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Lots of fun for everyone, especially adults!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome! I just purchased it today, and I had a hard time getting myself to stop playing. The graphics are amazing, and the characters are hilarious! There is a lot of "adult humor," similar to what is found in films such as "Shrek 2," or "Toy Story." It is not too easy, but not too difficult either. The loading times are extremely fast considering how detailed and sharp the graphics are. I chanced it and bought this game before I ever played it, and I am very glad I did! Go and pick up a copy asap! There are not very many copies available right now through the major video game retailers, so grab it wherever you find it at!

Excellent game for the most part

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is an excellent game, especially for fans of Tim Schafer/Tim Burton/Jhonen Vasquez-type humor. The main character is even voiced by the very actor who plays Invader Zim on Vasquez's cult-classic cartoon, which was a big plus to me! Its hillarious!

Gameplay-wise, Psychonauts is very innovative. There's enough fighting to satisfy typical gamers, but strategy is definatly more important. Its an RPG, but it also has a few self-contained levels. You level up, but you don't do so by fighting. You get to play as a geeky circus carne with psychic powers, instead of a stereotypical, buff 'hero' type. There's a lot of strategy, but if you get stuck- especially with boss battles- then the game starts giving you as many hints as you need. Excellent. Not too hard, and definatly not too easy.

My only problem with the game is that its unclear on how to use some of the items. To this day, I still do not know what the crow's feather is for, nor have I figured out how to use the dowsing rod (incredibly frustrating!) This makes the money system cumbersome, and the game progress a little slower than I would like. Also, the loading times are horrible in the PS2 version, at least on older machines, and there are still a few bugs that pop up every now and then.

Idealy, I would have given Psychonauts 4.5 stars, if that was an option. Its an excellent game with a few wrinkles that needed to have been ironed out. All and all, however, it is most definatly worth your time and money!

Could it get any Better?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've just recently gotten my PS2 (1-2 months) and this is the third game I've rented. This game is great and the levels are very different from all the other level. For instance, one level you get to go on a ginat monster rampage. But if you happen to stop by Fred's mind (one of my favorites) you get to engage in a battle of wits by going into a gameboard and recruiting soliders and stuff to win the game. And my god, some of the humor on this game is sooooo funny. There's quite a few collectables, and your phsycic moves are pretty good. But let me just tell you though, if you're looking for "super big and powerful weapons to beat the living crap out of people" game then I reccomend for you something like Rachet and Clank or Destroy All Humans, since the main tactic you'll most likely use is either invisibility and pyrokinesis or Shield and pyrokinesis considering the fact of low offense selection. But still, I reccomend this game, and I do want to tell you what the final level is(It's freaky, I'll give you that.), but I don't want to spoil the fun.

amazing game, with lots of variety and free roaming.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this is definitely the greatest game i have ever played ( this and jak 3). first of all , let me say , thew three most important things in a game are : free roaming , variety , and good gameplay. this game has all of them . it has great graphics , and also lots of free roaming . the main HUB in the game is the camp in which you stay in , and it is HUGE ! there is a store there (and there are alot of things you can buy there ) , and there is alot of exploring to do . there is a scavanger hunt you can do there , you can talk to various people, you can collect all kind of different things , and alot more . so, like i said , there is alot of free roaming . and , in case you didn't know , most of the levels you travel in are the insides of people's minds. and each mind is shaped like their owner's personality. for example, there is a level inside a butcher's mind , and everything is filled with meat.but there is alot more to it than that . each level is different than the other ones. and by that i dont mean that they are just different by the characters , enemies, level design and so on . each level is different is gameplay. like in one level(which is in the mind of a paranoid madman), there are alot of detectives and spies around , and they wont let you pass through some places . so , you need to go around finding different disguises so they will let you go .in another level , you play sort of a boardgame against someone. in another level you need to get around on a thing that's sort of a skateboard , and in another level you play as a giant in a city of little creatures and you can smash up everything. also , in the second half of the game , you are in an insane asylum and it's really nice checking out the minds of the crazy people there . also , the game has pretty funny humour in it . there are also alot of different psychic powers you can use. so, in conclusion , this is a wonderful game, and i highly recommend it .

