Psychonauts

This unpredictable game almost didn't make it to stores.

Each year, there are a few games so off-the-wall and quirky that they make their own success, thanks to unique gameplay and word-of-mouth kudos from fans. Last year, Namco's Katamari Damacy was probably at the head of the pack. Though it's still relatively early in 2005, we may already have a winner in the wacky-game race: Majesco's Psychonauts.

Insane in the Membrain

This unpredictable game almost didn't make it to stores. Originally an Xbox-only title to be published by Microsoft, Psychonauts was dropped last year behind rumors that it was a cool idea, but not all that fun to play. Majesco rescued it (and extended it to PlayStation 2 and PC). The rest is history.

Psychonauts follows the adventures of Raz (short for Razputin), a weird-looking kid determined to join Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a getaway for budding brainiacs who are being groomed to fight psychically psupernatural psortees. In fact, all the kids, counselors, and creatures at Whispering Rock are odd balls, and the game almost plays out as strange and fun Tim Burton film.

With Raz's father on the way to pick the telekinetic kid, there's no time to waste--Raz needs to accelerate his studies, earn essential merit badges (in such subjects as levitation and invisibility), and save his world from wayward science and other bizarre threats. Among them is a dentist who removes some kids-- brains, a giant lungfish and a prototypically cruel camper named Bobby Zilch.

All for Naut

The design of the game is hard to describe, but imagine a cartoon-like flair spiced up with lots of glowing florescent flourishes. It's a fantastic marriage of styles, somewhere between Beetlejuice and Tron. The gameplay is similar to today's 3D platformers--and maybe even gives more than a passing nod to the Zelda series--though instead of guns and grenades, you have a different arsenal with all sorts of mental munitions. In place of heart icons that track Raz's status, you get little brain symbols to fill in.

Best of all, each character has his or her own personality, thanks to expressive (and just plain funny) voice acting and goofy appearances. The script also features some genuine laugh-out-loud moments--something that just doesn't happen enough in video games. Though Psychonauts may not have the heavy anticipation of a Halo, Metal Gear, or Mario, there's no doubt that it's a sleeper worth checking out for its distinctly different approach to what could have been a run-of-the-mill action-adventure contest. It's a satirical, sardonic mind fu&uh, dose of mind fun

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