Games Like Psychonauts
Quick Answer
The closest games to Psychonauts are Psychonauts 2, Grim Fandango Remastered, A Hat in Time, Super Mario Odyssey and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Psychonauts, and what does not.
What Made Psychonauts Work
Psychonauts is a 3D platformer where every level is somebody's mind, so no two look or play alike — a board game, a noir city, a conspiracy theorist's neighbourhood. The writing is the reason it survived, and the platforming got much better in the sequel.
Psychonauts is Double Fine Productions' first game, released in 2005 on Xbox and PC and in 2006 on PS2, created by Tim Schafer. Razputin, a runaway from the circus, joins a summer camp for psychic children and dives into the minds of campers, counsellors and asylum inmates. Each mind is a separate level with its own art style and rules. It is remembered for its writing and imagination, and fans usually want another platformer with personality.
9 Games Like Psychonauts
1.Psychonauts 2
Everything the first did, with controls that finally match the ideas.
Why it fits: Double Fine's 2021 sequel, published by Xbox Game Studios, picks up straight after the first game and its VR bridge chapter, Rhombus of Ruin, with smoother platforming and new mental worlds.
What is different: Nothing fundamental; the camp hub is replaced by a bigger headquarters, and the platforming is kinder.
Where to play it: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
More about this game →2.Grim Fandango Remastered
Same writer, and the best-written adventure game there is.
Why it fits: Double Fine's 2015 remaster of LucasArts' 1998 adventure, written and directed by Tim Schafer, follows Manny Calavera through a Mexican-inspired Land of the Dead.
What is different: A point-and-click adventure with no platforming at all; the humour is the only thing carried over.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, Switch and mobile.
More about this game →3.A Hat in Time
The closest indie game in tone and structure.
Why it fits: Gears for Breakfast's 2017 platformer has a similar quirky tone and a chapter structure where each world plays differently.
What is different: Shorter, lighter and less concerned with a mind-bending theme; the writing is sillier.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.
More about this game →4.Super Mario Odyssey
For the one-new-idea-per-level design at its best.
Why it fits: Nintendo EPD's 2017 Switch game gives each kingdom its own look and gimmick, the same variety-per-level idea Psychonauts is known for.
What is different: No story to speak of and no strange inner worlds; the invention is all in the movement.
Where to play it: Switch.
Games like this →5.Conker's Bad Fur Day
The other comedy platformer worth playing for the writing.
Why it fits: Rare's 2001 Nintendo 64 platformer is a crude, film-parodying comedy that is remembered mainly for its writing.
What is different: Crude adult humour and film parodies rather than Psychonauts' warmth.
Where to play it: Nintendo 64, and in Rare Replay on Xbox One.
Games like this →6.Banjo-Kazooie
The collectathon Psychonauts is built on.
Why it fits: Rare's 1998 Nintendo 64 platformer established the hub-and-worlds collectathon template that Psychonauts follows.
What is different: Collecting is the whole point, and the characters are cheerful rather than troubled.
Where to play it: Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, Rare Replay on Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Online.
Games like this →7.Brutal Legend
Double Fine again, and just as strange.
Why it fits: Double Fine's 2009 action-strategy game, starring Jack Black as a roadie in a heavy-metal fantasy world, has the studio's trademark humour.
What is different: Not a platformer: open-world driving and a real-time strategy battle system.
Where to play it: PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
More about this game →8.It Takes Two
Every chapter is a completely new mechanic, and it is superb.
Why it fits: Hazelight Studios' 2021 co-op-only adventure changes its mechanics in almost every chapter, and it won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021.
What is different: Co-op only, so you need a second player for the whole game.
Where to play it: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and PC.
More about this game →9.Jak and Daxter
Same generation, same open platforming, harder edge.
Why it fits: Naughty Dog's 2001 PS2 platformer is a contemporary with a seamless world, a sidekick-comedy duo and collectathon structure.
What is different: One connected world instead of separate levels, and very little of Psychonauts' surreal comedy.
Where to play it: PS2, and in collections on PS3 and PS4.
Games like this →
Where to Start
Psychonauts 2 is the natural next step, and it plays much better than the original. If it was the writing that got you, Grim Fandango Remastered is Tim Schafer's other classic. It Takes Two is the pick if you want the constantly changing level ideas with a friend.
How We Picked These Games
Every pick had to have strong writing or a strong sense of humour, and ideally a structure where each level is its own concept. We included Double Fine's other work and the 3D platformers that shaped Psychonauts, as well as later games that share its invention.
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How These Picks Match Psychonauts
Psychonauts is catalogued here as a 3D platformer on the Microsoft Xbox. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — eight adventures and seven platformers among them.
Going by the "where to play it" notes, five can be played on PC, six can be played on a PlayStation, six can be played on a Nintendo system and six can be played on an Xbox. A Hat in Time is from a small or self-published studio. Psychonauts 2, A Hat in Time, Super Mario Odyssey, Banjo-Kazooie and It Takes Two are, like Psychonauts, games a child and an adult can play together.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Psychonauts | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychonauts 2 | Platformer, Adventure, Family | Platformer, Adventure | PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. |
| Grim Fandango Remastered | Adventure, Puzzle | Adventure | PC, PS4, Switch and mobile. |
| A Hat in Time | Platformer, Indie, Family | Platformer | PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Platformer, Family, Adventure | Platformer, Adventure | Switch. |
| Conker's Bad Fur Day | Platformer, Adventure, Action | Platformer, Adventure | Nintendo 64, and in Rare Replay on Xbox One. |
| Banjo-Kazooie | Platformer, Adventure, Family | Platformer, Adventure | Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, Rare Replay on Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Online. |
| Brutal Legend | Action, Strategy, Adventure | Adventure | PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. |
| It Takes Two | Platformer, Adventure, Family | Platformer, Adventure | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and PC. |
| Jak and Daxter | Platformer, Adventure, Action | Platformer, Adventure | PS2, and in collections on PS3 and PS4. |
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