| | First Encounter
Psychonauts™ is a cartoon-style adventure platformer that goes where few games have gone before: into the mind. You play Raz, a psychically gifted ex-circus performer with the ability to project himself into the landscape of other people's minds.
As the game unfolds, you unlock and master a variety of mental powers, such as telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and self-levitation. You'll need all your brain power and physical agility—plus a generous handful of bizarre weapons—to solve the mystery threatening every student at the psychic academy you attend.
He's a brain surfer, and the tide is high.
The game begins with your arrival at psychic training camp, where you can explore the grounds and interact with a bizarre cast of fellow students. A drill instructor trains you through physical and mental obstacle courses to prepare you for the dangerous challenges ahead.
Once you conquer the warfare inside the drill instructor's mind, the plot thickens: Students at the academy are starting to disappear, and no one knows why or how. Now you must put your special mind-jumping skills to use solving the mystery, which will lead you through a series of twisted and colorful levels representing the fevered minds of fellow characters.
These psychic landscapes are some of the strangest and most colorful levels ever created. One represents the brain of a painter who works on velvet in day-glo colors, so everything is vivid and textured. The fuzzy-looking streets and buildings are a garish mix of brilliant oranges, pinks, and yellows, patrolled by a brutal bull named El Oido.
To help the painter defeat his personal bogeyman (or, in this case, bogeybull), you must talk to the mindscape residents; find and unlock the painter's emotional baggage (literally … mental hang-ups in this game are represented by steamer trunks that breathe and sob as if alive); and confront the grunts, mini-bosses, and bosses that you encounter along the way. 
Navigate mindscapes.
The detailed story and brilliant level design are two of this game's biggest strengths, but that doesn't mean it skimps on action. You can exploit all sorts of strange terrain by double jumping; grinding on rails and banisters; and climbing ropes, ladders, and pipes.
There are plenty of environmental hazards and puzzles to be dealt with, too, along with tons of freaky enemies to fight. Everyone's personal demons are very real to you, so if a monster exists in someone's head, it's a real threat to you while you're exploring that person's mind.
Each mind you'll encounter also contains wicked-looking ghost images called figments, which you can collect to upgrade your psychic skills. There are also psi cards and psi cores that you can collect and assemble to gain new powers.
As you move through the game, gaining experience and strength, you'll find that there are several ways to approach most situations. You can fight enemies with melee combat, take them down with psychic powers, or even avoid them by simply finding an alternate route. All of your skills and abilities come into play on each level, but it's up to you how and when to use them. 
It's all in their heads ... and so are you.
Psychonauts is crazy fun with a sharp sense of humor and some of the most fantastic visuals ever seen on the Xbox®. The concept is unique, and the execution is engaging and sharp throughout. For a platformer with a truly different sensibility, open your mind and check out Psychonauts. By Pete Hutter |
