I just started playing a couple days ago and I'm instantly in love with the characters, story, visuals, voice acting and music. I'm only in the casino mission so far, just made it up to the penthouse. Creativity is A+.

There are some big buts though:

A. Motion sickness. I'm playing on PC, while it's running at locked 144 fps, the camera movement is making me feel sick. I edited GameUserSettings to increase POV, turned off motion blur, camera shake, and smart camera. Still not very comfortable, so I also set it to narrative combat to reduce the time spend fighting and jumping around. Platforming makes me feel yucky in longer sections (wrestling camera control from me in platform sections is the worst), I turned off damage so I can just stand still instead of dodging or jumping away from electrified platforms. Thank you for accessibility options! A shame what they have done with the camera. I can stand Windlands in VR but this is making me feel sick.

B. The platforming is very average. It's ok as an intermission between the puzzles and story but it's by far the least of the package. Combat feels unnecessary as well but the boss fights are actually nice so far. Puzzle bosses are always better and since I have damage off, no frustration, and I can just stand still to ward of motion sickness. Anyway, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything with narrative combat and no damage.

C. No save (slots). I'm getting fed up with this trend. Auto save checkpoints simply suck. I want to take a break and the game just tells me, it's been 7+ minutes since the last save. Well save then you ..... Nope, must continue until you hit a save point or go back to who knows where. Let me save whenever I want.

The creativity and characters make up for the unfortunate platforming. I'm taking another break though, too much camera wobble getting up to the penthouse. Rhombus of Ruin was 10x more comfortable to play but just a snack compared to this. Can't wait to see where it goes, when I feel right again lol.

So mario beats this game in platforming?? How?

Really enjoyed this game, never a dull moment, played beautifully on my ps5. I just wish the game lasted a few more hrs longer, but good thing there are other secrets and unlockables for me to get through and explore later on after I play catch up on other games.

This game gave me good vibes to when I was younger playing games on the ps1 for the first time, as though I was transported back in time. Maybe jak2 was the game I was taken back 2, or spyro for the first time. Especially when you get outside and start exploring, I felt like a happy kid. Some nice creative dieas and platforming elements, art style. 10/10. I never did play through the first game, I got this game for my wife, who loved the first game. Yet she won't even touch it, she's always playing destiny 2..

No Mario game has ever given me motion sickness to start with. Platforming is more precise in Mario, better laid out to the distance you jump and jumping on enemies is part of platforming. Enemies are better integrated with the platforming in Mario games. Here it feels separated.

In Mario the gameplay is polished to perfection. Here it feels far from that.
It's better than in the original game at least which I never managed to finish.

This game takes me back more to the time of Lucasarts adventures crossed with Sly Cooper.

By being much better.

Svennoj hit on some of the main reasons. The controls are far better. There are actually enemies and obstacles to inhibit you, whereas in Psychonauts 2, there is generally nothing in your way, and since you have a floaty jump, it is trivially easy to get where you want to go. Mario Galaxy and 3D World have a variety of gimmicks in their levels to keep things fresh. For example needing to get bullet bills to chase you around, Jaxis, super cherries in 3D World, blocks that switch on and off based on timing, gravity manipulation, bowling as rock Mario, transformations in Odyssey, etc. In Psychonauts, there is really very little preventing you from going from point A to point B traversing the world is generally not fun in itself. The most interesting the puzzles get is in the bottle level where you have to time your jumps with a lamp passing overhead.

Here are both games attempting something similar.

If someone thinks the platforming is psychonauts is better, I would seriously question their mental state. If Pschonauts didn't have a good story, I would probably never play it again. Mario games have virtually no story, but are still very much worth playing. 

Everyone has their own opinion I suppose. Felt psychonauts had a better story, writing, better art style, and game mechanics. I thought the level design mixed with art design was more creative. 

Ok..? That's kind of a non-sequitor because those things mostly have nothing to do with the platforming (game mechanics might speak to that, but it's so vague that I don't know). It's kind of like I said Dominos has better pizza than Papa Johns, you asked me to explain why, I did, and then you responded by saying Papa Johns has faster delivery. Maybe true, but entirely irrelevant.

I played it for about an hour and it really did feel like something special. I'm gonna focus on beating it in the next week or so.

I hate to sound like a spokes person but Game Pass really is amazing. Somebody can say "____ is such an amazing game!" And you can just say "Really? Well, I can just play it right now!" It's like when somebody says there's something great on Netflix. In gaming, we've kinda never had that. There was always that price barrier and the fear of trying something new. We'd just have to take our chances. Now, if something looks good, we just play.

It's definitely convenient (gamepass) but it also puts my mind in a "beat it and move on" state, as the other things to try out keep piling up already. And it makes me even less likely to get DLC, since there's always something else to play and why spend money on a rental. I would have bought Psychonauts 2 eventually, now I won't after I finish it. Same with FH5 and Halo Infinite. It's a double edge sword.

Taking a small break again from P2. I just got outside and the platforming is making me ill again. The camera behavior is very tiring. I'm gaining new appreciation for how Nintendo handles the camera in 3rd person platforming. Anyway just met the family not long ago, now trying to meet up with them. This game makes me smile :)

It was a solid 8 for me. I enjoyed it more than the first one. The Jack Black level was a lot of fun. I'm not sure if I'll ever play it again but I had a lot of fun with it.