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Bloody hell, Psychonauts is still a bit good, isn’t it?Trip the mind fantastic
Trip the mind fantastic
Psychonauts 2 Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTube
Psychonauts 2 Gameplay Trailer
Psychonauts 2isn’t even on my radar, really. It was announced way, way too early back in 2015, and even though Double Fine are apparently targeting release for this year, it’s entered that zone of games that I sometimes remember exist and go, “Oh yeah, what’s happening with that again?” But I’d argue that Psychonauts 1 still holds up so well that you kind of don’t need a new one.
And all the extra bits are so perfectly in line with the theme, from boss fights to collectibles. The best are the bits of Emotional Baggage you find lurking in the recesses of people’s brains. They’re bits of luggage crying big cartoony tears, and if you find their luggage tag and reunite them, the bags become happy! And, presumably, the brain-owner in question perks up as well. Imagine if dealing with real-life baggage was that easy.
Sure, the controls feel alittledated now - it’s a massive pain in the arse selecting the ability you want to use each time, especially if you need to switch between more than one - and some of its platforming is a bit ropey. But even the look of Psychonauts hasn’t aged that much at all. It’s got a sort of classic Cartoon Network look where everything is slightly the wrong colour, objects feel either way too big or too small, and all the characters have weird hair and buck teeth. Viewed in the harsh light of 2021, where we have more infinitely polygons at our disposal, it still just looks weird and blocky on purpose.
15 years later and it still feels like there isn’t much like Psychonauts around. It still feelsnew. Instead of a sequel, I’d sort of rather Double Fine took all the money that people threw at them via Kickstarter and used it to make something as new and different as this all over again.
