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It is a well-known fact that Psychonauts, originally released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2, was a financial failure when it was released in 2005...but the problem is, IT DESERVED IT. The game has a grotesque, unappealing artstyle, awkward 3D platforming, another boring collect-a-thon...most of that stuff was outdated game design by 2005 anyway, and I'm tired of pretending that Psychonauts was this tragic masterpiece that was overlooked by the general gaming public.

Without going into the games' story too much or the exact points of contention (I made a lot more notes on it originally but have since lost those), I will say this—a lot of games have good levels or good ideas, and I'm not going to tell anyone that, say, the Milkman level isn't interesting or backstories are presented in unique ways...but it doesn't really come together properly. Most of the game is a whole lot of random stories of the strange characters Raz meets in his journeys without much introduction or context.

I first played it in 2016 on Microsoft Windows, the PC version suffers from long loading times and is/was very buggy, yet this is still the main way to play it as the console versions have fallen by the wayside. I finally gave up on the last level, Meat Circus, which takes things up to eleven with time constraints and precision 3D platforming.

Like Retro City Rampage, any good ideas or creative aspects are washed out in bad design and bad difficulty curves, and like that review, it falls on the "Meh" scale, and I will not apologize for it. (Cover art from Psychonauts Fandom Wiki.)

FINAL RATING:   

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