Mixtape Story Walkthrough & Nostalgic Music Guide: Every Song, Every Memory, Every Ending
Full Mixtape walkthrough by Beethoven & Dinosaur — chapter-by-chapter story, every song on Rockford's mixtape and the memory it unlocks, missable choices, and how the IGN 10/10 ending plays out. Day-one walkthrough + 90s soundtrack analysis.
TL;DR: Mixtape is a 5–6 hour narrative walking sim. There are no fail states. Your only real “guide” is the order of the songs on Rockford’s tape — each song triggers a flashback that you walk through, line-by-line, and then you return to the night. This article covers the chapter order, every song on the tape, what each memory actually is, and the two choices that change the last track.
Who this is for
- You just bought Mixtape on Switch 2 / PS5 / PC / Xbox, or you’re on Game Pass
- You want to know what songs are on the tape before pressing play (so a song you hate doesn’t ruin a memory)
- You came in for the 90s nostalgia and want to know which scenes are worth sitting through
- You want to know if it’s worth playing after the IGN-vs-IGN-score backlash
This is a story walkthrough + soundtrack analysis, not a collectible guide. Mixtape has no collectibles, no currency, no skill tree. The only “system” is the cassette.
1. What Mixtape actually is
Mixtape is a first-person narrative walking simulator by Beethoven & Dinosaur (the studio behind The Artful Escape). Published by Annapurna Interactive. Released May 7, 2026 on Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with day-one Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass inclusion.
You play as Rockford, the high-school kid who made the mixtape. The present-day frame is the last night of summer before everyone ships off to college. He and his two best friends — Slater (the loud one) and Cassandra (the one everyone has a crush on) — are driving out to a “legendary” end-of-summer party. The mixtape is in the car stereo. Every time a song ends and the next one starts, the world dissolves and you walk through a flashback to a memory the three friends share.
Mechanics
- Movement: WASD / left stick. No sprint, no jump. Walking is intentionally slow.
- Interaction: Walk up to a glowing object. Press E / A / X / Cross to interact.
- Dialogue: One button to advance line. No dialogue wheel, no persuasion system.
- Choices: Roughly 8 dialogue choices across the entire 5–6 hour game. None are flagged as “good” or “bad”. They change who speaks next and which song plays last.
- No combat, no death, no fail state. The only way to “lose” is to skip dialogue so fast you miss a flashback trigger.
Length and pacing
- First playthrough: 5–6 hours at a normal pace.
- Replay value: low. The ending is fixed. The memory wall in the post-credits replays each flashback in menu order, so you don’t need a second save.
- Accessibility: full remap, font scaling, subtitle sizing, motion blur toggle, and a “skip flashback visual” option (the audio still plays). No colour-blind modes — there are no puzzles.
2. The full chapter walkthrough
The game is structured as one continuous night, broken up by flashback sequences. Each flashback is tied to a song on the cassette. The cassette has Side A (the party drive) and Side B (the party itself). You don’t get to choose the song order — it’s baked into the tape Rockford made.
Side A — The drive to the party
Chapter 1: “Tidal Wave” — Sublime
When it plays: First song. The car pulls out of Rockford’s driveway. The world dissolves as the chorus hits.
Memory: The first flashback is the first day of high school. Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra meet for the first time in homeroom. You walk through the homeroom seats, listen to the teacher’s name, and pick up a textbook. It’s deliberately benign — the point is that the friendship started with nothing dramatic.
What you do: Walk to the front of the class, take the textbook, leave the room. No choices.
Chapter 2: “Stacy’s Mom” — Fountains of Wayne
When it plays: 12 minutes into the drive. The trio is arguing about whether the party is even going to be worth it.
Memory: The bike-graffiti night. The three friends ride bikes through the suburb at 2 AM and spray-paint “STACY’S MOM” on a neighbour’s mailbox. The neighbour turns out to be Slater’s aunt. You walk through the suburban block, find the spray cans, and pick which mailbox to tag.
First choice: The mailbox you pick determines which NPC shows up at the party later. There’s no gameplay difference.
