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Meet Razputin, or just Raz to his friends. He's a boy with psychic powers who lives with his dad in a traveling circus. Raz's dream is to become a member of the Psychonauts, a team of psychics who use their powers for good. But Raz's dad hates psychics, and refuses to let Raz use his powers. So one day, Raz runs away from home and sneaks into a special summer camp for psychic kids. This summer camp trains them to be Psychonauts. But a sinister plot to use the kids' brains for a psychic super weapon sends Raz on an incredible adventure!
For all intents and purposes, Psychonauts looks and plays a lot like a standard, run-of-the-mill 3D platformer. Raz has all the usual 3D platformer hero moves, like double jumping and grinding on rails. He tromps his way through various themed levels, connected by a hub world, which in this case is the campsite. Like many other games of this ilk, Raz's adventure is also a collect-a-thon, with tons of scattered objects for you to find. You can collect PSI cards, imagination figments, emotional baggage, mental cobwebs and more. Luckily all these items benefit Raz in the same way by raising his level so you can use more powerful psychic attacks. During the course of the game, Raz will earn merit badges that will let him wield different psychic powers. Raz can levitate, use pyrokinesis to light things on fire, move and throw remote objects with telekinesis, fire psychic energy blasts, and uses other powers that help him overcome obstacles and solve puzzles. Raz can also collect special arrowheads, which he can use to buy items at the camp store.  There are three things that separate Psychonauts from the average 3D platformer. First is the art direction. Characters and settings in this game look like a cross between Invader ZIM and Nightmare Before Christmas, giving Psychonauts a very unique look. Second is the level design. Most 3D platform games have the standard ice world, water level, lava area, etc., but not Psychonauts! Raz must go inside people's minds to fight their inner demons, and these minds end up being the levels of the game! You'll run through a beautiful level where the graphics are entirely done in black light, tromp through a giant hexagonal military strategy board game, and smash a miniature sized city in a Godzilla parody stage. I've been reviewing games for nearly eight years now, and even I don't think I can accurately describe the insanity that is "The Milkman Conspiracy" level! The last unique thing about Psychonauts is the humor! The well-timed comedy in this game is plentiful, and reminds me of the twisted humor found in Invader ZIM and Sam & Max. This may not be entirely coincidental either. I'm almost one hundred percent certain that the voice actor for Raz is the same guy who does the voice of Invader ZIM. Plus, the head designer of Psychonauts, Tim Schafer, used to make classics at LucasArts like Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango. These games were known for their wacky humor, and Psychonauts continues that trend. You will laugh out loud at many points in the game, and you'll want to keep playing just to see what funny and outlandish things will happen next! Graphics are fun to look at, but the PlayStation 2 version of Psychonauts suffers from some rough textures and choppy frame rate. Plus the loading times on the PS2 version can become annoying. As with other 3D platformers, camera angles can become problematic sometimes. But these problems are easily overlooked, since the rest of the game is so engaging and fun. Music and sound are excellent, but overshadowing the audio is outstanding voice acting. Even the most minor characters have Saturday morning cartoon quality voices. Whether you're levitating, double jumping, or assigning special psychic attacks to the different shoulder buttons, play control is also responsive and spot-on. There's a good "GamerDad" moment at the end of this game, too. The 3D platformer may be a tired and overused genre, but Psychonauts breathes new life into it with uniqueness and style. Every gamer owes it to themselves to play this game! 
While the violence is mostly Looney Tunes cartoonish stuff, Psychonauts is still definitely a Teen rated game. Crude humor, a few curse words, and some slightly scary and warped scenes are the usual culprits. However, I can imagine a mature preteen in the 10-13 age range being OK with playing it, especially if they are already allowed to watch TV shows like The Simpsons and Invader ZIM. Older kids and their parents should definitely give this one a try!
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