I'm lucky enough to have the day off from work so it's rare I get in on the fresh XBLA content so quickly. I actually woke up this morning and thumbed through the latest Edge magazine and read their review of Braid. It's been one on my radar but I wasn't sure I'd be happy to put down 1,200 gamerpoints on it. Post branflakes I hopped onto Xbox Live.
Downloading and booting up this morning just the presentation and score alone had instantly sold me. This is some genius platforming - just 'solving' World 2 was a tricky feat and gave one of those " hmm it can't be this surely ? " moments only to try it and find that it is
The game involves collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces littered throughout the 2d plaform worlds - collecting these allows you to use them to put together a jigsaw puzzle in order to 'solve' the world as it were. Collecting these isn't easy by any means - Braid starts you off with some basics but then you realise to collect some you're going to need to think about the gravity/momentum required to reach them , for example jumping from a greater height to bounce off an enemies back propelling you high enough to grab said piece.
Braid has a nifty rewind time mechanic ala Timeshift but a lot more stylish. I'm not one who likes to restart levels, actually I despise dying in ANY game as I just become infuriated at the fact I'll have to do all I've accomplished again. Bump into an enemy and die , no problem.. simply hold X to rewind briefly and try again. This mechanic is there for a specific reason as a lot of the puzzle collecting requires explicitly perfect timing jumping on an enemy being fired out of a canon to propel yourself up etc and just makes the entire experience seamless.
After traversing World 2 and collecting all the puzzle pieces I was offered the option to unlock the game after a little nod to the Mario series from a little dinosaur who greeted me from a small castle , he asked if I would like to unlock the game - I agreed instantly.
Downloading and booting up this morning just the presentation and score alone had instantly sold me. This is some genius platforming - just 'solving' World 2 was a tricky feat and gave one of those " hmm it can't be this surely ? " moments only to try it and find that it is
The game involves collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces littered throughout the 2d plaform worlds - collecting these allows you to use them to put together a jigsaw puzzle in order to 'solve' the world as it were. Collecting these isn't easy by any means - Braid starts you off with some basics but then you realise to collect some you're going to need to think about the gravity/momentum required to reach them , for example jumping from a greater height to bounce off an enemies back propelling you high enough to grab said piece.
Braid has a nifty rewind time mechanic ala Timeshift but a lot more stylish. I'm not one who likes to restart levels, actually I despise dying in ANY game as I just become infuriated at the fact I'll have to do all I've accomplished again. Bump into an enemy and die , no problem.. simply hold X to rewind briefly and try again. This mechanic is there for a specific reason as a lot of the puzzle collecting requires explicitly perfect timing jumping on an enemy being fired out of a canon to propel yourself up etc and just makes the entire experience seamless.
After traversing World 2 and collecting all the puzzle pieces I was offered the option to unlock the game after a little nod to the Mario series from a little dinosaur who greeted me from a small castle , he asked if I would like to unlock the game - I agreed instantly.
More money!
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