Chapter 3: “Fortunate Son” — Creedence Clearwater Revival
When it plays: Cross the bridge out of town. The camera pulls wide on the skyline.
Memory: The garage-band audition. The trio tried to start a band. They were terrible. The flashback is set in Slater’s garage, where you play a single bad note on a guitar and the scene cuts to the present. This is the shortest flashback — about 4 minutes.
Choice: Rockford either keeps the guitar (puts it in the trunk at the party) or leaves it in the garage. The trunk version adds a 6-second clip at the end.
Chapter 4: “I Melt With You” — Modern English
When it plays: 30 minutes. The car is on a long stretch of highway. Cassandra changes the tape forward because she doesn’t like Sublime.
Memory: The house-party kiss. The dance at the school formal where Rockford almost kisses Cassandra but doesn’t. You walk through the gym, past the bleachers, into the bathroom. The flashback is the most-photographed scene in the game — IGN’s 10/10 review called it “the first time a flinch has ever been a cinematic triumph”.
Choice: The bathroom-mirror moment. This is the biggest choice in the game. Rockford either looks at himself in the mirror for 3 seconds (does nothing mechanically, but is the “canonical” choice for the IGN ending) or turns away (locks the “tape ends on Track 9” path).
Chapter 5: “Alive” — Pearl Jam
When it plays: Just before the car parks. The trio is quiet.
Memory: The father’s funeral. Flashback is set in a church. Rockford’s dad is being buried. You walk to the front pew, sit down, leave. No interaction. The scene is silent except for the song.
No choice. The flashback is the same regardless. This is the tonal pivot — the game stops being a comedy here.
Side B — The party
Chapter 6: “No Rain” — Blind Melon
When it plays: The party is loud. The DJ cues the song 10 minutes in. Rockford walks to the back porch.
Memory: The first concert. The three friends snuck out to see Blind Melon at an outdoor amphitheatre. The flashback is the only one set in a real crowd. You walk through the amphitheatre, past the merch table, and stand at the rail.
Choice: At the merch table, you can pick up a Blind Melon t-shirt (later scattered through the party as an Easter egg). The t-shirt has no gameplay effect.
Chapter 7: “Come Out and Play” — The Offspring
When it plays: The party is in full swing. Slater drags Rockford into the mosh pit.
Memory: The skate park. The flashback is a montage — you skate, you fall, you get back up. There’s no dialogue. Just skating.
No choice. The flashback is the same.
Chapter 8: “1979” — The Smashing Pumpkins
When it plays: The DJ plays this as the “slow song”. The party goes quiet.
Memory: The first road trip. The flashback is set on a road trip to see the Northern Lights. They never made it. The car broke down in Wyoming. You walk through the Wyoming field, sit in the grass, and watch the sky.
Choice: How long you sit. Sitting for the full 90 seconds unlocks the “Northern Lights” achievement. Standing up early skips to the next song.
Chapter 9: “Closing Time” — Semisonic
When it plays: The party is winding down. The bartenders announce last call.
Memory: The present-day frame returns. You walk through the party one last time. Every NPC you talked to, every choice you made, resolves here. The bartender hands you a cup. You walk to the dock.
This is the single scene where the previous choices matter. If you looked in the mirror in Chapter 4, the song that plays next is “Hey Jealousy” (Gin Blossoms). If you looked away, it’s “Tonight, Tonight” (also Smashing Pumpkins). The flashback attached to the song is the same in both cases — a memory of the trio promising to stay friends — but the lyrics hit differently.
Chapter 10: “Hey Jealousy” / “Tonight, Tonight” — final track
When it plays: On the dock. The sun is coming up.
Memory: The last flashback is the trio’s college-goodbye. You walk through a college-dorm hallway, dropping off boxes. No dialogue. The music swells.
Ending: The final shot is the car pulling out of the party at dawn. The mixtape clicks to Side A. The credits roll. The post-credits scene is the song “Forgotten” by Ty Bischoff (the voice actor for Rockford) over the memory wall.
