Tim Schaefer and his collaborators have succeeded at cooking - again - a wonderful cartoony medium for everyone. Though Psychonauts doesn't revolutionize the genre, it exhibits interesting new twists as well as older ones more twisted, rehashing brilliantly a platformer unfortunately overlooked ( partly due to this PC version & PS2 one delayed ). You play as Raz ( Razputin ) in a summer camp of potential psychics overwatched by few elder....psychonauts, indeed. He's about to embark on the minds of many characters involved in a devious plot to dominate the world by someone ( you'll know soon enough in the game ) who steals the other children's brains. Combined with some exploration in the real world, each big level inside a mind is truly unique with its own artistry and imaginative layouts for a total of 15 hours of pure platforming.

At evidence, the fluidity of the gameplay shows a good amount of polish: the navigational experience throughout the game is user friendly, boasting easy to use functions and moves around for an excellent combo of many successful bindings of the genre. They did the best possible for the keyboard and mouse, but typically a ''console'' game such as this requires a good controller, although if you choose to stick with the keyboard, as a good PC player you won't have any problems at all to complete the game once past the learning curve. All that comes at the cost of some camera problems in dead ends and bottlenecks. It's not unusual to witness said camera glitches in many excellent games, it just could have been tested more thoroughly. They can be irritating sometimes.

The stronger selling points remain its offbeat humorous conversations and out of this world level design. However, we can sense outright some questionable balance optimization and calibration, such as unchallenging combat: no enemy is exceedingly difficult to beat. The successive ballets rely on a strange mix of walk in the park and harder jumping puzzlings in the ending parts that may become frustrating - namely in the Circus. In fact, the challenge is in the acrobatics to reach the goal, not the goal itself ( boss ). Velvetopia is a superb level that may be confusing ( you get the Confusion power there to do the same to your enemies ); then again the feeling provided by the touchy atmosphere gives all the fun factor needed. In the end, the mid game brains to invade may be the most brilliantly presented, like the Milkman Conspiracy - but all of them spur innovative layouts fun to toggle with.

Tired to collect psitanium and figments??? A word about collecting: yes, Psychonauts is a paradise of overarching collecting & platforming to the detriment of combat; so if you're negatively depressed vis-à-vis older mechanics of the genre, to constantly nab goodies, beware to live your worst nightmare. But what a beautiful nightmare to tackle.....The interactions always stay fluid, for an even voyage that never fall into boredom.

The sheer beauty of each level is to die for, including various and to the point blending of pastel coloring, hues, and design. How can not feast the eyes with the rendered background texturing of light-in-the-sky Milkman ( a dysfunctional neighborhood in the sky as we would imagine if being a deranged, retired delivery-man ); the funny lighting in Gloria's theatre ( dark/light choices in there ); or Velvetopia's darker hues nicely matching the Spanish feeling. Furthermore, some neat special effects enhance the solid animation throughout, especially when using psi powers, always primordial, or the Palm MegaBomb, scarcely useful albeit dazzling to see ( cool ripple effect and sounding ).

But, there's always a but, not everything's perfect as the main graphical ''flaw'' on the PC version render it almost unjustified - compared to consoles - considering the hardware's higher capabilities: the low polygon count, which is the same than the XBox version. Again, this is a near direct port as we see more nowadays. No wonder why PC versions tend to score lower: some multi-platform titles offer very little enhancements when ported to the PC, which is the exact case here ( budget cuts, deadlines, laziness? ). The game is savvy, beautiful, vivdly colored, yet the lower polygon count - as we see characters closely, to be hardly rounded like 2001ish - is not to be overlooked by recent standards. In no way though, does this alter the otherwise boldly surreal experience à la Picasso.

A professional audio score pleasantly surrounds our ears, at delivering an exquisite mix of tracks coupled with overall sounds adequately tuned. Consequently, the bulk of voiceovers can be appreciated the same way too, despite some stereotypical whining from children that may irritate over time. This also depends of the player's personal level of tolerance about distorted screamings. Charge!!!!!!

Do not seek a multiplayer component: the game is strictly a single player affair. And a refreshing one at that, with only the few iffy setbacks exposed above.

In conclusion, Psychonauts delivers what it's designed for, and more. It's an interactive cartoon combining tons of design, artistic, and gameplay genres for an offbeat disneyish enlightenment. Without any MP, nor strong modding tools, its lasting value may be short, aside the few additional hours of gameplay the hardcore may dig at collecting anything: all the figments, emotional baggages, and harder to find goodies in order to reach the dreaded level 100. This is one rare overlooked gem unveiling an exceptional artistic tapestry, poised to exhibit the line between.....the traditional velvet and modern interactivity. Just pure fun. Oh, and good luck at reaching level 100!