Mirror's Edge

Year: 2008
Developer: DICE
Publisher: EA
Platforms: PS3, 360, PC
Metacritic score: 80 (cross-platform average)
VGChartz sales to date: 2.2 million 

WHAT MADE IT GREAT
Hey, you got first-person shooter in my platformer!  No, you got platformer in my first-person shooter!  Wait a sec...this tastes great!  That is the internal monologue that must have played out in many gamer's minds when they first sat down to play Mirror's Edge.  Developed by Swedish team DICE, whose Battlefield series proves they know how to cram much more then just simple gunplay into an FPS, Mirror's Edge was an attempt to reinvent the platforming genre.  Mario 64 had demonstrated that platformers could be just at home in a 3D world as the 2D realms they had been born in, but it still stuck to a traditional 3rd person perspective.  DICE figured the time was right to bring gamers into the protagonist's head by building a game around an offshoot of parkour known as freerunning.  Combined with a bold artistic style, a strong female playable character and it's emphasis on speed and agility over firepower Mirror's Edge immediately stood out from the crowd.

Faith's routes run both on top of and inside the city's many skyscrapers, but the cold steel and blue color palette gives the city a very uniform and sterile feeling.

You play as Faith, a courier for an underground resistance movement who oppose the strict order and fascism that keeps the gleaming city of glass and metal so shiny and clean. Since every form of transportation and communication is tightly controlled, the only way to pass important messages or supplies is by hand-delivering them across a natural obstacle course that runs under, through and on top of the city's skyscrapers.  Faith seems comfortable living at the margins, but all of that will be upset as the totalitarian government becomes increasingly determined to completely eliminate everything they regard as criminal behavior.  That most certainly includes Faith, her friends and her family and you can bet the government has no qualms in pressing their advantage in numbers and firepower to the fullest.  They'll send waves of armored soldiers packing assault rifles, attack helicopters and their own highly trained counter-runner agents at you, and all Faith has to respond with is her own physical skills and abilities honed from a life of freerunning.  

Don't look down...don't look down...don't...aw crap, I pooped myself again

That's right, your best defense against the most serious hardware a totalitarian dystopia is you own hands and feet.  In an interesting twist on typical first-person gameplay, guns actually play a very minimal role.  You're welcome to pick up guns from fallen foes, but doing so will break your momentum and slow you down.  You'll have to carefully weigh whether the long-range lethality is worth losing speed, but in Mirror's Edge the name of the game is fluidity.  When you take off running you will gradually build up to your maximum momentum which allows you to leap farther and hit harder, but that edge disappears the moment you slow down.  To keep your speed up, you'll need to actively look ahead and scout the best path through a set of obstacles while carefully timing your acrobatics to preserve speed.  Carrying a gun with you will make that job harder, while larger guns will prevent many of your moves entirely.  Fortunately Faith is adept as moving like water both while running and fighting, an activity made more immersive by being able to actually see your own limbs.  Being able to look down and see your feet might seem like a small detail, but it helps immensely in being able to nail the timing for difficult jumps or tricks.  And being able to watch from 1st person perspective as you disarm and beat down an opponent, seeing the flowing motion of your arms and legs working in perfect synchronicity, and then continuing to haul ass down the side of a skyscraper at top speed is a feeling few other games can match.

Most guys would kill to have Faith's legs wrapped around them, but I don't think this is what they have in mind

Finding the path that allows for the best running line could have been challenging in such a clean, polished cityscape.  Fortunately DICE made the smart move to integrate the game's artistic design with the practical need for pathfinding.  The color red plays an important role in this design, highlighting different parts of the environment in a way that draws your attention to natural routes through the urban obstacle course.  Extending the concept further, the color red is used as a highlight to story elements, characters and other aspects of the game the developers want you to notice.  Because you are constantly looking for the next direction to run in, this element has the effect of making certain things really pop out at you and enhances the overall artistic design.  And there are plenty of eye-popping moments to be found, from Faith's wall-running, back-flipping traversals while under heavy fire to some truly acrobatic moments at about 100 stories up.  Seeing all this from Faith's own eyes is unnerving at first, but once you become comfortable you realize it's a whole new way to view platforming.

