Braid - a platformer love story
Braid is a game that will change what you think a single man can accomplish. It is a game that will challenge what you think a game can make you feel, and it will make you wonder how you will ever go back to playing other video games again. And this never ends, because the puzzles depths of Braid are greater than you can imagine.
Braid was created by one man, Jonathan Blow, and was released onto XBox in 2008. It was later released onto PC via Steam and has now become the most successful XBLA game ever. The game isn’t particularly processor intensive, so you should be able to run it on your old, secondhand laptop.
The game style is that of a platformer, although the puzzles are more complex and fiendishly clever than games such as Mario and Dizzy on which the genre is founded. There are 6 worlds and time works differently in each world and it is through understanding how to use this that you will solve each level to collect the jigsaw pieces and complete the pictures required to move on.
All of this is designed to tell the story of a man named Tim. Tim once loved a princess who has now been whisked away by an evil monster and all he has left is his regret and memories. He chases after the princess and the monster only to find that she has just slipped from his grasp at the end of each level.
It is this love story that makes the game for me, it gives your struggle context and when you read the next tragic chapter in their past at the beginning of each level you feel echoes of your soul within the words.
If you want to know any more, head over to the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_%28video_game%29
You’ll also find a gameplay video on the game’s homepage:
http://braid-game.com/
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