Braid

I've been spending a lot of time playing casual/indie games recently, mainly as its hard to play "hardcore" games when you can only game in 10-15 minute increments. The first of these games I've been playing is Braid which was on sale on Xbox live recently.

Braid is a casual 2D platform puzzler developed by Jonathon Blow. In Braid, you play the role of Tim who is searching for his princess. Tim's relationship with the princess is never fully explained - all you really know is that Tim made a mistake which resulted in the princess being snatched.

In some ways, the game is reminiscent of Mario Bros. Enemies are comprised of goombas which you can kill by jumping on their heads, man eating plants which rise from sewer tunnels, deadly traps which you need to jump over and even the infamous "the princess is in another castle" line at the end of each world. However, the key differentiator and key gameplay element in this game is the ability to control time. At any stage in the game, you can rewind time so death isn't much of an impediment in this game. Which isn't to say the game is easy.

Navigating your way through the various levels is not hard. In fact, most of the time, you can skip all the puzzles and run straight through to the exit. However, if you want to complete the game (and trust me, you will want to see the incredible yet bittersweet final level), you will need to collect all the jigsaw pieces by solving all the puzzles. And, boy oh boy, are the puzzles hard!

The words "fiendishly difficult" don't even begin to describe how challenging the puzzles are. Each of the worlds has a different take on the time mechanic and trying to solve all the puzzles seems near impossible without the help of youtube and game FAQs. But despite the difficulty of the puzzles, once you work out the solution, you can't help but be amazed by the creativity of the designer.

The game doesn't boast much in the way of replayability. Despite this, the game was well worth the $80 I spent on it. A definite recommend if you are looking for something to stretch the old gray matter.