Motion blur not only adds realism, it also makes the chase sequences seem that much more frantic

WHAT WENT WRONG
Some mashups, like peanut butter and jelly, are instantly recognized as a hit while others, such as pineapple and pepperoni pizza (trust me), are slower to catch on.  MIrror's Edge made bold choices when it came to just about every gameplay and design decision, so naturally it was bound to polarize audiences.  Most critics were highly positive, citing the groundbreaking 1st-person take on platforming and the visual style as strong redeeming qualities.  Game Informer called it "genre-defining" and compared it's intense first-person action to Call of Duty 4.  Coincidentally, Mirror's Edge would release on the same day as another CoD game.

The cutscenes were animated instead of being rendered in the Unreal Engine 3 the game was built on, a decision that some enjoyed while others found it distracting

Call of Duty: World at War returned the series to it's WWII roots and was the first to feature the popular Nazi Zombies mini-mode, selling nearly 2 million copies in it's first month of sales.  EA was hoping to put a dent in Activision's CoD juggernaut by siphoning sales with it's highly unique and anticipated Mirror's Edge, but this strategy tends to benefit Goliath over David.  No doubt many CoD fans would have been willing to give Mirror's Edge a try, but when faced with where to lay down their $60 most will bet on the known quantity.  Some negative reviews also sent a mixed message about the game, such as the 5/10 from Edge magazine whose main complaint was not having a more open-world design.  The game was by no means a flop, but it's sales fell well short of the projected goal of 3 million copies. 

WILL WE SEE IT AGAIN
If things go according to plan, the we can most certainly expect to see the series return.  Without giving anything away, I can say that Faith's future seems set on a path toward greater danger.  An EA senior VP confirmed the game in 2009, only for a rumor that development had stopped over concerns about the early builds to spread in 2011.  However, as of 2012 there have been more rumblings from both current and former DICE developers that the game is in the works.  DICE has certainly been busy with Battlefield 3 with End Game, the final DLC, ready for release and recent confirmation that BF4 is already in the works, so there might not be time to switch the focus back onto Mirror's Edge.  After all, DICE's on executive produce has said the series is "too good to kill", so hopefully we'll get more word on we break out the split-toe running shoes and hit the pavement.

If you really can't wait that long and you've already mastered the incredibly challenging time trial modes, you can always check out the 2D side scrolling version for iOS.  It does a decent job of mimicking the look of the game but feels distinctly more like Sonic then Mirror's Edge.  Also, putting ads in a game that costs $10 for the iPad version is just low class.  But at least it demonstrates that EA believes there's money to be made off this series, now let's all hope they do it right with a fully-fledged sequel.  Maybe with a sweet online mode that goes beyond chasing time trial ghosts.  However they decide to build upon the first game, it will be great to be reminded once again just how far platforming has come from it's humble origins.  

It's your city.  Run it.

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Ristar

Year: 1995
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Sega Genesis, Game Gear (originally); later Virtual Console and also bundled in compilations for PSP, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360
Metacritic score: Not available
VGChartz sales to date: Unknown

WHAT MADE IT GREAT
For those of us born during a certain time, the 90's represented a coming of age in more ways then one.  For the video game industry, the 90's was when gaming transitioned from youthful fad to full-fledged entertainment industry juggernaut.  In 1982 at the height of the home console market just before the Great Crash of '83 the industry was pulling in around $4 billion annually, a number that would rise to over $20 billion globally in just ten years.  While there have always been multiple competitors in this market, it wasn't until the 1990's when we saw two companies so evenly matched.  By the end of the 16-bit era Nintendo would claim a slight victory in the Console Wars with 49 million Super Nintendos sold compared to Sega's 40 million Geneses (fun fact: the plural of genesis is geneses, you can look it up if you don't believe me).  It's fitting that the two generals of this conflict, Mario and Sonic, were both mascots from platformers because in many ways the 16-bit era was tailor made for the platforming genre.  The SNES and Genesis still had the same 2D rendering limitations as the previous generation, but modest increases in addressable memory space and processing power gave developers access to a greater palette of colors, sounds and sprites to craft worlds that possessed far more personality over their predecessors.   

If your first experience with video games was Pong, seeing this many colors onscreen at once could give you a stroke.  

