![Braid is one of the best games I’ve experienced in a long time. Initially disguised as a watercolor version of Mario, it’s actually an aggressively clever puzzle about manipulating time. The game uses abstract prose to hang a story of love and regret on all the time reversal, it looks like a painting, and the music is so classy you’ll feel like you are at a wine tasting party. If nothing else, Braid is hands down the most artsy-fartsy videogame to ever grace a console.The specifics of Braid are hard to describe because they’re so unlike anything else out there. Some of the larger ideas at play are reminiscent of Portal and Ico - games that also initially look like twitch/reflex affairs but turn out to be slow paced and very cerebral. They all tell a story through inobstrusive and unconventional means, feature strong art direction, and are very short but with no filler.
The thing Portal, Ico, and Braid have most in common is simply well designed challenges. As the designers put it on their tounge-in-cheek walkthrough, “all the puzzles in Braid are reasonable.” They are right. Despite the lavish presentation, all the pieces are clearly identified. You just have to put them together.
I think a lot of people who don’t follow videogames aren’t even aware this level of quality exists.
This review, which could just as easily be about Portal or Ico, sums it up nicely:
“You can sit staring at [Braid] for hours, feeling entirely clueless as to how the next jigsaw piece could even be possible to reach. But with a bit of patience, everything just clicks, and you can’t help but smile to yourself at how elegantly simple the whole thing is. It was never difficult at all - you just weren’t thinking in the right way. That’s videogaming Zen.”
Braid is on Live Arcade which means you can download the whole thing straight to your Xbox 360 without even getting off the couch. For those who are curious but never going to play, here’s a video of the game in action. If you have a 360, skip the video and go get the game. Braid is so short and every level so innovative, that I think even previewing it is a bit of a spoiler
For more history on puzzle-platformers, head to your nearest Wikipedia and read up on Abe’s Oddesy, The Lost Vikings, and of course Out of This World.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/BtoOI10C5chfbar4Db3OEvw5_400.jpg)
Braid is one of the best games I’ve experienced in a long time. Initially disguised as a watercolor version of Mario, it’s actually an aggressively clever puzzle about manipulating time. The game uses abstract prose to hang a story of love and regret on all the time reversal, it looks like a painting, and the music is so classy you’ll feel like you are at a wine tasting party. If nothing else, Braid is hands down the most artsy-fartsy videogame to ever grace a console.
The specifics of Braid are hard to describe because they’re so unlike anything else out there. Some of the larger ideas at play are reminiscent of Portal and Ico - games that also initially look like twitch/reflex affairs but turn out to be slow paced and very cerebral. They all tell a story through inobstrusive and unconventional means, feature strong art direction, and are very short but with no filler.
The thing Portal, Ico, and Braid have most in common is simply well designed challenges. As the designers put it on their tounge-in-cheek walkthrough, “all the puzzles in Braid are reasonable.” They are right. Despite the lavish presentation, all the pieces are clearly identified. You just have to put them together.
I think a lot of people who don’t follow videogames aren’t even aware this level of quality exists.
This review, which could just as easily be about Portal or Ico, sums it up nicely:
“You can sit staring at [Braid] for hours, feeling entirely clueless as to how the next jigsaw piece could even be possible to reach. But with a bit of patience, everything just clicks, and you can’t help but smile to yourself at how elegantly simple the whole thing is. It was never difficult at all - you just weren’t thinking in the right way. That’s videogaming Zen.”
Braid is on Live Arcade which means you can download the whole thing straight to your Xbox 360 without even getting off the couch. For those who are curious but never going to play, here’s a video of the game in action. If you have a 360, skip the video and go get the game. Braid is so short and every level so innovative, that I think even previewing it is a bit of a spoiler
For more history on puzzle-platformers, head to your nearest Wikipedia and read up on Abe’s Oddesy, The Lost Vikings, and of course Out of This World.
