tim describes his playthroughs and delivers his 10/10 rating
• [09:42–11:06]: Greg equates Mixtape’s emotional power to classic films
• [13:20–15:02]: Discussion on the universality vs. specificity of nostalgia
• [20:21]: Tim talks about building his own playlist
• [25:09]: Audience and panel agree "wanting more" is a sign of greatness
• [26:19–28:44]: The authenticity of the writing and natural pacing
• [32:18]: Accessibility to non-gamers
• [58:13–end]: Spoiler cast highlights the most memorable narrative and interactive moments

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Conclusion

Mixtape is celebrated by the Kinda Funny crew as a landmark coming-of-age game, blending music, narrative, and interactivity in emotional and authentic ways. Whether you were a kid in the ‘90s or not, Mixtape’s universal themes and approachable gameplay make it a must-play for anyone interested in the evolution of storytelling in video games.

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Listen to This Episode If…

• You love narrative-driven games with strong emotional resonance.
• You’ve enjoyed games like Life is Strange, Sayonara Wild Hearts, or The Artful Escape.
• You are interested in games as mixed-media experiences or as “playable movies.”
• You want to hear authentic, funny, and heartfelt analysis from a panel of passionate hosts.

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TL;DR: Mixtape is Kinda Funny’s highest reviewed game in the narrative-adventure space in years—an “instant classic” for anyone interested in music, memory, and growing up.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

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[Tim Gettys]

It's time to bring on the blooms at the Home Depot with Spring Garden deals. Find savings on hanging baskets and flowers to brighten your backyard or any space that needs instant color. Then get everything you need to plant and protect them with low prices guaranteed on soil and mulch. Dig into Spring garden deals for four days at the Home Depot now through May 10th exquisite supply seehomedepot.com pricematch for details, join Rocket Money now at rocketmoney.com kindafunny head to factorymeals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50 off and free daily greens per box. Use promo code kinda [e-mail] for 25 off the Carver map frame. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kindafunny.

[Greg Miller]

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Thursday May 7, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30 aka New York Game Awards nominated aka Bicep Poppy it's blessing. Eddie oh Yay Jr. Good day. Greg let's we've been on shows but we've been a mile a minute. Too much has been happening. The fits you had at Magic Con. All right. Outfits you were rocking on these things.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

You're. You're. You. You continue to take it to a different, different level.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you so much.

[Greg Miller]

Appreciate you trying.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm trying harder nowadays, you know. Why not getting younger.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't know.

[Greg Miller]

Of course. Over there it is Samira's father at Tim Gettys. Hello Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Tim host oh My God, I can't wait to talk about this game. Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Can you believe it everybody? We are finally. Tape is out right now. Of course you could go get it for 20 bucks. I think we're all going to tell you to go do that. But it's been a long journey, Tim, from us talking about this game, seeing trailers, wondering if they could land this plane. Beethoven and Dinosaur of course, developer you love from the Artful Escape.

[Tim Gettys]

That is very true. Obviously. Huge fan of my game of the year from 2021, the artful escape. I was from the rooftops yelling that everyone should at least try knowing it might not be for everybody. And I am very happy to say that mixtape is a game for buddy and I get to scream very loud about this one as well. And I won't be screaming alone this time. I think that's a very good feeling because I've talked to a lot of people I don't know. I don't think I've even talked to you at all about this yet. So I don't know your we haven't

[Greg Miller]

done a whole panel conversation on it. And that's what we'll do on this episode of the Kinda Funny Games cast because each and every weekday we run you through the biggest topics in video games. Whether they be reviews, previews, or just things we need to talk about, we cover them here as part of Kinda Funny's slate of live talk show programming. It of course starts with Kinda Funny Games daily into Gamescast, then sometimes in review shows up to review a movie like Mortal Kombat 2 Mortal Kombat 2 today baby. Streaming of video games. It's a good time. If you like that, pick up a membership patreon.com kindafunny A number of other ways that I'll tell you about in a little bit. Remember, if you are watching live and you have questions about mixtape or maybe you've already played it today, it is a shorter game. You might have already rolled credits on it. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, questions, Reviews in the YouTube.com kindafunnygames super chats just right Science Dog official popping up saying I know it's on Steam but I still bought mixtape. I know it's on game Pass. I'm sorry but I still bought mixtape on Steam. Couldn't help it after how charming and cool the developers were last week.

[Tim Gettys]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Johnny Galvatron and Woody were here last week doing an amazing interview on Gamescast. You should double back for of course. Thank you to our patreon.com kind of funny producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be topic of the show. As I've said, mixtape is here. A game I feel like we've been talking about for years. A game that of course infamously was on my Fantasy Critic last year and then of course couldn't come out. Woody and Johnny couldn't stop buying fancy glasses and getting mohawks left and right. They couldn't publish their game. So then of course this year, Blessing was able to steal it, put on his fantasy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Whoa whoa.

[Greg Miller]

That's a conversation. Well, I had marked my territory last year.

[Tim Gettys]

That's how that works.

[Bear Courtney]

You should have marked it again this year.

[Greg Miller]

I couldn't because of the way it was drafted. It was a rigged competition by the commissioner. But we won't get into it. Oh whoa whoa. Mixtapes Out Today Steam Description reads On their last night together, three friends embark on one final adventure play through a mixtape of memories set to the soundtrack of a generation. Like I already told you, 1999 the developer is Beethoven and Dinosaur the publisher Annapurna Interactive. It is out right now. Game Pass just about every other platform. $20 Timothy I feel like it is only right to start with you. I want to know how long it took you, what you played it on, what your score is and why.

[Tim Gettys]

My first playthrough was about four and a half hours. I want to say my next two playthroughs because I beat this game three times already. With more? No, not yet. But with more playthroughs on the way for sure. Those are closer to the three hour mark, I would say. All right, you start this game up and immediately I'm just infatuated with it. Very early into the game you get the bar of a line. Pretty soon you won't be listening to music, you'll be listening to who you were. And that I just got chills saying it. You set in. And that is the thesis statement of this video game as you play through it and you experience these teens last day together as a friend group. And it is structured as a vignette, as a series of vignette music video, playable music videos if you will, that are all a perfectly sequenced set of music to describe the emotions and moments that these kids are going through. And it is the single most relatable thing I have ever experienced. Multiple times playing this game I'm like, is this my favorite thing ever? Like multiple times things would happen that I'm just like so, so Impressed. And it feels like it was made just for me. It feels like the writing and the pacing and everything about it, I'm like, how did they know this about me? But my favorite thing about that is that I feel that way. And I feel like most people that play this game are going to feel that way too, for different reasons. There's just so much to the core relatable elements about this game that, sure, I might not know the majority of the songs in this game because I didn't. It's not like I'm hearing these songs and being like, these songs mean something to me.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, these are my songs.

[Tim Gettys]

But these moments mean so much to me. And you can completely relate it to your own mixtape of your own songs that these feelings and these moments are tied to. One of my favorite things is sharing something that I love with my friends. And this is the type of game that I, for the rest of my life, will be able to, when I'm hanging out with someone I haven't seen for a while, be like, you got three hours, let's sit. Maybe. Even if it's just a couple chapters that we pull up. Like, this is the type of thing that I feel sharing this says something about who I am, and I want that statement to be very, very loud because this game is incredibly special. I can't say it's anything but a masterpiece. This, to me, is a 10 out of 10 on the kind of funny scale. Again, perfect video game. That's not what a 10 means. This is a masterpiece. This is one of the best examples of mixed media I've ever experienced. And I can't wait to continue to experience it and to share it with as many people as I possibly can.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I want to hear from Bless, but I want to just jump in there because I feel like I'm going to echo so much of what you said, Tim. Like, this is a 10 out of 10, you know, this is a masterpiece. This is a game that I don't know. And I know this is hyperbolic to a stretch here. I don't know if there's ever been a game I've played that I'm like, I could recommend this to anybody. Like, this is such an interesting sweet spot between what we love about video games and what we love about film and what we love about music and then what you love about nostalgia, right? Like, when I was talking to people embargoed about it, I kept just saying, everyone's using the exact same phrase today. Right? Like, it's the definitive coming of Age video game. Like, the themes it hits on and the moments it hits on. I'm right there with you, Tim. Of, like, I'm playing it and I'm like, this. I. I lived this. And I didn't live the soundtrack, and I didn't live the underage drinking. And I. But I mean, like, I. I did live the hanging out in your friend's room. They get yelled at by their parents. This over there. You know what I mean? I lived the, like, the final moments of the state, which were. I'm not gonna spoil, don't get me wrong. But those final moments, I'm like, I have lived this. And like, damn, that hits because of it. And you know, the way they. They've said they've pitched the game forever, right? Of mixtape, nothing. But the hits to the way these kids look back on their memories together is the same way, you know, when Po and I get together. To this day, you still talk about something stupid you did in high school or this, that the other. It's like, it's so special. Like, it's so hard to put into words for me, at least what the game means to me, how hard it hit for me. And I'm right there with you. Of like, anytime somebody's like, well, what do we want? Let's do this. You want to see this? You got to see this. You got to play this. You got to try this. Like, it's. As the guy who likes the narrative video games, you know, the guy who likes the, oh, man, this grandma's sick. Or this kid doesn't know who his dad is. Like, this is such a great example of what I like out of those games where it's like, you can have. There's gameplay here, there's goofy little things in mini games and this and skating and so whatever. But it's like, it's just this story hitting. It's you getting these three main characters and feeling like you know them, you want to be them, you want to hang out with them, you want to see where their story is going to go, what will happen in the rest of their lives. Like, mcs. Incredibly special blessing. I'm excited to see if you're with us or against us.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, I'm not against you guys by any means. Right. I'm more on the 9 out of 10 coming out of this. I think it's an excellent game. I don't even go as far as say it's special video game.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think there are so many things they're doing here that for Me level up on types of games that I played in the past. Whether it be their previous game with the Artful Escape, whether it be games like Life is Strange, which, you know me, I love a Life is Strange.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

