Review Psychonauts Developer: Double Fine Publisher: Majesco Genre: Adventure/Platform Release Date: May 2005 Platform: Review by Randy Sluganski July 28, 2005		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

The best thing to happen to the adventure community in recent years was Lucas Arts decision to no longer make adventure games.

For now, instead of watered-down Monkey Islands and maybe one other major adventure release per year (and the underlying and well founded fear it may be cancelled), we instead have a plethora of ex-LA employees with projects in various stages of development: Dan Connors of Telltale working on Bone, Bill Tiller’s Vampyre Story, a few others toiling on yet-to-be-announced projects and, of course, Tim Schaefer’s newest progeny, Psychonauts.

Admittedly, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Psychonauts had been classified as a platform game, especially as I had just recently read somewhere that graphics had killed the platform genre. Or was that the adventure genre? I get so confused at my advanced age. But as much as Psychonauts is a platform game, it also has numerous adventure elements such as dialogue trees, scavenger hunts and inventory items that will appeal to the adventure gamer.

Being a conscientious gamer, I purchased the X-box version of Psychonauts at the local EB (actually, I’m not that conscientious, it’s just that Majesco deemed us not worthy of a review copy).

For those who have not played a platform game in quite some time, no longer are they the side-scrolling, Mario jump-fests of the past. Rather they are open-ended, anything goes smorgasbords of genre mixing and Double Fine has done an admirable job of integrating the best elements of both adventure and platformers into a peaceful co-existence.

Psychonauts centers around a young, big-headed lad named Razputin, or Raz for short (get it? See your character in a platform game always dies - a lot – and then is resurrected and the real Rasputin . . ah, go look it up in your Funk & Wagnall). As for that big head, well, for some reason just about everyone in the game has a cartoonish, misshapen head which effectively serves to diminish the effect of anyone actually having a strange noggin. Raz himself is a likeable but somewhat superficial character and will not engender the same sort of long-term devotion that has been enjoyed by previous Schaefer creations such as Manny Calavera and Glottis.

Raz arrives at the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp with dreams of becoming a Psychonaut. To do so, he must develop both his physical and psychic talents to earn psychic merit badges. The catch? He only has the weekend to reach his goal as he is a runaway and his beleaguered father will be arriving soon. Seems young Raz’s pop forbids him to use his psychic powers.

To develop his psychic gifts, Raz must learn to enter the minds of his fellow campers and counselors. Once inside the psyche of the various characters, Raz will learn more about each personality and gain the experience necessary to face his final challenge.

Of course, every level, er mind, will contain the prerequisite amount of jumping, climbing, running and fighting. Nothing new there. Raz must also collect arrowheads (units of currency), earn PSI Power Upgrades and find scavenger hunt items. Nothing new there either.

What is new is that each mind has its own unique, surreal look and cast of crazy characters and this ensures that the game is always fresh and intriguing (although there are a few levels that seem to be weird, just for the sake of being weird). Unfortunately, there is also a good bit of psychiatric hoo-ha: locked suitcases are ‘emotional baggage,’ mental cobwebs block progress, and so on. I’m sure some gamers probably consider this pretty heavy stuff, but it would be considered simplistic if encountered anywhere other than a video game.

The 3D graphics are simply brilliant: bright, colorful and surrealistic. Not once was there encountered any problems with determining the distance necessary for a jump or deciding the next direction to travel. One neat trick is that thought bubbles can be used to levitate and float and they can also be used as a defensive shield.

There is actually one element present in Psychonauts that is absent in most platform games and that is sparkling, crisp dialogue. Characters who would have been a bundle of clichés are infused with life (and humor) by the dialogue. Much of this can be attributed to co-writer Eric Wolpaw, a former games magazine reviewer (belying the theory that magazine reviewers have no other discernable talents). A special nod goes to camp janitor Ford Cruller (and his bacon) who reminds one of a crazed Mr. Whoopee and consistently had me in stitches. The excellent dialogue is brought to life and punctuated by the best voice-acting to ever be featured in any platform game.

Another nice touch is the ability to save almost anywhere! In a console game! What an innovation. There are also a host of running gags (I’ll not spoil any of them for you) that elevate the game to the next level. There are though a few console annoyances – such as needing to defeat the final boss twice – that could have been eliminated.

So this is what gaming has devolved into – a developer who was once responsible for what many consider the best adventure game ever made, has now made a platform game that many are ordaining the best platform game ever. But is it really? Or is it just that previous platform games have become so shallow that by comparison, any attempt at creativity would look superior? That’s a hard call, but a fair question.

Psychonauts is creative mayhem, and is at times crazy fun to play. I occasionally got the impression that the game and characters were created with a possible Cartoon Network series in mind, but that’s to be expected in today’s marketplace. Fluffy and funny, Psychonauts is a treat much like the smell of bacon in the morning.

Final Grade: B+
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