This unique set of constraints favored games that were well-suited to 2D graphics and didn't require realistic graphics or gameplay to be enticing, so fans of platforming gameplay were absolutely spoiled for choice during the 1990's.  While many of the best selling platformers had gotten their start back on the NES (Mario, Mega Man, Metroid and Castlevania to name just a few examples) Sega was making headway with new properties of their own, of which the speedy blue hedgehog was undoubtedly the king.  But anyone who stuck too closely to Sonic did themselves a great disservice by missing out on titles such as Ristar.  The game stars an anthropomorphic star who is either the child of a Star Goddess or a "Legendary Hero" in the form of a shooting star, depending on whether you played the Japanese version or the English translation.  Your task is to save the Valdi galaxy by preventing the evil space pirate/19th century German imperialist Kaiser Greedy from enslaving the inhabited planets through mind-control.  The U.S. version also sees you rescuing your father/Legendary Hero/shooting star because somehow this makes the plot more...I'm not sure what exactly.  Maybe the Japanese thought we had a lot of daddy issues, but for whatever reason the plot was altered during the localization process.   

Apparently nobody notified Ristar of the change, because he maintains those arched eyebrows throughout the game

It's no surprise that the game borrows heavily from Sonic, especially since it was born from an early concept art in which Sonic was a rabbit, but Ristar set itself apart with a unique gameplay hook.  Ristar can run, jump and swim with the best of them but rather then rely on jumping, speed or a collection of weapons to defeat enemies and traverse levels, Ristar uses his extendable stretchy arms both to explore and fight.  Using the B button sends Ristar's arms shooting out in front of him, grabbing onto a handhold, switches, ledge, etc. will pull the rest of his body forward and releasing the button will make Ristar let go so his momentum can carry him.  Just like how stages in Sonic are designed to take advantage of speed, Ristar's stages are designed around swinging from place to place and the mechanic feels really enjoyable when you get into a rhythm.  The Star Hooks are especially fun to use as grabbing one sends Ristar swinging around at high speeds until you are ready to let go, at which point you rocket off like a shooting star.  Ristar is invulnerable while a shooting star and the player has some degree of control over charting his course, but mainly it's a matter of timing and gravity.  Each level has a hidden Star Hook that sends you to a bonus stage where you can earn special items by completing an obstacle course in a set amount of time.  Enemies can also be defeated by grabbing them and holding the button to pull Ristar into them for a high speed headbutt.  In this way, attacking enemies is just another means of traversing the levels allowing skilled players to swing themselves to the finish at a brisk pace, making the game popular for speedrun challenges.

Each stage ends with either a mini-boss or boss battle.  Battling the boss on Planet Undertow is made easier by not needing to breath since stars live in the vacuum of space.  Doesn't stop them from wearing sneakers, though.  

But you'll likely want to take your time as you explore the Valdi system since each stage is filled with hidden treasure chests in addition to the previously mentioned bonus stages.  It's also worth slowing down to check out the great background art and design touches that gives each planet a unique feel to match it's environmental theme.  While the platforming tropes of water zones, ice zones, etc. is still firmly in place, the level designs still make the grabbing mechanic your primary focus for navigation and attack.  The designs themselves are lustrously colored and filled with interesting details, for instance on Planet Undertow the screen brightness gets darker as you dive deeper beneath the water.  But perhaps the most standout feature of the design is the soundtrack with it's infectiously happy beats and surprising variation.  It's like MGMT meets Skrillex all filtered through 16-bits of pure joy.  

Bonus chests can contain anything from points to extra lives and are scattered in various hard to reach places

WHAT WENT WRONG 
Timing is everything.  Ristar was one of the last new games to release for the Genesis before the launch of of the Sega Saturn in the North American market.  The Saturn had already arrived in Japan and it's famously botched U.S. launch was only two months away from becoming a reality when Ristar was released.  Sega's attention was completely fixed on their next console and Ristar received very little marketing.  If that wasn't bad enough, an electronics powerhouse waded into the Console War by rolling out a new platform of their own.  Sony's Playstation had already followed the Saturn into the Japanese market in December 1994, and it would arrive in the U.S. in September '95.  The 16-bit era had ended, all hail the 32-bit reign!

...Moving on...