One of the games I keep thinking of actually in conversation with this one is Sayonara Wild Hearts.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because I think there's a lot of similarity in terms of what they're trying to do with both games. Sayonara Wild Hearts branded itself as in album, a pop album of a video game, right? Where you go through each of these songs and it is. It has a very specific style of both visuals and a very specific style of music that it's going for that is this original, all original music, right. Trying to deliver it in this fun, special way. Mixtape is very interesting because it is a mixtape. It is literally taking a bunch of different licensed songs, putting them together and also mixing together these audio visual experiences and delivering you. Delivering them to you in a way that is a mixture of all these feelings and things that we've experienced growing up. I There. There's so much that it does well, right? And I. We not even talked about gameplay. And one of the things I was thinking about all throughout playing this game that I think I had while playing Artful Escape, but I think this game delivered on more so than that one is I was always asking myself, why is this a video game? Right? Why am I interacting with this? Why? Why is the interaction meaningful? And I think they found the answers in there, right? Every single time I was doing something in this game, there was a level of, oh, I'm into this. Oh, this is fun. Oh, this is. There's something that is bringing me in closer to what's going on in the scene based off of how they. How they frame it. I think it's a very clever game. I think it's a very well executed thing. There is a level of something there in the subject matter that weirdly isn't for me. Like, I'm not connecting with it on as deep of a level as you guys. And it might be era, it might be age, it might be like I did not grow up as a white kid in the 90s, right? And so I think there's a level of like, oh, this is a. I'm appreciating it as a video game, but it's not sinking into my feelings and sinking into my mind in a way that I thought it would when I was going into it. But that said, I still think it's a very special Game that I recommend to anybody.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I wonder how much that is part of it. Right. Because again, you know, there it's the late. What is it? Early 90s. Right. It's the early 90s.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, that's what I love about it is it's. They don't ever say that. And so I think something that I really appreciated about it, Bear and I were talking about this a little bit, but the. The mixtape nature of it all. What. One thing that I think is so special about this game is the music choices, which is such an obvious thing to say. But it's not just one specific era. It's kind of a mix of everything. And there's like, kind of hints and clues throughout the game that place this kind of outside of time where you can kind of latch onto it as a more late 80s thing or more mid 90s thing, even an early 2000s thing in some ways. And I feel like that's kind of the experience growing up with music, where your parents listen to something, so you listen to it, then you go to your friend's house and their parents listen to something different and so on and so on. So it's kind of like this hodgepodge of a bunch of different styles and genres and concepts even. And I. I think for me, this game specifically, and Johnny Galvatron, the director of this, named after a character from Transformers, the animated movie, and people that grew up watching that movie, it's their entire personality. Like, I am one of those people, and it's like there's. The music of that movie is intrinsically tied to my memories of growing up. And clearly Johnny's as well. Yeah, I think me and Johnny are slightly different age groups, but it's like I grew up with this 80s movie even though it came out many years before I was even born. But that doesn't matter because the nostalgia you have in the moments that you kind of create your nostalgia through media isn't necessarily the things that are coming out right then. It's the things that you're surrounded by. And so because of that, I really give this game props for, I think, touching on a. A, A. A wide swath of era.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And I think that's what's interesting, to bring it back to the blessing and the disconnect and this. That the other of. I feel that as well, where, you know, Stacy Rockford, who's the main character of the game, obviously flanked by Cassandra and Van, like, she wants to be a music supervisor, so she just knows music front every which way, knows all the stuff and is able to compile this list, right, of amazing stuff where, yeah, Rainbow Sensitive Delight is not a song of her era, right? But she's pulling from it and telling you why it's important. Jesus and the Mary Chain, right? Just like honey, same deal there. And then you get into stuff like Smashing Pumpkins, Love, which was a song of my. I would say pre teen adolescence into teen, you know what I mean? And so it's like the way that music's being pulled reminds me so much of when for some reason, I guess probably the movie, my friend group in like 8th grade or 7th grade got obsessed with the Doors. And so we're listening to the Doors all the time. And like my parents, I remember being like, that's what we listened to when we were teenagers. Why are you like so into it? And like that hodgepodge of pulling in classic stuff and doing it, but like again, when they're in the bedroom and they're hanging out, when they're at the blockbuster, walking around, it's like, I remember that so well of just that. I don't know if kids still have it, teens still have it, if even your generation had it of that. Just like, man, we're all bored together there. You know what I mean? Or we're going to go do this thing. There wasn't the cell phone, there wasn't the Internet. And I'm not hearkening back to that day, but I think for us, me being that generation, that is the before times and the after times of having the Internet at your disposal, whether it be dial up or then just being Ethernet, then being your phone, right? Like, that's where it's hitting. So interestingly of what this friend group was, I feel like, yeah, and I can.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I could definitely see that, right? I think there's. There are definitely emotions that are. There are definitely thoughts and ideas and emotions that are tackled on in this game that do resonate with me in the sense of letting go of your final days as a teenager growing up, right? Letting go of that adolescence and going off and maybe saying good goodbye to your friends. I think there are so many things that are universal. I think part of it for me is even the genres that are being tackled where I'm like, man, I. This would hit so hard if I was like more into this style of music, right? Like, there was a part where they reference. Was it Rob Bass? I forget the name of the song, but there was a Rob Bass song that they referenced. And I was like, oh, shit, I can't Wait to hear this. And then they didn't play. And I was like, damn it, that would have been the one that would have hit for me. I was like, dang it. I wish. I wish we actually got that right. But again, like, I think hearing you guys talk about it, even seeing the response online to it of the 10, it got a 10 out of 10 from IGN. Right. Like, I know for a fact there's a. There's a level of excellent choice here when it comes to music selection that's going to resonate so strongly with so many people. I just wish it resonated stronger with me.

[Greg Miller]

Of course. Let me get two things in before I give it back to you, Tim, because we all want to talk to

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

you by Rob Bass.

[Tim Gettys]

That's what it was.

[Greg Miller]

Well, first off, there was a chat that went through from Sathy Soothsayer. So does this game have anything for people who don't have nostalgia for the era? Of course I have it to a degree you don't. Or at least aren't connecting the same way, giving a nine. I think for me personally, this is very much like when you watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Do you enjoy that? And I'm not saying they're copying it, but I mean, like, that's the coming of age. Teen drama. Like this for me, goes into that pantheon of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dazed and Confused. These movies I watched as a kid in, like, first off, when we were way too young to be watching them or watching them, hoping my high school experience would be like that. And then afterwards, even though I never stopped a parade or, you know, was on the football team and. But you felt the. The rebelling against authority there, or this. You know what I mean? It's got those touchstones, I think, that so many people's lives actually have. But in this conversation, you brought up the IGN 10 out of 10 review. Simon Carty, of course, our friend and friend of the show over there, is the one who reviewed it and I really liked his lead paragraph. Let me read that to you. Okay. True nostalgia isn't the replication of a specific place or time, but a feeling. It's those flashes of emotion that transport us back into memories that have long sat dormant. I was born too late to be a teenager in the 90s. I grew up thousands of miles away from the schools of Northern California. I barely stepped onto a skateboard outside of a couple scraped knees in the summer of 2003. But none of that matters, and mixtape knows it. Australian developer Beethoven and Dinosaur fills each and every moment of this, of its coming of age tale with incredible music perfectly hand picked to set the tone for its free flowing chapters in a way only nostalgia can. As original as it is reinvention. I'm sorry Reverential. It's a masterfully constructed dose of new memories hinged brilliantly and how they remind us of our own. And I think Simon, those are fucking bars left and right. But like that encapsulates the clumsy words I was trying to put together all

[Tim Gettys]

weekend and you know, talking about the music plus I feel like musically me and you way more aligned than not when it comes to taste. This is not my taste in music at all. And it reminds me though of when I grew up playing Madden 04 and all of a sudden I'm hearing a bunch of rock music I had never heard before. Specifically now Guitar Hero, right the Tony Hawk games very much getting me into my taste in music in the more underground hip hop stuff but then also exposing me to a ton of punk rock and classic rock, all types of rock, right. This is the first time I've played at a game in probably 20 years where I I can't wait to have the Spotify playlist of, of license.

