Braid: best XBLA game ever
If there’s any justice in the world, Braid will go on to sell a gajillion copies on Xbox Live Arcade and will be on all gaming journos’ “game of the year” lists come Christmastime. The reviews are great, and rightly so.
If you’ve not already heard of it, it’s a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer. It has beautiful graphics, a haunting sidetrack, and a lot of soul. Take a look at the gameplay:
Apparently people think Braid is too expensive. Those people are crazy. I plunked down my 1200 Microsoft Points without hesitation and have no regrets whatsoever.
I bought Braid at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. By 7pm I was battling my way through the climactic set-piece at the game’s conclusion, and I hadn’t even noticed where the time had gone. Braid may have taken my afternoon from me, but it had given me much more in return.
Braid is, in many ways, a simple game. There are basically two locations: above ground, and underground. The art style is understated, with subtly-animated impressionist, watercolour backgrounds and quirky, cel-shaded characters. The lead character, a slightly portly, floppy-haired chap in a suit and tie, has a certain wide-eyed innocence about him. The enemies are similarly cute: hairy gonks, yowling carnivorous bunnies and man-eating plants (themselves oh-so-similar to Mario’s familiar Pipe Monsters) are pretty much all you’ll find, with the exception of a Bowser-esque beastie who has to be vanquished on a couple of occasions.
The mechanics are likewise simple: run, jump, pull a lever, open a door… oh, and run time backwards. It’s this ability to manipulate time that makes the game so interesting, and where all of the puzzles come from. It’s so much more than the admittedly novel gimmick that made its debut in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
And the music. It’s wonderful, and you should hear it. It’s one of the most unusual soundtracks to a game that I’ve heard, and really helps to establish the fantastical atmosphere.
Any bum notes? Well, the fragments of story that appear inbetween worlds are awkwardly written. It’s self-consciously purple prose that jars with the simple beauty of the rest of the game. You imagine it’s honestly-felt, coming from a place of personal heartbreak in the life of the author, but somehow it doesn’t ring true, the only part of the package that feels like it’s trying too hard.
You should play Braid. If you have an Xbox 360, you should play it today. If you have a PC, you’ll be able to play it soon. This game gave me six or so hours’ of engrossing, enchantment and enjoyment. If you love games, you have to play this one.