Great platformer!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In a world where even games that claim to be "platformers" (like the sequels to the Jak and Ratchet franchises) are really just gun-toting action games, Psychonauts is a welcome return to the classic platforming formula. There are plenty of items to collect (with great rewards for doing so), lots of environmental puzzles, and, thankfully, little focus of combat and weaponry.

The main game has 10 levels, each taking place inside someone's mind. Each one is very creative, sometimes confusingly so. Although figuring out what all the mental world stuff means is sometimes hard, I found nine out of ten of them to be pretty satisfying. Also, all of them have plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, from jokes about main character Raz's goggles to tiny, screaming charicature of Napoleon who struts around on stilts.

However, it's the parts outside of the main storyline that really sold me. There are tons of things to do when you don't feel like advancing the plot. You can crack memory vaults to get the characters' backstories, dust "mental cobwebs" to exchange for rank upgrades, and sort "emotional baggage" to unlock concept art--and that's just in the mental world. In the physical realm, you can explore a fully-featured summer camp, collecting PSI cards, having funny conversations with fellow children, and discovering an assortment of humorous scavenger-hunt items.

Although I wish the game would have given me more opportunities to use my psychic abilities, they were still very fun. Levitation was the most useful, but I couldn't get enough of telekinesis. And things just got more interesting when I leveled up, making my powers even stronger and cooler. These powers, as well as all the normal moves such as jumping, fighting, and swinging on things, are relatively easy and intuitive to use, thanks to a simple control scheme. Also, it's almost impossible to get stuck, thanks to a well-crafted in-game hint system.

Overall, I would highly reccomend this game to gamers who enjoyed real, true platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and the first Jak game. Although I'm forced to bring it down to 4 stars for a sometimes-confusing plot and the PS2's noticeable technical disadvantage to the Xbox, it is all in all a fun, enjoyable ride.

Not that impressed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: July 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The characters are interesting and the story line is unique. The graphics are very good but every time you go into another area it's has to load.
The areas are small and you need to move between them often so it feels like the game is constantly loading. Because of this I'm giving it a 3 stars.
It's a fun game but not as good as I had expected it to be. I'd recommend renting it first. It's not worth 50 dollars and I don't think that it really has any a replay value, at least not for me.

Break-Out Game of 2005 (Despite Quirks)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The levels themselves, which send the player from the psychic kids' camp deep into the twisted dimensions of characters' psyches, are a real treat. Search the demented and quite paranoid guard's brain for the missing and mysterious milkman! Float up and up through rising columns of colored bubbles in the dance-party "levitation" level or stomp around the city and smash buildings Godzilla-style as "Gugalor" in the lungfish level. This game takes imagination to a level not seen in platformers in a lonnnng time. Who knows whose head you'll enter next...and what sort of weird, funny or psychadelic stuff you'll find there!

Raz, the main character, has all of the great charisma of, well, probably Parappa from days gone by. The dialog is regularly witty and at times down-right brilliant (e.g. the rebel lungfish telling Raz/Gugalor to go ahead and stomp on a few civilians. "I don't care," he says with all of the barritone and confidence of a chessy '50s horror film hero, "my family lives in another town!"). This will be (or darn well should be) the break-out, dark-horse game of 2005.

Three faults: the framerate is a little sticky (Raz doesn't always move about the map in an entirely fluid manner), the automatic game-save times are regular and annoyingly long and the instructions on how to utilize certain utilities and devices is often murky. There are a lot of things to collect, combine and use. As such, and without a really supportive help interface to fall back on, doing so can require a fair bit of trial-and-error. These problems are minor and don't detract from the game experience much. They can easily be cleared up for what will be an unbelievable sequel.

A great game. Perfect for summer.

