If there is a lesson to be learned from Psychonauts, the epic platformer from the mind of Tim Schafer, it is this: don’t shop in the budget isle for your marketing people.  By any right, the game should have been an astounding success.

Psychonauts is on many a top ten list of all time favorite titles due to it’s unique graphic style, bizarre yet humorous storyline, brilliant platforming, character development, and overall awesomeness.  The game scored amazing reviews from basically anyone who touched it, but due to a subpar marketing effort that launched enormous, yet short-lived campaigns that hit the wrong audiences, it just didn’t sell the way it should have.

Hit the jump for more on the underPLAYED goodness that is Psychonauts.

Editors Note:  In case you are wondering who the frack I am, my name is Nick AKA “Dutch” VanBurkleo and I just might be the proverbial ball and chain to the one and only VirtualGirl.  I can normally be found on my gaming blog but from time to time I may toss a crude combination of words your way.  I hope you enjoy!

First and foremost, let’s give you a little history.  Psychonauts was developed by Double Fine Productions, led by game designer extraordinaire Tim Schafer.  Schafer is the man behind several other quirky hits such as Grim Fandango and Full Throttle.  Tim and Double Fine are also currently hard at work on bringing us Brutal Legend for PS3 and 360.  Psychonauts first debuted on the 40lber (see: XBOX) on April 29, 2005.  It was later ported to PS2 as well as PC, and it is currently offered as an “XBOX Original” title which is downloadable through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

After everything was said and done, the game only sold about 100,000 copies in the first year, and an estimated 400,000 copies total.  To put this in perspective, at the initial rate of about 50,000 downloads per week, XBLA smash hit “Braid” would have sold more copies in two weeks than Psychonauts did in a year, and more copies in two months than Psychonauts was ever able to sell.

The game follows the adventures of Raz, short for Razputin, on his quest to become a “Psychonaut.”  He runs away from home to join the Whispering Rock Summer Camp, a school for kids with psychic abilities after discovering that he possessed such traits as well.  The camp staff end up doing the responsible thing and called his parents when he was discovered, but while he is there he senses that there is something sinister going on.  His fears are confirmed when he witnesses one of the campers getting his “bad tooth” brain extracted by a doctor later to be introduced as Dr. Loboto.  Essentially, he and one of the camp counselors were harvesting the brains of the gifted children one by one to power PsiTanks in an effort to take over the world.

As Raz, you unlock a slough of psychic abilities to help you on your way.  They include telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, pyrokinesis, confusion, clairvoyance, PSI Shield, and PSI Blast.  Each of these abilities are necessary to open up a different part of the game, and you will use them all purposefully throughout the title’s twenty hour, or so, length.  The powers and their respective controls are fluid and essential to your overall experience.

Using a fun little door contraption that sticks to specific character’s skulls, you enter the minds of others to play with their thoughts and memories and subsequently defeat their fears.  You will find each of these levels to be uniquely disturbing and entertaining.  The level environments range from a conspiracy filled neighborhood starring “the milkman”, to a top-down, turn-based war strategy, to a city full of lung fish who see you as giant monster bent on the decimation of their city.  The levels are finely crafted and there isn’t a single level that you could describe with the word “crap,” unless you use it in a sentence such as “holy crap, this is an awesome game!”  That one you’ll be repeating out loud many times as you play.

The music is finely matched with the rest of the style of the game.  You’ll encounter a quirky sound and feel that does nothing but add to the overall atmosphere.  You will often hear acoustic guitar and harmonica duets played perfectly out of sync if for no other reason than it works so well.  The music is composed by Peter McConnell who had been doing game music for almost fifteen years.  He is also composing the music for Brutal Legend.

After everything is said and done, there isn’t a way to describe Psychonauts other than excelent.  What else can you say about a game that has a metacritic score of 88?  If you can find this game at your your favorite gaming outlet, don’t pass the chance to pick it up.  The visuals of the game are timeless, the music is appropriate and enjoyable, the gameplay doesn’t get old nor does it get exceedingly tedious or frustrating, and the story will make you lol like you are watching George Carlin…   you know… when he wasn’t dead… almost…  If you don’t pick it up in stores, download it for a few of your hard earned MS Points on XBL Marketplace.  It’s cheap, it’s great, it bombed in stores and that makes Psychonauts disgustingly underPLAYED.

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