There came a point when I was playing Psychonauts that I said to myself, "Man, this game is really good." A few hours later, I said to myself, "Man, this game isn't just good, it's great." A few hours after that, I said to myself, "Man, what the hell is Tim Schafer smoking?" The man responsible for Lucasarts classics such as Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle is back and, if possible, more brilliantly weird than ever. In a world full of sequels, movie licenses, and clones, Schafer's newest game is a true one of a kind, so special, so unique, so genuinely fresh that it's enough to make a jaded gamer weep for joy.

But, seriously, what is that guy on?

Hello mudder…hello fadder… Poor Razputin. Psychic since birth, he just wants to learn how to use his powers to become that coolest of the cool, a Psychonaut. His dad just plain hates psychics, though, and tries his best to keep Raz from learning anything about his abilities. Out of desperation, Raz sneaks into a Psychonaut-training summer camp, where he can study with the mental masters…at least until his dad shows up. He just wants to learn skills like levitation, marksmanship, and invisibility, but there are telekinetic bears, fire-starting cougars, giant lungfish, and a mad scientist stealing campers' brains. Plus there's that whole gypsy curse that says his family will all die in water, which makes going out on the lake a bit nerve-wracking. But there's a crisis to be dealt with, his Psychonaut teachers are MIA, and as he's the only kid left with his gray matter in tact, it's up to Raz to get to the bottom of the conspiracy and save the day. (Which may or may not be enough to get him out of trouble with his dad, it's tough to say.)

Although Psychonauts does earn its merit badge in "Weird," it also has some things in common with more ordinary action titles. Players control Raz as he explores the camp and its surroundings, and new areas open up as he completes challenges or gains new abilities. The first skills Raz learns are the ones he'll end up using most often, like levitation, whereas the later, more powerful skills like confusion will only be necessary in very specific scenarios. Players start with a "Basic Braining" course and work their way through a number of semi-tutorial levels that explain everything about the game in such an entertaining way, Doublefine could've stopped there and Psychonauts still would have been better than most action titles currently on shelves.

Psychonauts is a well-balanced blend of combat, platforming, and puzzle solving. Raz has some basic attack skills at his disposal, along with a more powerful psi-blast and his pyrokinetics. Locking onto an enemy can be a bit awkward, as the lock-on mechanic is a bit temperamental, but except for the marksmanship training level, enemies are usually pretty sparse. Raz's levitation technique is really more of a super-jump and factors heavily into the platforming aspect of the game. Raz doesn't really hover when he's levitating, he stands on a ball of psi energy and once that ball gets rolling, it's a little hard to stop. Players should be prepared to roll off ledges and rooftops more than once during the course of the game, and sudden camera shifts can make particularly tricky jumping segments frustrating. The puzzle solving is, thankfully, completely free of box-pushing or door unlocking, but do rely on Raz to collect specific objects and bring them to specific locations. Levels are objective-based, with new missions being added as old ones are completed. Given the bizarre twists and turns of the plot, it's fortunate that Raz keeps a journal listing exactly what he needs to do, and in what order.

The most important skill Raz learns is the ability to enter other people's minds. Once there, he can discover their true motivations and straighten out their mental issues. Each person's brain is its own bizarre wonderland, complete with unique enemies and design. This is not gaming by the numbers, folks; there's no ice level, no sewer, no lava zone or mine cart. Instead, there's Sasha's orderly cube of a mind, complete with enormous shoeboxes and pipes (he has some childhood issues, you see). There's Black Velvetopia, a bright and swirling blend of day-glo paint that's inhabited by portrait-painting dogs that used to play poker together. (Get it?) And then there's The Milkman Conspiracy. A Moebius strip of surburban cul de sacs populated by cookie-selling Rainbow Squirts and mysterious G-men with dubious disguises, its combination of humor, platforming, and artistry doesn't just touch on genius, it walks up and gives it a good long bearhug. That one level is so inventive, so creative, and so perfectly executed, it's worth the price of admission all by itself. Seriously.

Collect them all! Gamers with an obsessive-compulsive need to collect things will have a field day finding everything there is to find in Psychonauts. Each level has hundreds of imagination figments that function like the coins in Mario, with each 100 collected bumping Raz up a level. There are also mental cobwebs to be cleared, emotional baggage to be sorted, and scavenger hunt items to be tracked down. On the downside, the payoff for all that collecting is a bit hit and miss. Sure, finding figments helps increase Raz's level, but finding all of the figments in a given level doesn't appear to have any benefit in and of itself. In fact, finding every last collectible in a level doesn't appear to have a reward other than a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, which was a bit surprising, given how hard a task it is to accomplish. Still, it's a minor complaint in an otherwise near-perfect gaming experience.

The game thoughtfully keeps a running tally of everything a player has found, which proves helpful when revisiting a level to clear it out. Raz can come and go from completed levels as he pleases, but it's not necessary. Completionists will benefit from hunting down every last collectible by leveling up faster and unlocking conceptual art for Psychonauts, but players that just want to get to the end of the story won't find themselves hopelessly hamstringed by not finding all 16 scavenger hunt items or skipping a few mental vaults.

You heard it here first: Pyschonauts the Saturday morning cartoon Ok, as far as I know, there are no current plans to turn Psychonauts into a cartoon, but there should be. Raz is voiced by Richard Horvitz, the same actor who gave life to Invader Zim (if you haven't seen it, go get the DVD and thank me later), but the rest of the cast is equally impressive. Every single character in the game is an individual with a clearly defined personality, from Agent Cruller, the bacon-loving head of the Psychonauts to Fred, the asylum resident with the Napoleon problem. Players familiar with the look of Grim Fandango will see it echoed and updated in Psychonauts' chunky, funky visual style, with squared-off fingers and oddly shaped heads. It's different and quirky without losing its sense of integrity; Psychonauts doesn't look the way it does because a focus group said it should, or to make it "Xtreme." It looks that way because that's the way it's supposed to look.

Psychonauts is everything platforming and action fans want from a game, and more. Although each level uses the same core set of skills, the environments are so completely different from each other (and from anything we've ever seen before) that the gameplay is never repetitious or boring. The graphics are unique without being obnoxious, the perfect backdrop for a hilarious storyline that will have players glued to their controllers, just to find out what happens next. Camera issues and some frustrating jumps keep Psychonauts from being perfect, but it comes really, really close.