[Greg Miller]

Would you like me to share that with you? I. I was pausing the game, building it as I went and I love

[Tim Gettys]

it because this, it's exposed me to a ton of artists that I either never heard of or artists that I have heard of. Like Devo, that my eye call. I know Whip it, you know what I mean But I don't know this the opening track, that's good now I've listened to it non stop like this is exposing me to new things and I'm so excited in the most navel glazy way possible of all of this that I'm going to listen to this playlist and it's going to make me nostalgic about playing this game and like that that's something that I, I still when I play, when I hear Party hard by Andrew W.K. i think about playing Madden 04 with my friends. Like there's just so much cool touchstones of these musics becoming memories for us

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

and I definitely don't, I definitely don't want to discount like I think the power of that right for me it's more so me trying to diagnose like what is the thing that wasn't connecting and that last hard and that yeah as hard that last connector for me. But I do want to chat out a few things because you're talking about Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Tim saw me as I was trying to Google. I was like I was googling Jonah Hill's sister and then Abby from last was because I was trying to pull book smart books. Book smart is like my also super bad being another one for me of like these coming of age stories that do hit hard for me that I do love and I do love that we can get these in video games because if when we're talking about the characters that are here, right, there's Cassandra, there's Rockford and there's Slater and there's any fucking Goodspeed. I love, I, I love what they're doing here with the cast. I love the acting, I love the framing around their relationship and what each of these characters wants and like what their journeys are. There's something so well done here that like I know I said it, it states it's claim, it states this case of like why it's a video game, right? But also if this was just a movie, you know, like I, I think this would be such a fun film to watch. Like it feels like I'm watching an Annapurna film but.

[Greg Miller]

And that's what I love about it though. And you hit on this right of like in what games do and why games are special and yada y of like it gives us so much more ownership over the relationships, I feel. And you really do make those things count in your own way. To go back to what you're talking about, Tim, right? Like as I was playing the game and I obviously from previews I was like, this seems like it's going to be fucking special then to be into it and going. I was like, I got to build the playlist as I go because I know as soon as this is over I'm going to want to go back and experience that. And it reminds me so much of Take Us Back by Layla Diane. That's the song that ends Walking Dead season one. Even before we knew it was Walking Dead season one. Just the Walking Dead by Telltale right where it was like, I remember I still when I. When that song comes on my playlist, it immediately takes me back, no pun intended, to being there. And honestly, the day after rolling credits and Walking Portillo and it was cold and I was feeling it all right. And it's the same thing here of like this could be an awesome movie, but getting in there and playing as these characters builds the relationships between them that we're doing right. But I think more importantly gives you the place for the growth to matter. I think, you know, when you watch personally, you know, Ferris Bueller's Day off, right? Like Ferris Bueller's Ferris Bueller, like he's still just the coolest kid in the beginning and he's still the coolest kid in the end. He's got the world at his fingertips and by the end grade he's closer with his sister, right? Like I thought the relationships they did here were like, wow. I don't, I'm not trying to be high falutin, but I thought they were more profound than most coming of age movies I see because I suddenly felt like I was these people. Like I was with them in like the little choices they make. I was like, oh, wow. Like that is such a big deal that X is doing to Y or offering to Z. Like what they're having these conversations and especially when it started and I saw so much of myself in Stacy and her plan, right? Stacy's going to. This isn't spoilers. This is the trailers and everything else, right? Of like, this is her final day in town. She's going to, they're going to do one last night and she's going to wake up and fly to New York and give the record producer her mixtape. They're going to hire her on the spot and her dreams will come true. Which sounds so much like me of like, I'm going to go to college, I'm going to write about video games, I'm going to go do the damn thing. Like I know what it's like to have that drive, to have that vision and know what it is. So then to see the repercussions of that with her friends and family in town, it's like, oh, wow.

[Tim Gettys]

Like that's, that's awesome to be a music supervisor. Like, that's her goal. And I think that, that, that is like such a interesting framing and like plot device for this game. Because that's what she's doing. She's building the mixtape. It's like she's proving to us that she's good at the job she's trying to do. So it's like we believe in her and it's, it is. I am, I'm very, very impressed with this game. Towards the end, me being like, I don't want to leave these characters. Like, I want to see where they go. I want to know more about them. But like that's kind of the beauty of it all is like you have this time with them and it like connects so hard and now they're just gone. They'll never be a sequel to this game. There can't be a sequel to this game. That's not the point.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. In the live chat earlier on Twitch Camping said, I wanted it to be longer. And I think that is such a hallmark of a great game experience. Movie, whatever. But great piece of media is that I'm right there with you. Like, I want. I could have lived with them. It's a three. It took me three hours a little bit over on the PlayStation clock. I could have lived with them forever. And at the end, like, I'm so. You know me. I'm an idiot. Like, I want them to ruin it.

[Bear Courtney]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

I want it to be the credits and then it is 20 years later and I get to see what happened. You know what I mean? And it's not. You get a snapshot. You are getting this one piece of their life. This is what it is. And to your point, Tim, of like, the amount of times I've turned. We're in review season. What do you smell it?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I. Oh, I smell strong.

[Greg Miller]

There's so many games every day now. Yeah. But the amount of times I've turned on the PlayStation or even the Rog where I also have it and been like, I just did another. I want to go back. I want to relive this. It's not even like the trophies. I just want to go back and have this experience again.

[Tim Gettys]

The chapters are so perfectly paced and easy, easily accessible after you beat the game. So it's like you can just go back and just do the. Here's the one music video that you're playing through. And like, so I. I've been doing that a lot. Very into it.

[Greg Miller]

Did you show Tajia?

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So we got maybe three chapters in and then things have been going on. But we're going to finish it together because she's obsessed with it. And why wouldn't she be? Like, I. We've talked a lot about different elements of the game. I want to give even more love to the writing. I feel like that so much of what makes this game special to me is how effortless the writing is and the performances are so fantastic because they feel like real teenagers talking to each other. Like, they feel like real people talking to each other. It doesn't feel like a facsimile trying to be this thing. It's like, it is authentic. And I. I love the weird words that they use. Like, I love the amount of times that they'll just be hanging out and almost just making sounds to each Other and it's like, yeah, that's what friendship is like. And I think that that really helps with the pace. I'm so happy this game wasn't longer. I, I think feel like it's the perfect amount of giving us these moments. And I love the amount of flashbacks to get more context. Context for where we are for this one epic night that they're having. I am just blown away by the pacing. And I think all that comes down to the perfect song choices mixed with writing that continuously makes me want to go, I need to know what's next. I need to know what's next. Even though it's not like big plot beats are happening, it's not like I'm like, what's the twist? You know, it's more just like, I just want to see how this night goes.

[Greg Miller]

It just, it flows.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that's the big thing is the pacing is so brisk. And I had moments where I'm like, okay, after this chapter, I'm gonna doordash something, take a little bit of a break. And I just wasn't putting the controller down because they would get me into the next thing. I'm like, oh, this is neat. I'll finish this and then I'm off to the next thing. Like, all right, I'll just finish this real quick. Right. Like, it is a very well paced game. I also love something they do. I. I'm a big fan of the show Atlanta and Atlanta. It takes place in Atlanta for most of the show, but they do this elevated level of like surrealism where Donald Glover and his crew will be doing something like a realistic thing and then something crazy will happen and they just run with it as if it's like this can happen in reality sort of thing. And they have some really cool, surrealist moments in this game that make so much sense for a teenagers that are of this era that are doing this thing right here where I'm like, damn, that's really fun the way, the way they did that. I don't want to like, give specific examples. I don't want to spoil shit. But I do love how much larger than life this can feel.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, we had talked him and I like maybe in the back half of the episode just doing a spoiler cast because I do want to talk about specific moments and jokes and yet we're not going to go into that right now. Don't worry, don't worry.

