More video game reviews
Psychonauts is an older game; it was released for the XBox and later ported to the PS2 and PC. You can play it for free on a PC via Gametap without even registering for an account, though that might conceivably end on Dec 31. (That's how I played it.) Genre-wise, it's a platformer; you run, jump, and use psychic powers.
The game has a bit of a Jhonen Vasquez feel to it, partly because of the animation style and writing, but mostly because the lead voice actor (Richard Steven Horvitz) also did the voice acting for Zim. The story is that the main character, Raz, ran away from the circus to join a psychic training camp. You spend most of your time inside other people's minds.
From a graphical or gameplay perspective, Psychonauts doesn't feel quite as polished as, say, a Nintendo platformer. The real draw of the game is the voice acting and the creativity of the mentally constructed worlds you inhabit. I'd recommend it to anyone who is moderately into platformers and likes mildly twisted humor.
Speaking of Nintendo platformers, I (mostly) finished Super Mario Galaxy yesterday. It's a Wii game. Thanks to crs for loaning it to me.
In most respects, it's another Super Mario game. The storyline is mildly engaging but vapid, as usual--you are rescuing Princess Peach, again, and fighting Bowser, again. You have all the standard Super Mario moves like the triple jump, the butt slam, etc., and the additional ability to spin (by shaking the Wii remote) and fire stars (by pointing the Wii remote).
Super Mario Sunshine's gimmick was the water cannon. This game's gimmick is gravity. You spend most of the time running around on small planet-like objects, and the concept of "down" frequently changes rapidly from one moment to the next. If you're prone to motion sickness, expect some issues; I had to play in half-hour chunks at first but was able to play indefinitely by the end. (Psychonauts and Fallout 3 both gave me motion sickness at times, so perhaps it's just WoW making it hard for me to adjust to other 3D cameras.) The level design makes excellent use of gravity and other elements to vary the gameplay.
As Nintendo platformers go, it's pretty tough in parts. You could probably finish without a lot of platformer skill by choosing the less difficult puzzles to meet the quotas for progress, but if you have any completist impulses, you might find it frustrating if you're not good at platformer games.
This review sounds kind of lackluster, but that's mostly because Nintendo set a very high bar for itself with Super Mario 64 way back when. So when they deliver a high-quality, ultra-polished platformer with excellent level design and engaging gameplay, the first question on people's minds is usually "so what's new about it?"