It's too bad everyone's attention was elsewhere, because Ristar was a really awesome game.  It was everything you expected from a classic Sonic game but with a whole new gameplay twist.  Game Informer gave it an 8.25 in it's original review and a more recent IGN review of the Virtual Console port is a testament to the game's sustained appeal.  With the Playstation's rise came new genre's based on first- or third-person perspectives along with true sports simulators like Madden NFL 97, the first in the series by current developer Tiburon.  After a decade of dominance the platforming genre was beginning to decline, and Ristar stands as a paragon of what developers had learned over the years.  In that way it was both derivative of them as some critics have pointed out, but also the ultimate refinement of those mechanics and principles.  

WILL WE SEE IT AGAIN
Despite starring in only this single outing, that determined little luminous sphere of plasma has grown in popularity over the years.  The game was re-issued in collections of Sonic games for GameCube and PS2, and was more recently brought to Steam and Virtual Console on it's own or bundled on PSN and Xbox Live in the form of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.  Ristar has also made two cameo's in the Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing series but never as a playable character.  He's become such a cult icon that homebrew sequel have even sprung up based around the original gameplay.  

Maybe we'll see a true sequel come from Sega, at the very least the cameos prove they remember the game exists.  Bionic Commando, which uses a similar platforming mechanic, has tried to refresh itself to mixed success but perhaps Ristar can make a more comfortable move to 3D platforming like Mario Galaxy accomplished.  If you want to play Ristar on the go, you'd better have a working Game Gear and a truck load of batteries because it's not available on 3DS or PS Vita.  While some Sonic games have made it to mobile Ristar is not one of them.  A touchscreen version may be difficult since your finger would always be obscuring the exact place you're moving to, but using a digital button pad might work.  We may never get another Ristar game, and it's possible the platforming genre will never be what it once was, but for a very short window of time Ristar gave fans of the genre one last fleeting moment of greatness.

Do we dare to wish upon this star?  Picture credit

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Spec Ops: The Line

Year: 2012
Developer: Yager Development
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Metacritic score: 76 (cross-platform avg)
VGChartz sales to date: 740,000

WHAT MADE IT GREAT
The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.  Those words come from Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, a tale uncovering man's descent into madness driven on by the horrible realities of of dealing in death.  In the novella that was the subjugation of the African people in pursuit of the ivory trade, but the themes have since adopted many forms such as the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now and here they take on the guise of insurgency in Spec Ops: The Line.  Fans of the series, which has been dormant since it's PC (and inferior console ports) releases a decade ago, may remember the name and the squad-based 3rd-person shooter gameplay, but little other connection exists between those games and this first major project by Yager Development.   

This game takes place in a version of Dubai that has been ravaged by recent sandstorms.  Lt. Col. Konrad and his 33rd Battalion were en route back from Afghanistan when the onset of these storms stranded them in Dubai.  As sandstorms intensify nearly all forms of communication are knocked out and rioting sweeps the desert nation causing the wealthy ruling class of sheikhs quietly flee, leaving the once shining metropolis of skyscrapers in utter chaos.  The 33rd tries to enforce martial law before attempting to lead an evacuation of over a thousand civilians out of the city.  But the caravan of refugees never arrives and further communication is lost leading the U.S. Army to disavow the 33rd and accuse them of treason.  Then a looped broadcast from LTC Konrad is picked up declaring the evac a failure and casualties too many to count.  That's when three Delta operators are sent in, led by Capt. Walker (voiced by the inimitable Nolan North).

Between the sandstorms and the collapse of organized society the architecture of  Dubai has seen better days.

As you progress your team uncovers the extent to which the situation on the ground has deteriorated.  You are quickly confronted by a group of insurgents engaging remnants of the 33rd. It would seem that after the evac failed, the 33rd returned to claim control of Dubai by force.  Not all of Konrad's soldiers agreed with his methods and many split off to become Exiles.  With so many different combatants involved there's a nice variety of weapons to try out but don't expect to get very far with a Rambo approach.  You'll need to stick close to cover to make your way safely through the cross-fire and find Konrad, especially on the harder difficulties where any mistake can result in a quick death.  Because your primary objective is to gather intel and find Konrad you aren't interested in taking on the whole city in a firefight, but there are still some impressive set pieces in a dynamic landscape.  The ever-present sands can shift from blinding obstacle to lethal hazard and have taken a visible toll on the city and it's inhabitants.  You have some light tactical controls over your squad mates, but ultimately the decision making is handled by the player.  As the pressure of those decisions mount your team is strained and your grip on things broken.  