[Tim Gettys]

And I also do think that this is the type of game that like, yes, there are things and moments that could be Spoiled. But I really think that this is, it's endlessly enjoyable of like, even if you know some things that are happening. It's like we, we all experience this. You know what I mean? It's like spoilers. You lived life like you know what friendship is, you know how things go. But I also really loved the mixed media usage of stuff. The sound design. This game is fantastic. The level of animation and different styles of animation that they go through in the game. I feel like every interactable thing you're doing rewards you with some unique thing to look at and hear. And it's so satisfying. The sound of the skateboard is nostalgic. It's like it's the right sound, you know, it's like overemphasized in like all the perfect ways of like what it sounded like doing an ollie, trying to do it, ollie, whatever it was. You start this game up and one of the first things you hear is her putting on the headphones and turning the CD player on and it's the THX boot up sound effect. And it's just like that's not how that works, but it's how you remember it kind of. It's like it is this like larger than life thing. And the sound design throughout the game continues to back that up. And the game's use of real archival stock stock footage is so brilliant. And the. We were talking to, to WI and Johnny last week on the Gamescast and they were saying like the extents to which they went to like get that footage, but it's all so perfectly picked. Like it's not just random things flashing. It's like every scene is backed up by like incredibly well researched stock footage that I think just adds so much to the impact of so many of the moments, including the opening scene where she's discussing what a portable CD player is and what it means to her. I was like, this is just so special and so cool.

[Greg Miller]

I think one of the things we, you know, keep talking about everything and everything. Like we aren't even really talking about gameplay or whatever. For you and I, loving Life is Strange. For me, loving those kind of games and talking about them all the time. Tim, you just touched on it right of like. I think that's one of the really interesting things. Jen will not watch me play a Life is Strange game because of course I do the all right, go right or I'm going to go left and I'm going to pick up every fucking object and see what they have to say about it. And that's Annoying. I think in many games, if you're not just doing this for whatever. The way it's ingratiated into mixtape of going up and having a. You know, it's glowing yellow over there. You know, that's the thing you need to do. But there's so much random shit in the bedroom to go look at that isn't just, oh, wow, I remember this.

[Tim Gettys]

Boom.

[Greg Miller]

Like, it can also keep a memory. It cues up a conversation. You have this thing that again, is fleshing out the relationships that are making that gameplay feel. Not gameplay. Like I'm doing A to get B, but more I'm doing it because I'm existing in this world. And again, it's your final day, it's your final night with these kids in this thing. And the fact that they acknowledge that and what that means to the kids, both together and then privately is so well done.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I also just love how the small things mean so much to them, to these kids. Right. Because that is all they know. Like, going back to the whole thing of her putting together this mixtape so she can present it and try to be this music director, supervisor, supervisor. Thank you. Like, if something doesn't go her way, right? Like there is this feeling of, oh, man, this is a big deal to me. Right? Or like you're looking for a thing that. To open the next thing. And it's a small thing and it. It becomes the mission of the moment. Right? Like, I love how well they. They focus. Focus everything in Joey.

[Tim Gettys]

Not Joey. Gia's best friend, Jordan, is a music supervisor and she grew up loving music. Obviously, that's how you end up as a music supervisor. She's actually the one that like, chooses songs for movie trailers, which is like, I love a dream job. Are you kidding me? And she loves it, but she doesn't play video games ever. Has never played a game.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Her husband Chris, loves games. This is going to be a game. I'm gonna buy this for her and I'm gonna tell him, hey, have her play this. I want her to play this. And I bet you she's gonna freaking love it. And I. This is the type of game that I think you can recommend to a complete non gamer, someone that's never picked up a controller. And I think that the level of interactivity and what they're asking of you maybe needs a little bit of explaining here and there, but I do think that it is ex. Very accessible to somebody like that. And that's kind of cool for a game that we're this high on, you know?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I like, I, I. It's funny, we talk about friction a lot in video games, and it's been like a. I think a bigger conversation is. So many more games come out and we pick and choose based off of what appeals to us. Right. There's not much friction here. I think that's going to work so much to its favor because that's not the kind of game that it's trying to be. And also, like, whenever it does ask you to do something or engage, like a gameplay mechanic or something, it's so simple but still so satisfying. And I think that's a tough thing to balance when it is. All right, you're going to do X thing. Oh, you're going to ride the skateboard. Well, you know, we can't expect every single person who's playing this game to know how to play Tony Hawk or skate. So how do we simplify that in a way that's still satisfying for people to play? And I think they nail all those small things very, very well as far as giving you new things every chapter to do and having them be easy to do, but still fun.

[Tim Gettys]

And I think a lot of the interactive moments and the things you can do that are the kind of gameplay are things that you kind of naturally want to do. And an example of that. There's hundreds in this game, so this is just one little one. There's a scene. You're in a car and you're listening to music and you're headbanging.

[Greg Miller]

I talked about this in the preview. So this has been out there forever.

[Tim Gettys]

And it's. That's awesome. That's such a. Yeah, we all, we've all been there to some ext understand. Right. But then it starts going through the different characters in the car, and the way that they're headbanging is different, and each character has their own personal thing. One of them ends up flicking the light on and on. The light search on and on. And it's like, we've been there, man. Like, there's just something about that specific little thing where it's like, so now here I am, hidden buttons, flicking this light in the car on and off. But I want to do it to the beat. Why? I'm not getting points for it. I'm not, you know, it's not rewarding me from a gameplay perspective. It's just, it feels right. It's fun to do. That's. I think the level of gameplay here that the Beethoven and Dinosaur really nailed with Mixtape, that is just. It makes you want to Interact with it the way it's asking you to.

[Greg Miller]

And I think it's also the idea that, you know, we talk about this all the time with indies and all these different things, but like it's so lovingly handcrafted, like, you know what I mean? Like where it is, you're doing these things in different level. You're doing all these different little tasks and different little things in the bed or in the car and then whatever in the skateboard and. And it's like the skateboards come back a few times, but even when they do, there's something added or it's a different thing or it's surreal how you're using it. And so it really is when you stop and think about what you're doing, you're going through and playing this game and having all of these mechanics that are for the most part one time use. Like this is for this scene, for this moment to make you feel a certain way and do that and like, and almost very diatribe y and almost probably way too soapboxy. But like when you're talking about keeping AI out of video games, like this is what we're talking about. Like this AI could scrape every video game and every movie and everything and yada yada, and never have a fucking prayer of coming up with 1/100th of what this game is and how much it feels and how much you emote. And like, again we've seen the trailers and done it of like the scenes where it's the surreal, floating, flying, whatever, like the way that shit hits and the way they use it in different ways to express different emotions.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's where I come back to at the beginning of this. Right, Tim, you were talking about it and one of the things I might disagree with a little bit is you mentioned is, you know, it's not perfect. Masterpiece doesn't mean perfect. I think this game to some extent is kind of perfect though. Like it reminds me of playing inside, where to Greg's point, inside is a game is like kind of kind of my reference. For every movement you make, an inside is is handcrafted to that moment that you're having in the game and you're not really repeating the same thing twice in that game. And yeah, like to your point, Mixtape is doing the same thing. And I think there's something to that of like with how they've kind of dialed in and honed in what you're doing moment to moment. There's not really anything I can pick apart gameplay wise.

[Tim Gettys]

I totally agree with you the not perfect thing to me. And mind you still saying this is a 10, it's a masterpiece. But for a game that is so story focused and character focused, there's one pretty major character moment that I feel happened way too quickly. And it's not even that it happened quickly. It happened quickly after another major character moment. And I just feel like if each one of those was a separate chapter, it would have just hit a lot harder for me and just kind of worked better. And I'm only nitpicking that because everything else felt so perfectly paced and so like we got to sit in every moment for the exact right amount of time. And this was there's just one moment that's actually pretty big one in the game that I was like, oh man. Like you should have let both of them breathe separately because I feel like I was still caught up in one choice. We'll talk about that spoiler section.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I want to. Here's how it's going to go. So we do want to do spoiler stuff. We're not going to jump right into them. Don't worry. Sad Crab says no spoilers. No spoilers. Right now we'll be very clear. We go to spoilers. Here's what I'd like to do everybody. We're going to do the thing where I do a little remind you about the membership. We'll go to ads when we come back. Bear Courtney played. I'd like to hear a little bit from him over on the ones and twos about it. And then we we'll do a whole wrap it up of how we feel for no spoilers and then do a spoiler section. Okay? So remember, of course we couldn't do cool stuff like this. Enjoy games, play a bunch of cool stuff, have a lot of cool opinions, have a lot of cool people come through to talk them. If you weren't supporting us with a kinda funny membership, of course go to the kinda funny membership and get it on patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple Spotify get everything we do ad free. Get your daily dose of me Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way each and every day. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old business. But you're not using your benefits right now. So here's a word from our sponsors.

