Braid released last week on Xbox Live Arcade and I picked up the demo to find a quite interesting game. But the steep ($15) price tag for an arcade game made me question whether I would actually buy it or not. It wasn’t until earlier this week when I heard from some friends how great it was that I jumped on it and trust me it was amazing. I actually meant to write this up yesterday because that’s when I finished it, but I got caught up in working on some of those Dead Rising achievements I never acquired before. Back to Braid though.
This game is truly one of the most interesting, innovative, mind bending mix of puzzle and platformer elements I have ever experience. To be honest, it’s probably one of the best ever made. The concept is simple (at first), you can run and jump as any platformer, plus you have the ability to rewind time (think Prince of Persia, but infinite). However, some items in the game aren’t affected by the rewind, these are represented by a glowing green aura. These can be enemies, items or anything else in the world.
In the later levels it gets even more interesting as you have to mess with some wacky keys, interact with your own shadow and gain the power to slow down time in a certain spot only. I refuse to give any examples because solving the puzzles is the beauty of the game and I don’t want to give any away. Trust me those, these elements are enough to confuse you beyond belief, but the sense of accomplishment when you figure them out is awesome.
The game has a quite touching story about a young boy named Tim searching for a princess. It throws back to many old school games which is a cool twist. For example, a level called “Jumpman” that looks like Donkey Kong. As you go through each level you’ll be collecting puzzle pieces and putting together puzzles. You could technically run through each stage in minutes if you don’t collect any puzzle pieces, but then you won’t really be playing the game. Just looking at the scenery.
By the way, the scenery is gorgeous. It’s all hand done and it shows. Someone put some serious time and care in to every little thing which is nice to see. It’s very unique and impressive.
Basically, you can’t go wrong with braid. It’s worth so much more than $15 just because it’s put together so well and it’s really quite perfect in every way. There is absolutely no reason to miss this game, so don’t!
