Kotaku | 07.05.2026 20:00
One thing I appreciate about a lot of coming-of-age stories is that they end up suggesting that navigating some degree of neurosis, as I’ve done since I was a teenager, is actually a pretty universal experience. The subgenre is by definition confessional, penned by adults looking back at the awkward, thorny, and impossibly large feelings of youth and the ways we cope with all that change. Mixtape, a game about a teenage girl who tries to link every memorable moment of her life to a fitting song, is coming-of-age comfort food for anyone who’s ever been fixated on music as not just an art form but a soundtrack to their life in particular. Though it opens with a veneer of ironic teenage detachment, as is genre custom, there’s plenty of sincerity underneath.
