The video game market really makes me upset at times. Several of the games on this blog tanked horribly at retail, their praises sung upon high by the critics while piles of copies sat on store shelves collecting dust, weathering price drop after price drop. Though most of these games became cult classics (EarthBound in particular), two of the games that I truly appreciate have faded into relative obscurity despite their excellence. Part of the problem, though, is that these games were underdogs from the start; they never really had a fighting chance, despite their actual quality.
I'm talking, of course, about Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil.
These two games' status as underdogs might come as a bit of a surprise when their pedigree is considered. Psychonauts was the brainchild of Tim Schafer, who is known for creating top-notch games such as Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Though some of his previous games also recorded fairly dismal sales, they were innovative, creative, and oozing with personality. These were games that would last, that would stick with those who played them. Likewise, Beyond Good and Evil's mastermind was Michel Ancel, the French developer who is known for games such as the Rayman series. Both of the games had the reputation of their respective “evil geniuses” behind them, so it was a good bet that they would be wonderful examples of the medium as well.
They most definitely delivered, pulling players into unique and realistic worlds... realistic in the sense that you were immersed in the game, which is always an indicator of a great game. Psychonauts put players in the role of Raz, a young psychic who sneaks away from the circus in order to attend a summer camp for young psychics and train to become a Psychonaut. The setting oozes with flavor, as it truly feels like a summer camp--except with Tim Burton-esque children as the campers. When things start getting odd at the camp and people start losing their minds (literally), it's up to Raz to save the day. Of course, he does this by jumping into people's minds in order to get clues, solve their problems, and so on--all in pure platforming glory. This leads to some truly unique worlds: a weird Escher-like version of suburbia where everyone is paranoid about “the milkman,” a wargame between the ancestral memory of Napoleon Bonaparte and his descendant, and a Tokyo-like city inhabited by fish people who are trying to defeat the Godzilla-inspired “Gogglor” (a giant Raz). The milkman area is one of the funniest and strangest video game levels I have ever played, and the same level of humor persists throughout the whole game. What other game allows you to summon your wise (albeit not quite sane) mentor by luring him out of your head with a strip of bacon?
Beyond Good and Evil was equally immersive. It paints the vibrant world of Hillys, where a war against alien invaders is raging. These aliens, the DomZ, are being held off by the Alpha Sections, a sort of military police faction. Not all is as it seems, however, as the protagonist, a young freelance photographer named Jade, becomes entangled in a quest to uncover the truth about the DomZ, the Alpha Sections, and just what is really happening on Hillys. The quest proceeds in a believable, logical fashion, and there is a good reason for every mission that is undertaken. Of course, most of the missions have a heavy focus on stealth, but this is understandable given the enormity of the task which Jade must accomplish: uncover evidence of the truth behind the conflict, take pictures, and distribute them among the people of Hillys. Hillys itself is explored in a vaguely Zelda-like fashion, but though many critics constantly referred to the game as “PS2's answer to Zelda,” there is only a passing resemblance. There is a lot to find, a lot to explore, and although the game itself is short, it is rich in experience.
Both of these games play just as well as they are presented. Psychonauts is a well-designed platformer, and most of the powers that Raz earns as the game goes along have a practical and intuitive use. Likewise, Jade's ability to sneak around in the Alpha Sections' bases and take pictures feels intense, but never frustrating. Part of the immersion is that the characters really feel like an extension of the player: you ARE that character, and their world and task are yours. Sure, both of the games suffer from a tricky and somewhat frustrating endgame, but these are minor flaws when viewed in comparison to the magnificent whole.
So why did these games fail so miserably? I can only speculate, but I strongly feel that their status as original intellectual properties really turned a lot of gamers away. You know what to expect if you buy a Madden game or a Mega Man game; buying something that you've never heard of before can be a bit scary and more of a gamble. Compounding the problem is the fact that neither game received much in the way of advertising, so a lot of people didn't even know that the games existed in the first place. These two things sent the two underdogs to a quick bargain-bin death.
It's a real shame, though, that so many people missed out on two such wonderful games. Anybody that complains about the lack of originality or charm in current games should ask themselves whether or not they played Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil. If the answer is no, then they should track down a copy of each immediately; they will quickly realize that there are indeed some creative, innovative games being produced, even if nobody really recognizes them.
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