Beethoven and Dinosaur’s Mixtape has launched to strong reviews, with many critics calling it an early Game of the Year (GOTY) 2026 contender. On review aggregate website MetaCritic, the game is boasting a high score of 85, with a number of full 100 reviews from the world’s biggest gaming publications.
Following in the footsteps of great, highly-acclaimed Australian-made games like Untitled Goose Game, Hollow Knight and Unpacking, it appears Mixtape is poised to become another big name local hit.
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What the critics are saying
In the ScreenHub review of Mixtape, we called it a lush coming-of-age story with an inspired plot, universal enough to appeal to anyone nostalgic for the days of youth.
‘It’s more than likely that players won’t have experienced the kind of young adulthood explored in Mixtape. The game presents an idealised, almost magical version of youth – nights of freedom charting streets in shopping trolleys, bounding through fields with the wind at your back and late nights spent drinking in abandoned houses in the woods.’
‘Playing loose with reality allows the game to become something more affecting, a universal exploration of how it can feel to be young – to be excited about the future and where it may lead, to be ready for new experiences and people, and to be face what it means to enter another world.’
It appears the game’s focus on freedom and adventure has been impactful for many reviewers, with a core thread being its sense of nostalgia and relatability.
‘True nostalgia isn’t the replication of a specific place or time, but of a feeling. It’s those flashes of emotion that transport us back into memories that have long sat dormant,’ critic Simon Cardy wrote for IGN.
‘I’ve 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 & Dinosaur fills each and every moment 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.’
Over at Press Start, critic Brodie Gibbons also had high praise for the game, and how it explores the seeming enormity of challenges facing young people, with music as a salve and escape.
‘[Mixtape is] an experiential, playable series of music videos that unfold in sensational, exaggerated ways,’ Gibbons wrote. ‘Of course, there are real moments in Mixtape that help ground the narrative that underpins these dreamlike reimaginations of life’s “big” moments – a first kiss, sucking at sport, getting caught drinking.’
Elsewhere, reviews praise the development team’s musical curation, the balance between active play and cinematics, a whimsical setting, tight dialogue, and the performance of the game’s main cast.
All around, Mixtape has greatly impressed.
Mixtape is the next big Australian-made video game
Mixtape developer Beethoven and Dinosaur, based in Melbourne, has something special on its hands here. After years working on an array of award-winning experiences, including The Artful Escape, the release of Mixtape is yet another significant achievement.
Successful showings at events including SXSW Sydney 2025 hinted at what was to come, but with this release, we can all finally see the complete vision of Beethoven and Dinosaur, and how their work speaks to such a wide audience.
Those keen to jump into Mixtape for themselves can now do so – and we strongly encourage it.