[Tim Gettys]

This episode's brought to you by Rocket Money. Rocket Money can track subscriptions and has the ability to cancel unwanted ones within the app with just a few taps, saving users over $880 million in canceled subscriptions. The amount of times that Snowbike Mike has signed up for something, forgot about it after the trial period ends up, and then charge. It's quite frankly terrifying. So many people have at least one paid subscription going unused each month. Thanks to Rocket Money, you can see all of your subscriptions in one place and cancel them within the app with just a few taps, saving time and avoiding charges. And the app consolidates checking, savings, loans and investments into a single dashboard. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join@rocket money.com kindafunny that's rocketmoney.com kinda funny this episode is brought to you by Factor. Sometimes hunger strikes and you are just exhausted or you're hosting shows back to back to back and you just don't have it in you to set up prepare the whole meal that you thought you would have time for. That's why so many of us here at Kinda Funny Love Factor. Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking. On many occasions, Factors completely saved Greg and Jen when they needed it most. Every meal is crafted with functional ingredients, lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food foods and healthy fats. Factor bans 175 plus ingredients. No artificial colors or sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined seed oils, just nutrient dense food. Feel the difference? No matter your routine, head to factorymeals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50 off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27, 2026. See the website for more details. This episode's brought to you by Aura Frames Mother's Day is right around the corner and guess what I need to worry about for the very first time? Getting Gia a Mother's Day gift. But guess what? I'm not stressing at all because I got the perfect gift lined up to show off all the adorable pics. A little baby Samsam. This year, ditch the flowers and upgrade to the digital frame. All of Kinda Funny loves the Aura frame. With the Aura frame, Greg's been able to constantly keep his mom updated with photos of her grandson via the Aura app. He just clicks the photo of little Benny as he's shredding on his skateboard all over here in San Francisco. How cool is that by the way? It taps a button and it's on Jamie Kennedy's frame in Chicago named number one by wirecutter. You can save on the gifts moms love by visiting oriframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $25 off their best selling car for matte frame with the code Kinda funny. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda funny. Support our show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wear that.

[Greg Miller]

Pretty sure I'm just Venmo, you haven't I vote I venmo po do $20 and told him don't look at anything. Go buy mixtape and play with your partner tonight on the couch.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm be real. I want everyone in the chat to do the same thing. Venmo po20$20 be like play this game, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bear, you're telling me you've never worn a Joy Division unknown pleasure shirt?

[Bear Courtney]

No, I have not.

[Greg Miller]

I won't lie to you. I look at that. I'm like, that seems like something I've seen.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bear, that bear has a tattoo on

[Bear Courtney]

his back with us. The more blessing talks about me, the more I'm convinced that we've actually never hung out like in real life ever.

[Greg Miller]

Welcome to the show, Bear. Courtney, you've been doing a great job running it. I assume you've beaten mixtape. What do you think? What's your review?

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, the way I kind of like want to bounce off and start off my thoughts is someone in chat earlier was asking like, hey, I didn't really connect with Artful Escape. Would mixtape still be an easy recommend? And I would say as someone who also wasn't a huge fan of Artful Escape, yeah, I would still recommend mixtape and I think the reason for that is their writing style from it's Dinosaur and Beethoven. Beethoven and Dinosaur. Their writing style for both games is very similar. It is very. It's very honest. It's very like wearing their hearts on their. On their sleeves about music, about creativity and about like the bonds we form with all of that.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Bear Courtney]

I think the big disconnect for me with Artful Escape is that writing style not really connecting with me in a. A story that is so kind of like out there and trying to also like pull from like you know, like Bob Dylan turning into David Bowie and like Ziggy Stardust while also being this hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy type of story. Like there are so many aspects that felt so my shit that there was just something there that didn't quite connect with me. And I think the writing style here kind of fits this universal thing that, like, y' all have been talking about throughout the entire episode so far of this feeling of, like, not even just the end of high school, it's really just, like, coming to terms with. You are about to enter a new era of your life no matter what age you are. And I think that's kind of the universal thing, feeling that this game evokes so well with so many, many things, and people kind of extract from that and going through those motions and yeah, like, I. I really connected with this way more than. Than artful escape. And like, this game got me to tear up a few times in very, like, you know, obviously, like, the ending, like, really got me. And it was one of those. I was. I was telling Johnny and Woody last week because I beat it the night before they came in and I was telling them of, like, the game ended and it wasn't too late in the night, so I could have just, like, stayed up and, like, watched something or played something else, but I decided to just go to bed because I just

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

felt so, like, drained.

[Bear Courtney]

I was just, like, kind of emotionally drained. And I think they nailed that. And, like, there's so many small little moments that I think they nail right of, like, yeah, like, the feeling of betrayal and kind of like walking backwards or floating backwards to, like, find your way home and, like, shrivel up into

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

bed,

[Bear Courtney]

you know, this is a very specific shout out to Cleveland, Ohio. The greater Cleveland, Ohio area with the Cleveland Metro Parks of, like, you know. You know, I didn't do this particularly in the Cleveland Metro Parks, but I had this experience in Golden Gate park, but of, like, being high with your friends, just, like, running through fields and shit. And like, that's. There's a scene like that in this game that reminded me so much and, like, the way it looks reminded me so much of back home, but, like, still having that experience here in San Francisco that I think they. They nail so well. And even just like, the small moments of looking at. Taking in a friend's room for the last time and, like, really trying to, like, again, come to terms with something is about to change. And you don't know if it's. If it's good or if it's. If it's bad, bad, but you just know you're going to miss this moment and you're not sure what the next moment is going to bring. Yeah, I think this morning I was, like, trying to think of like a, like a score for it. Right this morning I was, I was feeling like an 8.5. I think I talked myself into a 9 because like I think what this game does overall, like comparing it to movies and that have done this kind of coming to, coming to AIDS type of story, I, I think this doesn't do anything like crazy new and I think it pulls a lot from a lot of things that like touchstones we know. But I think it is very unique for a video game in this medium and I think it does it so well and I, I think it's a. It's a great way to get people who aren't super like knowledgeable about like, oh, what video games are today. And showing them like he is what video games can be and are all the time, you know. But this is like a, a good entry point for people. So yeah, that is. Those are my thoughts.

[Greg Miller]

I like that bear. Thank you so much. You're not alone on that first 8.5 resolute super chat says, love my time with mixtape. I got up at 6am and was able to roll credits before work. 8.5 out of 10. Everyone play it. Happy birthday Mike. Happy birthday, Mike. Christopher says, chills, jaw dropping, smiles ear to ear. That is his review there of mixtape. And then I've this in the chat a few different times. Ron Stamped, Ron Stanton Lopeal says hi y'. All. Is anyone able to speak to the Switch 2 performance for the game? If not, no worries. I've been very excited for this review. Banger points on Fantasy Critic. Thank you again. They were stolen. Those should be my crit, my points. But I played on PlayStation 5. What did y' all play on PlayStation 5?

[Tim Gettys]

I played on PC and then PS5.

[Bear Courtney]

PS5 as well.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

PS5 Pro at home and then I finished at work on my base. PS5.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, we didn't get Switch codes even I don't think we requested them. So no, we can't speak to Switch performance. Sadly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There's like only one moment I remember in the game playing on my ps. Oh, was that a worker here? I think I played it at both because I quit halfway through this chapter. But there was a part that had just a lot of objects on screen. It's one of the skating moments and there's just everything flying is flying everywhere. And I saw some slowdown there. But also the game is stylized in a way where I'm like, the slowdown doesn't really affect the visuals because it does do like almost like the spider verse kind of frame Rate Thing of, you know, having, like, the different frame rates, I think so. It looked fine.

[Greg Miller]

Sound of a smirk. Super Chatted with their membership for 20 months. It says, I can't wait to cry at this. As a musician, I think it's going to hit hard, if not harder than Artful Escape. Shout out to Woody and Johnny Galvatron for the amazing interview last week that you can catch on the kind of funny gamescast.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I added some stuff there.

[Greg Miller]

Christopher came back with the super chat, said someone said Superbad mixed with John Hughes, which I could see. Superbad, which I love, I feel is a bit more.

[Tim Gettys]

I felt.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And it was a bit more. Not raunchy, but like, it had a sharper edge.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like the Superbad. God, I don't know what's on my. My. I'm getting choked up today. Superbad always reminded me so much of how my humor in high school, which was just so unrelenting. I like, I shit on Tim all the time. But Tim knows how much I loved him and you as an audience know that as well. Because I tell Tim all the time how much I love him and how my life wouldn't mean anything without him. We wouldn't. I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be. I would. No, no, no. I'm not saying. I'm saying this is the good stuff. I'm giving you the carrot right now, so when I give you the whip

[Tim Gettys]

later, you fucking fuel.

[Greg Miller]

Anyways, that. I think this one there isn't that edge to it personally, but I'm taking a very personal representation.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, I would agree with that. I would say, like, Blessing talked about book smart.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Bear Courtney]

I would say it's like. I wouldn't even say it's that level of like runs, but I think it has a similar tone. More so to Book Smart than Superb Kuma Super Chats.

