Goombas may have mated with lions, it's Puzzle Time!
In Braid, you play as Tim, a man on a quest to save the princess. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic set-up and familiar trappings of the platforming genre. While Braid clearly pays homage to Mario with enemies that look like Goombas mated with lions, the game is more about puzzle solving than precision based platforming. When you get stuck in Braid, and you will from time to time, it will be because the solution to the puzzle hasn’t dawned on you yet, not because you can’t make a well-time jump.
What makes Braid stand out among other 2D side scrolling puzzles games, as if there are millions of those, is Tim’s ability to rewind time at the mere press of a button. Think Prince of Persia but with less sand. Being able to rewind time means you cannot die, but the challenge remains as the point isn’t to get to the end of the level, but to do so while solving the puzzles.
The artwork is nice, almost like looking at a painting, and the music compliments the game play well. It has a calming effect that helps put your mind into the mode it needs to be in to solve these puzzles. Also, there is just something about that sound effect of rewinding and fast-forwarding time that brought back fond memories of listening to an old tape deck.
The game consists of six worlds, which are in turn comprised of multiple stages. In the beginning you only have the ability to rewind time. However, each world introduces a new mechanic keeping things fresh and challenging. For example in one world certain objects are unaffected by the rewinding of time, in others you create time bubbles that slow everything within their sphere of influence. Some of the ones that really test your special orientation skills involve linking the flow of time directly to Tim’s movements, such that time passes normally as Tim moves to the right of the screen, while rewinding when the player goes towards the left.
Each puzzle can be solved the moment you encounter it as the new abilities unlocked in later worlds are specific to the puzzles in that world. The game doesn’t force you to complete the puzzles in a stage before moving on so when you find yourself stuck on a particular puzzle, resist the urge to simply look up the solution. Either take a break from the game or move on to a different world for the time being. I cheated on a few puzzles and I regretted it afterward as every other time I got stuck I had that satisfying eureka moment when I re-approached the problem later on.
If Braid has a weak point it is probably it’s plot which, depending on whom you ask or how much time you spending diving down the rabbit whole that is the Internet, is either brilliant or pretentious garbage completely divorced from the actual game play. My own take was somewhere in between these extremes. You can take the story at its simplest, as a man trying to find his princess and still have an incredible experience solving the puzzles, or you can dig deeper into the narrative and form your own conclusions about what the game is really about.
If you are like me and missed out on this gem from several years back I highly recommend picking it up now. Regardless of what you think about the story, the puzzles themselves are highly enjoyable and the satisfaction you get from completing them is well worth the price of admission, especially at the bargain bin prices digital copies of the game currently go for on services like steam.