Cartoonish spy caper is mind-bogglingly fun: PETER HOSKIN reviews Psychonauts 2 and Monster Train

Psychonauts 2 (PlayStation, 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

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 in class.

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.