Any fan of atmospheric platformers or adventure games would be insane to leave Psychonauts on the shelf
The basic plot begins with Rasputen (AKA: Raz), a ten year old kid with a strong desire to become a Psychonaut, sneaking into a "Summer Camp" where Psychonauts are trained. Because of his unusual skills, the trainers decide to teach him, at least until his parents arrive to pick him up. This, they do with their fair share of very funny quotes (more on that later).
At the beginning of the game, you will be going to your first class. However, there is no rush. You have as much time as you want to pick up collectables, eavesdrop on funny conversations, enter those very same funny conversations, and, over all, explore.
Now, roughly 30 minutes into the game, at maximum, you should be entering your first mind. This is where the forementioned crazy, hilarious, and sometimes disturbing events take place. Expect gravity to be defied in minds...a lot. Along with logic in general. The atmospheric and unique expieriences of each respectful mind are probably the best quality of the game. You'll find yourself in crazy situations...situations so much fun to find in the game that it's wrong to spoil any of them for you before you've reached them in the game, or even any of the minds you'll enter, for that matter.
When it comes to gameplay, Psychonauts tends to stick to standard platformer material. Sometimes, it will stray off into adventure territory by making you have to find a certain item to get past a certain situation, which helps mix it up a little bit. The unique aspect of the game is the psychic powers, and even though those have been done to death in other games. Psychonauts does them all very differently from what you've played before. Plus, they're all VERY fun and satisfying to use. You get new psychic powers by entering a new mind, or ranking up. To rank up, you have to collect nine psy cards and a psy core in in the real world, then combine them in a machine, or collect 100 figments (figments of the imagination) in a mind. There's also a scavenger hunt in the real world that you can use to rank up fast.
Even if you don't like the gameplay or atmosphere, Psychonauts is worth playing through just for how hilarious it can get at some points. Think of your favorite comedy movie. There's a chance that the humor in psychonauts could be a head and shoulders above it.
Yet not all is fun and games in the world of Psychonauts, prying into people's minds, you might find some interesting memories. You may be shocked that issues such as these are discussed in such a seemingly light hearted game, or even in video games in general.
Graphically, there really isn't anything that looks quite like Psychonauts in the world of video games today. The cartoonish, maybe even Tim Burton-esque style is very artistic. And some of the special effects you'll see in a few specific minds will catch you by surprise.
The only real problem with the game is that it's short. You could very possibly blow through it in 8 hours. But for your sake, don't. There's so much more to the game than just running ahead and running through as fast as you can. In the first half of the game, there's just so much going on in the camp at any given time. Sadly, this doesn't last forever...without spoiling anything, but even after you can't check out what your fellow campers are doing, there's still a lot of stuff to collect, and a lot of motivation to go back to old minds in case you missed any of the memory vaults.
Over all, Psychonauts was the best platformer of 2005, without a doubt, and if you haven't played it yet. I really recommend you pick it up. Not just for the sake of encouraging games like this to be made, what with the poor sales and all, but for your own sake over anything else. Psychonauts, at it's core, is an unforgettable expierience.