Ive Gone Psycho for Psychonauts

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Psychonauts is a well put together game by all means. Psycohonauts is an awesome game and is really neat. To all the different characters to talk to and the story is real cool, and the backround is gameplay is interresting. The story mode is about a interesting boy name Rez who is real pumped up to be psychonauts. The Graphics are nice and you are allowed to rome around the camp and see all the wierd kids. The gameplay is nice, you have psychic moves to go around and find your way out of sticky situations. And Romance....... yeah. Psyconauts will have you falling in love with all there is to do in this game. So much to keep up with, like the rankings and all the different stuff you find and turn in. The game is wierd in a good way. Psychonauts is a really fun experience. I give it 5 stars... people

Great, creative game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 46 / 50
Date: August 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

*NOTE: I have the Xbox version of this game but wanted to take the time to help people decide if they want to purchase this game or not. From what I've read, they managed to keep the game about equal to the Xbox version so my review should be pretty accurate. The only differences will be that the Xbox has 5.1 surround in game not just cutscenes and the graphics will probably be a bit better. If you own an Xbox I would recommend that version over the PS2 but honestly the game is great, and if you own a PS2 I would doubly recommend picking this up. On to my review:

Everytime Tim Schafer creates a game, I know it will be a blast. Having been on a roll starting with The Day of the Tentacle up through The Grim Fandango, each game has been delightfully intelligent, creative and an overall wonderful experience. Psychonauts is no different. In fact, it is one of the best games I have played not only this year but in a long time.

The setup is that there is a camp for psychic children who feel different in the outside world. At the camp, the counselors teach children how to harness their power to become Psychonauts, psychics who actually enter people's minds and sort out their problems. Because of this setup, each and every world is completely different from the others. Connected to a hub world of the camp, each real "level" is a person's mind. And each mind reflects the person's personality, fears, phobias etc. For instance, the beginning level is that of your drill instructor. His level is a warzone complete with mines, air plane drops, explosions, barbed wire etc.

Tim Schafer's touch is also evident in the characters who are actually characters. They all have a personality and are very emotive. I haven't laughed at a video game so hard since Conker's Bad Fur Day. This game is hillarious. From the kid who practices looking through a peep hole in the day to get practice for when it's filled with girls to trashing a town Godzilla style, the game has it in spades. However, there are some surprisingly disturbing moments in the game that are also darkly humorous. Because you have psychic powers, you also can do some pretty cool stuff from pyrokinesis, telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, etc. These moves help you progress through the levels and pick up hidden items throughout the game.

Graphically, the game is awesome on the Xbox. The levels are done in vivid colors and with a wonderful cartoon style. The campground seems alive as there are creatures walking your path. From squirrels, crows, pigeons, lizards, bears, etc, the world seems populated and just feels real. You can tell a lot of time and effort was put in to make this game come alive and it works. The game is presented in 480p, for those interested.

Aurally, the characters are voiced to perfection. Some great voice actors have been employed and it really helps create characters that are lovable. The biggest audio glitch I've noticed is that sometimes my speakers will "click" as voices come in or as the sound changes sometimes. For some reason, the sound gets funkier as the game progresses. By the last level, it was as if every time a new sound was introduced or the sound changed, the game would stutter. Definitely some bugs that could have been worked out before the game was released. But, honestly, these aren't game stopping problems and are only vaguely annoying considering how awesome the game is. The game is also presented in 5.1 surround in game.

Since the game is a platformer, all of the standards apply. In the real world and in each person's mind, there are a ton of things to collect. In the real world, there are arrowheads that can be pulled from the ground that represent cash. There is a scavenger hunt also going on that will earn you rank (which gives you new powers) and there are cards that can be formed as more rank. In each person's mind, there are also different things to collect such as emotional baggage, mental cobwebs, figments of the imagination and safes which you much punch open to reveal some of the person's past. Some of these slide shows are funny and some are actually kind of sad as you see how these people came to be who they are. I list these items to collect just as a note that the game definitely exhibits all of the charms of a platformer. But there actually is a reason to collecting everything and they fit together in this humorous world.

