A small indie game about three teenagers reliving memories on their last night of high school just launched three days ago and the gaming community cannot stop talking about it. Mixtape dropped on May 7th and has already shot to the top of the year’s review charts, which almost nobody saw coming.
Developed by Beethoven and Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive, Mixtape currently sits at a 94 on OpenCritic, making it the highest rated game of 2026 so far, ahead of Pokemon Pokopia by four points. For a $19.99 indie game with a three hour runtime, that is a remarkable achievement.
The game follows three teens named Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra as they revisit shared memories across Northern California on the final night of high school. The structure is linear and focused entirely on emotional storytelling rather than traditional gameplay mechanics. There is no combat, no difficulty settings, and no padding. Just a story and a soundtrack.
That soundtrack is what critics keep coming back to. The game features music from Devo, Iggy Pop, Lush, The Cure, and more, with each track carefully matched to the scene it backs. Reviews describe it as a musical odyssey built around the universal experience of growing up, and the 90s setting gives it an emotional pull that lands even harder for anyone who actually lived through that era.
Mixtape launched day one on Xbox Game Pass, making it immediately accessible to millions of subscribers at no extra cost. It is also available on PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC for $19.99.
The short runtime has divided some players, but the majority of critics argue that at $19.99 the emotional density makes it one of the most rewarding experiences released this year. Several reviews have already called it a potential Game of the Year contender.
If you are on Xbox Game Pass there is genuinely no reason not to try it this weekend.
Have you played Mixtape yet, and if so, did it hit you the way the reviews are promising? Let us know below.