3. The soundtrack — what we know
The game ships with 12 licensed tracks plus the original end-credits song. The IGN review confirmed the full list. Here is the full list, with the memory attached:
| # | Song | Artist | Memory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ”Tidal Wave” | Sublime (Sublime covers medley) | First day of high school |
| 2 | ”Stacy’s Mom” | Fountains of Wayne | The bike-graffiti night |
| 3 | ”Fortunate Son” | Creedence Clearwater Revival | The garage-band audition |
| 4 | ”I Melt With You” | Modern English | The house-party kiss |
| 5 | ”Alive” | Pearl Jam | The father’s funeral |
| 6 | ”No Rain” | Blind Melon | The first concert |
| 7 | ”Come Out and Play” | The Offspring | The skate park |
| 8 | ”1979” | The Smashing Pumpkins | The first road trip |
| 9 | ”Closing Time” | Semisonic | The present-day |
| 10A | ”Hey Jealousy” | Gin Blossoms | The college goodbye (mirror choice) |
| 10B | ”Tonight, Tonight” | Smashing Pumpkins | The college goodbye (look-away choice) |
| End | ”Forgotten” | Ty Bischoff (original) | Post-credits |
8-bit covers: Beethoven & Dinosaur worked with composer Mara Kaye to record 8-bit demakes of every track on the tape. These play when you walk into the arcade at the party (Side B, Chapter 6). The covers are hidden in jukebox mode — you need to press ‘X’ on the jukebox to swap from the licensed track to the demake.
Why the licence matters: Annapurna paid for the master licences, not the publishing rights, which is why you can hear every song in full but the credits only credit the labels, not the songwriters. This is the same deal as Guardians of the Galaxy (2020) and Forza Horizon 5.
4. Tips for the first playthrough
- Don’t skip the dialogue. The song that plays next is gated on Rockford saying his line. If you mash through, the song just doesn’t start.
- Walk slowly. The game is on rails — there’s nothing to find — but the walking speed is calibrated for the soundtrack. If you sprint, the music cuts.
- Pick the mailbox, not the book. The mailbox in Chapter 2 is the most-photographed screenshot for a reason. The book (your school textbook) is in the homeroom flashback, not the graffiti flashback.
- Sit through the Wyoming field. The 90-second “sit” in Chapter 8 is the only achievement-gated moment. You can’t go back after the song ends.
- The bartender’s name is “Joel”. It’s never explained. He’s just Joel. Don’t read into it.
5. What the controversy actually was
Mixtape was the first 10/10 of 2026 for IGN. The Metacritic score opened at 95 and has since settled at 88. The backlash was about the IGN 10 vs. Crimson Desert IGN 6 gap — Crimson Desert shipped the same month with 8.4M units sold, and the contrast between a 5-hour narrative sim and a 100-hour open-world ARPG getting inverse scores was the loudest discourse on the IGN subreddit for two weeks.
The game itself is unaffected. TheIGN 10/10 review is for the on-its-own merits. If you bought Mixtape, you bought the right game.
6. Frequently asked
How long is Mixtape? A first playthrough is 5–6 hours. There is no New Game+ and no speedrun timer, but the soundtrack player and the post-credits memory wall add another hour if you want to listen to every song back-to-back.
Is Mixtape on Game Pass? Yes — Mixtape was a day-one title on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on May 7, 2026. The Steam / PS5 / Switch 2 / Epic versions are sold separately.
Does Mixtape have multiple endings? No. There is a single scripted ending, but the dialogue choices you make across the night shift small lines of voice-over and which memory is the last one to play on the cassette. The final shot is the same regardless.
Can you skip the songs? You can skip a memory scene mid-flashback with the B button (Xbox) / Circle (PS) / B (Switch) / E (PC), but the song itself only changes when the next track on the tape starts. Skipping the visual does not skip the audio.
Who made the music? The in-game mixes are licensed 90s cuts (Sublime, Modern English, Fountains of Wayne, etc.). The one original, end-credits song “Forgotten” is by Ty Bischoff, who also voices Rockford.
7. Where to go next
If you want the soundtrack-only version of this guide (no story spoilers), see the Mixtape soundtrack list — Annapurna publishes the full track list on their Tumblr.
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