Psychonauts 2 proves that mental health awareness can be funny

A goat hand puppet – sporting the luscious, Zeus-like beard of Psychonauts head Truman Zanotto – welcomes an audience made up of eggs, strawberries, bread and other cooking ingredients to “Ram It Down”, a cooking show where Raz and Boole are the only contestants. The aim of the game show is for Raz to whip around the studio, picking up ingredient audience members and frying, chopping, blending or boiling them before returning them to the main stage, ready for Boole to assemble into a delicious dish – all within a set time period.Every time a dish is served, the goat judges devour it before giving their version of a positive verdict, such as “surprisingly acceptable” ,“moderately pleasant” or “better than eating egg shells”. But, despite the high-pressure environment, I find myself laughing out loud at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, particularly at how dark and tongue-in-cheek the whole endeavour is – audience members begging to be cooked alive, arguing their case with witticisms as the camera pans over them.And, between each course Raz calms Boole, telling him that it’s fine to take a breather before doing the next big scary thing. "As a sequel, Psychonauts 2 brilliantly builds on what made the first so unique, without falling into the all-too-common trap of simply retracing the original."In one level, Raz discovers how powerful (and dangerous) mental associations can be – a new ability introduced in Psychonauts 2.