[Greg Miller]

Question for Greggy. Does this game reach the emotional highs as something like Florence does, or is it apples to oranges also high Blessing in Tim. I think it's apples and oranges, honestly. Because, I mean, Florence is, you know, no words. You're going through. Amazing. The soundtrack, this orchestral thing. Whereas this is living with these characters on their final night and doing something. Florence is an entire relationship that was obviously set out to devastate you. Whereas I think this is going to. I think I teared up in this too. I did not cry. But it's. You're seeing so much of your own life in it, then you're also hopeful for their future and all these different things. Like it's different, I think. Yeah. Wood Stonel says big shout out to. Big shout out and thank you to how the kind of funny audience. Oh, this is Woody. Sorry, Woody from the Woody the developer super chats. Big shout out and thank you to how kind the kind of funny audience was to myself and Johnny last week. We love that so many of you are vibing and excited for mixtape. Truly appreciate it. Love from us at Beethoven and Dinosaur.

[Tim Gettys]

One of my favorite gamescast we've ever done. They were. Did you watch it? Bless. You need to check it out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

These motherfuckers are some of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. And they, they, they clearly care so, so much. There's a line in this game that people who have passions are hot. And I'm like, I, I wholeheartedly agree with that. I find myself in life really kind of gleaning on to people that are passionate about something. I think. I look around this studio and I feel like all of us share so many different passions for things, and I think that that's. That it makes us better than other people. I'm gonna say that. But these two dudes, Woody and Johnny, they're some of the most passionate people I've ever met. And it shines through in what they just created.

[Greg Miller]

Agreed. However, I would like to point some things out here. Okay. You say all that. We did a great job supporting them, having them in here. Of course, of course. Woody, friend of the show. Of course, friend of my wife. He actually stayed over at the house with us. You know, we cooked for him. We did all these different things. He went to the Academy of Sciences with Ben. Ben showed him around the Academy of Sciences. That's all great. He puts out this game. Got a game pass deal published by Annapurna. You know what I mean? One of the highest rated games of the year that Super Chat he gave was 10 Australian dollars. All right, you convert that, that's $7.23. That's what it's worth to you, huh, Woody?

[Tim Gettys]

$7. Australia played with funny money, man.

[Greg Miller]

It's everything. Outrageously expensive there. He was telling me how much video games cost in general.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, that was something. Whenever working at V, like, people visiting would come into vans for a second,

[Greg Miller]

I was like, I knew you. Barrett worked for vans. He did a tenure in Australia.

[Bear Courtney]

No, just like tour it. Like, we would get a lot of Australian tourists and they would like, stock up on just hell events. And this was.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, that makes sense in the day

[Bear Courtney]

because they were like they're so expensive in Australia. It's crazy.

[Tim Gettys]

Plus when we were doing the interview, this didn't come up at all on the show but somebody in chat said I'm sorry about Steve Irwin.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh no.

[Bear Courtney]

I mean it's a great games guess everybody should listen.

[Greg Miller]

I wouldn't listen to it the other day. Very good stuff. Krista says Stacy is very similar to Greg's story 100. Thank you for that. That's cool. Mr. Nice Guy Rise says, I'm struggling so mightily with the current state of everything around us. This game is so needed. It's simultaneously therapeutic and heartbreaking. That's what good.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah man. It's just like. I'll add the word hopefully. Like there's just so much.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Tim Gettys]

You play this game and like you just. You're rooting for these characters so much. Like it's. It's cool to see it reminds you of where you came from.

[Greg Miller]

Two more before I want to transition to some spoilery stuff. Paul, super chat and says how do you think this would hit for an older gamer? My mother is in her early 70s but raised all of us through the 80s 90s. I mean I think again, I mean it's, it's touchstones. Right. And it's not even so much about the time period. It is about saying good but that it's about that really very specific magic moment of the end of high school and what comes next and those friends and what comes next.

[Tim Gettys]

Did you hang out with your friends at a mall at any point in your life? If the answer is yes, I think this game's for you. Sure. Sure.

[Bear Courtney]

I still think that like mileage can vary depending of the touchstones.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Bear Courtney]

Like I think, you know, YouTube being the older ones of this group here, like I think there's definitely a lot more for you to connect with. I think it just depends on the experience and like how that lived experience happened for. For all of us growing up.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'd be fascinated. He said how old is his mom?

[Greg Miller]

She's in her early 70s but raised them all through the 80s and 90s.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You should have your mom played and like super chat in on what. What her thoughts are.

[Greg Miller]

Put a little recorder on her. Put a little voice recorder. I will review it. Yeah. Because yeah, I mean I think some of the music would pop more for her too. I mean just even the bands, if not the song. But like you know, because there's so much stuff in there. Like I don't even know who these people are.

[Tim Gettys]

It's a good stuff. I Just wanted to be known. I'm closer in age to Blessing than I am to Greg. People look at me and don't know that.

[Greg Miller]

It's the fact.

[Bear Courtney]

I always forget that you're younger than Andy.

[Greg Miller]

It's the problem that is as we age, I look better and better. Tim looks worse and worse.

[Tim Gettys]

So you know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

So, like, that's why pretty soon I'm gonna be out there. I mean, I'll skate into work with Roger. Everybody's gonna say, oh, man, great.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Skateboarding now. Yeah, that's cool.

[Greg Miller]

Did you see the video I put up today? No. Go to instagram.com Game over, Gregory. There's a. There's a winner for you. I put up today. Skate park, hot and fresh. And then the great PXM Lord super chats to say our final super chat for the non spoiler section. Even though, don't worry, we're not jumping straight into it. I'm probably too young to fully resonate with this game, but I'm looking forward to it regardless. Good. Give it a shot, everybody. There's something special going on here.

[Tim Gettys]

Sorry.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, and it's like. Is it. Is it this one that you also posted on bs?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Hey, we'll restart it, though, since I want the captions up there so everybody sees what I'm saying. This is what I did today.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's shredding, right?

[Greg Miller]

Limited free time. Just skating around the skate park, getting my balance.

[Bear Courtney]

And it's great, too, of like, the way you come back.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Where's Ben at? Oh, he's not home or he's not in this.

[Greg Miller]

No, no, no, he's cool. I dropped him off. I was like, you know what I got.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you went to skate by yourself?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, dude, I love skating. Wow. It's a new hobby I'm learning. You know what I mean? It's like when you started learning magic.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I learned more about you every day.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fun stuff out there, everybody. Of course we're not signing off, but I'll give you an outro in case you're not coming with us to the spoiler cast section of Mixtape, remember? Of course, you could save this episode if you haven't beaten. It's no big deal. Just come back. Remember that? The review? Maybe we put in the title too. I'm not sure if that would bring people in or alienate them. It's a weird thing sometimes. But remember, you can save this one and come back and we'll have a spoiler cast here. Probably just 10 or 15 minutes of some of our favorite parts of mixtape. So go play mixtape. Of course. What are we talking about here? A ten. A ten, A nine. And then Barrett talked himself into a nine was the final word. Yeah. So I mean we love this game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

9.5 average.

[Greg Miller]

It's not too shabby over there, you know what I mean? Pretty good. Of course it's free on game pass. You could buy for 20 bucks. You could send it to your friend Po if you have. That is what I was telling the guys beforehand. Of course I sent it to Poe on Venmo and then I opened up pose Venmo profile picture to make fun of Po to Tim and bless because he looks like Fred Durst. So what I did, I sent the money. I said sent. Then get a better Venmo profile pic. You look like Fred Durst. And then he says, dude, my profile picture is fire and totally lit in boss. I'm gonna say, did AI write this? I love my friends. Of course, if you love us. Patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple, Spotify, go there, get the membership, Everything ad free. Of course you get your daily dose of me. Greg Miller. Of course you get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old. Small business. Of course. Before you go, remember after this in review, Mortal Kombat 2. Hip hip hooray. After that, Nick, Mike are sitting down to stream mixtape. However, it will only be on Twitch. Our thought there is. We don't want to get claimed and blocked and whatever. You Never know what YouTube is going to do with stuff. So they're going to play it on Twitch. It's going to be a full play, Nick playing through the entire thing. Then we're going to do a background upload to YouTube, see if it's going to flip the fuck out. And then maybe it'll be there, maybe it won't. But Twitch live today. Cool. All right, the show isn't over. Now it's time to get into your mixtape spoiler cast. All right, so if you haven't played mixtape, if you haven't beaten mixtape, this is your time to walk away. Okay, this is your time. This is your time. See you tomorrow.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, God, dude. The let go moment at the very

[Greg Miller]

end, don't let go.

[Tim Gettys]

It hits, man. Just you and your friend holding hands. And the bottom of the screen says, don't let go. Yeah. And then slowly the don't fades away.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And he's pulling.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, man. Come on.

