One of the best titles nobody ever heard of, Psychonauts is a fun, creative adventure game with an interesting twist, most of the action happens inside your head. Well, inside the heads of the games various wacky characters actually, as you go in to fight their various psychosis, neuroses and mental demons.
You play a young cadet named Raz, who escapes FROM the circus to become a Psychonaut, a kind of psychic spy. Over the course of the game you uncover a sinister plot to steal brains, and go through numerous extremely fun levels. There are also numerous unlocks and hidden items which encourage you to retrace your steps throughout the process.
The game has a gentle learning curve, guiding you through your hero's mental powers one by one, right up until the end that is. The last level of the game is an incredibly frustrating mess that replaces creativity with precision jumping puzzles, the absolute bane of third person action/adventure titles. It was the last level that caused me to put this game down and never pick it up again, as it didn't just feel cheap, it felt like a betrayal after so much excellent content.
However, despite its flaws, you still should play Psychonauts, if only to see what you missed out on the first time around. There just aren't enough creative, colorful and most of all witty titles like this around.