Cycle-Nots!

The only occasionaly bane of my existence is Psychonauts (for the PS2). I'm about 10 hours in, and have spent some time mucking around in some of the more enjoyable aspects of the game--bouncing really high on a big ball of psychic energy, exploring, and shooting stuff with my mind. Oh--I also sort of enjoy the "collecting stuff" aspect of the game, although I know many people would grind their teeth about this. A lot.

The setting(s) are entertaining: the game takes place at a (government sponsored) woodsy children's camp, where potential psychics are trained in the arts of levitation, focusing mental energy, and burning stuff with your mind. Oh, and you can prolly go canoeing too. The camp is extensive, and eventually, you can also run the about in people's minds as well, for completely different levels. While you're in there, you can clean up mental cobwebs, and clear out emotional baggage. And when I say emotional baggage, I actually mean it. Like, crying duffle bags, and sobbing purses. I wish it were this easy. I'd totally be a shrink, if all it took was popping into someone's subconscious to dust and organize crap.

The thing that really makes me flail and stomp is the boss fights. Some of them require you to do something so arbitrary and weird that you've wasted most of your lives before you figure out what the heck is expected of you. The thing that bothered me the most, though, was an encounter with a completely random and detached boss on a particular level. I was walking along, minding my own business, when I fell through the sidewalk into a fiery cave where I was forced to waste lives and health increasers on a boss who had absolutely NOTHING to do with the level or the game, and for whom beating held no reward to speak of. In fact, it felt almost as if the boss had snuck in from another game. Zelda, perhaps. When, in a flurry of cursing, I defeated the boss, my words were, (through clenched teeth) I *never* want to do that again."

1. Pause game
2. Save to make sure nothing happens to make me have to accidentally have to relive that.

Imagine my joy when abruptly, 10 minutes later, I fell through the sidewalk AGAIN, and had to fight the SAME boss I had just killed, again for no reward or benefit. I was thrilled. What is this? Busy work? For pete's sake, it's a video game! Isn't a time waster IN a time waster a little redundant?? Are they trying to draw out the game somehow?

Other than that sort of crap, the game has been fairly interesting. I'll give a final verdict later.