Psychonauts (PlayStation 2, 2005)

Psychonauts is an odd game - odd in an utterly quirky and bizarre way! You play as Raz, and you have snuck into a psychic summer camp in the hopes of training to be the ultimate Psychonaut. The story follows the tasks you have to perform and the crazy bunch of characters you meet along the way.

There are a few games out there that get the PS2 to push out some fabulous graphics. Unfortunately Psychonauts isn't one of them. The graphics are good but could have been better to complement the oddball theme. That being said, the environments that Raz interacts with are very colorful and vibrant.

As the gameplay goes, Psychonauts uses a lot of the elements common in 3D platformers these day, so it won't take you long to learn how to swing from bars, perform double-jumps, and grind those rails. While controlling Raz isn't particularly difficult, I found the menu system slightly unintuitive, and equip items becomes a little annoying. Raz starts off with only a few powers and as you progress through the various mental worlds, you can develop new ones. You can, however, equip only three psychic powers at one time. This can be a little bothersome. There is some replayability once you have completed the game, as you can go back to collect the items that you missed. You will gain a secret bonus for your efforts.

The sound in this game is good. I found that the music and the dialogue fitted in quite nicely with the moods and themes throughout the game's environments.

Overall, I would give this game 4 out of 5. The concept and story are very original but it is let down by the graphics which I believe is the game's biggest weakness. Despite this, the good storyline, manageable controls, and quirky humor help to make Psychonauts a very enjoyable platformer.