There's lots of hard choices to be made, many of them don't have an answer we'd think of as "right"

It's that narrative aspect that makes Spec Ops so enticing.  While the goal of many shooters is to gun through waves of enemies, the goal of Spec Ops is to make you think about how an individual reacts to committing those actions.  The gameplay still borrows heavily from the genre's established formula, but toys with our expectations.  It uses the same Middle East setting found in many games, but places it in the modernized and extravagant city of Dubai.  Rather then being driven by religious extremism, the conflict is driven by the chaos of an extended natural disaster.  The story is centered around the increasingly instability of Capt. Walker as his team goes further into the dark center of the storm.  This is reflected in both the game's story and the setting as your actions become more aggressive, your orders more forceful and the city deteriorates around you.  Even the soundtrack becomes more jarring and intensive.  As the game approaches the end, you are given more control in the outcome of certain decisions even as Walker loses control of himself.  It's unclear which choice, if any, is the right one and often comes down to which you feel is more necessary.  But it's the decision you make upon finally reaching Konrad the carries the most weight, both in terms of which ending you see as well as how you ultimately view your earlier actions.

The white phosphorous scene might just be the most gut wrenching gaming moment of 2012.

WHAT WENT WRONG
The competition in the shooter genre is fierce and difficult grounds for a new publisher.  Gameplay mechanics are an integral part of making an enjoyable cover-based shooter and can also be difficult to master on your first attempt, even when using the excellent Unreal Engine 3.  If a studio nails that, as fellow German developer Crytek did with FarCry and then Crysis, you can achieve commercial success even without a particularly unique or compelling narrative.  Publishers also place a lot of pressure on including multiplayer suites because of the potential for DLC and regular new installments.  Both these aspects compete for resources, and Yager's commitment to developing a story was not an area they wanted to compromise on.  

Much like publishers, sandstorms are a powerful and dangerous force that must be endured.

Reviewers universally praised the narrative and the complementing soundtrack of licensed rock songs.  Their was also a clear recognition in the game's lifting of the genre through the inclusion of a more contemplative storyline that asks gamers to analyze what they're feeling as they play though the game.  That's something few shooters attempt, and even less manage it convincingly.  What's more, the story accomplishes guard it's twists carefully and pull them off in a way that makes you rethink what you've already played just as much as it effects how the story ends.  It's a technique common in film and literature, but one less often applied in video games where how you interact with the story is often more important than what that story is trying to say.

For Spec Ops that interaction is perfectly middle of the road in most regards, unable to impress in the same way the narrative did.  The cover mechanic worked well enough but lacked the smooth flow of the stalwart Gears of War series.  Friendly and enemy AI was intelligent if not especially aggressive.  The particle effects, so critical due to the nature of the sandstorm threat, are sufficient but don't fully stress the UE3 engine.  The multiplayer especially felt tacked on, and not surprisingly it was handled by an outside studio.  Lead designer Cory Davis (no longer with Yager) went so far as to openly blast it's inclusion in an interview with Polygon, calling it a "cancerous growth" and waste of resources that hurt the overall game. He specifically cites the game mechanics as one area that had to be changed to accommodate "literally a check box that the financial predictions said we needed".  

The multiplayer passes for fun but fails to utilize the unique setting or hook of the single player mode.

WILL WE SEE IT AGAIN
Since the usual heading for this section doesn't exactly apply, let's instead ask whether we think this game could live to become a successful series.  When the first game came out in 1998 for PC it was well received and achieved moderate success, spawning an expansion pack and then a proper sequel.  A few console ports and spin-offs came to the PSX in 2001 and 2002, but the series fell dormant after that.  Rockstar Vancouver was on board for a PS2 release but was later halted.  Will Spec Ops again fade back into hibernation?

Sand devours all things given time and wind.  After just 6 months the desert has begun to reclaim the sprawling bustling of Dubai

It's too early to tell what's in store, but 2K Games while Yager has shot down rumors that their in-works next title is a sequel.  It's unclear how you could apply the same themes explored in the game to a new setting while remaining as fresh as the original.  But perhaps a future entry in the series could continue to apply the same reflective and literary tone towards a new conflict.  A heavier reliance player choice and their consequences could be expanded with more decision making points and branching storylines to achieve the replay value (and opportunities for DLC) that make both publishers and developers happy.  Combined with greater opportunities for squad based tactics and controls that better complement the tactical elements of the series this could easily be a winner.

