"Nothing short of amazing, albeit very short."

On August 6th, 2008, a new platformer/puzzle game was released in the US for XBox 360 Live arcade (XBLA.) This game is called "Braid" for reasons disclosed within a few minutes of starting up the game. You control a young man named Tim through several different worlds, in order to reveal the story behind a rather complicated love drama between him and a princess. Tim is required to find 12 jigsaw pieces in each world, and assemble each into a painting that is displayed in the level select screen. Once this is done, the final world is opened, and once this world is finished, the game is pretty much complete. More details as to how he accomplishes this are found in the gameplay section, detailed below.

Gameplay 10/10

The gameplay in Braid is simply astounding. That's all there is to it. As said earlier, you control Tim through 7 worlds, each with a very unique gameplay element. Tim is controlled much like our favorite pesky plumber, moving only left, right, and jumping (Tim cannot even duck, only look down at his feet.) Jumping on an enemy's head kills the poor guy and bounces Tim higher than he can jump normally. Jumping on 2 enemies in a row allows Tim to reach a few high up ledges. Sounds rather simple and boring for 2008, right? Well, the catch is: holding down the X button reverses time, and the shoulder buttons can adjust the speed, up to 8x rewind and even fast forwarding 8x as well. Tim cannot die (permanently, as you fall off the screen from death, the game freezes and tells you to rewind.) Now, with the ability to reverse time, any normal platformer would be a walk in the park. Well, unfortunately for Tim, each level has ample puzzles for him to solve, using his time abilities to their full extent. Each world has a different modifier for time, and the difficulty rises with each puzzle. If you don't want to be told each world's time element, skip the following paragraph.

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World 2 is normal, allowing you to adjust to the game
World 3 introduces objects, platforms, and enemies that glow green, which will not rewind with you. Some puzzles require you to leave and reenter
World 4's time is based solely on Tim's horizontal position, rewinding as he moves left and fast forwarding as he moves right
World 5 replays whatever happened in the last rewind, so you must work with your past self to solve puzzles
World 6 will give you access to Tim's wedding ring, which slows down time to a crawl in a radius wherever it is positioned. The closer things get, the slower they go.
Epilogue plays in reverse, with you moving forward. When you hold X, you reverse and everybody else moves forward in time.
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Once you get used to each gameplay element, solving the puzzles is simply a matter of conforming to the game's logic, as well as some good ol' trial and error. The puzzles are moderately difficult, with an ample learning curve. Puzzle professionals might find the game fairly easy, but those new or less experienced to puzzles or platformers may have a tougher time.

Graphics 8/10

One thing needs to be said: The graphics are simply amazing for an XBLA arcade game. Everything about this game spews artsy goodness. Each world has a different theme to it, and the background graphics rival mainstream titles for the 360. However, the main characters and enemy sprites are very lacking; there are only 3 different enemies to my knowledge. This doesn't detract from the game at all (I believe they're supposed to look like classic sprites from the 8 and 16-bit era, anyway.) The special effects as you use your different powers are rather cool looking, and blend in nicely with the gameplay as well. When you rewind, the screen fades and goes to grayscale, fast forwarding surrounds everything with a haze.

Sound 7/10

Not much to be said here. The music fit the themes of each world, nothing too special or memorable, but nothing grating, either. There are only a few different gameplay sounds found within the game, but again, it detracts minimally from the game itself. As you use your powers, the sound slows, stops, and reverses flawlessly. One little complaint is the enemy death sounds getting rather annoying when you use your time powers over and over again.

Story 9/10

As said before, Tim is involved in a love story with a princess reminiscent of Princess Peach (Yet another Mario homage.) There isn't much to be said about the story without spoiling it other than it's amazing, though somewhat complicated. The entire story is told throughout storybooks at the beginning of each world. Text is shown on the screen and the player reads it, revealing more and more of the story. More playthroughs through the game will allow the player to pick up on more storyline. It would be a perfect 10 if the story wasn't a wee bit difficult to understand the first time through. The end has an amazing plot twist which hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized it. If you plan on buying this game, would you kindly get off the internet before the story is spoiled? Half the price of this game is worth the story alone.

Replay value 6/10

The game only took me about 1 1/2 hours to beat completely. Then again, it took me about 1 1/2 hours to beat Portal as well. As said earlier, puzzle pros will wreck this game, but those newer to the genre will have a longer time. I've seen first-run times from 1 hour up to 7 or 8 hours, so it's really a mixed bag. There is a time-trial mode, and the last achievement for Braid is a very quick 45 minute run through the entire game, puzzle pieces and all. I have not done this yet, but the other 11 achievements are accomplished within the first full run through. There are plenty of secrets throughout the game, which have nothing to do with XBox Achievements, for once. Some are story related and others are simply there to give more replay value. In the reviewer's eyes this is akin to having agility orbs or flags strewn around, so it won't keep many people playing for much longer past the first run through. Once you've seen the story and beat everything else, you can try for better time trials, but that's about it.

Final Verdict 8.0/10 (Averaged)
Braid is a very short but very wonderful gameplay experience. The trial only takes you through the first world with the simplest gameplay mechanics, so remember that it's simply a teaser for the rest of the game. The graphics are amazing, the sound does its job and the story is nothing that I've ever seen before. However, $15 is a lot for an XBLA game completed in several hours, but it's worth every penny considering we pay $5 for rehashes of classics. If you like good story, platformers, or puzzle games, definitely buy this. If you're new to the genre, at least try out the demo before letting this once-in-a-lifetime game experience pass you by.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/08

Game Release: Braid (US, 08/06/08)