Psychonauts

(watched it)

Unique, fun, and thoughtful game. Gave me nightmares as a kid.

The level design is clever in terms of how it represents psyche and they get creative with the structure, but you'll quickly realize the levels are rudimentary to compensate for the shallow mechanics and have a tendency to have really annoying enemy placement. The writing is absolute horseshit where everyone is a one-dimensional caricature and the plot is full of holes or motivations the writers decided to not bother explaining. Beyond the level aesthetic, this game is nothing special.

Dnf This game is brilliant, but the mechanics can be really clunky. I hope they remake it, spruce it up a bit.

With so much of the old Lucas Arts team carrying on at Double Fine, it should come as no surprise the game features a thoroughly original world and aesthetic delivering on the theme, peopled with silly characters. Also, a clever and polished platformer from developers who've built their reputation in other genres. If we're to be honest though, checking out all the art, optional dialogue, and so forth is more amusing than hopping around for the last measly platforming collectible.

Non-game interactive movie.

I know it's from Tim Schafer, and I see where they were going theme-wise, but I never really got into this platformer.

It's a pretty average action-platformer, really just elevated by the cool artwork, themes, and pretty good level design.

Fun action/adventure/platformer with exciting worlds and great art and music to flesh them out.

Not always enjoyable to play, but so full of charm. I guess charm counts for a lot, for me.

A classic in its own right.

This game could easily take the reward for best writing in a platformer ever. It's such a shame that the shoddy level design prevented me from finishing the game and watching the interesting story unfold, though, but when you put an enemy right in front of the end of the ladder whose attack is unavoidable, you're basically telling your player that you don't want to them to play your game. The point and click adventure esque puzzles also essentially turn the game into a Google-simulator. Yikes.

I think I would have liked Psychonauts a lot more if I played it when it first came out. Unfortunately I played it after years of hearing about how it's one of the best platformers of all time and it did not live up to the hype. I found the levels to be a bit too linear and the mechanicals too shallow. The art style is cool, very Tim Burton-esque. It's not a bad game, but I was (probably unfairly) expecting a little bit more and was left feeling disappointed.