In the meantime, the game can be picked up on PC for under $8 online and there are plenty of console copies still floating around.  It's certainly worth a look, especially to enjoy the single player story.  And who knows, maybe continued sales will convince 2K Games to give it another shot.  Even if the only result is to remind the genre of the importance of plot it can be counted a success from the perspective of its fans.  In any case, you might want to do yourself a favor and check this game out before it gets buried in the sands of time.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

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Get it here!

Psychonauts

Year: 2005
Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: Majesco
Platform: Xbox, PC, PS2 (originally); now available on Xbox360, PS3, Mac OS X, Linux
Metacritic score: 87 (cross-platform avg)
VGChartz sales to date: 210,000

WHAT MADE IT GREAT
Every now and then we are treated to a game that defies all conventions and expectations with it's originality.  It can be a fresh take on a stale genre, a unique setting or maybe a thoughtful story but however the developer achieves it, it's sure to leave a lasting impact on those who play it.  Tim Schafer has made a career out of delivering this impact time and again, and perhaps none of his efforts is more beloved then his 2005 cult-classic Psychonauts.  Wildly creative in it's Tim Burton on peyote design, an outlandishly unique setting and writing so hilarious you will literally laugh out loud, this is a 3rd-person platformer adventure title like nothing you've played before.  

The story follows young Raz (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz who you may recognize from Invader Zim) as he escapes from the circus to enroll at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp,  a government training facility designed to turn kids into skilled psychic agents called Psychonauts.  After an introductory cutscene, you take control of Raz and begin exploring the psychedelic campgrounds that form the game's hub world.  It's easy to get lost exploring the scenery as every inch is packed with fellow campers to interact with and myriad collectibles to hunt down.  Digging up arrowheads allows you to purchase goodies from the camp store while the PSI challenges and cards can be collected to increase your rank and unlock new psychic abilities such as levitation, telekinesis, pryokinesis and more.  But it's the zany cast of characters and their hilarious conversations that gives the setting a life of it's own and are the true reward for wandering Whispering Rock. 

Dogen is one of the more memorable characters you'll meet.  His tinfoil hat isn't just stylish, it also prevents him from accidentally exploding people's heads.  Just don't ask him what he thinks about squirrels...

Once you get around to undergoing "Basic Braining", you'll be taught the ABC's of psychic warfare.  Each level takes place in the mind of one of the characters and comes with a visual style unique to that character's personality, for instance the martially minded Coach Oleander's mindscape takes the form of a raging battlefield.  Within each mind you'll have to navigate a series of challenging obstacles and overcome powerful bosses representing that character's unique psychosis (and at Whispering Rock there are plenty of psychoses to go around).  The platforming is genuinely tough and requires careful timing and tight movements (made a little more frustrating on the PS2 thanks to Budcat Creations' rushed port; see more below) but the challenge is a welcome one and you'll find yourself chuckling at the mental imagery around you even as you die repeatedly.  There are also collectibles within each mind to help you rank up such as semi-transparent figments of imagination and emotional baggage, literally anthropomorphic suitcases requiring a matching luggage tag to "resolve".  

The campers may think Linda the Lungfish is a monster, but she's just a little misunderstood is all.  The level in her mind, in which Raz takes the form of a 10-story monster wreaking havoc on a lungfish city, is one of the game's highlights.  

It's the little touches like these that make Psychonauts so engaging to play.  All these various collectibles and unlockables could have taken the form of generic tokens, but Double Fine lovingly weaves everything into the setting and style of the game's narrative.  Even the start screen is thematically relevant, it's not merely a menu but a giant brain which Raz must run around and find the correct portal to start or load a game.  The more you explore your surroundings, the more fleshed out the characters become and you begin to realize how deep the rabbit hole goes.  As Raz becomes more powerful and the story unfolds you'll find yourself pushing on in the face of greater difficulty and more challenging puzzles not to beat a level but to advance the story, and that's the most powerful testament to a game's greatness that I can think of.

Ford Cruller is possibly the most accomplished Psychonaut ever and will often pop up as a mental mentor for Raz.  Naturally, he's a crazy old kook with multiple personality disorder and can be summoned by waving a piece of bacon, much like myself actually.

