Psychonauts 2 (Multi)
By: Xbox Game Studios
ONCE was the time that 3D platformers were pound a penny, choking up console libraries with quality that ran the gamut from nasty movie tie-in to Mario's latest epic.
By 2005, however, our love affair with hopping across cartoon worlds had soured, which may explain why Psychonauts – arguably the greatest platformer outside of Nintendo – only shifted a piffling 400,000 copies. There's no accounting for taste.
From writer/director Tim Schafer – who cut his teeth on some of LucasArts' greatest hits, such as Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion – Psychonauts gave gamers the experience of exploring people's subconscious long before Christopher Nolan blew our minds with Inception. Loaded with personality and Python-esque humour, its gothic surrealism developed a cult fandom that's only now getting a second helping of brain candy.
Sixteen years on from Raz's cognitive caper in Whispering Rock summer camp, Psychonauts 2 is another insane in the membrane adventure where our young psychic joins the intern programme at Psychonauts HQ.
When the evil Maligula turns up, it's up to Raz to save the day by exploring the organisation's murky history in a dose of classic 3D platforming at its most polished, where you'll jump, swing and shimmy across its environments, invading the noggins of various not-the-full-shilling types and using your noodle to cleanse theirs.
For a game awash with brains, it's suitably smart and brimming with creativity, with levels taking players from a city of fatalistic germs through a barbershop nightmare and a live concert based on getting a thinly veiled Fab Four back together.
A glorious blast from the past, not much has changed from the original's gameplay, with stubbornly archaic mechanics that mean no wallet-gouging DLC, objective markers or needless padding, coming in at a lean 12 or so hours.
A singular vision from an auteur who honed his chops in the 90s, Psychonauts' humour channels the best of that decade's animation – from Ren and Stimpy to Animaniacs – with genuine warmth and belly-laugh gags that put most of today's family fare to shame, plus top-drawer vocal performances including turns from Elijah Wood and Jack Black as a brain in a jar.
And, while safe for the young 'uns, there's plenty of bones thrown to the adults: a mountain-set festival with lengthy queues, for example, is where people come to "get high" and enjoy the "long lines".
Yet despite the gallows humour, it never laughs at the crazies, and was developed with the cooperation of mental health charity Take This. A psychedelic – if unapologetically old-school – trip, Psychonauts 2 has been well worth the wait, and is already a front-runner for game of the year.
If you want a cerebral adventure that slaps a big smile on your mug, it's a no-brainer.
