Please Make Me! Another Platformer from Psychonauts Creator, Tim Schafer

I practically grew up with point-and-click-adventure games, particularly the ones published by Lucasarts. It wasn’t until recently though that I found out that most of my favorites were all made by the same guy: Tim Schafer. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango: to list his past works is to list some of the best titles in the genre. Then, in 2005, he switched gears and created one astounding platformer by the name of Psychonauts. Fans of Schafer’s work sometimes lament this change, especially since he was practically forced into it by publishers and the dwindling popularity of old school adventure titles. However, because of how spectacular the result turned out, I’m hoping his next brilliant work is another platformer.

Story is the least of my worries when it comes to a game by Schafer. It’s a given that whatever he comes up with will be creative, humorous, and have some great writing. The man has probably come up with some of the best premises in the history of video games. Day of the Tentacle took place in three distinct settings: a mad scientist’s residence, a future ruled by sentient tentacles, and the past at around the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Full Throttle dealt with the leader of a motorcycle gang who is framed for murder, and required you to punch your way out of a dumpster and rough up a bartender in the first two minutes of the game. And in Grim Fandango, you controlled Manny, a travel agent/grim reaper who ends up playing detective in a film noir-like world populated by characters resembling Mexican skeleton figures from Dia de Los Muertos celebrations. Those one-sentence summaries for the games barely scratch the surface of the creative weirdness that abounds in them.

In Psychonauts, you played a young psychic, named Raz, who sneaks into a summer camp for psychics. Soon however, all of his friends’ brains are stolen by an evil scientist and he must try and stop them. To do this, he must literally go inside the minds of several characters — most of whom are certifiably insane and whose minds are represented by crazy worlds that are entirely different from each other. The dialogue alone is hilarious, but it’s the weird environments that stand out. At one point, you’re inside the brain of a mutated fish as a giant in a city populated by fish people (who scream out phrases like “Oh my God! The orphanage! every time you demolish a building). A few minutes later, you’re in the head of a deranged security guard, which resembles a deformed suburban community populated by bizarre, trenchcoat-wearing secret agents. Raz also gains the use of several psychic power to help him out, like pyrokinesis, levitation, and telekinesis. This was probably one of the most gripping and creative platformers I’ve ever played, which is why I think another from Schafer would be just as good, if not better. It’s only fault really was the skewed difficulty level, which suddenly became controller-shattering impossible near the end.

When it first came out, Psychonauts was a critical darling, as numerous game publications lavished it with praise and presented the game with many awards. Sadly, the consumers did not follow suit, and it only sold a paltry 100,000 copies in the first year it was released. Unfortunately, Schafer is still only a cult success; but considering Ken Levine was in the same corner until he made BioShock, it’s possible that he could get another shot. At the time of this writing, Shafer’s studio, Double Fine, is in an agreement with Vivendi to develop an unknown title. I’m hoping it’s a platformer, but I’ll still be buying it the day it comes out this time; because everything Tim Schafer touches is gold.

If you’d like to hear more praise for Psychonauts, then be sure to check out the hilarious video review from The Escapist’s Yahtzee Croshaw.