Psychonauts

"Tim Schafer delivers in this great game!"

Announced ever so long ago, Psychonauts may have taken it's own sweet time making its way onto your console, it's finally here and was definitely worth the wait. Originally planned as an Xbox exclusive, first party game, Microsoft dropped this piece of art from its lineup. Then the game went into limbo for quite some time until it finally found a home when majesco bought the rights to the game and saved it from being lost forever. And let me tell you, Majesco has my gratitude for doing so.

Story - So what is the driving purpose behind this psychic crusade? As the stroy goes you play the role of Razputen (Raz for short) who is a child who's parents own a circus and disallow him from using his psychic powers. Raz aint really diggin his parents uncool vibe so he runs away from the circus to a camp were children are trained to become psychonauts. Eventually after traversing a couple couple minds at camp you discover an evil plot that has all the children's brains being stolen and put into brain powered tanks to take over the world with which will be used to take over the world. So obviously we can't let that happen and we must thwart the plot and get our friends brains back.

Sound - What may seem like a somewhat cliche story is actually made quite engaging thanks to some wonderfully done voice acting. Every character is made very memorable because of their voice. For example The big bully with misconstrued teeth and and giant red lumpy afro has a major lisp that will having you rolling on the floor. Most of the other ambient noises or soundtrack wont blow you away but fit the game well and enhance it somewhat if not as much as the incredible voice acting.

Graphics (artistic) - Like I stated earlier the characters are one of the many things you may notice about this game's unique sense of style. Each characters is unique and memorable, form the small wiry body with a gigantic head attached to the top, Raz, to the the short shy kid that has to wear a tin foil hat so he wont explode anyones head . But it isn't just the characters that carry this sense of style, the dialog has a sense of humor all it's own, and the level design is zany as the characters. I mean what other game has a level called black velvetopia, or a boss called a lung fish which resemble a giant scab with fins a mouth and eyes? NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graphics - Despite having great artistic style the graphics aren't exactly amazing. Don't get me wrong the graphics are really good and the environments look great but they definately aren't gonna knock you outta your seat like Splinter Cell: Chaos theory did. But then again if this game looked as realistic as SP:CS it definately wouldn't be as funny. Other than being a little grainy IU have zero complaints about the graphics.

Gameplay - Alright so the game looks great but every true gamer knows the the very soul of a game is it's actual gameplay. Fortunately for Psychonauts this is one of it's biggest assets. The controls are so smooth you'll forget your even holding a controller. The camera, which is often a major gripe with many platformer games is totally clean here, it will never really get in your way and is easy to center the camera back behind when needed. Other than the camera, the controls are smooth too. The psychic powers you gain as you progress throughout the game are assigned to one of three buttons by you via the menu making them switchable during action, wich is important often.

So in the end Psychonauts is an innovative game with plenty of laughs and originality which many platformers lack. So if you are an Xbox owner and have had to go through wannabes and chumps like that garfield wannabe Blinx or that little doll with voodo power who goes by Vince, this game is for you. And even if you have a platformer laden PS2 this game can still roll with the big dogs like Jak and Ratchet.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/05