WHAT WENT WRONG
Publisher marketing missteps are always an easy target for blame and Majesco's handling of the game was certainly less than stellar, but I think there's more to the story.  Double Fine originally cut a deal with Microsoft to publish Psychonauts as an Xbox exclusive but for reasons that aren't entirely clear Microsoft backed out of this agreement.  Majesco stepped in to save the project and expanded it to Windows while outsourcing the PS2 port, but as a smaller publisher their comfort zone was with small budget value-oriented games.  With Psychonauts they had a brand new IP based that was quirkier than the mainstream fare and took a little time to grow on you, so it didn't have name recognition or instant shelf-appeal.  Psychonauts needed a serious investment in marketing to back up the money already spent on development and Majesco wasn't capable of providing it.  By the end of 2005 Psychonauts had only registered 100,000 sales and Majesco announced it was leaving the big-budget games business entirely.

Whether it rode a wave of hype or not, Psychonauts was still a great game.  Reviews at the time were overwhelmingly positive, with EGM going as far as saying ""Anyone who doesn't fall for the unique characters, hilarious dialogue, and brilliantly conceived environments of Psychonauts has no soul."   And it's not just sentimentality that keeps gamers raving about this title as I found myself just as enthralled replaying it after all these years, still bursting into gleeful laughter at jokes that remain fresh.  There was some criticism of the difficulty spike in later levels and the PS2 version, dinged for having worse controls and some audio syncing issues as a result from being ported, do feel a bit more noticeable but by and large it's easy to see why the game was strongly recommended by critics.  It's no surprise that it went on to win numerous industry awards for everything from Best Writing to Game of the Year, even nabbing a BAFTA Video Game award for Best Screenplay.

Just because Nils Lutefisk uses his clairvoyance to spy on the girl's bunk doesn't mean he approves of unintended sexual innuendos.  I like to think it was writing like this that helped nab that BAFTA.

But despite all the accolades and glowing press to compensate for the lack of advertising, gamers were unwilling to give it a shot.  Perhaps it's because gamers had turned their backs on platformer adventure titles and were instead wrapped up in shooters such as Battlefield 2 or action games like God of War.  Or maybe we had developed a craving for games with more realistic and mature (read: violent or sexually explicit) themes.  Whatever the reason, it's clear that there was little patience for an offbeat and clever original title that eschewed adult content in favor Saturday morning cartoon sensibilities.  Psychonauts was like the band of lovable losers competing against the wealthy jocks, but as much as we like seeing the misfits win in the movies when it comes time to lay our money down most people aren't going to bet against the odds.

WHAT IF IT RELEASED TODAY
The great thing about living in the internet age is that even the most obscure cult obsessions can be given a second life.  Thanks to continued interest from diehard fans, in 2006 Psychonauts was the first in a wave of Xbox Originals offered for download on the 360's Xbox Live Marketplace.  Three years after that it became available on GOG.com and in 2011 it became available on OS X for the first time when it was introduced to Steam.  Just this year it expanded to Linux as part of the Humble Indie Bundle V with Tim Schafer reporting that Psychonauts had beaten it's original retail sales after only a few hours.  Most recently the game was added as a PS2 classic for download on the Playstation Network in August 2012 (although poor audio-syncing and some rough edges around the controls make this version the weakest of the available options).  Including all the digital sales from these sources (not tracked in the numbers reported by VGChartz), Psychonauts has gone on to sell well over half a million copies.  Maybe those numbers don't compare to Halo 4 or Black Ops 2, but still impressive for a game that was written off as a total flop over 7 years ago.

Not only has new life been breathed into the original, but buzz continues to build that a true sequel is still a possibility now that Double Fine once again owns the publishing rights to the game.  Marcus Persson, the creator of Minecraft, even made an offer via Twitter to fund the project.  Those hopes quickly cooled once the required budget was estimated at a cool $13 million, but Schafer and Persson continue to discuss the possibility.  Who knows, perhaps Psychonauts could grow beyond it's cult following and rise from the ashes to become a full-fledged success?  I guess if I want to know the answer to that I'll just have to get back to collecting PSI cards to rank up my own psychic powers.

I'm pretty sure I visited this same area on a trip to Amsterdam.  Wait, no, that was while tripping in Amsterdam.  

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