It's been 20 years since Tim Schafer founded Double Fine Studios and 15 years since the release of their breakout game, "Psychonauts." Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase just unveiled some new footage of the long-awaited sequel, "Psychonauts 2." In this new trailer, Raz uncovers a brain in a jar who has been isolated for a long time. After using a psychic-portal on the brain, Raz is guided by a mete of light who sings about how overwhelming the senses are while battling the hostiles within.

Whispering Rock

For the uninitiated, "Psychonauts" centers around a fictional agency of mind-reading operatives whose goal is to protect the world from threats of a psychic nature.

Children who discover their skills at an early age are sent to a summer camp called Whispering Rock where they can train and learn to control their psychic gifts.

When a young boy named Razputin runs away from his psychic-hating parents to join the camp, strange things begin to occur. Campers are mysteriously disappearing only to re-emerge with their brains missing. Eventually, Raz finds out that a mad scientist is kidnapping the children and taking them to a nearby asylum for freakish experiments. Raz must go on a journey to save his friends, retrieve their missing brains, and utilize his psychic training to heal the trauma of the inmates within.

The game boasted a wide variety of imaginative and colorful locales.

Players would go into the minds of a mutated Lungfish where they'd go on a Godzilla-Esque rampage through a metropolitan city, an actress whose unhappy childhood memories are re-enacted in the form of a stage play that the player would have to direct, and a painter whose anger problems take the form of a bull that the player must calm.

The game was well-received, but sales were utterly dismal. In 2005, Gamespot awarded it "The best game that no-one played." PC Gamer gave it the 2005 "Best Game You Didn't Play" award while adding, "Okay, look, we gave it an Editors' Choice award — that's your cue to run out right now and buy Tim Schafer's magnificent action/adventure game." Despite rave reviews, the commercial failure of the game caused the publisher Majesco to depart from the video game market.

Fortunately, developer Double Fine managed to survive.

Because of its low sales, chances of a sequel were extremely slim. However, by the graces of Crowdfunding, Starbreeze Studios, and Microsoft, "Psychonauts 2" is finally becoming a reality.

Mete of light

In the level demonstrated in Xbox's game showcase, players are transported into a brain in a jar, who is discovering feelings for the first time in years. The senses are so overwhelming that the brain bursts into a Jim Morrison-inspired musical number about what it's like to feel things again after a long period of nothingness. The color, creativity, and humor of the original seem intact.

Jack Black provides the voice of the mete of light within the brain, while Double Fine's longtime composer Peter McConnell does the music.

This is the third time that Jack Black has teamed up with Tim Schafer, having previously provided the voice of Eddie Riggs in "Brutal Legend" and Harm'ny Lightbeard in "Broken Age." Black was a fan of the first "Psychonauts" and jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Schafer when he was approached with "Brutal Legend."

"Psychonauts 2" was previously slated for a 2020 release, but has now been delayed for a 2021 release for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, and PC.
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