Tim Schafer is my hero (Psychonauts)

I know Tim's worked on many other games, including the infamous Grim Fandango and some of the Monkey Island games, but I think his talent truly shined in his more recent creation for Playstation 2.

Of course, I'm referring to Psychonauts. I played this game a while back, but it's too good to pass up plugging here. The platforming genre felt like it was getting stale till I picked up this gem, with Super Mario Sunshine being a super let-down and Sly 3 apparently ending one of my favorite espionage-slash-playful playformer series. Granted, by that time Psychonauts had aged a bit compared to some of the other games in my PS2 library, but when I started playing it, I almost couldn't put it down till the end. A platformer hasn't kept me that enthralled since Super Mario World (with Sly 2 being a close second).
The gameplay mechanics are relatively good, and the ingenious way they implemented Razputin's various psychic tools was interesting to see play out in the actual mechanics of the game. However, I believe the strongest points of the game are the character designs and even moreso the level designs. You would expect that visiting the interior of people's minds would be a pretty surreal experience, and Mr. Schafer does NOT disappoint in this respect. Every level is a treat for the eyes and a euphoric explosion for the psychadelic side of your psyche: Coach Oliander's war-torn mind, Agent Nein's organized brain, Mia's perpetual party, Edgar's black velvet and neon Madrid (particularly beautiful level), and especially Boyd's paranoia-induced twisted neighborhood in The Milkman Conspiracy. The art of the game is unique and just as warped as the game itself, which only adds to the whole motif of the bent nature of the human mind.
The whole premise of the game screams epic, in that you're a camper at a summer camp for gifted children with psychic abilities. The slightly bent humor of the game makes itself apparent mostly in your fellow campers, including one who must wear an aluminum hat to keep the "voices" out, and constantly has to avoid the influence of the evil squirrels that inhabit the camp and chuckle maniacally when you walk past. Once you get the appropriate badges (certification for psychic abilities), you can blow the little bastards up yourself. The most fun powers to use are likely Levitation (which takes the form of a "thought bubble" you roll around on top of and float from) and Pyrokinesis, which lets you make things spontaneously combust, explode, and damage other things around that object (effectively turning your enemies into bombs). Powers are upgraded as your collect your Psychonaut rankings.
The one downside I see right now is that it doesn't appear that there's going to be a sequel, as badly as this game needs one. If anything, the game feels a bit too short. Like this blog entry.

Fun fact: This game is NOW backwards compatible with XBox 360, is available in PC format and PS2, Xbox, and also on Gametap. Go try it now. You won't be disappointed.

later!

Of Raccoons and Priests

This week it's a blast from the near past. A fairly rare game for the Super Nintendo, Pocky and Rocky wasn't exactly The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but it took an arcade twist to an easy-to-follow adventure set in a mystical alternate Japanese past.
This game is steeped in Japanese folklore and mythology, so the creatures probably seem very weird to those of us on the other side of the Pacific. You play as one of two beings: Pocky, a young female priest who fights with a charm and throws talismans, and Rocky, a tanuki (raccoon dog) that fights using its tail and throws magic leaves. There's really not much beyond aesthetics between which character you pick. The game plays more similarly to Galaga or Ikaruga, or some space shooter like that, in that enemies constantly stream from the top or side within an given instance of an area -- areas are divided into screens, and each screen has a certain amount of enemies along its path. Power-ups come in the form of mystic talismans, which power up your throwing items to new levels (either a multi-spray or larger thrown items), and if enemies get too close to shoot, Pocky and Rocky can repel them with their charm or tail respectively.
The cutesy nature of this game can be deceptive, as it sometimes requires some twitch reflexes. The controls are pretty responsive, but the enemy movement patterns can be hard to hit, and bosses can take a while to wear down. It doesn't feel quite as mindless as the game I previously blogged about. I enjoy the simplistic yet still slightly challenging nature of the game, and the distinctly Japanese flair of the game reminds me of another old favorite, Legend of the Mystical Ninja. The graphics are neither good nor bad, being a SNES game. Just be prepared for some odd enemies.
It's good for a rom or to own, and I recommend playing through it at least once.