[Greg Miller]

God damn.

[Tim Gettys]

That's what it's all about. So for me, the one moment that I will never forget, pure euphoria. The softball scene. Yeah. The balls are getting tossed at you, and you're playing as Stacy, and you're not really that good. You're not that confident. The. The. It's hard, the markers kind of like moving around a lot. And it's like, it's kind of designed for you not to. To hit the ball. You could, but it's kind of showing you, hey, she's not really good at this. But then Cassandra steps up and she's just like, let me fucking rip this. And she smacks that ball. And the moment that the ball hits the bat, there's like a. One of those impact frames that just make it feel so good. And the Touch by Stan Bush starts playing.

[Greg Miller]

Your song, brother.

[Tim Gettys]

I have never felt that way from a video game ever. It was pure magic for me, where I'm like. And they follow it up. Stacy looks at the camera and explains, like, this song being from the Transformers 86 movie and, like, the way all the words she uses to describe it, I'm just like, oh, my God, I feel so seen. And that entire little vignette of the baseball stadium just growing bigger and bigger and more people going crazy while the freaking Touch plays. Oh, this is what it's all about.

[Greg Miller]

Something, I mean, like, I alluded to, talked about a little bit about, like, you know, Stacy versus Ferris Bueller, where Ferris Bueller always is in control, and even when he's not in control, he gets it back in control and yada, yada. I'm not saying I don't like Ferris Bueller. I'm just saying, like, Ferris Bueller's whatever. So when you start this thing and Stacy's going and she's doing the music and explaining the music, my first thought is like, damn, she's like the coolest kid ever. I love her drive. I love what she's doing. But I also want her to succeed and I also want to know more about her. And I also. It's something Tim and I think I talk. Talk about a lot of. Just like, I love seeing that passion for anything in someone. And to see her have that. It was like, in it, but in the beginning it is still much like. But this is Ferris Bueller or Parker Lewis. Can't lose and everything's going to be just fine, right? And so when the day falls apart and her and Cassandra rift and she screams, fuck. And it was like, oh, wow, we're getting there. And then to get to the moment, right, of her. The don't let go. But even like where she goes to put the headphones on and stops and puts them down after explaining, like, it was just so profound. I thought her journey and my ride along with it and seeing her go from a character, I was like, I've seen this archetype of a character before. Parker Lewis can't lose. Everything's gonna be fine. Even to get to the end where it was like, at some point in that game, I'm like, oh, okay, well then this sucks. She's gonna hang up the dream of New York and go on this road trip. And the fact that she doesn't, it's like, no, no, I'm still chasing my dream. I'm still gonna do that. Even though I did it wrong and I hurt my friend's feelings. And I did all. And like Van Slater giving her the tape at the end, I was like, oh, God.

[Tim Gettys]

That was one of my favorite just like kind of character moments, was him playing the song for the first time for her.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So cool. The visuals, that was amazing. And I love that it's an eight minute epic. It's just so different than anything we've heard so far in the game. Like, yeah, that stuff just hit so hard. The. The road trip itself was one of those moments of like, was Johnny in my head? Like, how did this happen? Because they're planning a road trip to la and on the their little board, you can see they have a list of things that they want to do, like their bucket list. And it's like, see a celebrity, flip them off, meet cool people who think we're cool. Eat a corn dog. And this is so crazy because when I was 17, right after high school, me and Alfredo, like, tone deaf, who I talk about all the time, did his first show in my age to be able to go to shows on the west coast, but it was in la. I didn't have a car, I didn't have any way to get down to Los Angeles. And this is one of the first ever Tim Getty schemes. I literally created an online campaign where I was. It was called Coin Star Tim's Way from the Bay to la. All right? And I told everybody I made a video and I'm just like, hey, I know that at your house you have just a big, like, water tub filled with pennies. Everybody had one of those in the early 2000s, okay. And I was like, you're never going to actually do anything with them. Just give them to me. Convince your parents to give them to me. And so we went to everyone's house, gathered up all these things with Alfredo's Honda Odyssey. All right. And we went to Coin Star and made enough money to support our drive down there. Food and hotels. All right. And what is awesome is the show was at the Roxy, which is where they were going in this game. That's awesome. And I'm like, this is crazy.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I've talked about it before on shows. It's the same thing where for us, senior year. Yeah. Like in whatever study hall Poe, Noonan and Foot were in, they were like, all right, cool. Let's do a road trip. Where do we want to go? And they threw a dart at the map and they hit Appalachicola. And it was like, cool, we're doing that. And then that entire year was building up to this road trip that we actually took. We graduated, had all had our little parties, and then that night went there and we were going to sleep at Nuna's house. And instead we just jumped on the road in this RV that was falling apart and filled with ants and went. So it's like these weird touchstone again moments of what could have been or didn't happen. It's like, just crazy how this game is able to get there and do it. And like now jumping straight to the game, like getting into that dinosaur park and then like going on the rides and taking the photos, it was like, damn, the Kaiju. Yeah.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, that, like, that is well hit. Especially my Midwest homies, the prehistoric Forest. I don't know if that was a thing over in Illinois for y', all, but. No, it was a thing in Ohio at least. And that was like them sneaking into like a. Essentially like a broken down prehistoric forest. I was like, yeah, this is such a specific thing that I would love. I would have loved to ask Johnny and Woody of like, how'd y' all come up with that specifically in growing up in Australia.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And there's a lot of. I mean, Woody still in the chat, so he can answer your question. You can call me on WhatsApp too, if you want. Woody. But like, on top. Yeah. In general, the amount of, like, touchstones they hit that are right on spot on for Americana. Sure. But then, yeah, people all the way in Australia.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I just love all the different gameplay mechanics. Like, it felt like playing a way more well paced version of an It Takes Two, Right. Or a split fiction where every scene you're doing something different. Even when you revisit, you talked about it. Right. You revisit the skateboard thing. And now it is. Explode everything on your way down.

[Greg Miller]

Right? Like, again, letting out. And I mean.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Letting out that emotion. She's just like, ah, fuck it. Fuck you.

[Bear Courtney]

Fuck.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And that was post. That was post. Cassandra essentially being grounded, right? Her dad being like, you're staying here.

[Greg Miller]

Which.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That whole scene, incredible as well. The way. I think that was, for me, the first part where the music comes into play in a way where I'm like, oh, shit, this is really well done. Like, the music comes up and like. Yeah, it is. You can see the anger boiling in Stacy. And then, yeah, the explosion, the explosive scene happens. Explode. The big glass thing with all the balls.

[Greg Miller]

Largest gumball machine.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Super cool.

[Greg Miller]

Stupid shit malls always have.

[Tim Gettys]

There's so many lines in this game that I'm just like, damn, dude. Like, it's just so. I've never heard something like that. Like the. The privilege of loudness. You got to earn loudness to be on stage. These motorcycles by loudness and thus they suck. And it's like, damn, dude.

[Greg Miller]

What?

[Tim Gettys]

It just, like. It's an actually profound thing to say, you know, but it's like. But it's also funny. Like, it's this. I feel like the writing in this is so deep and so funny all the time.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the. You know, I. It made me laugh again this time in the same way it made me laugh during SGF two years ago, last year, whatever it was, of the them on the shopping cart getting onto the highway and then cutting to the news chopper. And the thing. In my 40 years, I've only seen this five or six times. I was like, God damn, that's amazing. The other thing, too, I want to call out are the incredible little touches. Opening of the game. Take off on your skateboard shirt listening to Devo. And when the claps come in, the fact that they're on their skateboards. You know what I mean? But then to jump to where you were getting the Ferris Bueller's day off moment, right. We've got to get to the mini mart to tell Cassandra her dad's coming. And Stacy cuts through and runs on all the school buses. And it goes super surreal that all these people are in school. Sure. And then it's just people there, and they clap to the music, too. I was like, oh, my. I got chills right now talking about it.

[Tim Gettys]

It was so cool. I love Ferris Bueller so much. So anytime you got a reference to that, that's great. But it's a double reference. For me, because that. That sequence is Artful Escape. Like that entire thing is the gameplay of Artful Escape. And there's a couple great Easter eggs for Art Escape in this. Yeah, my favorite one is the. In Slater's room there's a guitar and it's like crazy futuristic and they're like, oh, my grand. My parents out. I don't know why it's futuristic, but it's like that starful.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah. Awesome.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah,

[Tim Gettys]

yeah. And then there's a poster as well.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I thought that was an interesting call out when I didn't. But I didn't get the references. I've never actually played our full escape.

[Tim Gettys]

And a great Easter egg as well. For people that watched the Gamescast last week in the Blockbuster or the movie rental store, all the cardboard cutouts. It's Woody.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, Woody again. Still live in the chat says our 90s culture was so aligned with yalls via TV and films etc. And also Johnny's brain is amazing.

