Screenshot of the Day: Braid

I'm on an artsy overdose here...
Braid-- in the locker room of indie games, it's said, Braid is a man among boys. This may seem surprising to someone who's only seen screenshots of the game (a.k.a. myself about three days ago), but once the game starts rolling, the beautifully painted levels, soothing music, simple platforming and complex story roll over the unsuspecting player in an indie-hipster tidal wave. The 24 minutes I've spent in Braid have all blurred together, but I recall jumping from cloud to cloud, looking for a sparkling key while cello music played soothingly in the background.

Braid's shining mechanic is time reversal-- holding down shift at any time in the game will reverse events, providing an ingenious alternative to the common mechanic of death in games (Fell on spikes? Reverse time!) Puzzles involving some objects, such as the player, traveling through time while other objects, such as keys, do not, make for puzzles mind-bending enough to flutter the heart of any puzzle-platforming enthusiast. As I unfortunately cannot count myself among that number, I ended up just jumping off cliffs and reversing time to see myself fly back up to the cliff top and start running backwards. Braid may not be a perfect fit for me, but if you enjoy solving crosswords, frequent Starbucks, paint in your spare time, enjoy retro platformers, or play a stringed instrument, Braid is probably the game for you. If you participate in all five activities, Christmas has just come early... really early.