I figured I might as well start this retrospective with the game that first made me properly realise what XBLA was capable of. When Braid was first released, many balked at the 1200ms points price that has since become the norm. I guess they can be forgiven because prior to Braid there hadn't been many games released that were worth 1200 points, but to put things in perspective that's less than £10. I'd probably put Braid in the top 5 games I've played this gen, so yes it's definitely worth spending £10 on.
The first thing that strikes you about this game is the absolutely outstanding soundtrack and art style. Seriously, you could probably print off some screenshots of this game and sell them in a gallery. The levels and backgrounds are bloody beautiful and highly detailed. There are no original pieces of music in the game - the developer's thinking behind this was that someone had probably already made the perfect music for it and it would be easier for him to achieve his vision that way than to try to explain what he wanted to someone else to custom make it. I assume he got what he wanted because the soundtrack matches the theme of the game perfectly. Check out an example here.
On face value Braid is a 2D platformer where you play as a young man called "Tim" and try to save his princess. The truth is, both the gameplay and the story have a lot more depth than it would first appear and the further you go the more intriguing they both become. There are a lot of obvious (and nice) nods to Mario and while it's clearly inspired by the platformer cliche that Mario has created, the game actually has very little in common with it.
Quite early on you're introduced to the idea that Tim can control time - at the start this is pretty simple stuff, hold down a button and time goes backwards, erasing any mistakes you may have made. The clever thing about this is that this gameplay mechanic ties into the themes presented in the story - Tim obviously has a lot of regrets relating to the "princess" that he wishes he could undo. Another nice touch is that your traversal of time also affects the soundtrack so you'll hear the music and sound effects scratching back and forth as if Tim was really a red-headed DJ rocking the glowsticks in Ibiza.
As the game continues on your ability to control time becomes more advanced depending on which of the 6 worlds you're playing through. As these abilities come in to play the game becomes more like a puzzle game than a simple platformer and this is where the game comes into it's own. One world sees you controlling time with your movement - walk forwards and the world around you advances, walk backwards and time goes backwards - while another gives you the regular ability to reverse time, but doing so creates a shadow of yourself that will repeat the actions you have just reversed. This effectively means you can be in two places at once and leads to some truly mind bending puzzles. One really nifty (though small) use of this can be seen here, though if you don't want to spoil the hair pulling fun and incredible relief at actually figuring it out I wouldn't bother looking.
One of my favourite things about Braid is the way the story is presented - it's not thrown in your face the way that 90% of games are. It takes time and a bit of thinking on your part for it to fully unravel and this mystery is what really drives you onwards in your journey. The worlds and the puzzles themselves serve as metaphors for the story, which has a number of levels to it for you to figure out.
When you reach the end of Tim's journey and your own journey you will be left with a game that really sticks with you.
If you need all that in a checklist format, here you go:
+ Great graphics
+ Great sounds
+ Great story
+ Great gameplay
- Once you've played it you can't rewind time and enjoy it for the very first time again.
At least I can't enjoy it for the first time - some of you probably still can.
If my review wasn't your cup of tea I apologise, but I can guarantee you will enjoy Soulja Boy's take on it (yes, that Soulja Boy).
And be sure to check out the trailer below!
