One of the best platformers of all time (and one of the best GAMES of all time), Psychonauts is filled to the brim with imaginative worlds, colorful characters and cool powers. Step into the shoes of Raz and jump, float, bounce and climb your way all over the twisted inner workings of the minds of your fellow campers and councilors at Whispering Rock Physchic Summer Camp. Platforming is tight, the game offers a lot of items to track down and a lot of interesting little tidbits about your fellow campers to find out. Make no mistake, this game is a true gem. Get it.
I have to say that Beyond Good & Evil is one of my favorite games of all time. It's got a strange yet beautiful world, a stunning, strong-willed protagonist and fantastic gameplay that blends stealth, combat and photography (!). As green-lipstick-wearing Jade you get to investigate a strange conspiracy on the planet Hillys. People are being abudcted by an alien force known as the DomZ. The Alpha Sections claim to have come to protect Hillys but there's something strange about them - there's clearly more going on than meets the eye. So Jade joins up with a group called IRIS to investigate the mystery and uncover the truth behind the kidnappings. As I said earlier, BG&E blends together a nice variety of gameplay styles and it actually manages to do everything quite well. What's upsetting about this is that the port to PC is a complete mess. If you can find this for a console you own, get it there. The PC version has numerous issues that may or may not crop up for you including poor sound quality, no controller suppourt and not even launching at all. If you want to brave these issues and try to make it work then you may be up for a fight. If you DO get it to work, however, this is a game you'll never forget. Overall, Beyond Good & Evil is a five-out-of-five game.. but due to the horrendous port of this title I have to give the PC version a two. Beware.
As one who's never played this game before I think I'm coming in to this with an unbiased opinion. Having heard all the hype over the years I finally decided to pick this up and I have to say I'm not dissapointed one bit. Sands of Time puts you in the sandals of the titular Prince of Persia. After the Prince's father uses a treacherous Vizier to help him siege a city he uncovers the Sands of Time. The Prince is tricked into unleashing the sands, which seems to begin destroying everything in sight, turning the denizens of the palace into walking abominations. It's up to the Prince to set things right. The plot is unfolded as if the Prince is telling you a story about his adventures, which is really clever because all your deaths are chalked up to his bad memory ("No, no, that's not what happened"). He's by far one of the most acrobatic protagonists you'll encounter and thanks to an easy control scheme (I recommend a gamepad) it only takes one button to jump and one to perform a special context-sensitive action like running up a wall or swinging on a pole. And it's a good thing controls are so simple because you'll be bounding from wall to wall, swinging on poles, running across walls over pits and other sorts of things. Acrobatics have a place in combat, too. The monsters in Sands of Time go down pretty easy but they always have a numerical advantage so button mashing rarely works. The Prince can use his agility to roll, dodge and even leap over his enemies to give himself an advantage. Sands of Time smoothly blends together combat and platforming and both elements make you feel extremely agile and cool. The story is engaging and the voicework (especially the Prince) is commendable. If you're a fan of platformers then this is certainly one you won't want to miss.
