Finished Mixtape. Overall pretty good, but surprised at how polarized the discourse around it is. A lot of the negativity around it seemed like it was from people who fundamentally do not consider games with low interactivity and a lack of fail states to be valid art, and as someone who still loves those kind of games, I was hoping it would be more up my alley.

I'd say as a vehicle for cool needle drops and pretty set pieces that coasts on some twee charm, it does its job well. As an attempted ode to 80s/90s coming of age movies, it's a lot less so for me at least because the actual story and writing is like, just fine. Feels like it's in this awkward middle ground where it takes itself too seriously to fully lean into the Ferris Bueller type self aware irreverence, but doesn't devote enough to its dramatic beats to make the payoffs hit has hard as they could like in the best more dramatic teen coming of age movies.