98i | Braid

Recently I saw advertisements for a downloadable game via XBOX Live called Braid. The logo alone made it look like a stupid shooter or something (i have no clue how i came to that conclusion, but i did) so i quickly dismissed it. While reading reviews a couple days ago I stumbled upon a review for Braid, only to find out that it is actually a sidescrolling platformer. The review mentioned something about being able to mess around with time but I didn't read into it too much. What mostly caught my attention was 1-Up's A+ grade given to the game.
After finally getting a long ethernet cable to reach my XBOX at the Baker House, last night I decided to download the game. It was a little expensive (about 15$) but i had a good feeling about this one.

This morning I beat Braid. The entire game was probably a good 5 hours long, but it was the most amazing, gratifying 5 hours I've ever put into a game. It acts as a sort of homage to the original Super Mario Bros. games (complete with a classic phrase repeated at the end of each world...you'll see what i mean). Only instead of just running around, jumping on enemies heads, trying to get to the end, your trying to collect puzzle pieces. Really, you don't need to collect any of them at all to get through hte game, but to skip this is to skip what is amazing about the game, which is the intricate puzzles you have to solve to get these pieces.

In order to correctly convey how incredible these puzzles are, I must first explain the controls of the game. Left stick is your typical movement. A button is jump. Holding X causes you to rewind. In fact, you don't really die in the game. Your character (Tim) falls to the bottom of the screen, then you get a queue to rewind. You can rewind at any point in the game, for instance, if you made an incorrect jump.

The puzzles mostly focus around certain objects that are time resistant, just as a glowing key or enemy. For these items, even if you rewind, they remain in the same place you put them, or in your hand, or wherever. Enemies might move normally despite the world rewinding around them. And its this basic mechanism that drives the game forward. Later a couple more gimicks are added on, such as the final level, World 1 (I know...odd huh...) everything moves backwards, and your rewind function turns time forward instead.

As far as the plot goes, it appears fairly simple. You are a man trying to save a princess. Books you find at the begining of every world give some backstory to Tim's character, and ultimately clues as to what the ultimate twist in the game is, and most of the story revealed in the epilogue reveals what the story really is, and what the Princess is an analogy for. Its a lot more fun to just play the game and see the end for yourself, so i do not recommend spoiler sites and such.

Basically, I highly recommend this game to anyone who has access to an XBOX 360.