Thank you Kluge Interactive for sending us this DLC to review!

Back in the days of records and cassette tapes there were two sides of music to listen to. Side A often had the better selection of songs with the radio hits on them. While I knew all of the songs on Synth Riders 80s Mixtape Side A, there were a couple I was not familiar with on Side B. The collection is still great and I highly recommend it for anyone who grew up appreciating 80s music. You can purchase the complete pack of five songs for $10.99. Alternatively, you can purchase the tracks individually for $1.99 each, but you save 21% by purchasing the bundle.

Here are the seven songs included in this DLC:
Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”
Toto – “Africa”
Wham! – “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
Simple Minds – “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
The Cure – “Just like Heaven”
Hall & Oates – “Out of Touch”
Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up”

Many of the previous DLC packs have offered both free and paid songs. While there are no free songs in 80s Mixtape - Side B (assuming for licensing reasons), a free stage titled Endless Café was released with the 80s Mixtape Side A DLC for everyone to enjoy. I’ve been spoiled by the experience level often included in previous DLC bundles. Sadly, there isn’t one in this song pack. Even without the experience level, the nostalgia these songs provide are worth every penny.

The base Synth Riders game is required to purchase and play this DLC. Please refer to our review of the base game to learn how to play it. The DLC merely adds more music tracks and does not change the core gameplay.

Playing through all of the songs will take about thirty-five minutes. There are several difficulty levels to play on. Between trying different difficulty settings, multiplayer, and trying to get your name on the online leaderboards, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

Synth Riders has a soundtrack Spotify list here. Sadly, the mixtape songs don’t seem to be on there. Regardless it’s still a good song list.

Surprisingly, the majority if not all of the songs in this DLC collection are singing about love and physical attraction. With references to sharing a bed and dreaming of ways to make their partner glow, I think some of these songs are referencing sex outside of marriage.

During my stream I was having trouble navigating the DLC menu to select the Synth Riders 80s Mixtape – Side B. It legitimately took several minutes to finally get to it as the menu was sliding around uncontrollably. Hopefully this issue will be addressed soon.

If you enjoy music from the 80s, this DLC is worth looking into. I’ve come to accept that free songs are not happening anytime soon. YouTube and Facebook were aggressively preventing my stream of the 80s Mixtape - Side A from seeing the light of day due to copyright reasons. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” is partially blocked on YouTube. As usual, I won’t be dethroning anyone on the leaderboards any time soon. I have plenty of room for improvement.