Psychonauts 2 (, Xbox, PC, or with Xbox Game Pass)

Verdict: Therapy session

Rating:

Monster Train (Switch, Xbox,PC)

Verdict: Devilishly good

Rating:

Well, that only took 16 years.

The first Psychonauts came out in 2005, and, while there was a short VR release in 2017, we have had to wait until now for a full-blown sequel. The time of psychonought is finally over.

But what even is Psychonauts? Marketeers would call it the thinking person’s 3D platforming game — for reasons that are all too literal.

It looks much like other 3D platformers, such as the Crash Bandicoot series, in that it’s cartoonish and involves a lot of jumping around.

But it also happens to take place inside the human mind.

Psychonauts could be the the thinking person's 3D platforming game

Psychonauts could be the the thinking person’s 3D platforming game

And that is a pretty adult place to be.

The architecture of each level is made up of characters’ fears, regrets and bad thoughts. We go from the tooth-strewn inner landscape of someone with dentophobia, through to hospitals, hairdressers and alcoholic sumps.

If that makes the game sound grim or unsuitable for kids, don’t worry — it’s neither.
Just like the first Psychonauts, which you don’t need to have played, the sequel feels like a spy caper.

Its protagonists, including the wide-eyed Razputin Aquato, are funny and upbeat.

In fact, it’s so close to being a Pixar animation that sometimes it’s too close. The scripted sequences are so frequent that they can get in the way of actual gameplay. 

After the in-the-hands brilliance of recent 3D platformers such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, that is a significant loss.

Or perhaps that’s all in my mind? I should get someone to take a look…

 

Apologies, I’ve got to say it: all aboard the Monster Train! This game has you careering along a railway line through hell with the realm’s last spark of fire, as you repel attacks from heavenly invaders. 

It sounds daft, but the game’s deck-building mechanics, through which you add more monsters and spells to your hand, are best xbox series x games in class.

Monster Train has you careering along a railway line through hell

Monster Train has you careering along a railway line through hell

And now, a year after its original release, the train has reached the handheld territory of the Nintendo Switch. 

My screen time has gone up accordingly.