PixlBit

I like Psychonauts a lot. The humor is great, the artstyle is fantastic, and the level ideas are really creative. Creativity is actually the word which would best describe the game. For those unfamiliar, the game alternates between the real world and inside people's minds. Once in a mind, it will be a reflection of a person. An overly paranoid guy will imagine everyone spying on him inside his mind, for instance.

These minds also have creative collectables such as crying bags known as baggage. You have to find a tag to help someone cope with their baggage and help them get over it, which is a great visual metaphor. There are also mental cobwebs blocking sections of a level and vaults which store a person's deepest secrets. It's all really creative stuff.

Meanwhile, the powers are pretty interesting. Some are basic like shooting projectiles, but the game also lets you see through other people's eyes with clarivoyance to solve puzzles. Which is where I need to say something super controversial: I don't think Psychonauts should have been a game. I think it would have worked best as a cartoon.

See, the game is at its best when it's world building, making you laugh, and delivering humor. And yes, there are some good puzzles involved and some fun areas to explore, the controls don't really work. They're okay in the lighter levels, but the game as a whole is pretty unpolished and inconsistent, especially for a platformer, which needs these two more than any other genre. Do they ruin the game? Hell no! I love Psychonauts. But still, I don't think it should have been a game.

I could go on about the game, but I feel the best way to actually cover it is to go over each character's mind, which make up the levels of the game. So let's get started:

Coach Oleander's Basic Braining

The tutorial level. Not one of the game's highlights since it's just a tutorial, but one of the better tutorial's I've played. The military training is a nice touch, especially early on when you have no clue just how gloriously weird this game is going to get. But still, it's serviceable and not much else.

Sasha's Shooting Gallery

Still a tutorial unfortunately, this time for your Marksman power to shoot thing. More creative than the last level, however, since Sasha is a very organized person so his brain is just a cube. Still, it's creativity that doesn't exactly lend itself well to level design. There's not any fun scenery or opportunities for creative level design. It's just a good idea for a person whose personality is like this.

Milla's Dance Party

Another tutorial, but this one feels less like one to me. Maybe it's because levitation is such a simple concept and then they just decide to throw a bunch of different fun things to do with it where it feels more like they're expanding on its capabilities rather than teaching you things. Or maybe it's that you're in some disco inspired acid trip rather than something you'd expect to learn in. Either way, the best of the counselor's levels by far.

Lunfishopolis

Psychonauts is not a game that starts strong and stays strong. Rather, it's a game that starts okay, gradually rises, has a super sharp peak, gradually drops, then has a gradual fall before plummeting completely. Lungfishopolis is where the sharp peak begins.

The basis behind this level is that you just beat a mutated lungfish and now are entering its mind so it can take you somewhere. Once you enter, you're a Godzilla-esque monster destroying a huge city, where it becomes apparant: The fish fears you as much as you fear it.

Roaming around the city as a 50 foot tall version of yourself is super fun, it makes you feel so big and powerful. There are newscasts constantly reporting on you (with the alias Gargalor), which give some hilarious gags and jokes. This all ends with a giant monster fight which while not great from a design standpoint, has some hilariously cheesy dialog. Great level.

The Milkman Conspiracy

This level is one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen in a game. If the entire game was this good, it would be in my top 10 no question. That's how good it is. The basis is you find a security guard who's a lunatic. He's obsessed with finding the milkman and thinks the world is out to get him. Upon entering his mind, you find out he's in a creepy suburban neighborhood with really twisted dimensions as the paranoid nut thinking everyone's out to get him. Which makes perfect sense because everyone's out to get him.

Cameras constantly pop out to film you and take photographs while everyone is a guy with a trenchcoat or a girl scout selling cookies. The trenchcoat guys, however, all have a certain item which dictates their behavior. Ones with a stop sign will be road crew workers, ones with a roller pin will be house wives, etc. But the all have the same exact voice and appearance. It's hilarious.

This is the basis of the level. You need these items to invade these guys' spaces to search for clues. Which is why this level works so well: It's about puzzles and problem solving, not platforming. And the puzzles are great both from a story and gameplay perspective. It's worth playing just for this level.

Gloria's Theater

After the fantastic level that was The Milkman Conspiracy, I couldn't wait to invade these other lunatics' minds. And while none hit the brilliance of that level, there was stuff to like in each one. This level, for instance, had a neat idea behind it.

The character has irrational mood swings and as you go in her mind, everyone's rehearsing for a play.Your goal is to access new areas by changing the set and lighting of the play so the props can get you to new places. Which is a great way to mimic her acting irrationally, sometimes you need to play happy scenes with the sad lighting and vice versa.

The issue, however, is limited range. I feel a movie set with three dimensional props and platforms would have worked better as they could have given way to more complex levels. As is, what the teater can show is limited by the space it provides. The backstage areas do offer a little more room for platforming, but it lacks the fun scenery. Still a good level, but not as good as the last two.

Waterlooworld

After The Milkman Conspiracy, this was my favorite. The character whose mind you go into thinks he's Napoleon Bonaparte and tries to attack you. Upon entering his mind, you discover that he's actually Napoleon's descendant in a battle with his ancestor for control of his brain. A battle which is basically just a game of Catan.

You go through different sizes in this level. Sometimes you need to talk to Fred (owner of the mind) and Napoleon. Other times you need to move game pieces around. And then sometimes you need to micromanage at the smallest level to settle disputes the game pieces have. It's all so wonderfully bizarre. 

Black Velvotopia

Mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, I love the artstyle, going for neon lighting on everything mixed with a Mexican inspired theme. On the other, the objectives were just okay. It's all about moving down a street a bull keeps charging down on, so you have to move down the residential areas on each side. Stay in the street too long, and the bull will send you back far, a gameplay mechanic I loathe.

The second goal is wrestling matches to get at the top spot. These are alright. They have you use your powers in fun ways, but there's not much too special on these bosses. Save the guard from The Milkman Conspiracy though, I like this character's reason for going crazy the most. I won't spoil anything, but it just feels more natural and organic than the others, while his craziness is pretty fun too. 

Meat Circus

I cannot stand this level. I hate it so much. The basis is Raz's brain gets mixed with the main villain's, so Raz's memories of the circus are mixed with his childhood memories of growing up with a butchar for a father. Pretty creative, but the level design is awful.

Half of this level is an escort mission. A child version of the villain you need to protect keeps running around and everything is out to get him. I think Resident Evil 4 is the only game to successfully make protecting someone else fun personally. Other games either go The Last of Us/Bioshock Infinite approach where the character isn't really in danger most the time or makes things super frustrating or annoying. Like in Psychonauts.

The other half? Platforming segments that show just how awful these mechanics are. I'd enjoy going through these obstacles as Mario or Crash Bandicoot, but Psychonauts lacks the precision to make timing these jumps in such a limited time work. It's just not fun level design. If they ever do make Psychonauts 2 (which I believe will happen some day), it definitely needs more polish than this. That or no levels like the Meat Circus.

There's also the camp which allows for a lot of good secret finding and exploration. Those parts are really good too. As a whole though, Psychonauts is a pretty uneven game. It's just that the brilliant parts really are good enough that they make the not so good parts easy to forget.