Best Platforming Games of 2021
Winner: Psychonauts 2
Editor-in-Chief Ed McGlone: In hindsight, it was silly for anyone to have ever doubted Double Fine, the shepherds of the original Psychonauts game. But to be fair to those of us that did, it had been a long time since the first game, over 15 years! Still, amazingly, Double Fine knocked it out of the park with Psychonauts 2 and delivered the finest platforming experience of 2021.
Psychonauts 2 doesn’t miss a single beat. It picks up in every way from the first game. Raz has a stable of skills, the story continues straight off of the first game, and he enters an academy filled with ways for him to grow his powers more.
Psychonauts brilliantly mixes big hub worlds that are open for you to explore on your own time, filled with secrets that you find if you upgrade your skills a certain way, with more tightly controlled (but extra zany) levels that will put your platforming and combat skills to the test.
Psychonauts 2 mostly takes place inside the minds of others, so there’s no limiting principle when it comes to how creative and wacky the levels can get. Double Fine took full advantage of that and created some of the most memorable experiences of 2021. Anyone that’s a fan of 3D platformers would be remiss if they skipped out on Psychonauts 2. It’s the perfect example of a retro classic being brought to the modern-day almost entirely intact and improved.