The game moves quickly and besides one or two intstances of panning that had the game do a wave type pattern, it is perfect. My recommendation if you play the game is to take your time talking to everyone. It helps flesh out the story and if you listen and keep making rounds after each world you will see minor breakups, makeups, humorous instances involving squirrels who tell one kid to kill everyone, and plain funny dialogue. Take your time with this one and you will definitely be rewarded.

This game is great, it's just what I was looking for. It helped remind me why I play video games. When a person can create such wonderful worlds and allow you to play in them, you realize why you play games. It is so creative. Where else can you be chased by a giant fish, rage across town as a Godzilla-like creature, be in a disco world where you must race, pin-ball style, wage war against a Napolean complex and set fire to squirrels? If you want a creative and fun video game that will take approximately 10-15 hours of your time, then this is definitely a must buy. I absolutely cannot recommend this game enough. And unfortunately, it's one of those games that will end up like Ico or Beyond Good and Evil where no one hears of it and no one plays it. Don't let that happen. Play this game because its games like this that the industry needs to keep creating.

A must buy. Creative and excellent.

Can great creativity make up for gameplay flaws?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 26
Date: August 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a contrast of gameplay and creativity. In terms of innovation and originality, this goes beyond any platform/adventure game out there. First rate. The gameplay, itself, lacks a good deal of the substance and polish that a game of this type deserves.

First off, I must say that this game has a well earned reputation for uniqueness and creativity. The level designs are really, really unique and at times amazing. There are two levels that I just loved. One required a lot amazing fast paced gliding, jumping and floating in a fun expansive environment. Another one required you to move around a game board and then shrink and travel around the game board and convince people to join an army so you can get another board piece. Those levels were flat out amazing and were nice breathes of fresh air. Almost all the levels have a central theme, and many of the levels tend to stretch the boundaries of physics and gravity. Some levels feel more like a Escher painting than a video game level.

The characters are pretty fun, the story line is a nice little compliment, and the extremely colorful levels (which represent the people's minds as you travel inside them - thus the title) are definitive stand outs in this game. I wish most games would supply this attention to detail when it comes to visuals.

The main character is a kid name Raz, and he travels throughout a summer camp and enters people's minds using various powers, ranging from the psychotically fun Levitation ball, to the almost useless fire starting power. He cycles through people' minds in order to become a true Psychonaut. Quite brilliant at some points.

Their are a lot of problems though. The voice acting is very repetitive and many times grating. I often had my television remote next to me so I can mute it quickly. Almost headache inducing. The load times are terrible. Maybe the second worst loading times I've ever scene (Mafia for PS2 still is the worst). One particular mission was almost an 90s point and click adventure game, where you walk around and try one thing, then walk around and try another thing and continue until you find the right item. It may be fun for some people, but it breaks up the action. Also, since it is so creative, it tries to do things and sometimes fail miserably. There is one part where you follow a badly shaped bubble around the ocean and if you hit the edge, you drown. Not fun or interesting at all.

The main problem, and it's a huge problem, is the fact the game plays like a second rate, cookie cutter platformer. A game where the mechanics and level design are flawed enough where you feel that your main enemy is bad game design and construction rather than jumps or real enemies. Grabbing something or landing on something on a jump almost feels random. Double jumping is a joke that only works one out of every three times. Camera movements often force you to make blind or awkward jumps, but more often than not, it will move unwillingly, causing you to fall as it moves in the middle of a jump. An annoying, practical amateur mistake that destroys all possibility of enjoyment in the last third of the game.

All in all, it's a great attempt at an original game, but the rudimentary and buggy gameplay just places it in the realm of an average game.

Pros:
A couple of great levels
Original, unique, varied backgrounds
Fun concept
Levitation ball is really fun
Usually very little repetition of certain parts of levels

Cons:
Load times are horrendous
Voice acting is grating and annoying
Adventure elements are boring
Horrible camera
Terrible jumping mechanics
Terrible grabbing mechanics

Difficulty Level: Medium

Frustration Level: Medium

Time to Complete: 15 hours.

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