[Bear Courtney]

So probably Prehistoric Forest. Maybe a little bit from Tommy Boy I could see.

[Tim Gettys]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Bear Courtney]

A movie based in Ohio.

[Greg Miller]

But yeah, this is a game that, like, has stuck with me in a different way than most games. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you talk about it, but I. I continue to feel this game and want again, I'm nostalgic to go back and experience the nostalgia of it and, you know, even to jump to. Then the party at the end, like, I thought was such a. Even not knowing where we were gonna go, like, getting there was such a nice payoff for all of them, I thought. Also, what'd you. What'd you paint your door? Did you do anything cool with your door?

[Tim Gettys]

I put the KF Smiley on it.

[Greg Miller]

Me too.

[Tim Gettys]

I wanted to see, like, how what you could do with it. I was like, oh, this actually worked. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I love the. The dude jumping off the roof into the pool.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, don't do it, dude.

[Bear Courtney]

And then he just like disappears and you're like, what the.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I was like, staring at the pool waiting for him to come up.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, oh, no, he does pop up later. I didn't see it, but Woody was telling me that, like, in the. In the end of the scene when Cassandra like comes out and like rages or whatever, in the background you see a wet dude just like, oh, that's funny.

[Bear Courtney]

Yeah, it really, like, so like, like all seeing it through Slater's point of view, recording the whole thing and like, not getting a good. Like you. You know, big things are happening around you, but not getting a good sense of the context around it because you're either you're drunk or you're high or you're both. And you just kind of see out of the corner of your eye, like one of the people you've been waiting for, like, come down from a spaceship. And you're like, that did that just happened. I don't know if that just happened. And it's like, it really sold. Like, you know, I was just talking to a friend about, you know, over in Ocean beach in San Francisco. Like, that's where at least back in my day in high school, where all the high schoolers would converge to just party on like Fridays and Saturdays. And it really hit that, like, one of the last times we did that in senior year, it was like every high school showed up and we had like, shut down Ocean Beach.

[Greg Miller]

That's awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

That still happens. And it is still every high school.

[Bear Courtney]

That final weekend that warms my heart. And like, Tim, you know, rudely asked me in front of Woody and Johnny last week when I told him that I beat the game. He was like, what's your favorite moment? And like, like on the spot in front of these two dudes. And I was like, I gotta. I gotta think about this. I can't just pull one out of my ass right now. I would say like the entire party sequence I really love, but also connected to that was when you actually first show up to

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

the.

[Bear Courtney]

That like, little hideout house place where they would sneak off and. And get drunk and stuff. And it's like the really. The moments of. What's her last name? Rockford.

[Greg Miller]

Right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Bear Courtney]

Kind of thinking back to these moments, first painting the door and then like all of them sitting after painting and like talking about something and then it jump cutting to that no longer being kind of like where you're at anymore. And I think that sequence kind of like, like paints the entire kind of piece of mixtape really well of like what it is going for and what it is trying to evoke at the end of the entire experience that I

[Greg Miller]

really adored and we tossed up my door. I put in assets.

[Tim Gettys]

A lot of the flashback sequences being in different aspect ratios, having more of like sepia tone and stuff. And like obviously the party, it all being through the lens of a Handycam, right? Like so many fun moments like that that I feel aren't just like cool for cool sake, but it's like they're actually like trying to put you in that nostalgic memory of the scene.

[Greg Miller]

Even the ones, you know, Barrett's gonna show here in a second of, like, when you go through. And I took so many screenshots here at the Ritz of when they're doing the moments of them after whatever. Remember we move the couch. Remember we did this? And it puts it into this, like, super, you know, Super 8 footage or whatever you want to call this, you know, 4x3 version of the thing that was me doing. I did the smiley real fast. I love this. So good to the meme. You know what I mean? Or whatever. But I tossed a couple in here of just stuff at the end that I thought was beautiful and amazing. This turn for Cassandra, right? Because that was my thing of, like, when her dad's like, you can't leave. And I'm like, in my head is Greg what I would do? And it's like, well, I'm 18 and I want to go to college, but he's trying. I was like, I'll kill myself. That would be the. That would be the threat. And as an 18 year old, I would lob at my parents if they were doing this, which my parents never did. So to see her do this part

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

right, like, if I told my parents, I kill myself, they kill me, we'll do it for you.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know if it would work. I'm just saying in that moment, feeling those emotions, my parents would never be like, you're not. You're grounded. I'd walk out.

[Bear Courtney]

Her performance in this scene is fucking fantastic. And, like, the level of threat of, like, this is just the beginning. I will burn this entire fucking place down. I think, like, the reason. I think Cassandra's kind of thread throughout this entire story is, like, a big chunk of it, obviously. I think the reason I'm not quite at, like, the 10 out of 10 is like, I think the stuff with her dad, I would have liked to see a bit more, like, fleshed out and, like, threaded throughout the entire story. But I think where it ends, really fudgeing hit for me specifically where, like, where she ends up in her arc.

[Greg Miller]

I feel like we go on and on and on. We do have lots of content to do today. But, Tim, I do want to know. You talked about. You didn't think they breathed. They were on top of each other. What moments were you talking about?

[Tim Gettys]

It's kind of the opposite of what Barrett's saying. I thought that the dad stuff was incredibly well done, and I liked how it was placed throughout the story, but it's that being directly followed up with Cassandra kind of turning on rockford, like, that split. The dad's kind of like, you're grounded. And we deal with all that. And then the next time we see Cassandra, she's just like, I'm out. And I. I can't rectify that in my brain of whatever she's going through and how upset she is from her dad of her then turning on her friend. It just doesn't work for me. And I feel like had we had another thing to kind of like a chapter to deal with Cassandra and Stacy in a more direct way. I think just one song even, I feel like that would have went a long way. It's just those two big moments happening on top of. They step on each other, I think a little bit.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, okay. I can see it. I can see that. I can see that.

[Tim Gettys]

Fair.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Because, yeah, for me, I thought it was Stacy being so clumsy and just like it. Whatever. And her be like, no, I'm grounded. Like, I get your friend, especially your friend who's leaving who up the entire trip. And clearly we never had a conversation about that. You're already mad at her about that. And here she is again putting her above your. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that was. I. But I agree. I understand. It's just.

[Tim Gettys]

Just the placement of it. I just think it kind of just like felt. It felt almost like it was a reaction to the dad more than it was that. That they built. But just because.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, that happens a lot though, right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

How many times am I mad at somebody else and I get mad at you for something?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, but it's like I. I just don't think that it Specifically when you get to the scene of her yelling at the dad at the end, it's just like, yeah, that all adds up to me.

[Greg Miller]

But yeah. And then. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Her bringing the other friend. You don't do that. Jenny.

[Greg Miller]

Jenny.

[Tim Gettys]

So good. So good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And I liked when we go back. Oh, God. I remember what it was. But at the slussy shop when they get introduced and Jenny says something and she's in the. Stacy's, like, I know all I need to know about you. Like, it was written off based on whatever comment she made about music.

[Bear Courtney]

They were talking about a movie.

[Greg Miller]

I don't. Oh, yeah. I don't listen to. When I'm listening. Watching the movie. I don't really listen to the music. So fucking good. And I also really liked Stacy's. The impact and ripples of Stacy's sister. Like the. The fact that you're like, okay, cool. She sounds like beginning the sister's not here. Whatever. She's probably not cool. And then she left you a treasure map. So get to the thing. You find the note about the booze. And then when we start meeting the older kids and they're all a little Rockford like, oh, that's so cool. That. Yeah, like what a game.

[Tim Gettys]

And I keep forgetting the name of the. The cool girl that's throwing the party. Cass. Something like that. But I. Everything about her is great.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, that.

[Tim Gettys]

The whole scene of them driving on the beach, it's just like what edges.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing this so good everybody Mixtape special. Hopefully you know that because you've already been here, but if you weren't, I saw somebody earlier who was like, this isn't. You can't spoil this game because I'm listening and I have no idea what you're talking about. So that's great. Go play mixtape. We love mixtape. Congratulations Beethoven and Dinosaur for doing it. Doing the damn thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I'll be interested to see you at game awards and dice and BAFTAs and all the other places. I'm sure this game is going to be honored. So it's really cool and a great drop here.

[Tim Gettys]

That's the thing is this better get nominated for game awards because that means the Johnny and Woody will come back to California. Which means Johnny and Woody will be back here at the kind of funny studio. So we gotta. We gotta make this happen.

[Greg Miller]

Y' all agree everybody. That's our review. That's our spoiler cast. Hopefully you came back to it later. If you did, make sure you BS that's blue sky at Tim and say pretty, pretty pumpkin pie so he'll know that you just listened to this because we always like to see when you listen to it. Of course, you know everything until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you. It's a good thing.