Thats a shame, i would recommend Jak and Dexter as a way back in.

Psychonauts is decent-if-unexceptional(*) platforming, wrapped in an absolutely wonderful collection of worlds and characters. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but my god... if you didn't get a ludicrous grin on your face when you encountered Lungfishopolis, or the Milkman Conspiracy, or many of the other utterly superb and unique creations in that game... well it makes me sad to think that people could not enjoy that.
If you say you didn't like Grim Fandango either, then I don't want to know you.
(*) Yes, other games do it significantly better, but seriously, it was mostly fine.

I've only played the demo, but it was righteously boring - as much as I enjoy platformers (I'm working on La Mulana right now, actually), this one felt anemic and badly dated, and its attempts at quirky charm just fell flat for me. I'm told that the first few levels are fairly weak and that the game gets much more creative and clever later on, but what I've seen just isn't that interesting.

Psychonauts last levels were hell for me and almost ruined the entire experience until I miraculously beat it and quickly uninstalled it. Glad to see it's the same for others and not just me being incompetent or just plain overlooking something.
The gameplay is easier with a gamepad.
By the way, you did collect all the brains and got your life bar increased a whole bunch, didn't you? Because every little brain helps.

In fact the game was an RTS from the start. Schaefer meant it as an hommage to Sacrifice. The action elements were only added later on to help the game reach a more mainsteam audience.

Definitely grab a gamepad or joystick to play Psychonauts.
I fully agree, it is definitely sub-par as far as platforming goes. Although, the only level that ever really made me want to stop playing was The Meat Circus. Beyond that, the plot, visuals, and charm were more than enough to keep me entertained.
A lot of games are a case of "gameplay makes up for plot". This is one of the few that is the other way around.

Psychonauts is one of too many interesting games I own I haven't gotten around to playing beyond the first half hour or so yet. It seemed a bit too childish or something. That's the problem I'm having since 2005: Whenever I'm trying out a new game, I ask myself: Would I have more fun starting yet another game of Civ 4? The answer is usually yes.
I agree with the mediocre shooter part, but I wasn't even that taken by the setting. The fact that they only showed Rapture all ruined and lifeless made it feel not too dissimilar to other corridor shooters.

Why does everyone always bitch about the platforming in Psychonauts? There's nothing wrong with it. It's fine. It's even great in parts. I've played lots of worse platform games.
The only thing I had a slight problem with was the targeting, but that's a problem in almost every 3rd person console game. (eg: GTA, etc..). It certainly isn't enough to stop the game being a classic.
It has great, memorable characters. Every level is a different style, feel, aesthetic, and atmosphere. Most levels have differing objectives and gameplay mechanics. The graphic design is awesome. It has a huge number of sub-plots and things to discover. It has awesome music and voice acting.
Plus, and this is the main thing, it's memorable. It's the kind of game you'll still think about years after you've played it. I've played a lot of great, polished, fun games, that I can now hardly recall.... but psychonauts is one of the few games I'll never forget.
PS/ On the off chance anyone's playing it with mouse and keyboard, that's the only excuse for complaining about this game... it doesn't really work as a control scheme... so you really need a gamepad.

I own this game for XBOX, haven't finished it yet. I'll finish it the game soon.
Even though the gameplay has problems, I enjoyed the game. The sights were great, gameplay is iffy.

I have to chime in on this one because Psychonauts is one of my favorite games of this type to be honest. I did not have a problem with the game play, I enjoyed the charm of the game and the game play itself personally. To each his own I guess, but I agree with the acclaim that it was one of the best games that nobody played of 2005.

Just because you suck at platforming or are silly enough to play with a keyboard does not make Psychonauts a bad game.
Psychonauts is a pretty good platformer, with lots of areas to explore and lots of stuff to collect - some of the secrets are very creative and memorable.
Also, saying a platformer shouldn't be a collect-a-thon is such a contradiction. Platformers are all about collecting 100 of this or that, because you know there's that one item you just seemingly can't reach at first, yet it only takes a few dedicated hours of practicing jumps. And it's satisfaction when you do reach it. Psychonauts does that and more quite well.
I'll never forget when I accidentally landed on that balcony in Agent Mia's Disco and entered the chest.

I agree, I played the game with a mouse and keyboard and I didn't have any problems with the controls. In fact I loved the game play. It felt fun the explore and I like using my abilities to explore new places. I never had any difficulties with the game play other then my own mistakes. I liked every bit of the game.
I do disagree with the idea that every platformer has to be a collect-o-thon. Megaman games are not collect-o-thons yet then still have fun game play.

Then let me rephrase - every 3D platformer is likely to be a collect-a-thon. :)

Agreed. The gameplay was different, but not necessarily solid or well executed.
The environment and atmosphere was what I played this game for.

I didn't play the last part of the Meat Circus. The ending of the game wasn't very hard to guess, and if that part depends mainly on luck or hard training, or a gamepad which I don't care to buy, then I'd rather do something different.
It was very good up until then, though. But I think many other platformers are on a comparable level of quality and entertainment. Not so revolutionary, but maybe the hype didn't help a fair judgment.
Bioshock has a neat story, and great atmosphere, and I think it's the only way to show Rapture after everything has gone wrong. Otherwise it would not only be too long, but less poignant and dark. One influence (apart from System Shock and Ayn Rand) was allegedly Stephen King's Shining, for a place trapped in time. But I agree that the gameplay is a bit too shallow.