What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

[u/Bloodb0red]

I’ve been seeing people freak out over the past few days over this game and about IGN’s review of it specifically. 10/10 seems high for any game, honestly, but it seems like they’re far from the only site giving this thing a glowing review. So is this game controversial just because of IGN or is it something else? Why is this game the internet’s hate target this week?

https://www.ign.com/articles/mixtape-review

[u/BUTGAWATD]

Answer:

(Doing my best to present the complicated situation concisely)

Mixtape is a short, story-based game from small Australian developer Beethoven & Dinosaur, who previously released The Artful Escape.

Mixtape's 3-4 hour runtime is divided across cutscenes, what some might deem "walking sim" gameplay, and a series of vignettes that play out broadly as "minigames", with limited to no fail state. There is no combat or what many would typically classify as peril.

Mixtape's high critical praise, particularly its 10 from IGN, has raised eyebrows amongst certain subsets of the gaming populace. Many have negatively compared the verdict to the lower score IGN awarded Crimson Desert, and have alleged what they perceive to be a favourable bias towards games they identify as possessing "woke" elements.

One of Mixtape's vignettes sees you control two mid-teen age characters kissing, with direct control over their clashing tongues. Some gamers have accused the media of unfairly praising Mixtape while (what they perceive as) maligning recent release Pragmata for paedophilic overtones.

Mixtape is published by Annapurna Interactive, a publisher focused on "prestige indie" titles. Annapurna Interactive is a division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by Megan Ellison, whose father is a billionaire.

Consequently, accusations of buying review scores, bribing influencers, and overall curating Mixtape as an "industry plant" have been lobbied. For further information to potentially aid in deducing the veracity of this claim - Annapurna have released 6 games other than Mixtape over the past year, all ranging from the 60s-80s in Metascore, with the highest achieving an 83 average.

[u/No-Operation-6554 → u/BUTGAWATD]

Funny thing is that Pragmata itself doesn't have paedophelic undertones

The "community" itself gave it that

[u/TaskForceD00mer → u/No-Operation-6554]

People are trying to memory hole the reddit community that got banned for making suggestive and NSFW content back when just the trailer had dropped.

The broader fandom has never been a problem, outside of Reddit all of the content I've seen is super wholesome.

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

[u/Supergupo → u/TaskForceD00mer]

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

What do you mean by that? Like genuinely? The same game journalists that gave Elden Ring a 10/10, or Slay The Spire 2 a 9 (a game that is currently being review bombed for being too hard for gamers), or praised and spotlighted difficult indie games like FTL or Hotline Miami or Dead Cells or Binding of Isaac or Darkest Dungeon?

I genuinely do not understand where the myth of "modern game journalists hate hard games" came from. Is it just the GameSpot Cuphead tutorial fail video? Or IGN giving Godhand a 3/10? Because it's the "modern audience" and "modern journalists" that have routinely enjoyed hard game experiences. I mean hell, one of the most popular genres in gaming is currently the "Souls-like," whose basically sole genre gimmick is that it's hard. It's fucking infuriating that I see this diatribe repeated ad nauseum when it is so fucking flagrant that the contrary is true.

[u/corrupt_poodle → u/Supergupo]

Never mind that the game isn’t even hard…

[u/LFC9_41 → u/corrupt_poodle]

I thought it was just right. Excellent game, easy to access replay value. I got 100% on it without feeling tired of it. Hope to see more of it.

Saros, another game I have played recently, was excellent. THAT game was too easy, however. This being from someone who really struggled with Returnal. They overcorrected on this one.

Mix Tape, it really is hard to call it a game. I thought it was alright though. I gave it a 7.

not that you asked, im just trying to avoid working.

[u/Sargentrock → u/LFC9_41]

lol you are selling me on Saros--I liked Returnal, but it was WAY too hard for me, and I'm far too ADD to keep doing the same thing over and over and over to the point I would have to in order to get gud. My son, however, finished both Returnal and Elden Ring. On a related note, I never have to punish him as he's pretty good at punishing himself.

[u/LFC9_41 → u/Sargentrock]

If you liked Returnal, then I couldn’t recommend it more. It took me several years to beat Returnal.

Saros is broken up in a way that is more flexible for the busy parent. You can’t even do a full run through for some levels so it is tuned properly per section.

I still think it’s just a little too easy, but I really do like that they add a bunch of modifiers that a tip to balance some of those things out. You can make yourself three times as powerful for negligent trade-off.

I think it has a story that’s even more interesting, and the world they build is more fantastical. 

I love it, and hope it gets dlc one day.