The 12 months is 2005, a seven-year-old me is hidden away in his room sneaking a couple of treasured minutes extra on the best recreation ever made: Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights. Taking on the position of the Great Dane himself, my process was to rescue the varied Mystery Inc members from traps unfold throughout the grounds of a spooky mansion crammed with acquainted monsters from the present’s historical past.
To succeed I needed to collect keys, discover upgrades, and gorge on an overindulgent provide of Scooby Snacks. Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights was not my first foray into the world of collectathons, however it’s the one I look again on most fondly. However, when I dusted off my PS2 a couple of years in the past to expertise the pleasure another time, I gave up after solely an hour or two.
Compared with what I anticipate from 3D video games immediately, the collecting-focused gameplay was stale and I wasn’t the solely participant who felt that method. Around the identical time, and regardless of an extremely profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign, Yooka-Laylee did not invigorate gamers regardless of the involvement of creatives behind collectathon classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country.
The collectathon was declared useless by many and till 2021 it felt prefer it was. But this 12 months, only a week or so in the past, Psychonauts 2 got here to consoles to show there’s nonetheless life in the collectathon style, and I couldn't be happier with what it delivers.
What is a Collectathon?
Even for those who haven’t heard the style’s title earlier than, you’re most likely aware of no less than one recreation that falls into it. Collectathons have been the type many early 3D video games adopted to spotlight the novelty of traversing a brand new digital dimension. As a reward for exploring and finishing platforming challenges, gamers would obtain sources that might assist them progress by means of the story.
Popular examples of collectathons embrace Spyro the Dragon, Super Mario 64, and the aforementioned Banjo-Kazooie. The style was so prevalent and widespread that a lot of its mascots are nonetheless recognizable to at the present time, even when they haven’t appeared in a brand new title for years.
Unfortunately, the style fell out of favor as 3D video games step by step turned extra commonplace. Gameplay that when catapulted franchises into the cultural zeitgeist quickly turned the most detested facet of contemporary video games; I'm you, feathers hidden in Assassin’s Creed 2.
Once the novelty of 3D wore away collectathon gameplay felt stale and gathering collectibles felt like only a ploy for video games to broaden their playtime slightly than supply significant entertainment. So after years of getting it improper, how did Psychonauts 2 finally get it proper?
Psychonauts 2 succeeds the place others have failed
At its core, Psychonauts 2 succeeds at being a collectathon as a result of it creates a world you need to discover that simply occurs to be sprinkled with collectibles to seek out. In one space of Psychonauts 2 you possibly can discover a theme park with an attraction known as the Sassclops’ Cave. I was simply as taken with analyzing the bizarre particulars and learn the pretend myths inside as I was to choose up the hidden objects I collected.
This is true of each different in-game location, too, due to the puzzles and difficult platforming segments – on high of the quirky environments and characters you encounter – Psychonauts 2 ensures its gameplay is satisfying far past the easy satisfaction of ticking off a field in a needlessly lengthy guidelines.
On high of that, not like many different collectathons, there aren't any required pickups in Psychonauts 2. You’ll by no means attain a roadblock since you haven’t positioned sufficient PSI playing cards or Figments and be compelled to backtrack if you wish to maintain progressing to new areas. Collecting is optionally available and doesn’t really feel overbearing.
While a whole bunch of Figments litter the minds you discover – so long as you listen – you’ll gather round 90% of them simply by following the primary story’s path. The lacking Figments that stay are probably congregated round different extra instantly helpful finds that you just additionally missed like Nuggets of Wisdom or Half-A-Minds (upgrades that immediately energy up your skills and provide you with extra well being) which means that going again to get them feels worthwhile.
You don’t have to simply take our phrase on it, a number of different publications are already calling Psychonauts 2 a simple contender on this 12 months’s Game of the Year race due to its gameplay and its dealing with of psychological health-related topics.
This success does not simply bode nicely for the way forward for the Psychonauts franchise however the collectathon style as an entire; Psychonauts 2 would possibly finally reignite the collectathon's glory days. I actually hope that is the case as there's no less than one recreation I'd like to see get a sequel; Scooby-Doo! Night of 200 Frights anybody?
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